And so, onto Prague! 

Might I just say that I’d be glad never to take a sleeper train like that ever again. 20 minutes into the journey, which began at around 10pm at night, the whole carriage went entirely pitch black. Alarming enough, what with the Polish train conductor stomping around with his night light muttering and probably swearing under his breath around the corridors, but add to this the well-documented stories of sleeper trains being a favourite spot for thieves and pickpockets, and you get one freaked out Katie. A minor technical difficulty it ain’t. Since the conductor didnt seem all that bothered, and thieves had yet to break into our cabin and sieze all our goodies, EK thought the whole thing was ‘normal procedure’ because it was night time and people wanted to sleep.. or something.. well procedure or not, there wasn’t much we could do except for sit alert and stare into darkness, clutching our bags with death grips. Eventually, when the train halted to a stop and the barmy polish conducter flung open our cabin door, gesturing to us crazily to (when the helpful tourist behind him translated), ‘get out’, pretty much realised it wasnt normal procedure. So we dragged our luggage across the platform at 1am at night where another train was waiting, one which supposedly wouldnt put the fear of god into me 20minutes into the journey. After the train reversed, then advanced, then paused, reversed some more, inched forward, stopped for a ciggie, and played about with its passengers some more, we were on our way bright n early to Prague Hladni Nadrazi, the most BO sodden train station in the western world.

Having arrived from Krakow, might I just say that I was a little bit underwhelmed by Prague. Sure its nice but so was Krakow – its cheap, but I think Poland was cheaper. Still, i didn’t regret going there as everyone knows Prague is one of those must-see places in Europe. Apparently. One of the first things we did after dumping our luggage at the hostel (a challenge to get to, even though it was above the train station, as one must encounter stairs lightly fragranced with Eau De L’Urine to get there), was find a place to eat. 

We found a nice pub sorta place at Namesti Republicky, and being absolutely famished and parched, i had some of that Czech Pilsner (left, voila) as well as a not so czech steak and chips. My, they certainly know how to do steak and chips.

EK thought she’d try the ‘Czech coke’. which basically tastes like coke but after someone had casually dipped their dirty socks in it.

I should say i’m slightly biased against my experience of Prague because it was so incredibly hot sticky and humid when we got there. I hadn’t experienced anything so stifling this side of the world, so it rather dampened my spirits for the first couple of days.

I honestly can’t remember what we went to do for each of the five days we were there, so this is all in some random order. We made sure we saw all the sights that needed seeing, and most importantly, were FREE 🙂

Firstly, that astronomical clock business. Now just what is that about? A nice pretty clock, granted, but hoardes of tourist arching their neck upwards every hour to catch some little wooden figure pop their heads out, jiggle about a bit and then head back into the clock? Honestly, was that it? I think the wonder of the clock is that so many people still wait patiently to see that abysmal show, despite its rather poor offering.

The main square itself seemed nice, apart from the World Cup was on so they erected a jumbovision screen there, and we had dozens of people sitting on the floors, many of them beggers with carrier bags for shoes enjoying the free show. Such a shame that such gothic magnificence is overshadowed by paunches and beer bellies and lads out on stag nights.

We wanted to catch a black light show, but nothing really caught our eye that was worth our money as it wasnt massively cheap, so unless we went just to see some bloke in a luminous spandex costume prance around, we thought we’d better spend our money elsewhere.

 

Charles Bridge, which although infested with snap-happy tourists, is actually quite nice and gives great views of the city. In my view, its always good to get there around sunset or night, where its cooler, less infested and the bridge lights up. The other side of Charles Bridge is also nice too, with narrow cobbled streets, pubs, eateries and little tourist stalls, which, lets face, it, is quite reassuring in some way.

Though i have no photo for proof, EK and I were stopped by an Italian and his buddies who kneeled before us, told us he was getting married in Prague this week and whether we could scribble some messages on his arms to wish him luck. EK took his pen and wrote something like ‘Congratulations on your wedding – stay loyal – good for girls..’, and we both gave him a kiss on the cheek to send him off.

Somewhere on the bridge, there was a statue which everybody seemed to stop at, gawk at, turn their heads at a funny angle at, and watch as somebody stepped up to touch or rub the base. Well, since it looked like everybody was having such a good time doing so, we decided to join in. Nobody knew why everyone else was doing it, seemingly. I’ve just googled it and turns out people rub it for.. good luck. What a riveting story.

On the other side of Charles Bridge, we stopped at a place for a drink and rest. It was dingy, 

slightly hidden and the toilet was an outhouse that reeked of pee and had no ceiling light, but it was cosy and we liked it. Thought we would try the absinthe there, (60-70% alcohol depending on what type) since for EK its illegal in Singapore, it was cheap, and its pretty hard to get in UK.

Displaying quite a lot of ignorance, we took up the bartenders offer of exactly how to drink the stuff. So, evidently what you do is tip some sugar into your spoon, and dip it into the absinthe so it soaks up. Take your lighter and burn that sugar gooood, til it caramelises and then light up that absinthe. Stare in awe at how cool the whole thing is, then blow out the flame, stir and enjoy. (Just kept reminding me of that Simpsons Episode with the ‘flaming moe’ drink) And even though it tastes like poor alcohol, its not actually too bad, and i didnt even get drunk at the end of it! Showing more wuss than bravery though, we did order a cup of tea to go with it.

Still got one more Prague blog in me to cover czech food and Prague Castle, but will leave it to another night 🙂