Day 15 (Sun) - Prague [Czech]

Prague! I have always heard so much about this city, and it has definitely lived up to its billing. Only marginally damaged during World War II, nearly all of its old charm remains. Most of the cities in Europe have an old quarter that you can cover in an afternoon, but Prague is one gigantic historical center that you could spend days or even weeks exploring.

I took off in the morning in the usual way, on foot and only a general direction in mind. And, in the usual way, I got lost and had to ask a local for directions. This time, I took the metro to the castle quarter and starting exploring.

Immediately, the city strikes you. The majority of the buildings are some-what like the german row houses of Germany, and Austria, but larger, all about the same height at 5 stories tall, and with ornate decorations on their facade and roof tops. The rest of the buildings are ornate churches, memorials, or statues commemorating someone or some event.

As I meandered through the narrow streets, I completely randomly ran into my American friends from Salzburg in front of a store. Although, by now, the size of their party had grown as they picked up a Canadian here in Prague, and a Greek that one of the girls had fallen in love with while staying on his island had flown out for a couple of days with her.

We toured the famously decorative Charles Bridge and watched the Astronomical Clock put on its crowd pleasing show. In the afternoon, we took a free tour of the old city for a couple of hours. We walked through the castle, the unbelievable chapel with its crazy spires and nightmarish gargoyles. We also saw some of the lesser known sights, such as John Lennon's wall, and a statue of Iron Man (different guz than the movie).

For dinner we ate dumplings at a great traditional Czech restaurant and had a few biers. We finished the night trying unsuccessfully to upload pictures to the web and update blogs, and going our separate way to our hostels.