(Sat. Dec. 19th- Sun. Dec. 20th)
A bit about our hostel first. Its dirt cheap- the equivalent of like 7 euro a night, each- cheaper than any place I'd stayed. It was pretty cold, considering the room was full of windows. We also were staying in a room with I think 8 other people, in bunk beds. And the beds were RIDICULOUS squeaky. And we got there really late. And had to get into the lockers in the room. But we tried not to be a nuisance. I, unlike many other hostelgoers, actually TRY not to disturb people because I HATE being disturbed.
So we crept into our room, got ready for bed (I tried to take a "quiet" shower) and after getting second blankets cause it was FREEZING, hopped in bed. The fleece blankets stuck together so bad with the static that they made lightning in the dark when I tried to pull them apart. The little beds made so much noise that once I laid down in the bed I tried not to move again.
In the morning we woke up, still freezing (I think Tiffany wore full clothes, I wore an Under Armour shirt, winter hat, and socks) and went to have breakfast. The hostel was huge, I think it used to be a hotel. Giant hallways with doors everywhere, going into rooms. Outside the back was a warehousey thing that apparently was a bar/dance club at night (it was as big as a barn) and they had breakfast for us in the morning. They had meat and cheese and cereal (and honey- they like putting honey on cereal and in yogurt in Europe) so we had breakfast including hot ham and cheese sandwiches made in the toaster oven. Yum. Also had coffee, because it was FREEZING. Did I mention that?
Then we started our adventure. We had plans to get a free walking tour of the city at like 1:30pm, that we hadta meet up with in the main city square. Which is a great place. So we took a tram ride from where we were staying in the north and got off across the river, and had to walk across the Charles Bridge. The famous Prague one, lined with statues.
Once we got in the old city center, there were cobblestone streets and sidewalks everywhere. Prague ("Praha", in Czech) gets the award for having best cobblestone in Europe, that I've seen. Here you can get a glimpse of one of the patterns of the sidewalks. And an old timey car that was giving rides around the city. With an open top. And we found out that the temperature (for the whole three days we were there) maxed out at like 10 degrees F. Freezing.
The Charles Bridge. Over the Charles River. It was under construction, but still open, to pedestrians only. And vendors, also, apparently. See all the statues?
Whoo hoo! The square! Called Old Town Square. Not very inventive. On the left is an amazing astrological clock that has the figurines that come out on the hour- even if you didn't know what time it was, you could see the crowds. At the back is the main church (but there were I think four churches ON THE SQUARE). The tents were the Christmas market.
Here's the clock. It told all kinds of stuff about how the moon would look tonight and other things about...seasons or who knows what else. And it had 365 marks on it that each had a name, and the story is that traditionally there were "day-names" and that anyone born and that certain day was named that name. Weird.
We met up with people and started on our tour. And it was freezing. And we were standing a lot listening to the guy talk. Thankfully he was more or less funny and interesting.
He took us to one of the other main squares. Prague seemed even MORE pedestrian friendly than most cities- lots of interconnected small streets going every where, like Rome maybe.
Here was a very distinct period style building. From...I think the 20s or 30s.
This was called the Black Madonna. For obvious reasons. But there was some myth about her, though I don't remember what it was- but our guide pointed out that lots of buildings had statues like this- they served two purposes. One, they served as landmarks for back in the day when streets weren't named, it was a way to navigate. The second purpose was purportedly security- people felt like they were being watched by Our Lady :)
Here was a church the guy took us in. Empty, quiet, pretty. He told us a story about a thief in the church being caught by a priest, and his arm pulling off, and showed us the mummified arm that the church saved, up on the wall. Weird.
It quickly was getting dark. Way down the road, up the hill, was a giant metronome built around Cold War time I think- he told us a story about it that I don't remember :) Again I could Google this stuff...but I guess so could you. But the thing was huge. I wanted to go see it but forgot. And it was cold. It swung like every five seconds, cause it was huge. That's what the spear thing is.
The best views in the city were always of the castle. Once we got out of the dense city center, we saw the castle across the river. Its huge. The lit up expanse is the whole castle extravaganza, and up top is the actual castle. The rest is just part of the complex of buildings. Looks awesome though! And its up on a hill over looking the city. Sweet.
After our tour was over we went back and wandered the old city. Especially the incredible amount of touristy shops. Lots of gifts and trinkets, especially around Christmas time. Here was a shop that sold only Matrushka dolls (Russian nesting dolls) and they had them painted like sports teams, government officials, celebrities, everything. Lots of American stuff, clearly. For tourists.
These were real eggshells. Drained, cleaned, and painted. Pretty amazing. And clearly very fragile. For Christmas ornaments.
Back in the square, nighttime, time for some food (we had some cheesecake and I think coffee and maybe soup, during the tour when we took a break). The church at the back is awesome, but the weird thing is, despite its presence on the square, visually, you hafta walk through another building down a little alley to get to the actual church entrance. Quite odd. You can see the market was in full swing.
OH YEAH. Sour gummy candy. They love these giant sour ropes in Europe. The outside is chewy sour stuff, and the inside is like squishy marshmallowy. Quite delicious. Chris and I first had it in Switzerland, and then hadta get some more in Paris :) They're expensive though!
But here was more local fare. There was a lot of food being made by hand on the spot, in little booths over various cooking devices- and we definitely sampled a few. Between being hungry and cold, what the heck. These were long strips of dough that they spun around these sticks to make flat, hollow, round tubes of crispy pastry that were still soft inside (and hot). They sprinkled em with sugar and cinnamon. They looked delicious (and cooked fast). They were pretty good, but not great.
These things were AMAZING. They were super salty and garlicky. It was basically a potato dough that they put into these little muffin kinda circle spots. These cooked fast too, and were WICKED hot- its always a weird sensation to barely be able to feel your fingers and yet be burning your tongue on your food. These little guys tasted like hashbrowns but less crispy, with lots of garlic, chives, butter, and salt. REALLY greasy.
Didn't have these, but they looked awesome too. They were like a combination of pizza and elephant ear- they smelled and looked like elephant ears, but then they covered them in cheese and squirted on...ketchup. Yeah that looked notsogood.
Those giant rolls are solid marzipan. You just cut off a slice and pay by the pound. Didn't have any of that either :)
Here's our food from the evening, basically our dinner, more or less. Including some hot spiced wine, for SURE.
In the middle of the square there was a set of stairs (underneath which were the bathrooms) that were great for getting above the square and checking it out. It was very festive. I can really remember it vividly when I start looking at these pictures again and writing about it!
On our way back home, we're walking towards the Charles- and this just looks like a cool picture. Thanks, castle. You're awesome. Its like the Colosseum or something- everytime you see it it just amazes you that, wow, you're here, and that is an amazing building.
That night when we got back to the hostel we decided to explore it a bit. We found out they had a pool in the basement, which was pretty wild because the surface of the water was only like 6 feet below the ceiling- you walked in, and UP some steps, and then down into the pool. But it was closed at the moment. Shame. THANKfully, however, the SAUNA was open!! So we took the opportunity to warm up down there for a bit, since we were frozen to the bones.
The next morning was one of those nice hostel mornings. Where people start getting up at like 6am and packing up their shi...stuff, loudly, and taking forever. That particular morning, some guy spent like half an hour packing, at like 7 something in the morning. And I'm pretty sure every single item of clothing he put in an individual plastic grocery bag. Think about how loud those things are when you wad them up. Thankfully, to mask the sound of the constantly crinkling plastic bags, he decided to have conversations, at normal room volume, with anyone and everyone else who was up and about. You know, fine, okay, its a hostel, there's a lotta people, we have different schedules, I get it. But it was before 8 am. That's really not that late to be trying to sleep still.
Oh and here comes the kicker though, really. Icing on the cake (aside from the double-bonus, later): after we finally get up, because finally I really can't try to sleep anymore, or fake sleeping, or hope he's gonna shut up and be done packing, so I finally get up, and Tiffany does too. And by the way, our two beds were in the middle of the room. It was no secret that we were in bed and asleep. I usually try rustling or rolling over here and there right after particularly loud noises, so people can see oh, oops, I must have just disturbed that person. No, that didn't work. It usually doesn't.
But here's the thing- when we finally got up, the guy came over to us and was like hey, sorry you guys if I woke you up, I hadta pack and get going first thing this morning cause I'm leaving town. Tiffany, being the nice person she is, said oh that's okay, its fine, we were getting up soon anyway. I said nothing. I didn't even look at him. My mom, and Thumper from Bambi, taught me that "if I can't say nothin nice, don't say nothin at all." So I said nothin. Cause it wasn't okay. His apology was not accepted. Tiffany scolded me later for being rude. I thought it quite odd, that I get chewed out for being "rude" by biting my tongue, when he could spend 30 minutes of our sleeping morning making God-awful amounts of noise, and all he had to was say "oh, sorry, IF I woke you guys up" and he's clean and clear. Really?? No. That doesn't fly. Plus I knew Tiffany would tell him it was fine, and I'm not into lying through my teeth, so I just let it be.
The kicker was when we not only saw the same guy later that night at the hostel still, but then again the next morning, cause he didn't even leave after all. Jackass.
Anyway, day two of our adventure. Here's a pretty weird looking car. I think its a Skoda (Swedish company I think?) It has a full back door with a hidden handle. Its just kinda ugly. And strange.
I mentioned how great the cobblestones in Prague were. One of the only places I've seen white cobblestones, and seen a contrasting pattern made with them. So I realized I needed to document them. After all, I'm an architect(ure student). I kept our feet in the photos for a sense of scale, and to make it more fun. Otherwise, they're just images I could find on Google.
We always tried to stand in good spots in each photo too :) Glad Tiffany was willing to indulge me on this (and many things).
All of these were just different sidewalks we'd see as we were walking through the city- and the patterns changed frequently, often from block to block.
I remember right where this was- just before the Charles bridge, right outside a little shop that had handmade stuff that was cool but kinda expensive...
And here they are- musical note mugs, that I reeeeeeeally liked, and wanted one, but I don't really drink coffee, and they were just a bit too expensive anyway, so I thought I'd just pass. Tiffany managed to sneak back and buy one for me for Christmas later when we had gone separate ways for a couple hours. I was surprised and excited to get it- I talked myself out of buying one because I only liked the tall ones (better shapes and better four a double-sized drink) but also thought it might be impossible to stir with a spoon. Which apparently annoyed Tiffany cause she was about to buy me one and then I was like oh, sorry, I mean, I'd really like it, I'm just talking myself out of needing one...oops.
My plans for the day were to talk another free walking trip (provided by an organization that gives city tours all over Europe) that was people who made money on tips- often seemed like foreigners trying to live in whatever city. Our tour guide the day before was an American guy about our age who had lived in Prague for like five years, and didn't really like the US anymore or like going back, or identify with it. I don't see that happening to me. He looked like the scruffy backpacker type, and was basically barely getting by, barely paying the bills, teaching English and stuff- with no future plan at all. I think the exotic allure wears off no matter where you are. Tiffany though was spending some time with a friend, because she had already seen the castle and such up on the hill, and didn't wanna be outside all day again in the cold.
Here's another Matrushka dolls shop. Great display. Little white signs that say no photos, on the front of the shelves. Yeah I don't care. I wasn't even IN the store, so they couldn't kick me out, and I wasn't stealing anything, so I really don't see how they can not allow me to take pictures. What was I gonna do with them? How would it harm them? Over it.
Hot spiced wine!! There's a way to start our day. We had it with a couple of those hot dogs down on the bottom. Remember, the exchange rate was 7 to 1. So it was pretty cheap.
One more pattern. By the way, in many of these photos its hard to tell the difference between the snow and the sand- the city put down white silica sand all over the sidewalks, because the wet smooth cobblestone was really slippery otherwise. The problem I immediately realized though, is that everyone walking across that sand was just polishing the stones smoother and smoother- how long can the city keep using this as a solution?
The square, the clock, the church, the people, the awesomeness. The cold. You can see all the people waiting for the clock to chime and the figurines to come out. It was even colder this day than yesterday. Like 5 degrees. Even though it was sunny. Good idea to walk around all day again outside. The stopping and standing was the worst.
Before Tiffany and I went our separate ways for a bit, we met up with her high school friend. In the building I had found out yesterday was the only surviving Cubist building in the world. Apparently cubism wasn't just art, actually made its way into architecture a bit. I wouldn't really call it Cubism from looking at it, because its hard to translate like a Picasso-style painting into a building- unless you had like partial doors coming out of doors and weird skewed angles like some bizarre dream. Think about what peoples' faces look like in his paintings.
But anyway, here's some of building. Still striking. The light fixtures, in the small restaurant where we met.
Tiffany's friend.......I don't remember her name now. She was back in school at the moment. They had coffees. I decided to have a beer cause it was cheap and I thought a drink would keep me warm later. It was like noon.
I had a few extra minutes before meeting up with my tour, so I walked back to the main church on Old Town Square, through the little alley, here.
Here's the inside of the church, there were doors at the back so you could see in but not enter. Quite ornate, really pretty, not that large. Light-filled. Also had "no photographs" signs. I'm over it. Unless I was using a flash I'm not damaging anything. And I'm not selling postcards.
Here's the entrance to the church. I took this photo (a montage from like 8 photos, thanks Photoshop, now as always) from as far back as I could get- meaning there was another building just across from the entrance right there. Really odd bottleneck. Tiny entrance.
Here's the church from the plaza, buried behind the other building, and you can see where the entrance is to get back there. This was a couple photos mashed together too.
A very ornate building that stuck out a lot- also on the plaza. Flying a Czech flag and UN flag. Governmental of some sort I guess.
Dunno what this building was but it was cool looking. And different. Looked old. And it was decorated with frescoes or something.
HA. This was a taxi. Written all over. Which of course also said "no photos". What are you gonna do, run me over?
The church again. This plaza is just great. One of the best I've seen in Europe. Especially during Christmastime. I really see why people like Prague- though we were really spending most of our time within a relatively dense, small area of the old city center.
And my tour started. Little did I know how cold it would get when the sun went away (which happened like halfway into the 4 hour walking tour). This street and corner were dedicated to Franz Kafka. He's crazy.
Monument to Kepler and his partner (who, the story goes, did all the discovering, and Kepler stole his ideas- classic story). Kepler is the one who discovered (or at least figured out) planetary motion.
We went across the river and up the hill, towards the castle and all that went along with it. This was the entrance to a small complex of buildings, overlooking the city, where St. Norbert's monastery and BREWERY were. The same St. Norbert that I've found is the namesake of St. Norbert's college in Wisconsin. We took a break to sit inside and stay warm for a bit and have a microbrew beer. I met some Australian girls who were Italian, part of our tour group.
And afterwards, a bit warmed up by the strong beer. Sun almost gone down. Now the real cold starts. Pretty church though- not that we went in it. Which turned out to be a theme of the tour...
Here was the main church up on the hill, St. Vitus' Cathedral- I don't remember the story of St. Vitus, but back in the day, when people had seizures they were colloquially called "doing St. Vitus' dance". Dunno why. This photo is another montage, which is why it looks so skewed. But there was no way to step away from it, again there was another building right across from the entrance.
The uh, *nice* thing is that our tour guide all along was saying he "hoped" we'd get to the cathedral in time to go in- cause it closed at like six. We got there like ten minutes too late. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? A FOUR HOUR TOUR AND WE'RE TEN MINUTES LATE TO GET INTO PRAGUE'S CATHEDRAL???? Son-0f-a...
So that was about the time I realized we were never going into the castle either, just walking around it. That's when I started getting annoyed with the whole free walking tour thing. I mean obviously I'd be happy to pay for my own ticket to get into whatever, but I realized I had two days in Prague, and it was bloody freezing, and I spent the better part of my time in Prague doing walking tours OUTSIDE, both of which involved walking by lots of great things, but never going in and seeing any of them. So that kinda pissed me off. I didn't see one bit of the inside of that massive castle, and our trip was out of time cause we were leaving for Dublin that night. Nuts.
Here is a picture of our tour guide's iPhone, showing how bloody flippin ridiculous cold it was there. Granted his phone was on Celcius. But still. -12 = 10 degrees fahrenheit. And I was outside for hours. I was wearing a pair of wool socks and an extra pair of gloves, but not a full winter coat, cause I needed something light that would pack easily. So I was wearing like seven layers. And still freezing.
Tiffany and I managed to meet up again just fine, though I hadta leave my tour early because it went too long and I knew she was waiting for me- and again, it was freezing. I found her, we both thought our fingers, toes, ears, and faces were gonna fall off, and we went back to the square to get some last tasty foods and hot spiced wines, and spend our remaining Kurons before we left for Dublin. I made a regrettable but adult decision that Tiffany agreed with, though she was actually willing to go along with whatever- because I had been wanting to head down the river to see Frank Gehry's apartment tower, the "dancing building". But it was just too cold. That's the only time I can remember choosing something else over seeing important architecture. And my archie friends were stunned when they heard I chose to skip seeing it :) But we hadta warm up, spend our Kurons, and get more food and wine.
Tiffany is in the foreground on the left.
Finally, Tiffany had bought some Pilsner Urquell earlier in the day because she wanted to have some Czech beer while we were there, and it was really cheap. So even though it was freezing, we passed the big back and forth while walking to the train with our luggage.
The subway stations were great- because every stop had the tunnel decorated differently. i really liked it. Those panels were actually three-dimensional, aluminum or something.
And here's a last snack that we bought earlier- the giant sour gummy things. I told Tiffany she had to try one. So we got one. She housed it.
We got to our flight just fine that evening, and we glad to know that Dublin was quite a bit warmer than Prague. When we got in, which was pretty late, we hopped some bus shuttle to the city.
A new flight, a new country. Nothing out of the ordinary for me :) Aer Lingus- us getting off the plane (they like debarking right on the runway, which doesn't really happen much here in the US- at least not at any major city airport).
As soon as we got in the airport, you could tell we were in Ireland :) The bar was long since closed, cause it was pretty late, but it wasn't exactly cleaned up yet...
It was weird to be in a country where they spoke English. Seriously. Signs in English. But also in Gaelic, which was kinda cool- like everywhere, especially in the airport- I thought it was a cultural historical language spoken some by people in the country and then also learned in schools and such, but I didn't think it was that prevalent...
It was also weird to be in a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road. Apparently its pretty common to have tourists here, obviously tourists most likely from countries that drive on the same side as the US (since only England, Ireland, Australia and I think India...and maybe Scotland I assume?) drive on the left side of the road. SO, most of the major roads and intersections all across Dublin had warnings for crossing pedestrians, to look the other way for approaching traffic, since you'd normally look right.
The amazing thing I realized, the more and more we walked around, was how ingrained my instinct was to look right for traffic- so ingrained, that I had to remind myself every time to read the street and look that way- and then when I did, I would still whip my head to the right if I wasn't really thinking hard about it, and even if I looked LEFT, I STILL had to look right to satisfy my instinct- and if I didn't look right, I always felt like I was about to get suddenly blindsided by a car. Amazing how I couldn't shake that feeling! Can't imagine how it would feel to drive and try to fight those instincts...glad we didn't have to.
When we got off the bus it was pretty awesome to be IN Dublin, walking down the street, going to Temple Bar (an area of the city, not an actual bar) where our hostel was. I was pretty excited to check out Dublin. Here was a restaurant/bar right in Temple Bar, on the one bigger street cutting through the area (which is pretty small and almost entirely pedestrians, especially later at night when the bars were closing ;)
We snuck quietly into our hostel (opening our bags in the HALL to get what we needed, cause I'm considerate enough NOT to wake people up) and then crawled into our beds. It was much warmer in Dublin and our beds were nicer. Glad to be there for a few days. But I also knew that Dublin was our last hurrah before going back to the States. Which was fine, because it had been four months, and I was going for Christmas to see friends and family, but still, I couldn't believe my four month tour would be over in three days. Scary.
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