Prague: Day 2

So we woke up in Prague on day 2 and I went for a run and all that. It is straight uphill every direction, and I swear I get twice the workout in, so that is nice. Second, we switched rooms to save some Czech monopoly dollars, so for the last few days we have been in a dorm room with 13 other people. As I am writing this a couple days after all this happened, so I figure I can touch on this experience now. So we found out there are a few types of people that stayed in the room over the few nights we were here. One was a couple groups of Asian, college aged kids who all were very polite, spoke more than one language and did touristy things like us. Two were Czech people visiting their capital. They were usually out clubbing until late and we didn't have a ton of interactions due to a language barrier. Three, a much smaller group, was creepy girl who laid around on her bed for two days straight. She was the most depressing thing I have ever seen and we went to a concentration camp. Incredible.

Anyways, our second day started with a free breakfast of warm milk, warm juice, dry bread and...other barely edible things that I inevitably devoured. After that we went out to take a free walking tour of the city. Maybe we had too high of expectations after our Munich tour, but this one sucked! Not only did we learn nothing cool about Prague (possibly because the Czech Republic has a tendency to let anyone walk over them at every and any opportunity), but the guide was some fruitcake who tried to make learning fun. Learning is never fun. He spent three quarters of the tour imitating Nazi soldiers in bro-tastic mannerisms, which is not fun at all, and when he wasn't mocking people he was telling us useless facts. The only cool thing I learned about the history was that part of XXX was filmed there...remember when Vin Diesal was getting sniped on the balcony? Been there. Anyways, some notable areas and places include the world's largest gold Astronomical Clock in the center of what they call the Old Town Square. This clock was made way back in the day and every hour a little show went on dealing with the apostles and birds and a whole bunch of cool things...we never waited around to see it, but based on the throngs of people surrounding it I bet it was really cool. We went in Charles Bridge, which is a magnificent structure with 36 statues lining the sides. Each statue was a different Christian scene or saint, pretty impressive. The problem was that across the whole bridge people were trying to sell you things, so instead of contemplating deep issues of faith I had to shake off artists and musicians trying to make me buy their mediocre attempts at art. We also saw St. James church, which is a gorgeous Catholic church with a mummified arm hanging from the rafters. Apparently the statue of the Virgin Mary grabbed some guys arm when he was trying to take off with some stuff from the church, and the monks, upon finding the robber, in true medieval Christian fashion, cut off his arm and left it as an omen to church robbers everywhere. Other landmarks include the Tyn Church, Powder Gate, the National Museum, and The Jewish Quarter, where even the cemetary costed an astronomical enterence fee.

After the tour we headed to a grocery store where I found something that rocked my world more than anything, that includes Nutella. I bring up Nutella because as I was considering what would possibly be better than that delicious hazelnut treat and I distinctly remember thinking, "Self, What are your two favorite foods?" And as I shouted the answer "Nutella and Peanut Butter!" at the top of my mental lungs, there in front of me appeared Nugeta! If I try to describe it I will probably pass out to prevent my brain from exploding, but let me assure you...it is glorious.

Anyway, after waking up from in an ally with nugeta smeared across my face and 13 empty jars littered around me, Thomas and I took a short 3 mile walk up to Prague Castle to try to take in some of its vastness. The place was huge. I will get some pictures up, but the castle is big enough to fit 7 football fields inside of it and still have room to run around. It took us two hours just to walk to it, around it, and back.

After getting back Thomas, Matt and I went to a hill overlooking Prague and looked out at the city. As beautiful as the city was I think we had more fun with the psychedelic playground equipment. They all looked like smiling Gumby horses. We spent the evening playing on those and walking back to the hostel where Thomas and I actually had pasta, along with a generous helping of Nugeta before falling into a terrible sleep. The room was hot, the pillows thin, and creepy emo girl apparently never sleeps...she just peers around the room with squinty gollum eyes. I cannot even explain how creepy she was. Anyways, I have six days to catch up on, so I'll keep depressed girl descriptions to a minimum.