Prague, Czech Republic

1/09/2008
You know we can finally drive to Newcastle without getting lost and that's because it is our last day. Exchanged some money for Czech Krowns and headed to the airport way too early, so decided to drive to Morphet, which Beccy had mentioned yesterday as a place to see. We took the scenic route by accident and drove through some pretty rural countryside and little villages. We had a few spare coins to use up which came in handy for the parking metre Morphet. We didn't have a great deal of time there but enough to get some advice from TI about what was close by to see. So did a fast pace walk of the town and took a few photos then headed to the airport to drop the car off and wait for our flight.
We are now sitting in the departure lounge waiting for our Easyjet flight and I have terrible feeling that we will not be allowed to carry on our bags..... No they didn't turn a hair and ushered us on no problems.
Flight was uneventful.. just the way we like it!
We knew not to accept any of the taxi drivers that hassle you and to look out for the Cedaz shuttle bus to the town. Ended up with a Cedaz mini bus directly to the hostel but it worked out fine even if we did pay a bit more than we expected but worthwhile in that we did not have to find our hostel in the dark.
Old Prague Hostel is the bare necessities, clean and pretty much what we expected. We did draw the short straw on the room location as it is right next door to the common room... or I should say party room and there is an air conditioning unit that goes on and off intermittently. We are too buggared to care.

2/09/2008
Well thought we better sort out our rail tickets to Krakow first thing. Missed the the railway station by one street and ended up in the Old Station. There were people sitting around drinking coffee under a beautiful fresco ceiling while demolition work was going on around them. We thought this can't be right - and headed down to what we thought was an underground carpark then realised

it actually was the railway station. We over came the language barrier and managed to get our tickets. Now we can enjoy Prague!
It really is a fantastic place and I had the feeling I had stepped into a fairy tale when I first saw the buildings. It is really magic!
Everywhere you look there is architecture and art on display. Just about every building is beautiful and is adorned with sculptures, statues, mosaics or paintings. It is a happy snappers paradise!
We did our own walking tour using our guide book and consistently got diverted by a new sight to marvel at (have a look at this...) and wander off completely in the wrong direction and realise 5 or 10 minutes later, so have to get ourselves back on track again.
We finally made it to the Charles IV bridge with every other tourist in town. It took awhile to get over as there is a lot to see, as well as the market stalls. I was conscious of my bag as it is supposed to be a haven for pickpockets.... not that we had any trouble.
Got diverted again in the Little Quarter and found an out of the way cafe to sort ourselves out and have a great coffee. Wandered on to a church we could see from the cafe and was not mentioned in the guide book or on our map. We met a couple from Brisbane who had got lost like us, so ended up chatting to them for quite awhile and decided the church must be Our lady of the Chains or Mary of the Chains... anyway it was worth a look.

We found our way to the Prague Castle, Royal Palace and Church of St Nicholas, all very spectacular, jaw dropping and eye popping gorgeous. Too much to describe so you will have to go and see for yourself. We didn't leave here until after 6pm there was so much to see, then went back to the out of the way cafe where had a well deserved coldie. Bob a beer, and me a lemonade with mint and lemon.
We then wandered on to Lennon's Wall. Graffiti artist used the wall during the communist regime to show there discontent by writing words to John Lennon's songs. The communists gave up cleaning it up so the graffiti remains today with a sculpture of John Lennon's head in the middle of the wall.
We stopped and watched the water wheel on Kampa Island and strolled back to the bridge still marvelling at the sights, and back to the old town looking for a place to eat. Everywhere, is italian restaurants!! Really would have prefered a different cuisine as we are over italian as that is mainly what we have eaten since Oban. Anyway, hunger got the better of us so succumbed to italian again.... Definitely going to follow the guide book tomorrow!

3/09/2008
Had a strange variety of cornflakes for breakfast, stick to the roof of your mouth and your teeth rather than your ribs. We took the ham tomato and rolls the hostel supplies for lunch. Made our way to the old town square and followed our guide book discovering the history of the statues, churches and buildings of the Hapsburgs, Catholic church and Husselites and how it all blends together which makes it more interesting instead of it just being another statue, another church or another building.... if you get my drift.

Took to the laundrymat this afternoon - the worst part of travelling I reckon is washing... but it is great to have clean clothes! Always meet people while you sit around waiting for the dryer to finish. Got chatting to a couple from Victoria hostelling around EU with 2 kids and training and busing it too. Pretty tough with 2 kids!
We went for a stroll after doing the laundry and ended up at the bridge again. We went to a Czech restaurant that was recommended by a lady we had met in the little quarter next to the waterwheel. We got a 3 course meal for about $20. The meal was pleasant enough but quite salty which made us very thirsty.
We wandered back over the bridge at sunset which was really quite beautiful. We made our way back to the hostel walking along the banks of the river.
The streets are cobble stones and often there are some missing (usually full of cigarette butts) so really have to look where you are walking. We saw so many people on crutches and we reckon it's because they have fallen over the cobblestones or down a hole. Very rough going on the feet and not comfortable to walk on at times. Everyone is jostling for the even strips usually on the edge of the footpath.

4/09/2008
We left our backpacks at the hostel this morning as we leave for Krakow this afternoon. We walked through the Jewish Quarter to the river then wandered back to the Old Town for one last look. We went to get the backpacks and found they were on the bottom of a cage with a heap of backpacks, suitcases and other paraphernalia on top. So Bob had to pull them all out to get to ours. Luckily nothing was damaged.
We made our way to the station and waited for our train to come up on the board with the platform number. We waited and waited while they were jack hammering behind us and we got covered in white dust. Goodness knows how much we breathed in. There were so many people standing around and we guessed they were waiting for the same train. Finally the platform was displayed, 5 minutes before the train was due to depart. So we joined the stampede to the platform... We had booked first class (as recommended) and it was the first carriage so had to hightail it down the platform. Talk about panic stations!! Anyway, we made it - but took awhile for the nerves to wind down. Then we checked our ticket and there was no seat number allocated. Everyone else seem to have a seat number!! We made ourselves comfortable in the area that had the most leg room and waited for the inspector to move us. He came along and checked the tickets and moved on. So we just shrugged and guessed it was all okay. We were expecting a passport check at the border but that didn't happen.... just changed staff and checked the tickets again.
There was an announcement that some carriages were being disconnected and which ones but did not say if we had to change trains, so as no-one else was changing we assumed we were still on route to Krakow.
The engine was changed and boy was it a slow old trip from then on. The Czech train and raced along, this one just puttered- lots of going very slow and then speeding up then slow again. We thought we would never get there but it arrived bang on time!!