Sunday 25th May-Hitchin
It was finally time for Kate, Lynne and I to leave for Prague, having booked the flight 3 months beforehand. Instead of flying straight out, we went to stay with Kelly for a night at her school in Hitchin called Princess Helena College. It was pretty cool seeing where she lives and works etc-her school is rather big!!
Her mom was here visiting, so it was so good seeing her again and she had brought over some stuff from home for me which was great-actually in need of some summer clothes now...Unintentionally, we had also met up with Jane and Patrick (Cousin and boyfriend) on the train to Kelly. They were also going to visit her for the day, so that was pretty awesome! Haven't seen them in ages, so we had a lot to catch up on :)
We all had a really enjoyable day getting a guided tour of the school, playing badminton and having a good supper.
The next day I went into the close town called Stevenage (just for a walk around) with Kelly, her mom and her other gap Nelly who has a left-hand drive car which was so strange!!! When we got to the airport later that afternoon, we had checked in and everything and we were going through the baggage check when they told Kate and I to put our lil backpacks into our tog bags so we only had 1 hand luggage. That wasn't a problem because we had both packed really lightly (it's cheaper to only take a hand luggage instead of checking in a bag...so naturally we only took hand luggages) Anyway, on the table where we were sorting out our stuff, there just happened to be lying a full, closed packet of Pain au chocolats...now come on...how often does that happen?!? Someone had obviously not been able to fit it into their bag and had had to leave it behind. Funny thing was, it fitted quite well into my bag :)
I happened to be sitting next to a lady who could speak Czech and English which turned out pretty useful...we got some words off her before landing, like Ahoi and Dobry Dien (Hello) Nas Gledeno (Goodbye) Kakoei and Giki (Thanks). DO NOT QUOTE ME ON SPELLINGS!! went with the phonetics of the words she was saying...
The czech use the czech krona. It's about 30 Krona to 1 pound, so drawing 3000Kc felt rather strange and I was a bit weary of looking at my internet banking the next day... It was also a bit strange buying a baguette which cost 100Kc!! Seems like so much because of all the naughts, but it's not actually too bad.
I had my first sleeping in an airport experience that night in Prague. Um, it was rather interesting and involved a lot of continous movement so as to get a full body numbing instead of just one side...but it wasn't too bad. I found curling up close to the wall the most comfortable position incase anyone needed that for the future. I did wake up on one occasion to a very odd stare by an old lady who just turned away giggling to herself.
Our taxi guy took us for a bit of a joy ride through Prague, dropping a couple and fetching 2 other groups of people before finally dropping us off at the wrong hostel. Anyway, we found it in he end. It was such an awesome hostel!! It was clean, the staff was friendly, we had such an awesome room mate, Nicola and there was free internet and breakfast was included and you could just sit on the window sill in the kitchen and watch the people in the street below.
We spent our first day walking around a bit, getting lost in the middle of Prague...it was good. While Lynne and Kate went diligently to the Museum of Communism, I went on my own mission just walking aimlessly looking in souvenir shops, taking random photo's and just feeling like a prime tourist with my bag on my front... It's quite freaky how the shop assistants follow you around the shop while you're busy looking-like they're worried you're going to steal something or need help or something. There weer a load of shops selling marrionetts.
When we met up again, we went to look at a stunning synagogue in the Jewish quarter. All the buildings are really beautiful-they're very big, decorated and old, but look new and well upkept. the streets are mostly cobbled which gives it a very nice, different feel.
Before we came over, we had considered going to Vienna for the day because it's so close, so when we went past the train station, we decided to just check it out. No harm in just looking. The harm was done when we actually booked it. It was very reasonably priced though and possible to make the journey there and back in a day.
After that we just went back to the hostel to check in. It is the best hostel I've stayed in so far! (only been to 4 but still) There were just nice people, the staff was friendly, the place was clean, nice showers, free internet and breakfast and it just generally had a nice feel to it. The only down side to it is that there was no can opener...usually that's not really a problem...unless you were the wise one who bought a tin of tuna for supper...just meant I had to open it using the bottle opener-patience is most definitely a virtue.
Wed 28 May
Not only did we get free cornflakes for breakfast, but also a ham+cheese roll which was super!! Meant we were sorted for lunch too :)
Today we went to the Castle and took a look at all the famous Bridges...The most famous one is Charles' Bridge which is a pedestrian one, but all of them are beautiful. There are about 5/6 along the course of the river in viewing distance of eachother. The castle is HUGE!! A bit too big and tedious to go around, but still interesting. It's kind of freaky that they have quite a few skeletons of people that were apparently found buried in the grounds. The changing of the guards was definatly worth standing in the crowds and watching!! It was so precise and all the guards were perfectly in time when marching and stomping their guns on the ground which made an aweosme noise because of the metal on the bottom of them.
On our way home, we wandered through the market and tried a traditional pastry thing. It was kind of sweet and bread-like. Weird, but nice-definatly worth trying. We all agreed it would have been best with custard. We managed to find a Tescos too :) Lynne was sorted with her tin of beans (one that had a peel off lid so as to avoid the bottle opener) and Kate and I bought some eggs and bread in the hopes of having scrambled eggs. But, low and behold, when we got back to the hostel...there was no communal milk so we had to have boiled eggs. Even though our meal didn't look too good, it tasted amazing!! Bit of salt and pepper topped it off nicely. As we sat on the window sill, watching the people on the street below and eating our supper, more and more people kept coming into the kitchen. Soon we had New Zealanders, Aussies, Canadians, Scots and South Africans all sharing stories of why they're here and past travel experiences etc etc. So our plans to go out at 8 30 to get a bit of a feel for Prague at night before going into a club went out the window...we were still chatting in the kitchen at 9 30...
We invited one of our room mates, Nicola, to come out with us because she was travelling alone and being the thoughful people we are, we thought she would like some company instead of fading on her last night in prague. We first went to a place called M1 lounge, where we had 'buy one, get one free cocktail vouchers' It was a really nice place! Quite quiet when we first arrived, but it picked up so quickly about half an hour later. The DJ was amazing!! He had a good mix of old and new songs. After that got a bit too full to dance in, we went to a place called Duplex which was a club on the 6th floor. It wasn't as great as the 1st place, but it was quite fancy and we got in for free because the airline we had flown on had some deal with the club. Unfortunatly they odn't have the rule England has about not being able to smoke inside, so we came home stinking of smoke, just like in SA. Fun night out and very cheap!!
Thursday 29th May
Started off the day with a walk to St Wencles Square, over a bridge, past the Hunger Wall and into the 'new town' where we stopped in the park for lunch. The park is well known for the huge metronome and it's views which I'm not suprised about-the views are breath-taking!! You can just look over the whole city-the orange rooves, all the bridges and the Vltava River make a stunning sight. So peaceful. Chatting away, eating our (free) rolls had us forgetting that we were in the middle of Prague :)
On our way home, we walked past the famous clock where crowds gather on the hour, every hour to watch it chime. As it strikes the hour, 2 little windows open and figures slide past. It's not that great, but I can see why crowds gather to juts look at the clock because it is beautiful and very different.
Being in a different country with different cultures (and funny spellings) etc, we decided we had to treat ourselves and go out for some Czech food before getting an early night, preparing for tomorrow. The staff at the hostel had advised us on where was best to go for a reasonably priced, traditional meal. So much for us wondering whether we wanted to sit inside or out...we got chucked into the basement... Kate and I tried the Goulash (basically like beef and potato soup) while Lynne had the kiddies chicken and chips :) It was really tasty-we were satisfied.
Friday 30th May
VIENNA HERE WE COME!! Once again, being the cheap asses we are, we got the cheapest train which had us up at 3.30am to walk to the station, try make out which platform the screen is telling us to go to and catch our 5am train. It was so cool on the train!! We felt like we were on the Hogwart's Express because of the carraiges the train had :) All we needed was the lady coming along saying 'Anything off the trolley dears?' but alas, it never happened.
After having to walk down the road to find an ATM, we were trying to understand how the ticket machine worked to get into town when some random guy came up to me and gave me his day pass. He said he was going to be driving home and wouldn't need it, so that was a bonus :)
We kinda got off at a stop which looked interesting-having no clue where we were and all. We then walked around looking at the stunning buildings surrounding us. They were the Rathaus, Berg Theatre and Parliament. The parliamentary building was stunning!! Huge with golden statues like something out of Rome.
The famous Spanish Riding school is probably one of the reasons there are so many horse and carraiges in Vienna. It really creates a nice, peaceful atmosphere having horse and carraiges on cobbled streets, shadowed by tall buildings, surrounded by people dressed as Mozart.It is such a cultural city-the souvenir shops were called 'Mostly Mozart' and the apples were 'Mozart Golde Delicious'
Strudel was a definate yes, being in Austria and all :) We found such a cute little place which had a cantine type setup where you got a tray, walked around marvelling at all the food you wanted to get, picked one lonely piece of Strudel and finally go pay before enjoying whatever you got outside in the sun.
Stephansdom was another one of those well known places which isn't actually thaaaat great to see, but we saw it anyway. Peter's Plats on the other hand was too gorgeous to even describe or capture with photo's. That seriously is one place you have to go see for yourself sometime in your lifetime. It looks plain on the outside, so luckily we went in because it is the most stunning church I've ever seen (1st hand and in movies,tv or photo's) The detail is intense and the colours just blow your mind. We sat in one of the pews for quite some time listening to the organ play and try snap ourselves out of the dream we thought we'd just entered. It was worth going to Vienna just for that church (and the apple strudel of course)
Our final stop for the day was going to be Mozart's apparent grave which is in St.Marx Cemetry. On the way, we went past Beethoven's memorial. Both sites were special, having learnt about both composers at school and now being able to walk the streets of their birth place.
We had a bit of time before we needed to catch our train back to Praha, so we managed to fit in seeing the Belvedere Palace too. It's pretty big and has a rather lovely garden.
It had been a day full or walking, that's for sure, so it was nice being able to sit down in such a comfy, spacious carraige...even though we got kicked out by the ticket checker...how were we meant to know it was first class?!?!?
Saturday 31st May
It was already time for us to pack up and head back home :( The good thing was that we had to spend all our left over Krona :) So we did our final souvenir shopping, followed by a good cup of tea in the sunshine. (Knowing we'd be going home to a cloudy England)
After that we went back to the hostel to fetch our bags and check our emails for the last time before our long haul in Luton airport that night...We sat on the kitchen window for the last time just soaking in the atmosphere and chatting to some Canadians who had plonked themselves down next to us. Met so many new people during the week from all over the world which was pretty cool-we were all exchanging travel stories and giving each other tips when travelling to certain places etc You don't get that kind of thing in a hotel which is another bonus about being a budget holiday-goer.
Caught the tube (Czech tube stations are so much more funky than the boring London ones), followed by the bus to the airport (once again guessing which stop to get off at) where we met up with the Tartin Army. They had been in Prague watching a rugby match and were all on our flight home in their kilts and everything. The one was wearing such a funny t-shirt...It read 'Drink sensibly...don't spill' :)
Lynne, Kate and I managed to just scrap enough Krona together to buy something from the vending machine without having to use up the coins we were wanting to stick in our diaries. We were thinking of starting a 'feed the gap fund' but thought we weren't thaaaat deperate. We did feel rather grown up having booked our plane tickets, made our way to the airport, checked in and actually caught the plane without any adult assistance. Pretty impressive and something to write home about.
The only thing on our minds during the flight were those Costa Coffee couches which we needed to race to and claim in order to get some sort of comfort that night. 11hours on Luton airport's cold floor was just not an option. Luckily Costa wsn't too busy and we were able to stay on them the whole night without even getting any dirty looks.
You only live once right?!?! That's what we thought,so we managed to summon up the courage to ak bvoth Costa and Marks & Spencers what they do with the food that goes off at the end of the day. We got the same answer from both...'You can have it all if you'd like' WE WISH!!! They both said they had to throw it out by law otherwise they ran the risk of someone getting food poisoning and sueing them. So all those salads, wraps, muffins, sandwhichs just got thrown into the bin much to our annoyance. It was worth a try though.
Funny as this may sound, the floor turned out to be more comfortable than the couch which had arm rests in the way. So out came all the clothes to act as padding and constant rolling over onto another side allowed me to get a bit of sleep. However, we were all really relieved when it was time for us to catch our train back to reality: sad to leave the week of magic behind us but glad we have an awesome memory to hold forever.
1 comment:
Hey Em - I really felt as if I had gone with you on your Prague adventure! Loved the loads of Pics and the fact that despite knowing where you wanted to go, you could still be surprised here and there!!!
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