Dear All,
We decided to pay the full price for train tickets and head to Prague so it was onto the tram to the Southern train station (sudbahnhoff) and a 4 hr journey. We watched the movie trans-siberia along the way.
Prague. It certainly did not strike us as a stunning city when we approached the train station and it was only after we were in the hostel and had walked to the river that we could see the amazing buildings and castle. The architecture is fantastic and we walked to Charles bridge before darkness fell upon us at 430pm.
We are staying at Miss Sophies hostel and have a room to ourselves which is great. Last night we watched Goldmember in the lounge area with some of the other people also staying at the hostel.
Next day. Blue skies and cool. We decided to join the free tour of Prague. Free in this case means tips based tour. Very entertaining tour of the old city from Mark our actor guide. This was followed by a walk up to the worlds largest castle and a look through the massive cathedral.
Noticed that Prague has an amazing number of tacky tourist shops. Actually it would be hard not to notice.
We were wandering back to the hostel and discovered a lovely local hotel which served cheap goulash. It was a pub with lots of D-day photos and stories on the wall and was full of czech locals. Some were playing board games, others reading and others just chatting. We shared a table with a czech student and I had a hearty plate of goulash while Vanessa had a plate of Spicy pork and spicy cabbage. Both meals had potato dumplings. The meals including a tip and drinks only cost us 300 Koruna (12 Euro). Nice find.
More hassle with our Trans siberian trip. We didn't have time to get a Mongolian visa in Australia so want to skip Mongolia which seemed to be simply catch another train. Not quite as simple. New plan is to go to Chita and then onto Harbin on the trans manchurian. Fingers crossed that the trip plan can be reworked in the next couple of days.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
