Tuesday 22 Dec 2009 – Prague!

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Prague

Okay…so in hindsight, what I have to say about yesterday is that the entire group fell in love with Prague and its amazingly enchanting winding cobblestone streets, mosaic sidewalks, and medieval buildings.

However…before we relaxed and fell in love with the city quite a bit happened.
First of all….I officially hate DeustchBahn. Trains running to or out of Germany have been sickeningly late. The day we were leaving Amsterdam we killed ourselves to get up and out by 5:30 am and then had a train that was delayed over an hour and got in late to Berlin. Then, yesterday, leaving Berlin we met in the lobby at 5:15 am for a 6:30 train and then didn’t actually leave on the train until 9, which meant that we were sitting in below freezing weather at the tracks for over two hours when we could have been sleeping in our warm beds…AND that we arrived in Prague at 1:45 instead of 11:20….that’s a huge difference in time when everything we wanted to do closed at 4 and around 6 or 7. So DeustchBahn is officially on my blacklist. :-/
When we exited the train we then had to find the connection between the train station and the metro. As we rolled our suitcases through the station I knew the rest of the group was probably wondering where on earth we were taking them, as walked through dimly lit hallways of grimy concrete tunnels that all looked very dark and sinister. There were several factors that made the afternoon a stressful one:

First, we had no lunch – there was nothing in the dining car, and we had thought we would be in Prague by 11:2.

Second, we were REALLY tight on time. It was 1:45 when we arrived and we needed to navigate the city, check into our hotel to drop our bags, get Czech currency, and high tail it up to the castle which closed at four and is distinctly the highlight of the city. So stress was high.

Third, we were having an incredibly difficult time buying metro tickets. The ATM only gives you very large bills (equivalent to 50 and 100 dollars). The machine only took coins…which were comparable to around a US dollar or less and we were having a really difficult time getting change. Chris went in and bought drinks, but didn’t understand the currency enough to get the change we needed. Daniel went into the bankomat and they only gave him a few coins.

The machine ate one our 20 Ck tokens and then between Chris and Daniel we only had enough change for 2 tickets and time was running out. There was no one manning the information booth or ticket sales, not to mention the fact that everyone was getting really stressed because it was after two and our chances of making it to the castle were slipping away before our eyes. So we decided to just try to make it with our two tickets. We validated them and all headed down to catch the metro.

So far so good. We were moving in the right direction, if we made it to the hotel by 2:15ish we could be at the castle by or before 3. And then we stepped off the metro and were stopped by a ticket agent who was checking tickets. Crap. I had the tickets in hand so they said Daniel and I were fine, but confiscated Ginger, Phil, Justin, and Chris’s passports and told them to follow them. CRAP. Daniel and I were trying to tell them we thought it was enough for all of us (the machine was confusing enough…we could have), but the officer was walking quickly to “information” with their passports and we were all quickly following. It could have been worse. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some raised eyebrow looks going on and that adrenaline wasn’t up amongst some of the group. The agent/officer had a buddy with him and they led us to information to “teach” us how to buy tickets and then said we had to pay a fine on the spot. As I said, could have been worse, but we all would have been far happier if our wallets weren’t thinner because of it.
And now, we were mid-way, we still had to change metro lines and go two more stops. And we still were lacking change. Again, no one was manning the ticket booth. Daniel got in a miserably long information line where they were supposed to make change. After standing around for a few minutes, watching the time slip by and our chances of seeing the castle and St. Vitus’s Cathedral diminishing with each minute, I took action. I went into the store and bought things that I knew would yield change. Only the cashier chose to give me a 50 ck bill instead of a 50 ck coin (although we already had 40 Ck of the 80 ck we needed). I requested change and she said “no, go to information,” I said “but, please” and she said “no.” Fine! , I thought. So I proceeded to buy more candy with the 50 ck note that I knew would yield the desired change. She rolled her eyes, rang up my candy and then proceeded to give me the forty cks of change in form of a 20 ck coin and ten 2 ck coins just to be rude and difficult. But I didn’t care! We know had enough change to go the two stupid stops to get to our hotel…and Daniel was only three places closer in line.

So, with legitimate tickets in hand we made it to our stop and Daniel easily found our hotel and everything finally started falling into place. The hotel was awesome…although our rooms were up three and four flights of stairs. But the hotel itself had perfect location and had very fun traditional rooms with old antique-ish furniture. Ginger, Chris, Justin, and Phil had a spacious loft room that was up an additional set of stairs and was called “the attic room.” We also had internet and free breakfast. Good stuff.

So we set out for the castle! It was currently 2:50, so we had definitely lost a lot of time with the ticket officers, and were going to be hard pressed to make it. To get to the castle is quite a hike – it’s uphill on uneven (and incredibly slippery) cobblestone and mosaic stone sidewalks, all at a slant. And we were trying to speed walk it as much as we could. We made it just in the nick of time and slipped into St. Vitus’s Cathedral ten minutes til closing and were able to stand in awe of the majestic architecture of Gothic style churches. The spire we climbed up last time that gives you an awesome view of the city was closed for technical reasons, but we were still able to enjoy the gorgeous stain glass windows and decorations throughout the church.

After that we managed to enjoy the Golden Lane before it closed as well! We enjoyed the medieval torture displays…well, enjoy might not be the right word, but definitely were appropriately grossed out/impressed with the true harshness and cruelty of the devices. …And Chris was really glad he wasn’t living in the middle ages. Ginger and I also got to fire crossbows! We weren’t bad shots either – we actually hit our targets!

After the Golden Lane we were determined to not only find food, but to find a nice, large, solid meal after a full day of breakfast on the go and…well, nothing else. We chose a restaurant near the castle that overlooked the city and served traditional Czech cuisine. It was amazing and very well priced for the level of quality of the meal. Some of our dishes included wiener schnitzel, beef pilsner goulash with bread dumplings, beef cooked in cream sauce with bread dumplings, and steak with potatoes au gratin, along with traditional Czech potato soup served in bread bowls or old style potato soup. Very delicious.

On the way home we walked the wonderfully silhouetted Old Charles Bridge and took in the magic of the city. We were especially excited to see the tower was still open and enjoyed charging to the top to see the river and city from up high as well.
After taking a break in the Old Town Square Christmas Market, walking the streets, and briefly crashing in the hotel, we went out to visit the extremely classic and traditional beer hall that Daniel and I had found during out last visit. It’s called U Vejvodu and is an awesome 360 person beer hall that serves classic Czech pils along with meals and is a hall that has been functioning as a meeting place for the people of Prague since 1406ish. It really just has an awesome atmosphere!
Prague was fantastic! And several have said it is their favorite city so far. We are all really excited to relax and enjoy Kaprun and the Austrian Alps and we are all looking forward to a slower pace and a bit more sleep these next few days.