greetings from prague! lots to report, not just about prague but about my first few nights in a hostel. i was thinking that i might make my pictures available as i go but a few things have changed my mind about that not the least of which is the time involved with doing that. for now a few thrown in with the post and if i think that it's worthy i may post some mini-albums. so let's start with my departure from london. i actually booked my airfare from london to prague on easyjet months ago. europe is full of discount airlines that if you book months in advance you can fly almost anywhere in western europe for about $30. so i actually had my london to prague ticket well before my baltimore to london ticket. it's not just to brag how good of a bargain hunter i am but to explain that when booking that flight it seemed like a good idea to depart at 7am from london's stanstead airport. 7am on a sunday. luckily i had oliver and cathy to help me on the logistics or else i don't know what i would have done other than go to the airport late saturday night and sleep there. so here's how it went... wake up at 3:30 clean up a bit grab a snack and be outside by 4am for what is called a mini-cab. mini-cabs are basically a car service - you have to call to book them, you can't hail them on the street but they are considerably less expensive then the ubiquitous black cabs that london is famous for. for 6 pounds he drove me to a bus station (really just a stop) where a coach bus picked me up and drove me to stanstead - about an hour away - for 10 pounds. as a comparison when we called to see how much it would have been for the mini-cab to take me straight to the airport i was quoted 48 pounds (about $90). so i saved 32 pounds but lost about an hour of sleep. i should have guessed by the 3/4 full coach (mine was the 7th of 9 stops before the airport) that the airport was going to be busy. i couldn't believe how busy stanstead was at 5:15. it actually took me longer to get an egg & tomato sandwich than it did to go through check-in. stanstead is one of those airports with satellite terminals so i had to wait a while before heading to my terminal by subway. i searched a while and found a seat not to far from the orthodox jewish men wrapped in tfilin saying morning prayers amongst 500 or so observers right there in the middle of the main terminal. now it's not like i travel all the time but i have been in airports at 5am and i have NEVER seen so many people at one this early. the flight itself was fine, inflated my travelers pillow and would have slept the whole time had it not been for the guy who had the window seat who had to get up 3 times to go the bathroom...it was a 90 minute flight! three times! no mind you this is like southwest where you pick your own seat...you'd think that given that he'd have picked an ailse on! customs was a breeze. now was about to be the first part of an interesting trip from the airport to the hostel. i realized that i did not write down the address of the hostel and it was not accessible on my laptop without wi-fi (i'm not sure what i was thinking when i didn't prepare for this) i stopped at a tourist info booth for prague info and the lady working was very helpful not only with that stuff but with pointing me to the vodaphone store where there was free wi-fi. got my info and back to the ti booth where she gave me directions to the hostel. it involved a bus and 2 trams. i was tired and in a foreign country and don't speak the language...it wasn't going to go well. the bus went well but it was hard for it not to - it started right outside the terminal and ended where i needed to get off. i managed to find where the tram was stopping a local and pointing to the number and destination that was written on a piece of paper. i looked at the postings at the tram stop and thought that i knew what i was doing but apparently not...and went past my transfer point. i could go on for quite a while...sufice it to say that it took me close to 2 hours to do what should have taken 1 hour.finally at the hostel! the building is probably very old but the hostel is fairly new and literally every piece of furniture is from ikea. i am in a room with 3 bunk beds - i have by choice a lower bunk. there are cabinets in the room that have been outfitted with a means to attach a lock for luggage. in the corner of my room is a sink. to get to my room you must pass through a room that has two single beds and a bunk bed and in that room is a small room with a shower and sink that i use. in the hallway is the full bath with a toilets, showers and sinks. all in all it's a very nice place. the people who work here are nice and helpful, roommates are nice and seem to change every day. there is a common room - where i am now - with wi-fi, computers for those without laptops, and a kitchenette. all this and it's about a ten minute walk from stare maestro - old town - which is sort of the center of tourist activity on this side of the river...and it's about $25/night.
so between the early start to the day and my wandering aimlessly for an extra hour to get here i decided to take it easy for the afternoon. i got settled in my room and took a big ol' nap. after waking i headed out for a get oriented walk and to get some groceries to cook dinner. it took some time and figuring to get the groceries but i managed. the pasta, feta cheese with olives, oil and seasoning, bottled water and beer was easy enough to figure but it took me about 5 minutes to figure out what kind of tomato sauce i was buying. all of what i listed cost about $8.50. the beer - 2 bottles - was gone that night but the pasta lasted 3 nights.
day one of touristing - prague castle
this is a complex of buildings that include st. vitus cathedral, the presidential palace, the royal palace and many others. i spent quite some time in the cathedral taking pictures of the chapels and their stained glass that surround the nave. i wisely invested in the audio guide or i would have been one confused jew in a cathedral! construction on the cathedral began in 1344. that's it for the history - you want more...google.
there are tour guides all over this place speaking in so many different languages...at one point i was walking along the golden lane which is the area that at one time housed the palace guards. i was standing close to one guide and over heard her mention that franz kafka lived in
the blue house (after there were no more guards there). i moved through the group and down the road which put me closer to that house where another guide was talking - she also mentioned that kafka lived there but went farther to explain that he live in dozens of places around town...basically saying that it's not big deal it's not as if he spent his whole life there. that's the blue house on the left of this pic that is either a big deal or not...depending on the guide you get.lots of cool things at this complex and i spent hours there wandering and marveling at the history and architecture.
the castle is - not surprisingly - situated on a hill. i chose to walk down back to town instead of ride the tram and am glad i did. it was a nice walk down a curving, cobbled street and while it was a bit touristy it offered some good photo ops. at the base of this hill is new town, i got some bread, cheese and grapes at a little store and despite a grumpy cashier had an enjoyable lunch a little grassy square near one end of charles bridge. charles bridge is important in prague history so to me it's sort of sad that it is literally non-stop merchants and buskers along the span. from there it was into the old-town square which is rich in visuals. the dominant one is the church of our lady before tyn to one side and the old town city hall on the other. the tower of city hall houses the astronomical clock. click here to see a video of it. look closely at the 2 windows above the top face where the 12 apostles appear. it's a little harder to see the figures next to the upper face are moving as well but it is subtle movement so i'm not sure how well you'll be able to see it. the lower face is a 365 day calendar/clock. the top one is time and astrological clock.
day two included more exploration of old-town and the jewish quarter. exploration of old-town for me included climbing two towers. interestingly both of them you climb 2 or 3 stories before they ask you for money - not much $4 or $5 - i guess they think that if they ask after you've climbed some of the steps then you're less likely to walk away with out paying. no matter both were more than worth the effort and money.
the jewish quarter was beautiful, interesting and solemn. one of the synagouges has the names of the jews from bohemia lost to the holocaust. like most historical sights photography is prohibited but it must have taken a long time and lots of patience to scribe all these names. amazingly it was done twice. originally in the mid-40's and then again after the fall of communism. it seems that at some point the antisemitism of communism led to the erasing of the names. i'm not sure that my words or photos that you will see can do the jewish cemetary
justice. it is against jewish law to disturb the dead and the limited space allotted for the cemetary leads to a scene unlike any i have seen although tomorrow i am off to terezin the concentration camp about 30 miles from prague.well i hate to end on such a heavy note but it's getting late and i'm tired.
happy trails,
dan
