Praha

Saturday saw us up bright and early for croissants and coffee before boarding our train to Prague. On the train we met this lady from Maine and her friend from Germany. They had been besties when they were 18, and then many years later--almost a lifetime--one contacted the other, and they had rekindled their friendship, and now they were travel buddies. What a cool story.

We got off the train in Prague and promptly got quite lost. By some miracle we made it to our hostel. (Our compass had broken in Berlin so we couldn't even use that.) We bought fruit at a market in Wenceslas Square and walked around for a while, ending up by the famous Frank Gehry building by the river. We got to the old town square, right in the heart of the tourist throngs. Prague is beautiful but sooo touristy and overcrowded in certain parts of the city.

We drank some 49 koruna beer (Pilsner Urquell), then to a dungeon-like, goat-themed restaurant for dinner that had super tasty Czech food. Goulash and meat dumplings. Mmm.

Went back to the hostel and met our Russian roommate. Played Scrabble Anagrams and Alex won. (Blast!)

On Sunday 17 May we walked to the Jewish quarter of town and also visited the Mucha museum (super cool! Check out Mucha if you don't know anything about him.) We crossed the bridge to the other side of the river near the castle and hung out in a park before walking to the John Lennon wall. It is this big wall totally covered in graffiti, mostly John Lennon or Beatles-related. After adding our mark ("I get by with a little help from my friends") we got some awful fast food and went back to the hostel.

After a nap we climbed a big hill/park near our hostel and got some great views of the city. We walked to a bar called U'sudu, but ended up getting wine from a street vendor and drinking back at the hostel whilst playing Anagrams. And--get ready for it--I beat Alex!

After some card playing shenanigans, talking some more to the Russian roommate, and going back to the park/hill thing one last time, we made it to bed, and concluded our Czech adventure.

By the way--we both feverishly read the first book of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series on this trip, and I was unbelievably excited to find this hotel in Prague.