"Czech"-ing out Prague

The train to Prague from Berlin was a terrible one; the air conditioning didn't seem to work...at all.  Not only was it hot, but the bathrooms were not clean, and they had no water/soap!  But in the end, we made it to Prague.  We arrived at our hostel sometime in the afternoon, we had some time to roam around the neighborhood.  We grabbed a quick dinner at a local Italian restaurant and took the metro into the city to take some night shots.

Since we only had two full days in Prague, we opted to take the "Ultimate Walking Tour" of the city - 6 hours of walking with a guide, with lunch and a boat tour included.  This way, we had one day to dedicate ourselves to shopping and walking around on our own.  Our guide was so informative, and with a city of Prague with it's  rich culture and history, it's hard to get bored.  We climbed up to the castle, where we had a spectacular view of the city.

For lunch, I got a traditional Czech Goulash (with beer, of course).  It was so good!!

Here's an interesting fact: most inhabitants of the city are not religious, but Prague is filled with cathedrals.  So what can you do to raise money to restore and maintain these buildings?  Easy, you hold classical music concerts in them.  The setting is near perfect, the city gets enough tourists who are interested, and it's probably cheaper than seeing the Czech Philharmonic (although quality doesn't compare, I'm sure).  While Alex headed back to the hostel to process his dear photos, I stuck around to catch a performance in one of the churches.  It wasn't the greatest performance, but it sure was something different.

The next day, we went to catch a glimpse of something different in Prague.  Some know it as the Dancing house.  Some know it as Fred & Ginger.  Some know it as the Frank Gehry building in Prague.  Some love it.  Some hate it.  The rest of the day was dedicated to walking around at our own pace, snapping photographs and peering into souvenir shops.

At least we didn't have to resort to sleeping in the train stations...yet.  We left Prague at the crack of dawn to catch an early train to Salzburg; arriving at the main train station of Prague, we were confronted with a row of sleeping bags.  At exactly 6 am, security officers came around and woke everyone up.  I guess it was nice of them to let these youngsters sleep under a roof, rather than out in the streets.