I got up and bought a breakfast ticket at the hostel. It was great. For four hours there are crepes, eggs, breads, bacon, meats, cheeses, cereal and coffee included. Over breakfast I met a couple from Toronto (Dave and Shannon). I had mentioned my plans to visit the castle and a monastery and invited them to come along. They accepted and shortly after we headed out.
The castle was only one tram ride away from the hostel which was nice. It is much less of a castle than it is a collection of different buildings that form a courtyard around the palace and cathedral. It was still fun to see the outside of all the buildings though. We also bought a ticket to climb the cathedral’s bell tower. It had a great view of the city. After climbing down we went off to a nearby monastery.
The Strahov Monastery is almost 900 years old and it is still in great condition. The monastery also houses a restaurant and a monastic brewery (brewing for centuries) on its grounds. We went to the monastic brewery since Shannon had a bit of a cold and we thought the monk beer would cure it. In the brewery we met two Americans (Wyatt and another Dave). After two drinks the monk beer had cured Shannon’s illness and the Americans invited us to a Czech restaurant down the way for lunch.
It was set up like a medieval Prague restaurant and the food was good. I had a rack of Czech ribs and a beer for under $10. After lunch we took a tram back to the hostel. I hung out with some people a while and then there was a free barbeque in the courtyard of the hostel. It was a nice chance to meet up with some additional people and hang out for most of the night.
