Prague!
I will try to keep the puns in Czech (ok sorry, no more).
Prague is magical. A medieval city with a castle, beautiful buildings, lots of bridges and ridiculously cheap beer, what more could a girl want?
It has been around negative 4 degrees for the last 4 days. However, snow has a way of making the cold magical too.
We had beautiful blue skies the first full day we had here. We took advantage of them by visiting the old town square, the astronomical clock, Charles bridge and Tyn cathedral. Now I'm not considered a religious person at all but I find something incredibly humbling about old cathedrals and churches. I spent a good half hour inside the Frankfurt cathedral and would have stayed longer in this one had we not been ushered around by the men working there (brothers? Again, not religious but you get the idea). I dont know what it is about them; their huge size, the obvious amounts of dedication and work put into building and maintaining them or just the way they can have such a big effect on people but there is something I find fascinating and Australia being so young is missing out. I lit my first candle in one in Frankfurt. There should be signs around telling you of the process because there were a dozen or so already lit and glowing a soft yellow. I lit mine and the flame was red. I freaked out, Jesus knew I didn't go to church! After finding Lenny and telling him we needed to leave immediately as I was about to go to hell, he explained that they all started red. I'm still alive and not in hell yet so I'm tempted to believe him.
But yes, back to Prague. The blue skies try to trick you. You look out of a window and think it will be a beautiful day and you must rush outside at once. Then you leave and the wind tries to stab you with little tiny knives. Consequently, we try to avoid big open spaces in these circumstances and dont end up being outside for long. We spent a while walking around the castle the next day and visited the old st. Vitus Cathedral with its amazing stained glass windows, unbelievably high ceilings and columns adorned with gold figurines. And of course, we walked the bridge again.
I can't help but love a city with trams either. Those that know me, know my terrible sense of direction and occasional bad luck with public transport. I don't know how but I always seem to pick the exact wrong way to walk to get me back to where I want to be. Luckily, Lennox has some super power that tells him which way the tram really comes from and gives him the ability to read the maps with crazy symbols and words. Apart from them going in every possible direction (except from where I think the station is), catching a tram here is an adventure in itself. It took us a while to find the tram stop. Because there isn't really one. You just wait for the tram to stop at the intersection (there is a little sign on the footpath with a timetable) and then you walk out into the middle of the road and hop on. Brilliant!
Yesterday, whilst coming up from breakfast, we noticed the snow. So much beautiful white goodness coming from the sky. I swear it has magical powers because I didn't care that I wasn't wearing a coat as I went outside into the courtyard and just spun around, giggling like an excited schoolgirl. Suddenly the cold doesn't matter at all and everything is infinitely more beautiful. We went back to the old town square and again I made Lenny walk across the bridge. But this time there were no cobbled stone streets, everything was white and exciting! I think I was probably the happiest person in this country, I couldn't stop grinning and yet everyone (including Lenny, he's really getting very European) was walking around grumbling. Most of the crowds had opted to stay inside so we played a little game of hiding behind groups of strangers as the snow ploughs passed.
Oh and breakfast! The hostel that we're staying in has an all you can eat breakfast for 6 bucks. I think we would be banned from it if we were staying any longer. Instead of stopping after eating a big bowl of muesli and yogurt the way other people did, and the way I would have if I were just eating breakfast at home, we stayed for hours to ensure we got our money's worth. I would also manage to finish a big bread roll, cut in half so I could cover each side with ham, cheese and salami; toast with nutella, a nutella crepe, a few slices of fruit, a couple of glasses of juice and a coffee... Also with nutella in it.
This meant that we only needed (and could physically fit) two meals a day. Which was actually a bit of a pity as food is so tasty and cheap. One of these meals was a delicious creamy pasta with pork and bacon through it. For those times when just one cut of pig isn't enough. Lj got a saucepan of pork and baby potatoes bathed in cream and cheese. It was incredible. Another outing included coffee and cake. We pointed at two different types of cake (as our Czech is terrible) and asked for an espresso and a hot chocolate. All up it cost us 5 bucks. Plus, I'm pretty sure the hot chocolate was made only from melted chocolate and hot thickened cream. It was so unhealthily thick. I will be coming home with diabetes but it was worth it.
Beer too! Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest beer drinker. And being sick has lowered my tolerance even more. But dont worry, I found a solution! I am currently drinking half a litre of a 'radler'. It is half beer and half old-school home made lemonade, full deliciousness. And it cost 75 cents. If only I could speak Czech and handle the cold, I could move here.
Czech yourself before you wreck yourself,
Pete
