DRAGON! FIRE BREATHING!(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.
Whooohoooooo
This was outside the Jewish museum - theres an exhibition there at the moment about Jews in the comic book industry.
Disaster struck poor Mr Bag today. Potentially, emergency surgery could save him upon return to Aotearoa, but for the moment he is to be buried at the bottom of my luggage. I may have to biff him once and for all..... tear. What a trusty friend he has been.
I love the people. I love the laxed out attitudes. I love the style. I love the fashion. I love the oddities. I love the bicycles. I love that everyone is just so chilled out. I love that youth have made this city their own. I love the music. I love the atmosphere.
GLORIOUS!
And the sun was shining too. Such a good day.
This morning we went out to the East Side gallery. It’s a 1.3km section of the Berlin wall that has been preserved and painted by lots of different artists from all over the world. It’s a freedom memorial – its really cool. And its all been repainted last year for the 20th anniversary which was cool.
Then we walked into Eastern Kreuzberg – a pretty cool part of Berlin. It was a poor part of the old West Berlin - most of the hip places now are in the former East Berlin – but Kreuzberg was really cool.
We wandered around – actually wandered past a fashion shoot at one point that was going on under the railway tracks, generally amusing – then we found a vegetarian burger place we had read about called Yellow Sunshine. It was amazing. A vege burger is totally a proper burger.
Then we went north to the old East Berlin bits of the city and just wandered and explored. We found some amazing little boutiques. Lots of really cool books shops. An excellent underground vintage boutique. It was a gooooooood afternoon.
This was an alleyway we wandered down – so funky.
Then we went up these stairs to a cool book, art, poster shop. Look at the stairs!
Amazing amazing day.
Had cheap as thai food for dinner that was excellent. So tasty. Then had a beer (€1!) and ooofffff to bed. So much walking occurs during the day that by night we are knackered. Worth it though. I LOVE BERLIN.
This is the most famous university in Berlin -Humboldt University- Einstein went here! Its also where the biggest book burning in Germany occurred. In the square outside the uni. They feel really bad about it. Theres a memorial in the square - an underground empty bookshelf representing the presence of absence - and they also sell second hand books at the front gate. Including many of the once blacklisted titles.
Above is where Hitler once gave a rousing speech to 20,000 Nazis. Its the Old Museum. And out the front is a huge granite bowl. It was said to be the largest single piece of granite in the whole world - the 8th wonder of the world according to the Germans. It was supposed to go inside the museum, but it was too big, so they put it out the front. And in 1933 when Hitler organised a rally there, he had it moved around the other side. Later, when the Soviets controlled the area, they tried to move it and dropped it. So it is now in 3 pieces. A pretty crap 8th wonder of the world really.
Jess and Niki with huge granite bowl.
Checkpoint Charlie. You can pay 1euro to have your picture taken with a Soviet and a US 'soldier'. Our guide - Espin - informed us that the soldiers are actually part of a strip dance troop. Awesome.
The Berlin Wall. The brick bits in front are excavated Gestapo torture chambers. There was also an amazing museum here called 'Typography of Terror' - it only opened last week and it has heaps of amazing photos and documents about the atrocities of WWII.
The Reichstag - famously burned in 1933, allowing Hitler to blame the communists and this contributed to his rise to power (year 11 flashbacks anyone?) then it was largely disused,Hitler didn't really have any used for a parliament building did he... it also was damaged during air raids....then there was the battle of the Riechstag in 1945 where the Soviets did even more damage... but now its been restored and given a flash dome and its used as the parliament building once again. History rules man.
A chocolate Reichstag.
The Hotel Adlon. Where Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window. Cool!
The Brandenburg Gate - a famous famous gate that's on the back of German euros. Napoleon stole it for a while I think. What a dick.
This is the memorial to the Jews that died. Its massive. And controversial. But its sombre and when you walk into it its really eerie and you lose your peripheral vision. Its strange. But evocative. I'm not sure if I like it. It certainly has impact.
