Enchanting Prague

We were feeling a bit mixed about Prague when we first arrived. Not only did we stuff up buying our onward ticket = we meant to buy one for Krakow but for some dumb reason got mixed up and bought one for Budapest! Luckily we realised before we got too far and they let us change it. We had such big expectations for this citz, but the passage into the station was pretty dismal, the station itself was grim and felt somewhat dodgy and the streets around our accommodation are graffiti filled and littered with bordered up buildings! Not a good first impression. Things looked up when we found a great cafe around the corner with amazing food and ridiculously cheap prices = we had dinner, drinks dessert and coffee for about $25NZD = pretty crazy.

The next day things weren't much better when we set out in the rain, but once we made our way to the old city our reservations were quickly forgotten = this place is really like a fairytale city, it's so beautiful = like nothing we've ever seen.

Anyway, have to get off the computer will write more next time!

xxxx

Ok, I'm now on a decent computer so I can finish posting about Prague and, if I have time, go back and fix all the appalling mistakes above (that Czech keyboard was terrible).

For anyone heading to Prague I strongly recommend not bothering with Prague Castle - it's expensive to get in and you see little more than a museum and a kitschy row of "quaint" tourist shops - not worth it at all! What I do recommend is going up the castle in the evening, the view out over the city at night is nothing short of magical - seriously mind blowing stuff. Of course the castle is also good for strolling around during the day.

Prague is a city of churches and we seemed to check out a high percentage of them - it was definitely the free ones that were better. Loretta, which we paid to get into was disappointing but St Vittus - a gothic catherdral with high tower you could climb up - was awesome.

Most of our time in Prague was just spent wandering, there's so much to see from the Jewish quarter to the new town (which is actually very, very old!). We spent a bit of time trying to find a piece of Bohemian glass or crystal to bring home, but had no luck finding something which was a shame. You can also buy Absinth in almost every corner store and Paul spent the whole time wanting to buy some just because he could.

To unfairly stereotype, some Europeans can be a little on the unfriendly side (read: borderline scary!) and you don't want to mess with them - unfortunately we accidentally pissed a few off - turns out you're supposed to weigh your own fruit in the supermarket and we got in trouble twice for not realising this - of course with a long queue of people behind us! Oops.

We then headed out of the city for an overnight trip to Cesky Krumlov. While the trip itself was a bit of an ordeal due to track maintenence, which meant getting in and out of the train, the town was well worth it. A tiny old village, it was built within a curve of the river, so it's basically moated and accessible by bridges. There is the compulsary castle, a great tower to climb up, a beautiful old church and charming cobblestoned streets - all in an area you can walk around in 10 minutes - we loved it!

What we didn't love so much was the fact it snowed overnight so the next day was freezing - it did make for a pretty trip back to Prague though, with snow drifts dotting the countryside.

Our experience of Prague ended as it had begun - somewhat disconcertingly. We had to be at the train station late at night to catch an overnight train to Krakow. That station is not a nice place to be, especially at that hour when it was full of the city's crazies and drunks - most of whom openly scoped out our bags as they passed us. We clustered with the rest of the travellers around the departure board and were very relieved when we got safely on our train! We splashed out on a double compartment which was worth every cent - although we still didn't sleep that well - who knew trains were so noisy?!