Prague

Prague , Many people say its one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I was rather disappointed the last time i visited so decided to really spend my time well to see if this city lives up to the hype.

Six Months have passed since i last was here in Prague , the weather had also changed , the same with my budget and traveling friends. It seemed like i was the only factor still remaining. While the last trip was a rush through European capitols this trip had been a trip through the Czech Republic. Where it was warm the last time it was now sub-zero temperatures and slush.. I was amazed to find "Tour de Ski" being aranged in Nove mesto only a week or two before my arrival in prague.

Finally! On the bus from Kutna Hora i overheard two people speak something familiar. It was Norwegian! Norway is a small country and even though we fly more than six times the rate of the normal European its strange to meet Norwegians outside of Norway, but Prague seems to be a popular spot and even has cheap flights to Bergen. Later i found out that these people where living less than a kilometer away from my little flat. We exchanged travel tips and talked on the way into town , I parted with them and shook their hands , probably leaving them a little surprised since we talked about doing a pubcrawl later that evening.

According to Lonely planet the Clown and Bard hostel should be my kind of hostel. A true party Hostel with a young and open minded crowd. It was a warning that the place might be busy, but this is almost as far off season so i took the chance of just showing up, which turned out to work out perfectly. The hostel turned out to be great value at 250kc a night and you know that you have come to the right place when you arrive in happy hour and the receptionist pours you two pints for 28kc.

People! Oh my god you lovely people! Ive been traveling alone through Bohemia and finally there where lpeople to talk to. Not just drunken talk as youre doing in the pub, but talks about other things. Joined up with some American girls and played drinking games for the rest of the day. What is up with people who have to play drinking games just to drink? Isnt the best way to drink just sitting down and sharing experiences and telling stupid stories? Not the mention the classic backpacker phrases:

• where do you come from?
• How long are you staying
• What was your previous destination.
  

  Charles Bridge from the riverbed of Vlatava
  
  
• Whas is you next destination

I always like to answer ""My last port of call" to the question "what was your previous destination", something that seems to confuse someone.

Day Two:

Got up at 8 , decided to go around the city and take pictures. I walked over Charles Bridge (reasonably early), Visited the Tower , strolled down the Vltava and found a Museum for Modern Art which i attended. Accidentally met  a brazilian guy from the Hostel , and we decided to go to the Observation Tower on Petrin Hill. To bad it was closed , but Petrin hill is pretty cool with the town wall and all that. And youre getting away from the Traffic for an hour or two. Walked down on the other side and took the tram into the city again. Next Stop Vysehrad which where recomended in my Lonely planet Eastern Europe Book. Bruno (the Brazilian guy) agreed and we walked around in Nove Mesto for 20minutes trying to find the Fortress.

When we did it was totally worth it. There where practically no tourists there , only mothers and babies walking for an stroll early in the evening. The view over Nove Mesto was quite good and we could see the old church spires and Prague Castle in the horizon. Vysehrad is well worth going to escape the urban jungle for a few hours. Its free and its no tourists to be sighted like the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge.
There arent so much to be seen in vysehrad, but a praying room , church, an amazing cemetary and a playground are some of its features. I tried to enter the praying room and where shocked that a nun was inside. I pulled my act together and looked around , exited and closed the door silently behind me..

We took a stroll through the cemetery and it is clearly that its not the regular Czech that is burried here. With so many expensive tombstones it must be the cultural elite and other prominent people that are resting here. The cemetary is not big, but you can walk through this place and admire the toombstones for about an hour.

On the way around the Fortress we found a guy CLIMBING the Vysehrad! Looking closely on the picture there are handles to hold on to, but you are basically climbing without a safety-net next to a road. The worst thing is that he seemed like just a normal tourist

It was getting dark and i wanted to get some pictures of the sunset. Bruno was longing to get home again, but he accepted that i wanted to stay another 30minutes to watch the sunset. . And when i look at the picture i got it was so worthwhile. The picture of the sunset and SS Peter & Paul Church came out pretty good. As with all pictures taken with Raw settings you have to do some retouching in photoshop to make them good and interesting. They are often pale and boring straight from the camera, but with a little tad of Saturaction and changes in colour temperature the result was stunning.

Back at the Hostel again. We imidiatly started drinking with the same girls that we met last night. Some other people joined it was the same stupid card game again. But this time i got aces and was able to make up some rules. Some of the ingenious rules i made up was:

• For every round , everyone has to drink for at least 5sec (I tried a whole pint, but that didnt go so well)
• Whenever the girls drink , I have to drink as well (I was lagging behind, perhaps because of increased tolerance)
  

The time out was pretty ordinary. Went to a club with loud music , I was at the dancefloor having fun , receiving compliments from the American girls. I even asked one of them up to dance, but the answer i got was that none of them could dance. They only thing they knew was rubbing their bodies upto other people at the dance floor. I quickly replied "Hey! Im up for that too!"..

Next club. Same thing with a slight exception. Two girls from the hostel got in a fight and i tried to get between them and ask them to sort it out Verbally. The reply i got was "Get out of it, Norway!". Well , I didnt want to be seen with those girls and strangely enough they didnt show for breakfast the next day. I think one of the girls checked out pretty early in the morning. Girls... Ill never understand what theyre thinking, fighting in a club is just tasteless. A couple of guys where appalled by the situation and we decided to ditch them and head to our own bar. No more dancing and shit, just time to get wasted.. Fast Forward , Got lost on the way home, due to my blurred vision of the map i had in my pocket.

Day Three.

Just lazing at the Hostel untill three o clock.. Talking to the other guests and strugling with a horrible hungover from the day before. Walked into town , passed a statue of Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill is one of the people i look up to , much of the reason is that he also stuttered, but showed that during hard determination you can accomplish anything. We also walked to the Funky TV tower, but when the admission was 150kc for going up we just turned around in the door.

Parted with the group when i found a Photography Museum.. Was there for a while. For the rest of the day i just walked around and went inside the Museum of Prague for a little educational stuff. They have an amazing model of old town prague which should be seen. Bring a tripod if you want any good pictures. Or a camera with IS/VR/Anti Shake and a bright lens.. And Managed to get a couple of nice shots with the 50mm F1.8, but the depth of field is almost none , almost ruining the picture.

Today , my last day in Prague a friend called me up and said that he was in Prague again. We decided to go out to an 80's party to laugh at the music and the people there before we where supposed to go to a Metal Bar. The 80's party and Lucena Club/Pub was pretty good with the DJ spinning Music like Rednex , Aqua , Michael Jackson and other hits from the 80's and the 90's. We went up to the stage and started doing the jenka on stage. After 15seconds we where 10people doing the jenka to Rednex. This was obviously something that had never been done before if I interpreted the facial expression the the people standing in the crowd. Well down again i started to dance on the table next to a couple of girls , again people where surprised , guess a guy full of confidence dancing on tables is something that is pretty unusual. But hey , Im not the average joe ;)

We headed to Roxy Nightclub. It was a rave party with people pushing drugs and dancing like crazy. Nothing spectacular. Was here for 4hours untill we took the Metro Home again. .. I went up to the room and packed and headed straight out to the airport. Better being an hour to early than an hour to late.. My flight was scheduled for departure 10:45 and the time was around 7:30 when i got home , so i only had around an hour of downtime at the airport.