Wayne's European Adventure: Prague

I was riding the bus to the main train station and I was met with a great view. I came to realized that I had no idea how to read Czech. I could at least guess at Dutch and German, but Czech was completely foreign; then I realized everyone spoke English.

I exchanged some money, 20 Czech crowns for 1 American dollar. This is when I realized how cheap everything is in Prague. A bier at a restaurant cost $1.5 and my 3 course meal was less than $10. Either way, I decided to buy a map so I wouldn't get lost again trying to find my hostel. This time, I made it to my hostel without a hitch. My hostel turned out to be a 4 star hotel, the only difference was that there were multiple people in each room. I checked in and found two of my roommates passed out on their beds, still resting from a rough night out; it was 14:30 when I got there. I spent most of the day just hanging out in my room and talking to my roommates. I took this time to plan for the rest of my trip and update my blog.

The next morning, I went on a free walking tour of the city. This lasted about 3 hours and I got a good understanding of the history and culture of the Czech Republic. I managed to run into a two guys that I met in Amsterdam. It was a pretty nice day, so I decided to walk up the large hill on the west side of Prague. It was quite a hike, but I finally made it to the top. At the apex of the hill, there was a strange tower that resembled the Eiffel tower. I paid to climb up it and found myself in the viewing room that swayed in the wind. I wasn't the biggest fan of the rocking motion. However, I did get some really great pictures of Prague. I found myself only eating a baguette for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Shortly after I got back to the hostel, I ended up taking a short nap before hanging out down at the common area. My roomies and I found ourselves going out that night and returning around 4 am or so.

The unfortunate thing about Europe is that the sun rises incredibly early. I find myself wearing sunglasses around 07:00. I don't usually wake up that early, but sometimes it's impossible to sleep. Everyone single one of my roommates were leaving later that afternoon, so they packed up all their stuff while I just bummed around. When 11:00 hit, we all walked around town looking for some cheap and good food. About an hour later, we ended up walking back to our hostel and getting a kebap, Europe's best fast food, from across the street. I said good bye to all of my roommates and went on a a tour of the Prague Castle. I don't actually have a picture of them, but one of them took a group picture. Hopefully they post it on Facebook so I can steal it. Sadly, there was a freak rainstorm that make the middle half of the tour quite miserable. The sun came back out right as the tour ended.

Good thing too because the Russia vs. Czech Euro Cup game was on too night. Since I arrived in Prague, Old Town Square was outfitted with a large screen and multiple beer tents to accommodate the soccer craze. I decided to watch the game with 5000 Czech and Russian fans down at the square. It took me an hour to find the town square, even though it was a 15 minute walk. I accidentally forgot my map in my room and found myself wandering the poorly designed alleys. However, watching the game was pretty crazy and a ton of fun. I met one of my new roommates and he was pretty cool, but didn't really hang out with him. I hated my other roommate, mostly because they woke me up at 02:00 giggling and chatting for a while. They were your stereotypical sorority girls, self-obsessed and obnoxious. I was just glad I didn't have to put up with them for too long.

The next day, I went on a day tour to Kunta Hora. The city is famous because of the bone chapel. The trip was pretty cool because it was the first time I got to try Czech food. It took about an hour to get there via train (nap time) and the tour consisted of walking and sight seeing. I meet a pretty awesome Finnish guy on the tour that likes to play video games too. When I finally got back to the hostel, it was 17:00 or so. After a quick nap, I watched the two Euro Cup games and went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up pretty early to go to the train station to head off to Vienna.