Yesterday was bright and sunny, so we scrapped plans of touring Prague Castle. We figured we could do that in a couple of days when the rain is supposed to roll in; in the meantime we went back into the Old Town to see if everything still looked as amazing as it had the night we arrived. Short answer: yup. There were obviously bigger crowds but it definitely wasn't as bad as the guidebook let on. Think Disney on a weekday in offseason (whenever that is). One interesting thing we did was climb up a watchtower at the end of the bridge. It was built in the 1300's, and I was pretty upset that the entire inside was plastered with graffiti. Do you really think anyone cares that you "wuz here" at some point? I was so mad I told Chelsea if she ever had a boyfriend that did that she'd better smack him. Then I saw etchings from people in the 1700's and 1800's. Apparently graffiti is ok once it hits the 100-year mark because I found the old stuff to be really cool :) After we walked through the Old Town we climbed a whole lotta stairs to reach a permanent beer garden. It's pretty much exactly how it sounds: a large beautiful park where they sell copious amounts of delicious and nutritious beer (it's cheap, too!). The view from the benches was stellar and we relaxed there for a while. Chelsea and I even took a nap on the grass, which is absolutely essential if you really want to appreciate a park. I still can't get Brittany to sleep on dirt, but it'll happen someday! Chelsea's ankle was bothering her so we took another nap at the hostel (this is now a daily routine) and left her there while Brittany and I got some sandwiches. We caught the astronomical clock doing it's thing in the square, which was surprisingly fun to watch. It's hundreds of years old, and every hour throngs of dumb tourists (like me) line up in front of it to see the figures move and bells ring. At the end a rooster above the clock-face flaps his wings and lets out a cock-a-doodle-doo. The whole thing lasts less than 45 seconds but was absolutely worth seeing at least once; I was surprised by how many moving parts there were. I had the blog in mind and was about to film it but decided I'd rather just watch and experience the show rather than observe it through a camera lens. I'll bet it's already on YouTube somewhere...check it out! This morning started off exceptionally wonderfully because we went from the shower and into legitimately clean clothes for the first time in almost two weeks. "Glorious" isn't too strong of a word for that feeling, I think. It had taken all of yesterday at the hostel laundry room but our clothes were fresh and smelled of something other than a Chinese buffet dumpster. Score! The day I'd looked forward to for months has finally arrived, and today we went to the Czech Beerfest. If I hadn't read about it online I would've never known it was going on; there is curiously little advertising for it. I guess a beer festival in the Czech Republic just isn't all that big of a deal :) The metro and trams got us there pretty quick. I didn't know it then, but the grounds were only a minute or two away from us when we were at the beer garden yesterday. There was one main tent and a bunch of smaller ones, all filled with long wooden picnic tables. It was noon on a Monday, so the tents were pretty empty. That was kind of a two-edged sword: it meant we didn't have to wait for anything or deal with loud people that forgot to say "when", but it also meant that we missed out on the live bands that play and the energy you get in a packed room full of people having a great time. I just might have to go again at night... The beer was amazing and there was a huge variety to choose from. All of us got something, and I loved seeing Chelsea drink out of a mug the size of her head :) I kept the food coming and learned that the people here seriously know how to make a sausage! My mouth is watering just thinking about that thing. If only Brittany would come to the dark side; she'd know what taste ecstasy is... I was expecting the souvenir shop to be massive and had prepared for my wallet to take a pretty heavy hit, but at the end of the day I just wound up with a cool shirt. They didn't have too much that was tempting, and just about every one of the shirts was in English. I think I got the only one in Czech, which makes it a thousand times cooler for me. Every time I leave the country I search high and low for shirts in different languages, and almost EVERY time I can find nothing but stupid sayings in boring old English. Why in the world would someone in Sweden want a shirt that says California Surfer Dude??? I can't figure it out. We were in the tents for hours, and by the time we couldn't eat any more (because our stomachs had already collectively swelled to the size of a VW Bug) we decided we didn't want to move anymore either. What could we do that requires absolutely zero motion and brain activity? See the new X-Men movie! A tram took us right to the theater and the timing was perfect; there was an English showing just about to start. Yes we were full, but who can see a movie without popcorn? I got in line and ordered a combo. The friendly clerk looked at me and asked, "Plain or ham and cheese?" The majority of the people we've met have at least basic English down and I was pretty sure of what she said, but I had to ask her to repeat herself anyway. There was no mistake, they seriously have ham and cheese flavored popcorn! I'm not sure how I've never heard if this because it's incredible and needs to be imported to the States as soon as possible. The downside though, as we discovered while walking out of the theater and looking at our recently washed jeans, is that the orange flavoring gets on and stains EVERYTHING. Our blue jeans now have a slightly orang hue...and smell like ham. Mmm, ham jeans. I am so full of beer, sausage and popcorn that the thought of dinner makes my brain hurt. I guess the girls felt the same way because we skipped more food and came right back to the hostel after the movie. I keep thinking of that Jim Gaffigan bit where he asks, "Have you ever been so full that you can't possibly take even one more bite? (pause for dramatic effect) Isn't that the BEST???" Totally.