On Thursday morning, we woke up pretty early (around 7:30) and got out for our run, which was 4 miles plus 5x100m of Gentle Pickups (GPs). GPs are run segments where you gradually build to a faster than normal pace which is sustained for a short distance; incorporating GPs into your training allows you to improve both speed and endurance. The run was fairly successful and we headed back to the apartment.
Wednesday was the last night we had booked, thinking that we would want some play in our schedule. Unfortunately, we ended up needing to spend another night in Prague, as we weren’t booked into Krakow until Saturday and we planned to take the Friday overnight train from Prague to Krakow. This meant that we needed to stay at a hostel for the night. The price for a private double room (closet-size room with shared toilet) was $20 more than the cost of our apartment (huge studio in the heart of the Old Town with kitchen and bathroom with jacuzzi tub). This did not sit well with us, so instead of a private room we booked two beds in a dorm. We hadn’t yet done this on our trip and we weren’t really looking forward to it.
At 11am, we passed the keys to the apartment back to Mirek, the owner, and walked the 10-minutes to the hostel. Luckily, we were able to check in immediately; we were placed in a 5-bed room that appeared to be pretty nice. We were relieved, locked up our stuff, and hit the road.
We first walked to DHL to try to ship home some art and photography prints we acquired in Prague. We were expecting a fairly reasonable price, as it only cost around $55 to ship home a fairly sizable box of clothes and souvenirs from Berlin. However, we were told that only express shipping is available and that it would cost $120 to ship home our three medium size prints (remember, there are no frames on these prints, just some cardboard matting). This was obviously ridiculous, so we went around the corner to the Post Office. The Post Office did not have any boxes that would fit the prints and could not estimate the cost. With no options left, we walked back to the hostel with the realization that we would need to cart around the prints for the foreseeable future (maybe until we arrive back in Germany in late October).
It was lunch time, so we grabbed a quick bite at our vegetarian hangout and headed across the river to Petrin Park, a large greenspace in central Prague. It covers a large hill with a lookout at the top that provides one of the best views of the city. At the bottom of the hill we saw the memorial for victims of Communism (the Czech people suffered greatly under Communist Rule from the late 40’s until the late 80’s, with particularly cruel persecution occurring during the 50s…I just finished a book on my Kindle on this subject, titled, “Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968" if you are interested). The memorial was composed of the same male bronze statue repeated multiple times. In the front of the memorial the statue was whole, while each repetition moving backward became more and more incomplete.
We then began our venture up the hill. Here are some pics we snapped on our way to the top.
At the top was a park area with multiple rose gardens, statues, and a miniature Eiffel Tower, a replica that is 1/5th the size and can be climbed for even better views of the city. It seemed expensive and we have experienced the original, so we passed. We did get some more pictures of the surroundings though.
At this point, we decided we were really in need of a beer, so we began the trek down to find a pub. Again, more pictures were taken.
*Chestnut art, I guess
We stopped by a pub that had been recommended, but it was bursting at the seams with what appeared to be locals. There was nowhere to sit and it was quite intimidating. We decided to head back across the river to troll for other options. Fortunately, our luck somewhat improved and we found a really cool place called The Parliament. Two things made this place especially awesome: 1) They had unfiltered Pilsner Urquell on tap (only available in very limited locales and which we were lucky enough to have already sampled on the brewery tour), and 2) it was obviously a local hangout...we know this because the table of older people seated beside us were featured in most of the photos hanging around the bar. Super cool!
We went back to the hostel to catch up on e-mails and then headed out for dinner, eating traditional dishes of cabbage soup, beef goulash, and pig’s leg. I am guessing everyone knows which one Daryl ordered, or in turn, which dish I did not order.
We then went for a walk along the riverfront to kill time, so we didn’t have to go back to our shared hostel room. We got a couple of evening pictures.
*Playing with long exposures
We headed back to the hostel and it was about as bad as I was expecting. Our roommates, who were all friends, were napping or relaxing when we came in. This seemed to be a good sign. We were exhausted, so we thought we would change into pyjamas, read, and then we could turn off the lights. But no…they were resting for their big night out. Twenty minutes into reading time they all got up and started to get ready to go out on the town. This getting ready took about an hour, during which they went in and out of the room, chatted loudly in Spanish or Italian (we aren’t that good with languages), and left plugged-in hair straighteners in the sink (really?). Finally, they headed out around midnight. Unfortunately, sleeping didn’t come easy, even at that point. We were on a major street and trams continued to go by fairly regularly, along with drunk people. It was not a good night.
Friday was just as blah. We woke up and had a very uninspired (and somewhat gross) breakfast at the hostel. This was worsened by having to listen to some hippy dude from Texas spout off about the joys of living on the edge, but needing to grow up now that he is 29. He is going to stop traveling soon and he has a job lined up plowing snow at Aspen for the winter. He is excited about making real money, but he doesn’t know the pay rate. Entertaining, if not annoying.
We then went to the Jewish Quarter of the city to explore some museums, but it was super busy and super pricey ($25 each). We decided to skip it and get a coffee and read for a while (we did get a couple of pics before leaving the Quarter, see below). After two unsuccessful café choices (one was shut down, the other asked us not-so-politely to leave because we were not part of a group that had reserved the place even though many tables were open), we found a great place called Café Montmartre. It was quiet, old school, and the waitstaff left us alone to enjoy our coffees (which were spiked with whiskey).
Lunch was predictable (vegetarian), then we headed over to the Golden Tiger pub again for a couple more Urquells before departing Prague. It was enjoyable, if not busy.
We then had five hours more to kill until our night train departed for Krakow, so we went to catch a movie. While we planned to see Super 8, it had already started when we arrived so we bought tickets to the next movie starting, Dream House. Apparently, it stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts. We had never heard of it beforehand and it wasn’t terrible. It started stronger than it finished.
With yet more time to kill we found a traditional Chinese tea house close to the train station. This was the highlight of the day. We had some fabulous green tea and chatted away for 1.5 hours in a cozy little room decorated with furniture and artwork from China. Daryl was thrilled and he described a lot of the art around the place, which he is somewhat familiar with from his three trips to China. We would definintely hit this place up again if/when we return to Prague.
Finally, we headed back to the train station and caught the train. The cabin was nice, but again it was loud. The couple in the cabin next door woke us up in the middle of the night complaining about the temperature, noise, and the fact that the room smelled like DDT. It was hilarious because the one sounded like the friend from Ferris Bueller’s Day off (Cameron) when he is impersonating Sloan’s father (See Here). Classic.
We are now in Krakow killing time until we can get into our apartment. We promise to write more soon.
P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures on Friday. By that point, everything in Prague seemed same old and I was no longer inspired to pull out the old Nikon.
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