Prague, Prag, Praha, Prawhaw. Prahahahaha. Ha.

Hey, look, Margaret finally posted about Prague! Czech it out!

This trip started far too early on the first Saturday morning in December. My train left at 6:30am and I was generally able to sleep until we got to Berlin, when a family of four joined me in my mostly-private compartment. They were loud. Very loud. Particularly the 12-year-old punk boy whose voice hadn't dropped yet. As I was eating my apple bread for breakfast, he told his Mom I was doing drugs. "Nicht heute." Punk.

Anyway! They got off in Dresden, afterwhich the scenery got pretty impressive. Huge cliffs bordering a river, speckled with cute little German and Czech towns.

I got into Praha in the early afternoon and was reunited with my dear Hana at the train station, a fine moment indeed. She took me to her adorable flat to drop off my things and feed me tea before we went wandering around the Old Town Square and other parts of the city. There was a big tree and little children that were running around dressed up as angels and devils.




The crowds at the Christmas markets were unbelievable (well, pretty believable for a Saturday night), so we escaped to a cafe where we drank perfect hot ginger with lemon and honey. Note to self: delicious. Once warmed, we went to pick up Hilary at the airport, which was also a wonderful moment until we found out that she was terribly ill with some short-term wretched stomach thing. We quickly changed our evening plans and had a night in, talking, tea-ing, and eating scrambled eggs.

(Note of clarification for those of you not in my Smith circle: Hana and Hilary and I have been housemates for both years at Smith. Hil was my wonderful roomie for our first year and Hana was my wonderful roomie for the second. I LOVE THEM.)

The next morning, Hil was still feeling ill, so we had a lazy morning and then Hana and I went adventuring. These adventures generally involved me falling slowly in love with the city for several different reasons. The first was the ancient castle looming above everything.

The second reason was for its randomly fantastic street signs.

And the third and most prominant reason for my attraction was for its delighfully decorative cobblestone sidewalks.

We eventually ended up around the Charles bridge area.

It was here that I discovered Prague's love of bizarre public art.

Very bizarre public art.

Then we went up up up to the castle!

The view of the red red city from the top was gorgeous.

Unfortunately Hana had more trouble than I at indulging in its beauty. Good thing she's a creative thinker.

Then I took lots of pictures of her, as she said she needed a new facebook profile picture. Heh.

Adorable. After white chocolate pistachio hot chocolate and lemon pie at a cafe, we went back to check on Hilary and drag her out to dinner with us. (She was feeling better.) We met up with another awesome Smithie for dinner and she introduced us to the best hot chocolate that has ever existed ever in the history of all things chocolatey and delicious. It was like liquid chocolate. Warm and smooth without being gritty or too sweet. Perfection in a cup.



Then we wandered around more, followed by another cafe with hot cranberry juice and a Harry Potter crossword puzzle that someone had created in the cafe's guestbook. Apparently that's what one does in Prague - sit in cafe's and do cafe-y things.


We also rode the longest escalator ever. In Hana's words, it's so long that halfway up you forget you're on an escalator at all. It's true.

Something that struck me pretty immediatly about being in the Czech Republic was that suddenly I was in a place where I didn't understand the language. Ever since my junior-year-of-high-school travels, I've only been in English, French, or German speaking countries where I can generally understand things. Czech was totally new and crazy and a language I know nothing about. Thankfully Hana rocks and had picked up enough Czech in her few months there that enabled her to get us around, feed us, answer basic questions, all the important things in life. I was impressed. (Be proud, Bob! Yer kid speaks Czech!)

On Monday morning we packed up our things and wandered more before catching our (Hil came back to Hamburg with me for the rest of the week!) mid-afternoon train. This invoved eating Trdelnik, hot rings of dough coated in cinnamon and sugar. Mmmmm.




It also invoved huge patties of fried cheese in a pub, a necessary (one time) czech gastronomical experience that is not to be missed or miffed at.


In conclusion, Prague = wonderful. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, as I thought it was just going to be another old touristy city like Berlin or Paris. Of course, it is an old and touristy city, but it's got something else that really attracted me. I was the sidewalks. I'm convinced.

But even better than the patterned sidewalks was spending time with a couple of my favorite people in the world, and spending time with them in such a crazy place in the world just made it that much better.

...And the train ride home was beautiful, at least for the last couple hours of daylight.

München!

The last weekend in November, Sarah, Martha, and I hopped on a south-bound train for Munich with the intention of having a grand adventure. After sleeping through the first couple hours of our almost 6-hour ride, we awoke to beautiful hilly countryside! It was a lovely contrast to flat flat Hamburg.

We arrived in the early afternoon and immediately set off to find our hostel, where we quickly deposited our things and headed out in to the afternoon sun. That day was spent mostly wandering around doing whatever we pleased and enjoying the old Bavarian architecture... and listening to all the silly Americans wandering around the crowded Christmas markets. Silly Americans. (They made me quite happy to know that they haven't discovered the wonders of Hamburg yet.)

This church had a pretty roof! How delightful.

It was a cold night, but a beautiful one at the market in front of the Rathaus. Too bad a million other people thought so, too. We ended up finding something sweet to eat and then went to bed early, as we were all exhausted from the previous week's worth of being busy and sleep deprivation.

The next day we made up a schedule for ourselves, bought delicious pastries at a bakery, and headed out into the sunshine for our adventure.

First on the list was a visit to the German science and technology museum, which was situated on its own island! They didn't have quite as many interactive exhibits as they had advertised, but it was still fun to wander around and learn about THINGS. One of my favorite rooms was full of oooooooold old old pianos and organs. They also had a textile section with lots of old looms, which made me think of Mom.

One of the windows in the museum gave us a pretty view of the clouds rolling over the Munich skyline.


After the museum and some delicious falafel, we made our way to the Residenz museum, the sparkly chateau home to all the ruling dukes and lords of Bavaria. It was quite spectacular and so huge that I really thought it would never end. The first room was my favorite - it opened out onto a courtyard and the entire back wall was decorated with intricately mosaiced shells.

There was a little Weinachtsmarkt going on inside one of its several courtyards.

There were several rooms filled with old religious relics. This is claimed to be the skull of John the Baptist! They had his mother's, too. (They looked the same - must be true!)


The third part of our adventure was going up in the huge TV tower that towers over the city. I would have liked to have been there with some daylight, but there isn't much chance of that at these coordinates. It was incredibly windy and we didn't stay long, though I still enjoyed the view. The big buildings seen here are part of the BMW World.

Once our feet found the ground again, we headed back to the Weinachtsmarkt at the Rathaus for a picnic of giant pretzel and fruit, which we consumed in the empty fountain in front of the Frauenkirche.


Then it was time for Sarah's birthday chocolate-covered banana, hot chocolate, and hot Honigmilch. Then sleep. Then six hours on a train headed north.

This week in Hamburg is another busy one with lots of homework, theater, and a wonderful Hilary visiting. I'll update about Prague as soon as I can.

FYI:

Soooo.... I'm taking a train to Prague at 6.28am tomorrow, returning late late late Monday night with a Hilary. Munich and Praha updates to come!

(Ohh, the crazy life I lead.)

Here's something entertaining.

Look what I just found...

Check out the newly updated University Players website for more fun pictures and info on our play! I particularly enjoy how they used the word "miraculous" to describe the unexpected guest. Someone didn't double-check that one in the German-English dictionary. : )