Day 17 - 18 (Tue - Wed) - Prague [Czech]

On Tuesday, we met up late in the day, I think all of us are slowing down a little. Being on the road for so long was catching up with us, and I was still dealing with my cold, so it was nice to relax and not be in a hurry.

We met up for tea in a little hippy tea-house and drank 6 or 7 different kinds of teas while eating couscous and enjoyed the ambiance for a little while. We had a few hours to kill before night fell and our ghost tour began, so we walked around the city.

At the Charles Bridge, there's a famous statue that people make pilgrimages to so they can rub the base of it and make a wish. Apparently, this preacher heard the King's wife's confession for a while. The King decided one day that he wanted to know what his wife's been up to, so he tried to force the preacher to spill the beans. Holding to his sacred vow of confidentiality in the confessional, the preacher refused to speak on it.

The King got pissed, and decided that torture would be the best way to get him to divulge her secrets. The preacher didn't say a word. Infuriated, the King tied the preacher up, weighted him down, and tossed him over the side of the bridge. When the preacher hit the water, 5 bright stars emerged from the water and ascended to heaven.

When we got to the statue, it was inaccessible, an entire section of the bridge fenced off for renovation work. Determined to complete my personal pilgrimage (that I just started a few minutes prior after reading about it in Rick Steves), I looked over my shoulder for Czech cops and mad monks, and made a dash through a gap in the construction fences and ran to the statue.

Underwhelmed by the statue, I still rubbed the left side while making my wish. I also rubbed the right side, which is supposed to help you get pregnant. I couldn't remember which side was what, so I figured why not knock out two birds with one stone.

After that spiritually exhausting exercise, we got some dinner, and hit up a bar for rounds of world-famous Czech absinthe. We ordered a round of the green liquor, and learned about the little ritual you must undertake before quaffing. You take a spoon full of sugar, soak it in a little of the liquor, light it aflame until it caramelizes, stir it in, and toss it down the hatch. The stuff is like 80% alcohol, so needless to say, it kinda burns going down. Some beers and another round of absinthe and we were ready for our ghost tour.

The ghost tour was pretty lame, to be blunt. The guide was Ty McGee from Florida, and he just simply wasn't interesting. Good thing we were still enjoying the effects of the absinthe, it made the tour bearable. We ended the night at a Mexican restaurant for late-night nachos, a staple in any country.

The next day, I did laundry, and hopped an afternoon train to Vienna. After finding all the hostels full, and scrambling to find a hotel room, I had about an hour of daylight left, so I took the train to see the city.

Vienna is very impressive. The Hofburgs made this city their home, so the old town is defined by their palaces and other enormous and ornate buildings and monuments built either by them or for them. I went to the Vienna Opera House and bought a standing room ticket for the show currently in progress, an opera called La Pique Dame. I can't adequately describe how incredible it was to be standing there, directly in front of the stage, watching these performers, and listening to the music of the Philharmonic from the pit below. I stayed for about an hour and a half, and growing tired of standing, I left.

I ended my night by touring St Stephan's cathedral. When I walked in, the organs were playing (the first time I've heard any of the amazing looking organs). I sat down in the pews and just listened for a while, then headed back to the hotel.