Praha!

(Written yesterday)

So, two days in Prague flew by.

Another fantastic hostel. Beer gardens at the hostels rule. And beer was cheaper than water. Num num. Home of lager. Num num.

The first day we were there we decided to go on a walking tour like we had in Berlin; but this time there were a million more people and a way more intense guide. And it was 30 degrees. So not as fun. But we did learn lots of Czech history which was interesting. And it meant that we could get the touristy bit out of the way in one go and could then try and avoid swarms of tourists. Boy oh boy there were a lot of tourists. But yes.

Prague is pretty.

This is a statue of some dude who started the Hussite church. I think his name is Huss….

The astrological clock. Supposedly the guy who created it was then blinded by city officials so he wouldn’t be able to create another one for any other city. And its also the oldest still working machine in the world.

And this is the Prague museum – in 1969 a 21 year old philosophy student set himself on fire here in protest against the communist regime. Mental huh?

We also went to the Communist museum – man it was hilarious. We reckon that in 1989 the communists left, in 1990 someone thought they should build a museum (right next door to McDonalds ironically enough) and then as of 1990 nothing has been done to it. It was like going back in time.

This is a Kafka statue in the jewish quarter. The Jewish quarter in Prague is perfectly preserved – unlike the rest of Nazi occupied Europe where many of the synagogues have been destroyed. This is because once Hitler had wiped out the entire Jewish race, his intention was to turn the Jewish quarter of Prague into a museum for an extinguished race. Isnt that sick?

And this is probably Prague’s strangest landmark. It’s a TV tower. But then some artist dude decided to stick massive metal babies on it so they look like they are crawling up it. SO WEIRD‼! The back dot things you can see are the babies. WTF??

That night we went back to the hostel and some friends of ours from the Berlin hostel were there – an Melbournian couple called Amy and Damien. They are lovely. And we had another friend – an English guy who we called Sir Allan. So yes. A wee gang. And we decided to go out to this bar that was kind of up the road – well up and down and around the road by the time we got there. Lots of Americans from the hostel were there too. Goooood times. The bar was so mental. There was random machinery hanging from the ceiling. Nothing like it would ever be allowed at home. The machinery had moving parts – you could really hurt yourself if you were stupid enough. And there was a lot of alcohol consumed that night so it really is a miracle that no one lost a finger. Excellent.

We ended up back at the hostel and 3 in the morning and Sir Allan broke a guitar string playing Oasis. Lolz.

Oh and you can see there on Jess’ leg where a bush attacked her after some random drunk ginger girl pushed her into it….. whoops!

The next day the gang went up to the Prague castle. Which was pretty. And had pretty views. Then Sir Allan and Rachelle and Isaac (we had lots of friends in Prague!) went on the walking tour and Jess, me, Amy and Damien had a fun day looking around other bits of the city. We had a huge lunch and then went for a walk.

This statue is in the courtyard of the Kafka museum – The hips and penis’ of both dudes move and swivel. AND you can pay to send a text message to a special number and then the dudes write the message in the water. SO WEIRD! Prahahahaha.

THEN we found some of the babies that the dude put on the TV tower in a park! Woohoo!

Prague is weird man. Prahahahaha indeed!

We went up the cable car (‼) and had a lovely wander through the park

Wooden swing!

We met up with Sir Allan and the rest of the crew and then drank beer in a lovely beer garden that overlooked the city.

So yes, Prague was very enjoyable. We met some really cool people and had a lovely time. And it was so hot the whole time. It’s a miracle I wasn’t burnt.

This morning we took the train from Prague to Katowice – some tiny Polish town in the middle of no where– the train station was so dilapidated and derelict that we were fractionally concerned a train to Krakow would never come and we would be wandering the streets of rural Poland forever. Luckily it did come, and boy… it was something else. It was so freaking hot and looked like it was built in the 60s and I swear it was moving at 40ks an hour the whole way. I think I can I think I can….so frustrating. Jess and I got progressively grumpier and grumpier. And sweatier. And hungrier. Jess was fantasising about McDonalds – as the last thing we had eaten was some random Czech pastry thing which was foul and had some weird mushed poppy seed bit… yeah. We were very unhappy.

Although sleepy Jess is mega adorable; sleepy, hungry, sweaty, frustrated Jess is not so adorable. Eventually we arrived and we walked across town to our hostel and right next door to our hostel was a huge McDonalds! Turns out all it takes to fix a sleepy, grumpy Jessica is a cheeseburger. It really was a miracle.

Tomorrow – exploring and chilling are on the cards. Prague was exhausting.