The first night we were there happened to be the first night that Australia was playing in the World Cup against Germany. So after hitting the hostel bar for a welcome Pilsner beer we headed into the Old Town Centre to watch the match on a big screen. It was set up so that you could sit or stand in front of it whilst behind you there were beer and food stalls (beer was €1 for 500ml and the food was like 2€ for a chicken kebab stick or bratwurst - yummy!). It was such a cool atmosphere with heaps of Aussie expats there as well as pretty much half our hostel (including two topdeck and two busabout buses). Unfortuneately Australia lost the match 4-0 and we ended up getting harrassed by all the surrounding german expats and the Czechs that were going for them. It was still a really fun night and definately a good way to start our stay in Prague.
On the way home we were walking to the tram station and we saw the Prague Castle up on the top of the hill all lit up. It was like something out of a disney movie so we decided to head there the next day. Our first day in Prague will always be knowns as the "Tram Tour of Prague". We asked the lady at the reception how we should get there and she told us tram 15 but the sign on the wall told us tram 12. We went with tram 12, it ended up terminating at a random part of town which required us to get off and ask directions from a Canadian couple who told us tram 22. Well to get to tram 22 we had to go back to the city centre, so we got on the next tram that way. Turns out that tram didn't go to the city centre and we ended up back at the hostel. So we got on tram 15 which didn't terminate anywhere but took us waaaaaaaaay beyond the castle via a crazy back route. So we got off there and ended up getting the metro up to the castle. Once we arrived we realised that we had spent 2 hours trying to get to somewhere that was half an hour away from the hostel. SO FRUSTRATING!
Anyways, once we got up to the castle we had a look around the grounds and realised that the pretty thing that we saw the night before wasn't the castle at all but the cathederal. It was beautiful inside and out (even with the bit of scaffolding all over it) but the castle itself was pretty lame. It just looked like really old office buildings so we decided to pass on the €12 entry fee and decided to head into town for a look around. As we were walking out of the castle grounds we were treated to the best view of the city. It was a clear day and at the top of the hill there you could see out to the whole city and it was stunning. You could see the clock towers and church spires in the old town hall and all the cute little houses surrounding the area. Many many many photos were taken here.
We gave the trams a miss (can you blame us?) and we got the metro into the main city centre and had a look around the shops. Due to the exchange rate the Kruna (czech crown) means that shopping in Prague is pretty cheap. I was well behaved though and the only thing a splurged on was lunch consisting of a delicious stir fry filled with veggies. After a bit of a cruise around the shops we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the evening.
Prague is famous for its nightclubbing and even though it was a monday we had discovered a pub crawl that was going on. So we picked up a €3 bottle of vodka and had a few cheeky pre drinks before we headed out. All we knew was that the pub crawl met at the clock tower in the city but you could buy tickets a bagel shop nearby. So we decided to give the trams another try and got halfway there before we saw the bagel shop. We jumped off and ran inside only to find out that it wasn't the right one! So we jumped on the next one that came along and it turned out that it decided to terminate at the same random spooky place the one earlier that day did. We then had to jump on the next one that came there and try and get into the city centre. We ended up jumping off two stops early and did a trek along the main road into the town square. Luckily for us our pre drinks had us buzzed and walking wasn't an issue. In fact it was rather fun until a truck drove by and splashed one of the California girls with water. Then it was hilarious.
Once we got into the town square we were powering towards the clock tower when a guy in a pub crawl t-shirt intercepted us and convinced us to go with him to a different pub crawl. Considering we had no idea what was going on we decided to go with him and a couple of the people he was with (the fact that we were desperate for a bathroom and he knew where a free one was also helped his cause). Once we got to the bar we found out that it was only €12 for the night which included a free shot at each place (there were five places) and a power hour at the bar we were currently at (we were there for 45 minutes) so we figured that entry fee paid for itself and we would give it ago. We were just at a cruisy little bar and had a couple of drinks before heading around the corner to another little bar. This bar was heaps of fun as it had heaps of tables that the waiters came around to. I tried to be classy and order a gin martini but got told they had run out (WTF?) but its ok because I could order a gin and tonic (riiiiiight). The place was a little bit dangerous however because the welcome shots were of Abstinthe which would have been fine to try except we ended up with two each because we missed the first one at the first bar. Ohhhh dearrrr. We met a couple of american guys from New York that were heaps of fun to talk to and had a bit of a dance on the d-floor before we headed to another club.
Once we were walking to the other club we realised that there were actually about 80ish people on our pub crawl (including a whole American lacrosse team ;) ) which was fun beacuse it meant even though it was a Monday night there would at least be some atmosphere. The next club was heaps of fun with a good dance floor and another free welcome shot! We spent most of the night there just chatting and dancing and having a great time. The worst part about the pub crawl was the next place. It was disgusting! It smelt like smoke, dirt and B.O - probably because it was dirty, smelly and infested with gross people doing all sorts of things on the dancefloor and in the toilets. Luckily for me I was drunk enough not to notice how gross it was! The three other pubcrawls that were on that night all ended up there so we ran into a few more people we knew off our bus. It was heaps of fun but at around 3.30 it was time to call it a night and get a cab home.
We were pretty lucky that Caroline was sober enough to work out how to get a cab, where we were going and how to pay for it because me and the California girls pretty much had no idea what was happening. Turns out that the cab driver took us through the back way through dark alleys and tiny streets and while Caroline was sitting in the front freaking out about how to tell us how to run if we needed to we were all in the back seat just either laughing our heads off or sleeping. Luckily for us Caroline didnt need to tell us an escape plan because the taxi driver dropped us off safely in front of our hostel. I think that maybe all those movies with dodgy taxi drivers have given them a bad name but when you are in eastern Europe I guess you have to be careful!
The next day was a slow starting one as we slept in until about 12ish due to our late night the night before. After a mexican brunch (which was delicious - shame i was too hungover to eat it) the girls headed into the jewish quarter to look at the cemetry there. Since I was incredibly seedy and had already seen the place i decided to stay behind at the hostel and catch up on some jobs like laundry and sorting out the rest of our trip. It was kind of nice to have some alone time and snooze, watch a movie on Caros ipod and read a girly book I stole from the book exchange. If I hadnt been to Prague before I would have been a little disappointed in myself but overall I had a pretty good day considering I had consumed at least five absinthe shots the night before (never again).
That night we just had a yummy pizza (which seems to be part of my staple diet lately cuz they are so cheap and always yummy) and a couple of drinks while we watched another world cup match. I then spent two hours typing out a blog post on the free computers until about two paragraphs from finishing the computer turned itself off and all my work was lost. So that has a lot to do with why Im so far behind but im getting there! Especially as I now have free internet again so I will probably do a bombardment of posts to catch up!
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