After a few days of relaxing in Frankfurt I headed to Prague for some Pilsner Urquell and a Mozart concert.
Prague was great, though I wish people had not told me much about it before I went. Everyone told me how great it was, so I ended building an image of the city before I got there. Most of the information I had been told about it was the flowing cheap beer, the old city with the high castle walls, and the excited and lively environment. When I got there the beer was very cheap, beautiful city layout and buildings, and great people at the hostels, though different from my imagination.
The night I got into Prague, Praha in Czech, I took a walk around the city to get a quick overview of it. I saw some of the major cathedrals, the castle, and the main tourist sites.
The next day I decided to do a free tour of the city, which actually means you tip the guide at the end of the tour. The guide was well informed though very monotone. I think her boring tone was due to the eastern European culture versus a bored life. She took us to main clock in the city square, which is similar to a cucu clock (spelling?) with little wooden men coming out of the doors and other men dancing. We didn't get to see it though, since the time that this happens is sparatic because it was made while they thought the earth was flat and the center of the universe, so they did not use hours. We ended the tour at the communist museum, where she talked a lot about the communist regime, which was scary about the terror that went on.
During the tour I had met some people from the US, Canada, and Australia, so afterwards we got a traditional Czech meal and then went to the castle on the other side of the river. The castle was great, but we all had a hard time enjoying it since, it was raining and cold outside. Afterwards, some of us then headed to the communist museum, which turned out to be closed for only this one night. Instead we met back up with the full group and headed to a pub on the outskirts of the city because we would find cheaper beer and food. It was a quite interesting place that we found because the paintings on the walls were a combination of explicit sexual situations and horor scenes. It was cheap though and we had a good time laughing at the difficulty of ordering food in English to a Czech speaking waiter. After this I headed back to the hostel for some sleep.
The next morning I met the group from the day before at the train station to go to the bone cathedral about 75 km outside of the city. The cathedral was very interesting. It had originally been a normal cathedral, but after the black plague they were running out of places to bury people because there were so many bones in the ground. One of the monks or priests started to make artwork out of the bones and eventually made 6 giant piles of bones. The total number of people used came too about 40,000. I thought it was interesting to think about how these were all living people at one point and how they probably had pets and children and spoke just the way that I do. I expressed part of this thought to the group expecting a response of interest, but received more of a response of that I had grim and morbid thoughts. After the bone museum we went to a local pub restraunt for lunch, which was very cheap about $8. Soon we were headed back to downtown Prague.
I had expressed interest in going to a Mozart concert, two other people in the group decided to come. I thought it was a little inappropriate to go to such a cultured event in jeans and ragged unwashed shirt, but it turned out that most of the people were tourists and were just as poorly dressed as I was. This was great the players consisted of 5 violinists, 1 bass, and 1 smaller version of the chello. The music they played was a variety of Mozart, Bach, and I think Verdi. I enjoyed this concert and would be interested in attending another probably one composed by Beethoven.
In the evening we went to a pub for a few beers and a small dinner. Little occurred here except good conversation and fun times.
The next day I was heading to Budapest at 11:30, but missed my train by only 1 minute, so I had to wait until 4:30 for the next train. I decided to walk around Prague a little more to get some energy out before a long train ride. I didn't see much on this walk and had a hard time finding a bathroom, but I did have a good salad at the local pizza place with a Stella Artois.
At this point I was in Budapest (11/16-18/2007) and planning on going to their famous bath houses and their other major sites. The night I got there was a little frustrating, no money, bad map, and in an eastern European city. I got off the train and needed to find a cash machine to get money to pay for the hostel. I assumed that there would be one right in the train station, but that turned out to be untrue. There was a main street that looked like it would be a good place to find money, the first ATM that I came too was out of order. Luckily, right down the road there was another one where I was able to get plenty of Hungarian Forints. I then stared heading to the hostel.
A girl I met in Prague could not stop talking about a hostel called the Loft, so I really wanted to stay at this location, but they turned out to be full. I ended up at a hostel that I can no longer recall the name of, but it worked out well. A kind man ran the place and I think he just turned his apartment into a hostel. Even though this was not a typical hostel the man's hospitality made up for it.
The day after I arrived I slept in late until about 11 and then checked my email for a little while and then headed on a walk. I did a couple hour walk which lead me to the river, where the major buildings are, I saw the Parliament building, a cathedral, and a few other important buildings. I was quite tired during this walk, I think from all the traveling I had been doing the past 2 months, so I decided to take a break at a local restaurant. It was a really interesting place. They specialized in pancakes, but not like the ones in the US, they were more like crepes, but they could be either salty or sweet. I ended up ordering one that was filled with broccoli, cream sauce, and chicken, along with onion soup, and a diet Coke. This place was especially interesting, since you could go to the second level which overlooked the river where all the governmental buildings were located. After I finished eating I sat around for a while just thinking about things I would like to do in life and business ideas I would like to pursue.
When I left I started heading to the famous Budapest bath houses. I was moving at a tired pace and the walk passed the hostel, which I had to resist the temptation of going to. Fortuently I choose to live life to the fullest and head to the baths. When I got to the baths I bought a pretzel, which looked delicious, but turned out to be pretty weak. I paid 2400 Forints for the baths, I think that is about $16. After I changed to my swim suit I walked to the 3 baths which each were the size of a common lap pool. They kind of looked like a cup of hot water because there was so much steam coming off the them, they use thermal hot springs to heat the pools, so they are warm year round. It was a little awkward at first because I was by myself and there were hundreds of people which also included many couples committing pda. When I switched pools I met an Australian couple, that turned out to be fun. I only hung out with them for a little while and then headed back to the hostel.
The next day I was invited to go to a flea market with a few people. It was a long walk, but I was hoping it would be worth it. When we finally got there it was a big let down. Almost immediately it started raining and like American flea markets everything was crap. At least because of the rain the other people I went there with also wanted to leave, so I did not have to stay long. In the evening I walked over to the hostel that a girl had recommended to me earlier to make a reservation and see what was going on. I heard it had a got social scene, but was a little let down.
Next, I was off to Vienna Austria to catch up on the history of Arnold.
I arrived in Vienna in the evening and decided to stay at the Wombat hostel. It was a little more expensive than other places, but it was close to the train station and very convenient. I met a guy that was probably 35 or 40 from Australia that I hung out with for the night. We headed down to the bar in the hostel because we received a free drink coupon when we checked in. It turned out to be really weird. The people at the bar kind of reminded me of the people that were in the marching band in high school. They were all slightly different than other people I met other places. At one point when I was talking to the Australian guy a group of three guys danced up to us and asked us if we wanted to dance and the Australian said to me, "That is not a monagetwa I'll get involved with". I think that story best describes this place. In the morning I walked around the city. Vienna had a beautiful Christmas market, great Parliament building, and a few nice cathedrals. One my walk I was trying to find a cafe to have a cup of coffee, but could not find a nice enough one.
At night I caught a night train to Rome.
A girl I met in Prague could not stop talking about a hostel called the Loft, so I really wanted to stay at this location, but they turned out to be full. I ended up at a hostel that I can no longer recall the name of, but it worked out well. A kind man ran the place and I think he just turned his apartment into a hostel. Even though this was not a typical hostel the man's hospitality made up for it.
The day after I arrived I slept in late until about 11 and then checked my email for a little while and then headed on a walk. I did a couple hour walk which lead me to the river, where the major buildings are, I saw the Parliament building, a cathedral, and a few other important buildings. I was quite tired during this walk, I think from all the traveling I had been doing the past 2 months, so I decided to take a break at a local restaurant. It was a really interesting place. They specialized in pancakes, but not like the ones in the US, they were more like crepes, but they could be either salty or sweet. I ended up ordering one that was filled with broccoli, cream sauce, and chicken, along with onion soup, and a diet Coke. This place was especially interesting, since you could go to the second level which overlooked the river where all the governmental buildings were located. After I finished eating I sat around for a while just thinking about things I would like to do in life and business ideas I would like to pursue.
When I left I started heading to the famous Budapest bath houses. I was moving at a tired pace and the walk passed the hostel, which I had to resist the temptation of going to. Fortuently I choose to live life to the fullest and head to the baths. When I got to the baths I bought a pretzel, which looked delicious, but turned out to be pretty weak. I paid 2400 Forints for the baths, I think that is about $16. After I changed to my swim suit I walked to the 3 baths which each were the size of a common lap pool. They kind of looked like a cup of hot water because there was so much steam coming off the them, they use thermal hot springs to heat the pools, so they are warm year round. It was a little awkward at first because I was by myself and there were hundreds of people which also included many couples committing pda. When I switched pools I met an Australian couple, that turned out to be fun. I only hung out with them for a little while and then headed back to the hostel.
The next day I was invited to go to a flea market with a few people. It was a long walk, but I was hoping it would be worth it. When we finally got there it was a big let down. Almost immediately it started raining and like American flea markets everything was crap. At least because of the rain the other people I went there with also wanted to leave, so I did not have to stay long. In the evening I walked over to the hostel that a girl had recommended to me earlier to make a reservation and see what was going on. I heard it had a got social scene, but was a little let down.
Next, I was off to Vienna Austria to catch up on the history of Arnold.
I arrived in Vienna in the evening and decided to stay at the Wombat hostel. It was a little more expensive than other places, but it was close to the train station and very convenient. I met a guy that was probably 35 or 40 from Australia that I hung out with for the night. We headed down to the bar in the hostel because we received a free drink coupon when we checked in. It turned out to be really weird. The people at the bar kind of reminded me of the people that were in the marching band in high school. They were all slightly different than other people I met other places. At one point when I was talking to the Australian guy a group of three guys danced up to us and asked us if we wanted to dance and the Australian said to me, "That is not a monagetwa I'll get involved with". I think that story best describes this place. In the morning I walked around the city. Vienna had a beautiful Christmas market, great Parliament building, and a few nice cathedrals. One my walk I was trying to find a cafe to have a cup of coffee, but could not find a nice enough one.
At night I caught a night train to Rome.
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