Last night was a long night...The hostel is nice but our room is facing the main street and is in front of the train line..it was a little noisy, and then dan started snoring, and then the american came back and shuffled around and then left and then came back again, and then the polish girl came back severly sloshed and stumbled into bed, her friend had already warned us that she has the stomach of an ox. in the end, i fell asleep it just took a while..oh the joys of dorms in hostels.perk though when breakfast was coffee and donuts..yay.
Today was our first full day in prague and we decided to wander the grand city. There is a huge amount of architecture to see in prague, it seems that every corner is hiding something different. The buildings are amazing, when vienna seemed amazing, prague is double the amazement..if that makes sense..our hostel is near the station, so we walked towards the old town, towards the main town square. The weather has been a little cold and rainy today. i thought melbourne had 4 seasons in a day, wait till u visit europe, its worse. In the sun is t-shirt weather, the shadows of all the buildings make it a little cooler and then in the freak huge rain clouds..apparently something to do with the alps??..its suddenly freezing.makes getting dressed a big decision.
Brenda..i walked along the charles bridge and got confused about which statue u said u had rubbed..there were two that people were rubbing so for extra good luck i just rubbed them both..one was a dog and a person, the second the leaves of a shield below a jesus statue? i have double good luck now..hopefully.
Prague hasnt seemed as packed with tourists as other cities in italy and austria, so its been nice to have a little break from the crowds. Walked..all this walking is balancing all the eating..up to the Prague castle.The castles main church isnt the biggest or grandest we have visited, but the stained glass windows were definately the most amazing i have ever seen..they were beautiful and each told a story. The colours of the windows reflected all through the church..reds, purples and greens. Dan and i walked the 287 steps up one of the towers, it was definatel worth the view.the steps were a close spiral staircase and i cant decide if going up was worse then going down.
While one of the random pouring rainstorms, we stopped for a traditional czech lunch of dumplings, cabbage and roast pork, amy had chicken and chips. Dumplings were interesting..not my favourite, but good with gravy.
From the castle we wlked through the Letna gardens, which look over prague. There was a beer garden there so we stopped to enjoy the view and enjoy our cheap beer..1 euro for half a litre.
From there dan was complaining of chaffage and was a little tired of walking and amy decided she wasnt interested so they headed back to the hostel and got dinner for us to cook tonite..were having a feast because we have a hostel with a kitchen. Anyway, i went through the old jewish quarters of prague. During WW2, the first stage of the German invasion into czech republic included all of the jewish people being crammed into a small section of the town, however the jewish community was eventually moved onto Terezin and then eventually to the camps in the east, including auschwitz, where out of the 8,000 from prague moved there, only 242 would survive. There are now several museums, synagogues and collections of artecfacts that can all be seen in the area. The jewish part of the town was the most poorly constructed part of the town, with hardly any sewage, drainage or living space, so when over 100,000 jewish families were crammed into the area it was a mess. The cemetary was..im not even sure of the word, to see that amount of graves crammed into that area..it just made me stop and think of how lucky we are in australia to be free and live in a peaceful society. There was a synagogue called the spanish synagogue that has a beautifully decorated roof and walls, it also houses a huge collection of jewish literature, art, artefacts and silveware.
Have so far enjoyed out time in prague, and it has definately made me think about how young but very lucky Australia is.
Tomorrow we are planning to visit Kutna Hora, a small town around an hour to the east of prague..as long as dan and amy arent hung over...It has a church built entirely out of bones!a little goory i know, but we were told not to miss it.
From there onto Krakow, poland for 4 nights. Brenton we tried to get accomadation at the golden hostel you recommended but there was only room for 2 of us, but thats wok were staying at another hostel..with fre breakfast,yay.
love to all
love jess xoox
