Pragueeeee

Time for a new country: The Czech Republic! Woot woot. After spending a solid week in Berlin it was finally time to move on in my travels. The train ride from Berlin to Prague was long (~6 hours I think), but was surprisingly enjoyable. The views were amazing as the train followed a river on the Czech/German border and I had a great chat with 3 random people in my train car for the 2^nd half of the trip. The German grandpa in our group was pointing out castles and sights along the way, the hippy rock climber girl discussed her passion for climbing mountains and skiing down untouched areas (she thinks ski resorts are lame), and the young German architect girl talked about the challenges of working as an architect in Berlin because there are so many architects there, and not enough jobs (she was on her way to Vienna for a job interview). Cool group of people.

When I arrived, my couchsurfing host Adam took me back to his place and quickly brought me up to speed about what Prague was all about. Beer, castles, and a style of architecture I already forgot. Haha Sorry Adam, architecture appreciation isn’t really my thing. Beer and castles were good enough for me tho. J The city has a pretty cool history and was untouched for the most part in WWII, so everything is super well preserved which gives the town its awesome medieval feel, which is why tourists flock to Prague I guess (It’s the 6^th most popular tourist destination In Europe btw. Paris and London are #1 and #2)

Adam was a great host, and definitely made me feel at home right away. Within minutes I he gave me a guidebook and map of Prague, spare keys to his apartment, and some freshly brewed tea. Haha We hung out for a bit at his place and I got to meet his closest friend Sarah (she grew up in New York actually), who quickly/accidentally informed me through a couple of drunken stories between them that Adam was gay (that’s the term Adam used to describe himself. I hope I’m not offending anyone by using that word). Adam was quite open about it, and I think it was a very good experience for me to stay with him for 5 days (I'm a little behind in my blog. I spent the last two night in Budapest, Hungary)

Adam luckily had some time that afternoon to hang out, so we ventured out to explore the city while there was still light (it’s getting dark so early now. Kinda sucks). Adam knew all sorts of stuff about Prague and was an excellent unofficial tour guide. Highlights from our excursion include:

• Hilly streets and big hills are everywhere! It was such a relief to see city with streets that weren't flat! It reminded me of Seattle in a way. Maybe I should just move to Seattle. I keep talking about how cool it is in this blog. Haha
• Bars were literally on every corner (Prague is the #1 country for beer consumption per person in the world. BAM! Germany and Ireland are #2 and #3, but I’m not sure in which order)
• The main square was nice and had a couple massive museums nearby and some statues (pretty typical for every major city I’ve been to)
• Fried cheese sandwiches??? (basically a patty of mozzarella sticks in a bun). So delicious.
• There were a couple medieval gates were just massive. So cool.
• Charles Bridge. This is one of the 2 main landmarks of the city (the castle is the other), and is essentially just a really, really old stone bridge that was the first of its kind and is still in very good condition. It’s only a walking bridge now, and was flooded with tourists every time I saw it. There are cool statues along the bridge, and huge medieval gates on each end which adds to its appeal.
• Old Town Square was nice and showcased some more medieval architecture in the impressive churches on each end of the square. There was a large market in the middle with all sorts of types of food, candies and tourist goodies. It goes on pretty much all day and night.
• The astronomical clock tower in Old Town Square was gorgeous, and attracts tourists to its base every hour, on the hour, as mechanical figurines begin to move about through two small windows inside the stone clock tower for about 30 seconds. It was built in the 16^th century (I think), and was the very first of its kind.
• Adam met up with a friend for a couple hours in the city, while I continued to walk around and explore. I eventually took the metro back to his house and met up with him there.

The rest of the night was fairly tame as I was exhausted from a late night in Berlin the day before. Adam fixed up a nice dinner (potato pancakes!), we had some more tea, talked about him being a Buddhist, and I skyped with Jenny before heading to bed. My first night in Prague was really cool, and I was excited to see more of it the next day.