Day 10: Prague

Highlights:

• Sir Toby's Hostel - the most informative welcome I've ever received
• Letenske Sady
• Czech Pivo (Beer) - 9-35kc (with 29kc = 1pound)

Well, bloody hell, Prague is lovely. Aside from the fact you can cross the road on a red man if its clear (oh, Germany), with a foresty hill just north of the river, in five minutes (and after a pretty steep climb) you have this overhelmingly beautiful view of the city and river, and are surrounded by nothing but quiet.

So I didn't sleep overly well on the train. Mainly because in the heat of the sandwich luggage bed, I'd taken off my socks and when I fell down to my lower bed, I could only find one. It got pretty cold at night and as I had to use my coat to protect my sockless foot, the rest of me was pretty icy. In the night I spoke briefly to my cabin sharers (and did a little German translation for them with the ticket inspector, earning myself a few brownie points with him). They were American, and had caught the train in Copenhagen and were getting off in Berlin at 4am. I must have fallen asleep at some point, as I don't remember them leaving, and so I had the cabin to myelf when I woke up. It felt like I was in some sort of movie, with these hills, rivers and villages rushing past the window, as I leant casually reading my book, and deliberately looking thoughtfully out of the window every now and then. We were actually in the last wagon of the train, and so just round the corner from our room, you could look out onto the track. It sort of felt like that bit at the end of the James Bond film, where the Voodoo Man you think is dead, is actually alive and on the back of James' train. I mean, it was like that in the way that we had the same view of the railway track and not because I'd come back from the dead...

Anyway, passing Dresden and several other German stops, we pulled into Praha Hlavni Nadrazi around 9.40am (Main Station). The Czech countryside up until that point had been really lushous, lots of forests and lakes, so I think I'll try to explore a bit more of the country beyond the capital before I leave. There was a Danish family in the cabin next to me, and their youngest child, Martin, even after learning I didn't speak Danish, babbled on to me for the last ten minutes of the train ride. I tried to teach him some English (your Sister is Amelia, your brother is Christian) but he just giggled a bit and fell over his suitcase. I jumped out of the train (this isn't some movie exaggeration, the trains are REALLY high) and then spent the next 15minutes wandering around the station looking for the Metro ticket office, looking like some sort of upright confused tortoise with my huge backpack. Currency here is the Koruna, and the ATM gave me 1000kc notes; I eventually found the ticket office and bought a ticket. You have to pay extra on the train if you've got luggage, but even then it came to 32kc (just over a pound) so pretty cheap. There's a small metro system in Prague (three lines) and then a huge tram network which seems to run pretty frequently, so I used both to get to Delnicka, which is a bit out of the main town (we're talking a 10minute tram, so not far) in the North East. I'd booked a dorm at Sir Toby's Hostel, and on checking in, the guy on reception (Richard) gave me two maps, and completely annihilated one with felt tips, indicating good walks, useful tram lines, nice restaurants and cool areas to visit. It was really helpful, and seemed to show some routes away from the main tourist areas, and as I was too early for my room I set out to walk into town sans luggage using the route he'd suggested.

After following the highway for 5 minutes, I reached Letenske Sady, this park which rises up to give supposedly amazing views of the city. It's just North of the River, so you're very close to the city, and the paths are really steep to help you gain height quickly. I got slightly disorientated as I headed along the top, so decided to head out of the park northwards to find the area Richard had said had nice cafes. Passing the National Technical Museum (technology which seems to focus heavily on tractors), I found a restaurant which seemed to have a few people in on Ovenecka. I circled the block once and tried to cram some Czech vocab that the hostel had given me, and then plucked up the courage to go in, by which point it had emptied and I was the only one there. All my Czech vanished, so my "Dobry den" greeting turned into "Hi", which prompted the bartender to give me an English (Anglicky!) menu. Vegetarian options were limited, mushrooms, eggplant or deepfried cheese with potatoes. I went with the latter and had a small Lobkowicz pivo. The food was literally two triangles of deep fried cheese, and some tinned baby potatoes, and it was delicious. The entire thing cost 123kc (about 4pounds) and I couldn't get over how cheap it was. I think mainly because this was out of the centre, as this girl I met later told me that she found Prague expensive, but then had only been in the main town and shopping district and starbucks...

I went back to Letenske Sady, and walked a little higher until I found a viewing spot, and was sort of stopped in my tracks by how lovely it was:

It was a really bright day, and I just sat in silence on the ledge for half an hour, absorbing it all. Every time I've arrived in a new city on this trip, this sort of insanely happy grin and laughter have just welled up, and I naffly bounce down the road as I think how amazing it is that I've made it to a new place on my own. So I just sat, completely at peace, thinking that quitting my job and coming on this trip was the best decision I've ever made. Not to gush on, but I couldn't get over how incredible that view was and I decided then and there to extend my stay in Prague, even if just to spend a whole day up there. Life seriously is too short to get caught up in your routines and jobs, if it means you miss out on sitting in silence on a hilltop for as long as you like, just breathing it all in.

From there, I headed towards Prague Castle (Prazsky Hrad) which lay at the top of the old town just to the West. You could walk around the gardens for free, and by gardens, we're talking an expansive forest, orangery, owl sanctuary and traditional gardens. The castle is huge. I'm not sure on style, but to me it looked like Notre Dome, only perhaps slightly more impressive? I walked down through the old town to the Franz Kafka museum. I had a look in the shop, bought a few postcards and will go back inside tomorrow. I wandered across one of the bridges and headed through the Jewish Quarter to head back to the hostel. I'd slept in my clothes last night (minus one sock), and was feeling partcularly grubby and self conscious.

I stopped off at a supermarket to buy some long overdue fruit, and some water (a 2l bottle cost 9kc. Ridiculously cheap, though when I finally managed to break into it this morning, it had a funky, FUNKY taste, sort of like flat fizzy water). There was a kitchen in the hostel for everyone to use, but I knew Sir Toby's were hosting a free Crepe evening, so I was sorted for food. I'd decided on going for a female 6-birth dorm at the hostel, and when I arrived in the room, slightly out of breath after optimistically taking the 8 flights with my huge backpack, there was a Kiwi girl there called Nicola, and only one other bed occupied (supposedly by a rude French girl, though I haven't met her). Nicola had been travelling for 2 and a half months, and had a week and a half more. She'd been everywhere, exploring these towns and cities I'd never heard of in Italy, Switzerland, Albania and Montenegro. She said Greece was awful, with men trying to snatch your belongings as you left your hotel. Given that yesterday unemployment was announced in Greece at 25%, with 54% youth unemployment, you can see how more people would turn to theft than usual. Despite all this travelling though, Nicola seemed remarkably well-groomed and fashion conscious. She was carrying three heavy copies of Vogue and the highlight of her trip had been seeing Anna Wintour (who?!) at Versailles Palace. Her favourite author was Miriam Keyes. I'm just saying.

I had the best shower known to man. It was beyond powerful, like a shower version of the Xlerator hand dryer. There were no locks on the bathroom doors, but as it was an all girl dorm I didn't worry too much. I headed down to the bar for their free crepe night. The bartender was late (after a bit of eavesdropping, I'm inclined to believe it was because of the drunken absinthe night she'd been out on last night with some of the other hostel guests) so Mira from reception came down and gave me a Kozel pivo, for only 35kc. All Czech beer seems to be pretty tasty. The crepes were being made by an English girl from Surrey who had just moved to Prague to write for the English paper, 'The Prague Post'. I'm not sure if she needed the money, or viewed the weekly crepe making as a way to meet people, but it worked, as it got everyone talking. I met a few cool people, and spent most of the evening speaking to a 18/19 year old Canadian couple called Brendan and Mel, who were travelling round Europe for 3/4 months (Brendan sounded EXACTLY like Woody Harrelson (and looked a bit like him too), and when I mentioned this, Mel laughed and said his teacher had said the same thing), an American girl called Sarah who had been travelling for 3 months, and had a few more to go, and a German called Florian who was just in Prague for a short break. We had a good discussion about European History; the American and Canadians are overwhelmed by all the churches, and the architecture in Europe, and it was lovely to see them gushing (intelligently) about everything they'd seen and learnt whilst being away. Florian and I agreed that being European, it didn't impact us the same way anymore, as we were so used to it.

Something I've learnt recently is that in both France and Germany (and maybe in other European countries), their cinemas generally only show dubbed Hollywood films. So there's one voice-actor in Germany who voices all Brad Pitt movies, and if you get a good actor when you start out as a French/German voice actor, you've got a lifelong job. The bar-crawl guide that night had clearly not been English*, but had a perfect accent, and Florian explained that the reason Germans and possibly the French don't have such good accents is that a lot of their potential exposure to English through films and TV is ruined by the dubbing.

It was a good pivo-filled evening, and the bar/kitchen area we hung out in was in the basement with cool exposed brickwork and arches, and vintage, ripped chairs and a slightly dodgy four stringed guitar. I made it to bed somewhat shattered at about 12.30pm.

End of day 10.

*We weren't even close guessing the correct Azerbaijan, even with his clues that it was sort of in Europe, but not really (I shouted Turkey!). It was only after he mentioned their Eurovision win (which we later comically explained to the North Americans) that I placed them as being slightly European. I explained where it was on the map with a little Kazakhstan/Borat chat