Prague, you're so cold but oh so beautiful

As promised here is my Prague review. The last blog left off right before I was about to meet Alex at the train station. So her bus was due in (buses come to the train station too) at 4:30. Of course since I am always early for everything I got there around 3:45. Our plan was to meet at 4:30, and if by some chance we don't see each other by 5 then to just meet at the hostel. I wasn't exactly sure where the buses drop off is. I found a sign that said something about buses from Nurenberg stop at a cafe on Wilsonova street. I thought since I had time I would meet her at the bus station (instead of the agreed upon meeting place - in front of the train station's main entrance). So it took me a little while to find it but I eventually found Wilsonova Street and the cafe, well sorta. I was across the street from it and had no idea how to get to the other side. Wilsonova is a pretty big street. So it's about 4:15 now and I'm hoping to see her from across the street. Another problem is I have no idea what the bus looks like. There were a ton of buses driving by, including one Contiki Bus. So at 4:30 a bus stopped across the street and I looked to see if I saw Alex but I didn't recognize anyone coming off the bus (I was probably 200 feet away). So it gets to about 4:45 and still no sign of Alex at the bus station so I decide to go to our meeting place. And sure enough when I got there Alex tracked me down.

We head straight to the hostel to check in. We are staying in an 8 bed room. When we checked in the guy told us that we were the last 2 to arrive, meaning our room was going to be full. Staying in our room were 3 Australians that were traveling together, 1 old creepy dude who apparently was moaning in the shower, and two other guys that we didn't get to talk to. We dropped off our stuff and walked around Prague for a few hours. We started at Old Town Square (which is about a 1 minute walk from our hostel). We saw the Astronomical Clock and the "big" show the clock does at the top of every year. For those of you who have been to Munich, it's sorta like the Glockenspeil. very disappointing. From Old Town we walked towards the river and Charles Bridge. Once we got to the river we were able to see the Prague Castle. It was so nice lit up at night. At this point we were absolutely freezing and wanted to go somewhere to warm up. Surprisingly enough we came across a TGI Fridays. We each got a soup and hot tea. I NEVER drink tea but I needed something to warm me up. After Fridays we walked back to the hostel and we were saying to each other, the cold is ok and we can deal with it just as long as it isn't raining. KISS OF DEATH!!!!!

Monday we woke up, had breakfast and got ready to start our day. We decided to go visit the castle in the morning and do a free walking tour of the city in the afternoon. While getting dressed we looked outside and it wasn't raining so we decided not to bring our umbrellas. As soon as we step outside the rain began. We went back to the hostel to get the umbrellas which might have been the smartest idea ever because the rain didn't stop until Tuesday morning. It wasn't a real heavy rain (although Alex thought it was pouring), but it was a consistent light rain. It was about a 30 minute walk to the castle - uphill in the rain and cold. There were two options for tickets, the long tour or short tour. We decided upon the short tour and we were glad that we did. The short tour just gave you access to less of the buildings. I think Alex and I had very high expectations of the Castle and I think we might have been a bit disappointed in it. Not sure if the weather had to do with it or not. After the castle we were heading back to the hostel to rest up before the 3 hour walking tour. When we got back to the hostel we checked our room to see if any new people were there and at this point it was just Alex and myself.

The tour started at 2 and met in Old Town Square. The tour leader's name was Mark and he is from North Carolina. He has been living in Prague for the past 5 years. (we later found out that we were his 2nd tour ever, we would have never have known because he was awesome). Basically the tour started in Old Town Square, then to Wenchelas Square then to the Jewish Quarters. He would tell us interesting facts about the buildings and tell us a lot about Czech's history. Even though we were in the rain for 3 hours we LOVED this tour. I think it might have been my favorite part of Prague. After the tour we went back to the hostel to rest up before dinner and magnet buying. We checked the room and still no one there.

While walking around in the morning we saw a doner kabob place and decided to go back there for dinner. It took us some time to figure out which street it was on but we eventually found it. After our doner kababs we bought some souvenirs and headed back to the hostel, we were both exhausted. Two girls from France ended up staying in our room last night but we didn't see them until the morning cause they went out last night.

On Tuesday we went back to Old Town Square and went up the Clock Tower. From here we had unbelievable views of Prague. After the Clock Tower we went inside some churches and then went to the market. I bought some chocolate for Gerlinde and Gunter. After that Alex needed to head to the train station to catch her bus back to Germany. My train left a few hours after hers so I just hung out at the hostel until it was my time to leave. My train left exactly on time and got into Freistadt exactly on time.

All in all I had a great time in Prague and so happy I got the opportunity to go. Even with the rain Prague might be the 2nd prettiest city I have been to, after Paris.

Photo 1 - Prague Castle
Photo 2 - Prague view from Clock Tower
Photo 3 - Church in Old Town Square
Photo 4 - Alex rubbing a statue on Charles Bridge, everyone else was doing it. Apparently we learned on our tour the statue she rubbed meant she was going to get pregnant soon.
Photo 5 - Me chillen on Charles Bridge.