Thursday 23rd February

Continuing from yesterday, we arrived in Prague around 9:30ish and tried to work out which way to go. The map we looked at was a tad confusing as the road we needed to get on was actually a path in a middle of a park…very helpful!

We managed to find the main high street, Wenceslas Square; our hostel was only a 20 minute walk away so it wasn't too bad. I was very impressed when I saw Prague; all the buildings had so much character. Even in the modern end of Prague it still looked amazing!

We found our hostel and checked in, we were booked into a 10 bed dorm as this was the cheapest option. The idea is, you get a card saying taken and you find a bed with a card saying empty. Apparently some people did not get this concept and we or the receptionist knew which beds were free or not. We got upgraded to an empty 8 bed dorm! We went to bed at 11:30 as it took this long to sort the bed situation out; I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow!

We had a lie in till 10am as we we're both feeling like crap; it was a nice change for once. We signed up for the afternoon free tour starting from the old town square. It was a sight; I don't think any of my pictures really did it any justice!

We stopped for lunch where we enjoyed popular Czech food, beef goulash. Which is amazing!

First we went up the Astrological clock tower, which was built by clockmaker Mikuláš of KadaňandJan Šindel. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky. "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of theApostlesand other moving sculptures and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. The four figures next to the clock are representing four things that were despised at the time of the clock's making. From left to right, the first is Vanity, represented by a figure admiring himself in a mirror. Next, a stereotypical Jew holding abag of goldrepresents greed or usury. Across the clock stands Death, a skeleton that strikes the time upon the hour. Finally, the Turk tells pleasure and entertainment. A legend, recounted by Alois Jirásek, has it that the clockmaker Hanuš was blinded on the order of the Prague Councillors so that he could not repeat his work; in turn, he broke down the clock, and no one was able to repair it for the next hundred years.

It was pretty breezy up top, but we got a good view of Prague, it still looked good from above! We headed on down to the bottom to meet our guide, David. He was a bit mad to say the least, but made the tour extra good!

We walked around the clock tower and around the rest of the square, there is a church opposite called the Church of Mother of God before Týn. David asked whether there was anything odd about the church, which none of us answered. The tower on the right is much bigger than the left; this is to represent Adam and Eve.

We carried on walking around through the Jewish Quarter, where the Jews were classed as a minority and had to live by the river which flooded on several occasions. It was only after the wars and the Jews were classed as the same minority as everyone else they were allowed to live in other places in the city. This left the Jewish Quarter to moth ball, but it has since been re-developed and looks amazing. One of the Synagogues still standing is now a memorial to the Jews in the Holocaust.

We stopped off at the Opera House where David asks if we wanted the serious story or the funny one. We choose the serious first, obviously. It was here where the Czech Republic was declared its own country. The funny side is the restaurant on the ground floor starred in the film XXX with Vin Diesel. It was the part where they knew he was a US spy and was trying to kill him by shooting from the building opposite next to a lion! Pretty cool! Next to the Opera house is the Powder Tower, where the gun powder was kept, not now obviously and it has gained its nickname for this.

The new square was where the velvet revolution happened and Czechoslovakia spilt peacefully into two countries. Apparently this is one of the only protests that no one died.

After our tour we headed to get food shopping at…Tesco's!!! Which I couldn't believe, but it was Tesco's joined with a massive department store! It was pretty manic inside! We decided to go for the castle midnight walk. We walked through old town square all lit up, it was beautiful. The Czech's have managed to make the city look incredible at night as well. Once again, my pictures do nothing for the view. We carried on walking through the quirky market alleyways to the Charles Bridge. This bridge is pretty immense! It is part of the royal walk way from Powder Tower. The Bridge has a dozen or so biblical statues, all highly detailed. The bridge led up to the largest castle in the World. Most people mistake the St. Vitus Cathedral as the castle but it stretches out across the hill side. The castle has a total of almost 70,000 m⊃2; of floor space!

The castle, along with the rest of Prague, was lit up it was quite magical and jaw dropping! What I love about Prague is the walk ways are all cobbled or have pretty patterns made of stone.

Prague is the only place in the world that displays all eras of architecture from gothic to nouveau. It all manages to work well together.

We went to bed early as we both are coming down with colds and hopefully feeling better in the morning.

Friday 24th February

Today we slept in till 10am again, it was well needed. We were going to join the tour for the castle tower, but I think we have both had information overload the past few days so just wanted to take in the sights.

We started the long (uphill) trek to the castle, which look very different in the day but still magnificent! We walked across the Charles Bridge, which at night as a lot quieter than in the day time. It was heaving! Mostly a lot of tours and the odd crowd of Chinese tourists (they are everywhere!!!). After the bridge we walked through a cute part of town full of shops and small restaurants, which we noticed a good offer for a daily special for 3 course meal including beef goulash for 190Kc which is roughly 8€. Bargain, we'll come back tomorrow before our train!

The walk up to the castle was steep, well for me it was, we got there in time to see the changing of the guards. The surrounding buildings, all part of the castle, looked like a different part of town! We walked in to see the main site which was the St. Vitus Cathedral. The detail surrounding the building was spectacular. It was seriously crazy; it was built in the gothic era, so made you feel quite scared of God as it was meant to be. The inside wasn't as good as the outside, but still worth a look.

We went to the pub crawl in the evening, we noticed how many idiots were around and then we realised it was Friday night. A lot of people were here just for the weekend. I regretted this choice already! We stayed as long as we could possible put up with the idiots the guides were escorting! We both still felt like crap so headed home after a midnight snack! Stu also tasted absinthe which is 70%. I decided not to try this as it smelt like death! According to the hosts guys should only drink 6-8 shots while girls 3-4!

Saturday 26th February

We had to check out today, but our train wasn't until midnight, so we stuck around the hostel to chill for the morning. This lead us to meet this 'free radical hippie' from New Zealand called Sebastian. He was alright, apart from the annoying thing of calling literally everything we said was beautiful. He also kept saying how amazing it is to travel to 'find' yourselves and all that kind of garbage! He did talk a lot of bull most of the time.

He decided to leach on to our lunch date with the beef goulash along with a Romanian/German, who was pretty cool and very non-hippie like!

We went to the restaurant we find near the castle for the 3 course meal for 8€. It was amazing; it seemed like a 'posher' restaurant than most down in old town square, but for half the price! Me and Stu had the daily menu which consisted of onion soup, beef goulash with dumplings and apple pie. YUM! We were totally stuffed! We went back to the hostel and Sebastian had left us in peace!

One of the Aussie girls we meet in Berlin recommended the black light theatre which we went to. It was pretty good; we had no idea of the story line though. Apparently it was about Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) growing up into a women etc. It was all silent apart from the music but there were so many random things like apples and fish making appearances that I had no clue! Some parts were pretty funny though. It was all based upon people dressing in black and the idea of things 'floating' and lighting effects. The most bizarre thing was at the end (where I am guessing Alice has grown up) Alice walks on naked! Like totally naked, I was like err what the hell? No one told me about nudity. This 'scene' lasted for a good 10 minutes where Alice was starker's! We both walked out thinking what was that?!

We made our way back to the hostel to get ourselves ready for our next train which left at 00:05am. So it will be another sleepless night for us! We should be arriving in Budapest around 8:30am.

Overall view on Prague:

Prague is a picturesque city by day and night. All the quirky shops and alleyways just gave it an extra special something. I didn't really experience all of Prague's nightlife, but from word of the mouth it sounds pretty epic!

It is definitely one of my top cities I have visited.

Total miles from UK: 1063

Transport taken:

Trains = 5

Our Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150825831728986.511295.501883985&type=3&l=e497b77834