PRAHA

Sooo due to the cold weather I've been too lazy to blog about my time here in Prague. Once we get back from sightseeing I just take a shower and knock out. Internet connection sucks, too >.< Let me recall as much as I can...

[WED 14.10.2009] Once we got to our room we were so amazed at how much space we had. I wanted to roll around in all the free space hahah. I refrained myself though. Its very clean and although we're staying in a hostel, we booked for a private room so we get our own bathroom and we don't have to worry about random people staying in our room. In our bathroom we have a toilet and a low sink-like structure. The thing next to the toilet is a bidet aka butt washer. Lets just say that I tried it and it was a little awkward for me. I don't think I'll be using that again hahah.

After we dropped off our luggage we were hungry for lunch and ate at a restaurant next door. The restaurant was like going into a tavern but the ground level was actually the bar only so we had to go down the stairs in a cave hallway to the sit-down portion. I ate a risotto in a creme sauce which cost me about 90CZK. We heard that lunch here is pretty cheap but with big portions and dinner is the same portions but twice the price so we loaded up on lunch. After we had a hearty meal (which was much needed after living off of street food and produce in Paris), our waiter offered us a drink to finish off our meal with: a shot of Becherovka. It wasn't a strong liqueur but it was very spicy and kept me warm for a good 10 minutes or so. I wasn't much of a fan of it. That was my first alcoholic drink in Europe, believe it or not!

We decided to walk of our meal by exploring the area and looking at all the different souvenir shops. There were a lot of bohemian glass things, pashminas, beanies with the word PRAGUE knitted around it, and wooden puppets (like Pinocchio!). The puppets reminded me of the goat puppet play in the Sound of Music =) Although seeing a whole store of puppets was a little creepy. We ate dinner at an Italian cafe where I just ordered onion soup with cheese for 45CZK. Not bad. I missed out though on the tiramisu which was apparently the best that Ling's ever had... we might go back again before we leave.

On our way back to the hostel, we had to pick up the key at reception so we dropped of our 50CZK for a towel deposit (per person). It was funny b/c Pui has the worst time understanding accents. The man asked "how many",and she replies "more money??" then he asks again, and this time she goes "no money?". They both seemed frustrated then I realized the 2nd time that he asked how many so I told him 4 hahah. We finally got our towels. At the restaurants, people were smoking so our clothes and hair reeked of cigarette smoke. We all felt so refreshed after taking a shower that night and it was even better since we didn't need to hold the shower head while we showered. It was probably one of the best showers I've had in Europe. =) The London bathroom was too tiny and the Paris one smelled of mold.

[THU 15.10.2009] Soapy woke up first and went to the post office to attempt to buy some boxes to ship stuff. However, no one understood what a box was. We told her she should have done the vogue thing and frame her face with her hands while saying box hahah. Then we had to ask receptionist how to ship stuff via fed ex but they have a PPL and DHL instead. Since we only knew of DHL we decided to hunt them down in old town after eating at Cafe Louvre (where F. Kafka and A. Einstein have dined).

Cafe Louvre was packed for brunch and the only open spot was in the bar area next to the billiards room. Every table other than ours was smoking but we had no other choice and we were starving. I had turkey and these bread dumplings for about 89CZK (I ordered from a menu that was written in Czech only with no English translations). I also ordered a horka cokolada which I thought was a hot chocolate but turned out to be a hot chocolate syrup in a small teacup. The texture was somewhere between a pudding and syrup. It was tasty but extremely rich so I just drank water with my meal.

After our smoky brunch, we headed to nove mesto aka new town to see the dancing building. It took us awhile to find it but we kept going into different stores to defrost on our way there (it was snowing/raining all day). We took lots of pictures with it and the scenery around it then our search for DHL began. On our hunt, we found a cute cafe hidden in an alley that served illy coffee. The cafe was very clean and had plenty of desserts and coffee so we defrosted there for a good hour or two. I ordered a latte macchiato and some jam and chocolate crepes for a total of 120CZK.

We stumbled upon Wencelas Square on our way to DHL and realized it was actually just a huge rectangle, not quite a square. It was a lot like a Champs de Elysses but not as high class/brand-name centered as Paris. We found a C&H which is like an H&M where I bought a cute floppy beanie to keep my head warm (350CZK). It was a little pricier than I'd hope to spend on a beanie but at least I know I'll get good use out of it since I'll be wearing it when I go home, too.

After circling a block we finally found DHL and realized we almost made a full 360 around that block to find it. We found out it would be $300+ to send about 5 kilos to the US. Also, we found out that they didn't have boxes there and that you take your stuff to be shipped to DHL and they pack it for you. After that, we walked around the "square" and shopped some more. Soapy and Ling got hungry so they bought some sausages from a nearby hot dog stand. The sausage had some kind of yellow mustardy gravy on it and the color of the sausage was a light beige color. They said it was good but then later they said it had a weird aftertaste... Hmm interesting.. I'm glad I didn't get one hahah.

After more shopping we headed home but decided last minute to attend a concert at the st vitus cathedral near our hostel. The concert was very beautiful and the musicians were talented. We heard an organ introduction/starting piece and a quartet played for the remainder of the concert. They played Vivaldi's Four Seasons and also pieces by Bach, Tchaikovsky and some others. The acoustics in the cathedral glorified the sound of the music and the concert lasted for about an hour. In the middle of the concert, Pui left to use the restroom which was in a nearby hotel but she never came back. We were so worried about her and were scared so as soon as the concert finished we left the cathedral only to find her there at the entrance. Apparently she didn't understand where the bathroom was and went back to our hostel instead. Then when she wanted to come back to the concert, she couldn't figure out how to open the door to exit the courtyard for awhile. By the time she reached the concert is right when we got out so she ended up missing half of the concert.. sadness! Ling also swore that Pui would never go to the restroom alone again >.<

After the concert, we decided to eat dinner at a nearby tavern where I ended up ordering almost the exact same thing I ate for lunch except instead of turkey meat it was roast beef. I was extremely saddened that I didn't have something new because I didn't like how the dish was lukewarm. Pretty dumb that I ended up ordering the same thing since I didn't know the name of my lunch dish in English hahah. Soapy ordered half a duck and I had some of hers which was much better than my roast beef. Ling also ordered the beer they claimed was "the best beer on the world". In fact, it was pretty good, and I'm not a beer fan either. Ling turned red but she claimed she didn't feel anything but was shocked by her color when we got back to our room hahahah. Good times. We pretty much washed up and knocked out.. It was a long day.

[FRI 16.10.2009] Today, we planned to see Bethlehem Chapel, Old Town Square and the Prague Castle. The girls also wanted to drop off their stuff at DHL to get it shipped so first thing we did was take a taxi with all the stuff to DHL. They all shipped their stuff home to allow for more room in their luggage for Italy and also make their loads lighter for travel between the cities. I, on the other hand, cannot shell out as much as they did for the convenience of a smaller luggage so I am stuck hauling all my stuff around but I think I'll manage. If I managed to drag my stuff through the subways in London and Paris I think I can survive Italy commuting.

We decided to go back to the little cafe we ate at yesterday for breakfast since they also had savory crepes and eggs. I ordered a spinach and bacon savory crepe which was about 80CZK. I also had a latte macchiato to accompany my meal. I still wanted dessert though and settled for a 35CZK apple strudel. The strudel reminded me of Sound of Music again from the song "My Favorite Things" haha.

We took too long to make it to the walking tour that met up at Old Town Square but headed there anyway to check it out and see what the astronomical clock was all about. It was 40 after the hour so the clock wouldn't go off for another 20 minutes. Although 20 minutes doesnt seem that long it seemed forever in freezing cold weather so we ended up walking around and going into the nearby shops. We planned to head towards Bethleham Chapel but instead went the opposite way towards the water. We just walked back to our place to defrost since our frozen faces didn't have the capacity to be outside any longer.

Now here I am doing laundry in the internet room of the hostel and my internet connection still sucks. It costs us 100CZK to do one load of laundry and also another 100CZK to dry our laundry. Ling and her sister are currently eating dinner next door since Soapy and I aren't hungry. I just finished my leftover crepes for dinner =) When they get back, hopefully our laundry will be done and we will head to the castle and savor its beauty at night. Tomorrow we shall be leaving at about 10am to catch our flight to Rome.. one more week in Italy then back home! I'm kinda homesick though but I think I can manage for another week. I'm sure Italy has plenty more experiences in store for us. I think I'm most excited about the gelato and chocolate festival though =)

K. Going to check on laundry now.. Ill update when I'm in la citta eterna!