Prague, Czech Republic
The morning begins for me at 6:30am; I clean up and head down for breakfast. Dennis, our awesome Aussie chap, joins me after about 10 minutes, and we talk about his travels, from San Fran, India, Cambodia, Egypt, and the list goes on. I pack a few more nutella packets, and the rest of the crew joins me for breakfast. We head out for a 3 hr drive to Prague next (Czech)! Good riddance, I didn’t really enjoy Vienna, though the architecture was pretty nice— the people sucked!
The drive from Vienna to Prague is about a 3.5 hour drive. Dennis tells us that there is a good stop at Cesky Krumlov (sort of a long the way), with some touristy attraction and castles. CASTLES? COOOL LETS GO! Aaron and Stephen take the first shift; Aaron’s getting pretty good a driving manual. The first time he stalled about 5 times a minute (lol). As we leave Vienna, we muster up some DTP and insults to the city—since they did treat us poorly; except for 3 Australians and 1 Viennese lady. The drive is decent, we obtain most of our courage and strength from a special someone, her name starts with a C… yeee. Cheers mate (referencing Derek), we have some footage of us chanting and gaining this inner chi. After driving on these roads, we realized that our expensive 150 euro investment for a Garmin Nuvi GPS was well worth it… the streets are pretty confusing… I honestly don’t think we would have made it without it!
Stephen and Phil believe that the reason the Viennese treated us like trash was because we (in Europe) were a part of some lower class in social hierarchy— like in America (you all know what I’m talking about). I strongly believe its because we didn’t try to learn the language. Before we pull into Cesky Krumlov, I decide to pick up the mini dictionary and learn some Czech—or at least try. As of now, my theory is correct! I think the Czechs liked that we at least tried to learn their language. However, only after we left the area, I realized that I was saying very much, instead of thank you (I left out the thank you, because I thought that was the “very much” part; the language has its sentence structure backwards I guess. No wonder they were chuckling at me… Well the point was, most of the locals were happy to see that we were trying :).
It is hot. It is warm. It is humid. Did I mention it was hot? Anyways, we see some castles, ate some cinnamon bread, and got out of there. The streets were starting to get a little less structured, and the scenery was beginning to look shaggier on the way to Prague. Czech’s use a currency called Crowns, and we end up converting some of our Euros to Crowns— annoying. Having two sets of currencies and coins really pisses me off. We end up stopping at Mcdonald’s for some lunch, and the crew has begun to cave in for fast food. Stephen, Phil, and Jerry all sort of indirectly agreed to not eat fast-food/chain restaurants at Europe, and used to hate on me for trying to get some cheat eats! But the expenses of Europe are starting to tally up (traveling, gas, gps, busses, food etc), and now we go back to our good ole MICKEY D’s. Damn, Mcdonalds is delicious everywhere. Yeah I said it. WHAT!?
Prague is ghetto. The walls are graphitized up, the city looks old, and the kids hang out together like hoodlums, it sort of reminds me of Compton. Prague is blazing hot, and it started to rain after we check into our hostel (St. Christopher’s again). We end up buying breakfast at check in, since it is a little cheaper (which includes a full breakfast of protein and the good stuff (oj, meat, cheese etc.). For you American gluts, its luxurious to have protein during our trip in Europe!!! Our roommates were pretty cool, a gay guy(?) from Connecticut, and 2 Irish people. Aaron and Stephen have dinner with the gay guy, and Phil, Jerry, and I chill in the hostel— since it is raining outside and we don’t want to spend too much money (meaning we have to get some Crowns…). The hostel is freaking nice (St. Christopher’s), with automatic blinders, doubled windows, air-conditioning, nice bed/pillow, and nice everything…
As Phil Jerry and I are chilling, we start talking about our roommate about his sexuality. We come to a consensus that the duder is gay… We agree to keep from using derogatory words just in case we could be offensive. Within a few minutes, Truong calls Stephen a faggot. Nice. 10 minutes later, Truong is playing Jerry’s pokemon blue and then realizes that his rival is named HOOMSEX and cries out. Our friend stops talking to us…
The next morning we wake up early for the all you can eat breakfast. There are hashbrowns, bacon, meats, cheese, yogurt, cereal, milk, oj, and fresh fruit. This is seriously the best breakfast you can get in Europe. So, of course being the ravenous wolves we are, we eat a load enough to feed an African village, and then pack enough for the rest of the day (lols). AYCE breakfast turns in AYCE all meals. Holla! We proceed to take a walking tour of Prague, in which we hit up Old town square, Church of St. Nicolas, Charles bridge, Prague Castle, and the Jewish District (a few synagogues). Most of Prague is really touristy—which I don’t really enjoy. Not to mention we saw like 5 couples getting married (how original!), though the area is pretty nice. Every city we have visited thus far did not have a loads of tourists (more backpackers than tourists), but Prague is definitely tourist saturated— bleh.
Carrying crowns and Euros is starting to get annoying, I haven’t bought anything in Czech except for Mcdonalds, and don’t plan on converting any of my money… Not to mention that we are REALLY low on cash right now. We only withdrew 100 Euros at Munich, and could not withdraw any money in Austria and Czech. Struggling… thank goodness for AYCE “breakfast.”
The night passes and we meet some Swiss duders. Fabian Cancellara, of course they knew who he was! Prague was alright, I’m ready to leave; we are out of money, out of clothes (haven’t laundered since Vienna, and that was a half load…), and the roads are crappy. I think so far, I like Germany the most; the streets are well designed, the community is super biker friendly, and it seems more high tech. Off to Berlin, yayz! Heil Deutschland!
-josie bear
