It's already May! Prague and onto Vienna

My first night in Prague was pretty uneventful. As I previously mentioned I got some good food, but after that I pretty much retired for the night. I went to sleep around 2 where a night of crazy dreams of teeth falling out, vampire teeth, and other weird things floated through my head. The dreaming ended relatively quick though because to start the second day in Prague a loud banging outside the hostel commenced around 6 a.m. There was some construction going on right by the hostel, I was able to get back to sleep, but woke up every 15 minutes until finally I had enough around 9. I lounged around the hostel for a bit and then headed out.

I decided I'd just walk and see where it takes me. The day was gloomy as the threat of rain existed all day long and it was slightly chilly. It turned out my hostel does laundry so I made the wisest decision I could before leaving. I decided it'd be a no socks or underwear day so I can make sure every piece of clothing (besides the shirt and pants I was forced to wear) could be clean for at least another week. I did wear a rain jacket as well, just in case. I walked towards the main part of the city and started exploring. I checked out the astronomical clock, which is real sweet, but impossible to read. There were people taking wedding photos in front, wasn't sure if it was some sort of presentation or legit, but I didn't stick around long enough to hang out. I continued on my way towards what I thought was the Charles Bridge, but ended up in Josefov, the old Jewish quarters.

I decided since I was there and most things I've read the Jewish Quarters in Prague were with checking out I took out my student ID and bought a ticket for 200 korunas for the tour, it's like $10 US, but just fun seemingly having tons of money, when in reality they charge normal prices. First I started at the synaguoge dedicated to the holocaust. It's pretty intense, inside over 80,000 names cover the walls of victims from the Czech Republic. I looked around for a while seeing how many familiar type names I could find. Klein was unfortunately one of the most popular Czech names for victims, which was interesting to see. There were at least a couple hundred. Continuing on in that synaguoge you go upstairs to see their exhibition of drawings by children victims of concentration camps. I think I realized that it's the concept of kids in the holocaust that effects me more than anything. The drawings came from the Terezin concentration camp with the only reason for drawings being that it was a camp often used for propoganda to show children and adults had "normal" lives there. Of course most died of starvation or were shipped out quickly to the death camps after being used there. It was amazing seeing what different kids would draw. Some had pictures of people being executed, others had stuff related to their past, some getting on the trains, and much more. Some were traditional kids drawings and others were extremely well done by kids who clearly if they would have been allowed could have been artists.

After that depressing stroll I continued on the Jewish quarters tour. I walked through the oldest Jewish cemetary in Prague, but most headstones were faded with some dating back to the 1400s. I continued to check out the other displays at the various synaguoges with their different torah coverings, history, old prayer books, etc. Nothing was as nearly impactful as the first stop I made though. Afterwards I decided it was time to eat. I at first had thoughts of going to the oldest Jewish restaurant in that area, it looked like a good menu until I saw that it was also the most expensive restaurant known to man. So I did the next best thing, went to a nearby restaurant and had a traditional Czech meal. First I started with Czech Sausage advertised with a spicy and sour seasoning. It reminded me of salami, stuffed with a pickle, and peppers surrounding it. Wasn't crazy spicy, but very good. Next up I went with the classic pig knuckle (knee) for my meal. It was fantastic, best decision I made. It came with some mustard and horse radish, but the meat itself could be eaten on it's own. If it wasn't for the concept of what it was, I think people would enjoy it a lot more.

From there I decided it was time to really find the Charles Bridge and see what it's about. It's under construction, which is semi disappointing, but was nice to walk across, see people rubbing the statues for good luck and check out the other part of the city. My camera battery was getting close to dying so I told myself I'd come back tomorrow and save up my pictures for the castle I was walking to. I went to the Prague Castle area, I didn't pay for any of the exhibitions or anything as most of it is open and walked around checking it all out. The church there was huge and real nice on the inside, and the rest of the land gave a great view of the city.

Afterwards it was starting to rain and get darker so I headed back to the hostel to check train times for when I go to Vienna and maybe go book that. It would've been a pretty long walk, so I only walked about 30 minutes until I got on the metro then a tram and took it the rest of the way towards the hostel. I started to check out times, found what I wanted and then passed out. Two hours later I woke up starving as it was around 7:30, I got my laundry which was done, took a shower and decided I'd head out. Moment I stepped out the door it started to pour so I went back inside for a while. About 45 minutes later I went out and walked through the drizzle to find some food. I ended up at a bar I had previously seen in my dreams (it's like the 4th time on the trip it's happened to me with a place or moment). I got some fried cheese and fries, a healthy Czech offering as well as a beer because beer is a lot cheaper than water, so may as well drink it.

From there I walked around a bit in the rain, but I was still groggy, not in the mood to do much, and hadn't met anyone. In my room of 8 beds, I only had 2 roommates the first two nights, a younger Asian couple who seems to speak minimal English and have been in the room getting ready to sleep by 10 both nights. I read for a bit and then called it a night, exhausted from a restless night, a day I stressed my mind out with, and the rain. Throughout the night I had more nightmares, don't remember them as vividly, but there must be something with Prague and my sleeping (many myths of Prague ghosts and haunted stories do exist, so who knows).

This morning the construction wasn't as loud, I slept til about 9:30 and felt quite refreshed. I expected rain again as the weather predicted, but instead it was around 70 and sunny, a good day to explore. I took a bit of a different path than the previous day, I wanted to get to the Charles Bridge again, not rush through and rub the statues for good luck so the nightmares will stop. I grabbed a couple Czech pastries of which I can't remember the names. One was like a twisted donut and the other a donut with a nice apple filling. I also bought my train ticket to Vienna, even though getting a hostel starting tomorrow and for this weekend with it being Labor Day in Europe has not been an easy task. I think I finally found one, but I could just end up sleeping in a park tomorrow as well. From there I figured out the best path to the Bridge, passed by the astronomical clock again as a new couple were taking their wedding photos and finally made my way there.

With the gorgeous weather there were a lot more people on the bridge, but it also made the walk across more enjoyable. I rubbed the gold dog on the statue for luck and continued on. I wanted to head in the opposite direction of the castle and get lost today, as well as check out a few things. First thing I looked for was the John Lennon wall right by the bridge. It's a pretty cool wall that has tons of Beatles/Lennon quotes, drawings, amongst other things that have been written on since. After that I decided I was going to walk towards the Petrin Tower area, a bootleg version of the eiffel tower. I had no desire to go to the top of the tower, but I did have a desire to hike to where it was. It took about an hour to walk all the way to the top, well worth it with the views and scenery. As I reached the top I was starved and dehydrated so I went to the first random stand I saw and ordered a water and a hot dog. The hotdog was probably not cooked and was smothered in vegetables and ketchup, but was good enough. I then reached the tower, saw for a "student" it was only like $2 and went for it. The views up top were great and the 400 or so stairs didn't matter at that point. I took pictures of the area, then began my descent.

I considered taking the tram they offer down, but that'd be taking the easy way out. I walked down in the opposite direction I had went up, though eventually they forced me back to that path. I even tried to avoid it, but when I started going down a path I created in my mind and slipping since my gym shoes couldn't gain traction I decided I'd rather walk down than fall down to my death. On the way down I saw a woman with her jack russel playing on the giant hills/park area, it made me miss my dog, so just in case he reads this I'm letting him know. I made it down in about 35 minutes, wasn't bad and then decided to do more walking. I explored regions that didn't have anything noteworthy from a tourist perspective, but it was good to see less touristy areas for a while. I picked up some gelato on my way, wasn't the best, but I needed some sort of food so I was satisfied and headed back towards the hostel.

I got back to the hostel around 3:45, met a new roommate from Australia, he wanted to go on the pub crawl that night and get some dinner later. Then another roommate came in from England and invited us to go to some club that all his friends were planning on going to. We figured we'd join him. We hung around the hostel for a while, then the Aussie and I got dinner around 8:15 at a pretty decent restaurant, got a nice Ostrich steak and roasted fries, was very good though the meal turned out to be semi-expensive. During the meal the guy was telling me all about his life, I thought he may be BSing for a while, but nobody could make up those stories and turned out he's an international award winning graphic designer with offices in LA and Australia. I did the google check just to see what kind of awards he won, was like 2nd for designer of the year and won another category. He wasn't telling it in a way to try to impress me which I respected. After dinner we headed back and met up with all the people hangin around the hostel. We grabbed a couple beers, I wasn't in the drinking mood so I didn't even drink the ones I bought, but it's fake money here anyway. It went from a group of 30 to 8 of us who actually went out to the club. It was like 4 Australians, 2 Canadians, a dude from England and me. I talked to the 2 Canadian girls for most of the night, mainly the one with the boyfriend, but I knew she'd want to leave early so it was a well thought out plan. The other Australians outside of the guy I had dinner with were real annoying college kids, they were so enamored with the "famous" Australian that they hung on to his every word, trying to see what kind of stuff he could hook them up with in the future. We got to the club around 12:30, it was called the Cross Club, supposedly one of the most famous ones in Prague. It was the most terrifying club I'd ever been in. The building was straight out of the movie Saw with the actual mechanical devices used to kill people. It was a giant warehouse set up as a maze, had all sorts of mechanical instruments hanging on the ceiling and popping out the walls and the people inside were shady Czechs. I was glad everyone else was sufficiently freaked out by the building and it wasn't just me. We hung out for about an hour and headed back to the hostel where we split up. Four of them went to another club and got back at 6 while me and 3 others hung at the hostel. Two of them were the Canadians, and the other one was an Australian trying to get with the one without the boyfriend. The one friend wanted to get back to her hostel, she was staying at a different one, but her friend wasn't gonna go with her so I did the nice thing and walked her back. Wasn't sure how far her hostel was, but luckily only about a 7 minute walk because I didn't feel like wandering around Prague alone at 3:30 a.m.

As for now it's the morning and I'm about to leave for the train station to go to Vienna. Not sure how long I'll be there, only booked two nights, but I'll probably add a third or go to a random Austrian city in between. And now I must go.

Peace

BK