Friday, July 19, 2013
Day 9. Prague.
I got up at a leisurely time, very undecided about what to do today. There are a lot of things I want to do here and some of them are rather hard to find information about so it's kind of tricky to make a call. I eventually settled on a bike tour.
I read some reviews mapped out the location and off I went. Now I have to take a moment for the amazing wonder of the world that is cached maps. So, on my iPhone using the hostel wireless I can load up the area and drop pin some locations. Then as I leave the wifi connection behind, as long as I don't move the map position the phone will continue to shoe me the map. But not only that. It will continue to show me here I am on the map. Don't ask me how it works. I definitely have data roaming turned off and many of the people I have met here are using it. It is a wonderful little trick. Makes things so much easier. I can't even explain how much easier. Which is lucky because I get so lost here. It's all medieval and amazing and full of tourists so I get completely turned around. It's nearly funny.
So I found the bike place a bit ahead of time. It was really lovely to walk down the not so touristy streets. After scouting out I decided to head back to the square and get some - awful as it is - Starbucks for breakfast. Everything else around here is super touristy so at least that has some level of standard it maintains. But on the way I passed a cute little restaurant and thought what the hell. So I sat down and ordered. This was my first sit down meal!!!!! I had a stunning mozzarella, tomato and pesto salad and a coffee. The one downside to this was that it was kind of a small meal, till the waiter brought a massive basket of bread. Yum yum yum. It was cheap too.
Well and truly full, I went back to the bike place. And awesomely - I was the only person to show up for that particular tour.
So whoop. Private tour for the price of a standard.
My guide Emmanuel, was from Portugal but living here since his government cut all its arts and sports education program's (he used to teach theatre). Here he does the guide business and also a bit of theatre, commercials and voice dubbing for different TV shows. And he was awesome, really informed and interesting plus he chatted to me about so much more, asking questions about Australia and my trip and other parts of the world. Telling me about Prague and Portugal and more of Europe. It was so great. And Prague is so pretty and there was so much to see.
I laughed. I cringed in horror, my jaw dropped in awe and shock and I laughed. We went to a Jewish cemetery that had 80,000 bodies in about an acre of space. He told me the gory medieval stories about the man who built the astronomical clock and was blinded lest he ever design one for another city. We watched the astronomical clock do its thing, which was comedically underwhelming given the crowd that gathers for it, but impressive since is was built in the 1400s.
There is a lot of great modern art in Prague, some very funny but classy looking stuff. Like giant babies with barcode faces, men pissing (running water through the dicks in their hands and everything) spelling out Koffka quoted with the pee trails. Amazing.
We went to the 'Lennon Wall', which was a wall that during the communist days people - if they learnt any - write song lyrics from the west on the wall to share them around. The wall became known as the Lennon Wall. Lennon as opposed to Lenin.
After the tour sadly ended Emmanuel told me about a neat little bar that is a boat docked in the harbour that never moves but is a good spot with a great view. He invited me to meet him for a drink there after his last tour that day.
So off I went and met him, we ended up having a really great night talking about everything and getting progressively drunk and falling into D&Ms. Lol.
We went hipster watching at one of the hipster haunts and he kept showing me little tid bits about the town, like the most haunted building in Prague and the old hall of the alchemists (a tradition based in Prague) above the doors there are carvings of bears in stone and when you take a photo the whole wall appears grey stone coloured but the bears are tinged in gold. Spooky.
Prague has amazed me how strikingly medieval it is. I've never been anywhere like it.
Prague to Budapest.
After a quick breakfast I made the boring and un noteworthy train ride, bout seven hours total, to Budapest.
When I arrived I am embarrassed to admit that it took me a good five minuets to find me way out of the labyrinth that is Budapest train station under construction. Seriously I was stuck in the station. Lol. Found my way eventually and followed the detailed instructions with a few hiccups but I did find my way to the hostel. I even caught the tram, after which I realised that I was probably suppressed to pay for, but didn't. In my excitement and eagerness to find the place, paying simply slipped my mind.
Arriving at the hostel, which is a gorgeous old building and unmarked, up a stunning and lavish (but distressed looking, which I love) stair well and into the hostel that seriously feels like I am staying in a group house. A detailed introduction to and map of the city and the hostel and an immediately social vibe.
There are some cool people here already, though a lot of them are leaving tomorrow, but more will come. I decided to scratch Bratislava and extend here for two more nights. Hopefully that will be a good call.
I signed up right away for the jäger train party tonight, not quite understanding what's jäger train is.
Away we went, after all ordering in some pizza as a group to the ruin bar for the famed jäger train. We, quite a small hostel, met up with our two sister hostels there, so there were a whole heap of backpackers. And some colourful characters indeed.
The jäger train is, as it happens, where they set up a whole stack of glasses of red bull and balance the shots of jäger on the edges and then all in one go set them off like a domino chain. All the jäger dropping into the other glasses. You then go and collect your five. That's right five jäger bombs and all do the first one together. I somehow, astonishingly drank all my jäger bombs and remained standing and was able to speak all night.
Back at the hostel I and a Canadian guy fell asleep on the bean bags in the common room, waking up at about seven in the morning and finally having the bright idea to go to bed.
A fun night was had by all.
I got up at a leisurely time, very undecided about what to do today. There are a lot of things I want to do here and some of them are rather hard to find information about so it's kind of tricky to make a call. I eventually settled on a bike tour.
I read some reviews mapped out the location and off I went. Now I have to take a moment for the amazing wonder of the world that is cached maps. So, on my iPhone using the hostel wireless I can load up the area and drop pin some locations. Then as I leave the wifi connection behind, as long as I don't move the map position the phone will continue to shoe me the map. But not only that. It will continue to show me here I am on the map. Don't ask me how it works. I definitely have data roaming turned off and many of the people I have met here are using it. It is a wonderful little trick. Makes things so much easier. I can't even explain how much easier. Which is lucky because I get so lost here. It's all medieval and amazing and full of tourists so I get completely turned around. It's nearly funny.
I read some reviews mapped out the location and off I went. Now I have to take a moment for the amazing wonder of the world that is cached maps. So, on my iPhone using the hostel wireless I can load up the area and drop pin some locations. Then as I leave the wifi connection behind, as long as I don't move the map position the phone will continue to shoe me the map. But not only that. It will continue to show me here I am on the map. Don't ask me how it works. I definitely have data roaming turned off and many of the people I have met here are using it. It is a wonderful little trick. Makes things so much easier. I can't even explain how much easier. Which is lucky because I get so lost here. It's all medieval and amazing and full of tourists so I get completely turned around. It's nearly funny.
So I found the bike place a bit ahead of time. It was really lovely to walk down the not so touristy streets. After scouting out I decided to head back to the square and get some - awful as it is - Starbucks for breakfast. Everything else around here is super touristy so at least that has some level of standard it maintains. But on the way I passed a cute little restaurant and thought what the hell. So I sat down and ordered. This was my first sit down meal!!!!! I had a stunning mozzarella, tomato and pesto salad and a coffee. The one downside to this was that it was kind of a small meal, till the waiter brought a massive basket of bread. Yum yum yum. It was cheap too.
Well and truly full, I went back to the bike place. And awesomely - I was the only person to show up for that particular tour.
So whoop. Private tour for the price of a standard.
My guide Emmanuel, was from Portugal but living here since his government cut all its arts and sports education program's (he used to teach theatre). Here he does the guide business and also a bit of theatre, commercials and voice dubbing for different TV shows. And he was awesome, really informed and interesting plus he chatted to me about so much more, asking questions about Australia and my trip and other parts of the world. Telling me about Prague and Portugal and more of Europe. It was so great. And Prague is so pretty and there was so much to see.
I laughed. I cringed in horror, my jaw dropped in awe and shock and I laughed. We went to a Jewish cemetery that had 80,000 bodies in about an acre of space. He told me the gory medieval stories about the man who built the astronomical clock and was blinded lest he ever design one for another city. We watched the astronomical clock do its thing, which was comedically underwhelming given the crowd that gathers for it, but impressive since is was built in the 1400s.
There is a lot of great modern art in Prague, some very funny but classy looking stuff. Like giant babies with barcode faces, men pissing (running water through the dicks in their hands and everything) spelling out Koffka quoted with the pee trails. Amazing.
We went to the 'Lennon Wall', which was a wall that during the communist days people - if they learnt any - write song lyrics from the west on the wall to share them around. The wall became known as the Lennon Wall. Lennon as opposed to Lenin.
After the tour sadly ended Emmanuel told me about a neat little bar that is a boat docked in the harbour that never moves but is a good spot with a great view. He invited me to meet him for a drink there after his last tour that day.
So off I went and met him, we ended up having a really great night talking about everything and getting progressively drunk and falling into D&Ms. Lol.
We went hipster watching at one of the hipster haunts and he kept showing me little tid bits about the town, like the most haunted building in Prague and the old hall of the alchemists (a tradition based in Prague) above the doors there are carvings of bears in stone and when you take a photo the whole wall appears grey stone coloured but the bears are tinged in gold. Spooky.
Prague has amazed me how strikingly medieval it is. I've never been anywhere like it.
Prague to Budapest.
After a quick breakfast I made the boring and un noteworthy train ride, bout seven hours total, to Budapest.
When I arrived I am embarrassed to admit that it took me a good five minuets to find me way out of the labyrinth that is Budapest train station under construction. Seriously I was stuck in the station. Lol. Found my way eventually and followed the detailed instructions with a few hiccups but I did find my way to the hostel. I even caught the tram, after which I realised that I was probably suppressed to pay for, but didn't. In my excitement and eagerness to find the place, paying simply slipped my mind.
Arriving at the hostel, which is a gorgeous old building and unmarked, up a stunning and lavish (but distressed looking, which I love) stair well and into the hostel that seriously feels like I am staying in a group house. A detailed introduction to and map of the city and the hostel and an immediately social vibe.
There are some cool people here already, though a lot of them are leaving tomorrow, but more will come. I decided to scratch Bratislava and extend here for two more nights. Hopefully that will be a good call.
I signed up right away for the jäger train party tonight, not quite understanding what's jäger train is.
Away we went, after all ordering in some pizza as a group to the ruin bar for the famed jäger train. We, quite a small hostel, met up with our two sister hostels there, so there were a whole heap of backpackers. And some colourful characters indeed.
The jäger train is, as it happens, where they set up a whole stack of glasses of red bull and balance the shots of jäger on the edges and then all in one go set them off like a domino chain. All the jäger dropping into the other glasses. You then go and collect your five. That's right five jäger bombs and all do the first one together. I somehow, astonishingly drank all my jäger bombs and remained standing and was able to speak all night.
Back at the hostel I and a Canadian guy fell asleep on the bean bags in the common room, waking up at about seven in the morning and finally having the bright idea to go to bed.
A fun night was had by all.
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