Czech-ing in with Prague

PRAGUE

“No one realises how beautiful it is to travel 

until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” 

– Lin Yutang

About three weeks since we have officially been back, and already it is feeling like a long time since we were in Prague.

 5 days in the beautiful Czech Republic capital capital breezed by, and before we knew it we were moving on to discover the very last country that we would be able to add to the list of places we visited in nearly 200 days of travel (wow, that sounds like a lot when it's counted in days.)

Now that we are home we have the difficult task of settling back in- a lot harder for me since my blissful days of working as a waitress are over and I am now back to intense full-time study. So to distract me from the fact that it really is over for now, I have started sorting through all the 5000-odd pictures I took throughout our travels...which brings me to Prague.

Prague is one of those places that immediately springs to mind when you think of a grand european trip (and fun fact we learnt while we were there, most of the movie Eurotrip was actually filmed in Prague.)

The city has all the trademarks of European cities that I have loved throughout our trip: cobblestone streets- check (or should I say...czech); old town area with at least one cool old building; river separating the two sides; big old castle on hill over the other side.

So here's my 'must-see' of Prague, compiled with just a hint of hindsight and a huge dash of longing that I was back there.

1. Prague Castle

St Vitus Cathedral

Without a doubt, the main sight in Prague is the looming castle across the banks of the river. We saw our fair share of castles throughout our trip, but Prague Castle is something different- instead of having a big building that looks (well, there's no better way to say it: 'Castle-y'), here the grounds are made up of a range of different buildings- churches, the massive St Vitus Cathedral with stained glass windows and ornaments inside, buildings and palaces that used to house the royalty, and little preserved laneways linking it all together. The grounds themselves are actually free to go to, and you can even watch the changing of the guards for free from about 10 metres away.

Changing of the guards at Prague Castle-
sadly didn't do an ABBA routine like the Buckingham Palace one

But to get the most out of the castle, you need to purchase a ticket. We chose the 'express' (read: cheaper) ticket that had all but one of the main sights, which was to climb the powder tower in St Vitus cathedral for a view out over Prague. But this aside we still got to see the rest of the beautiful buildings, and check out the Golden Lane, complete with preserved little cottages from the time.

A not so comfortable looking chair

A preserved tiny cottage on Golden Lane

2.  Walking tour of Prague

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the tip-based 'free' walking tours that happen around Europe are backpackers  every travellers best friend. We did one on one of those particularly cold days that fool you when you wake up- it looks like a sunny day when you look out the window, and then it's about -5 degrees when you get outside.

        


















The tour was really interesting because we really had no idea how bad it was in the communist era in the Czech Republic. They were saved from Nazi occupation by the Soviets, who then decided that they weren't going to clear out any time soon. We visited St Wenceslas Square where a student in 1969 burned himself alive to protest the way the Czechs just passively accepted the Soviets at the end of the war. Hard to think that only happened not that long ago.

3. Communist Museum
After doing the walking tour and hearing a bit about the country's communist past, we decided to visit the Communist Museum. Although I think the museum's kitsch advertising had a lot of the reason we actually went, we found it was a really interesting display of the period of occupation.

So cute, until you see the rifle

4. Kutna Hora Day Trip
About 50 minutes away on a ridiculously cheap Czech train, the town of Kutna Hora is famous for it's Kostnice, a church decorated entirely of human bones. After finding our first macabre bone display back in Rome and and our second more recently in the catacombs of Paris, we thought we'd keep up the tradition and check out this one too. When we arrived in this tiny town, you could instantly tell we were away from the tourist hotspot of Prague. The locals didn't speak much English, but they were about as friendly as they come. When we were reading the bus timetable, we had one man come over and point to the times we needed, and then we had another one point in the direction of the church, and mime a big arch above his head with his arms, to signal that the church was down that way. It turns out it shuts for one hour in the middle of the day- the time we arrived- and since the church lays about halfway between the deserted train station and the town, we caught a 10 minute bus into the town to pass the time until it opened. Eventually we made it to the church, and here it is:

The story goes that a blind/mad monk made the ossuary out of something like 40,000 bones. If it's not too weird to say I had a favourite 'part' (geddit?), the guy made a coat of arms literally out of human arms. Thumbs up for that pun.


5. Czech Food, Beer and Nightlife

A soup bowl, and a bread roll in one? Cheers Czech.

Roast beef with whipped cream and cranberry sauce? Only in the Czech Republic would that all be served on one plate. If I am going to be true to this blog, of course I need to comment on the food, otherwise I can't really say we ate our way around Europe now can I?

After coming from Poland, I think I can see a trend with central/eastern European cuisine- hearty, fatty, warming foods that are glorious to eat in minus temperatures. I mean, I ate crumbed, deep fried cheese. Don't even think that is allowed. But as no one ever said, 'when in Prague....'.

Mmm roast beef and... whipped cream?

But by far one of the best parts of Czech cuisines was the range of great beers they brew there. Not only is a pint ridiculously cheap (around 1-1.50 euro mark), the beers of Prague had Mike very impressed.

One night we got to sample the best of Czech beers and nightlife when we went to a bar called Usudu. From the ground level it just looked like an average bar- plain wooden walls and furnishings and only half full. But after going down a few flights of stairs when you entered it became a cave/cellar kind of thing, with a bar at every level and stairs enticing you to keep going down. The place was insanely cool, aside from the fact that smoking is legal inside there and so we left smelling like we'd had about 20 packs of cigarettes.

6. The John Lennon Wall


This one kind of speaks for itself, but just around the corner from the wall we stumbled across something we really didn't expect. It was Prague's version of Carnival, where people were dressed in medieval style clothes with crazy makeup, there was folk dancing and even a whole pig hung above a fire by its feet! I think that image is what I will probably remember most of Prague.

Thanks for the memory Prague!

This one I probably don't want to remember all that much

 

San Sebastian (and sleeping on a train)

THE great European rail journey: when the words 'europe' and 'train' are used in the same sentence, it's hard not to have this image of long journeys through the alps, beautiful scenery passing out the window, and stretching out in those little 4 person cabins that you always see in movies. It wasn't until our trip to San Sebastian did I realise just how far from reality this was.

Since our time in Portugal had come to an end and we are now trying to get to the UK by mid October to meet up with one of Mike's friends, we decided to abandon our original plan to travel Madrid-San Sebastian- France and instead just head straight to San Sebastian on our way North. (Since we were coming from Porto, Madrid would have been basically 2 long travel days for only a 3 night stay, and from what we had heard we had seen the best of Spain in the places we had already visited). This meant that all that stood between Portugal and Spain was one tiny twelve hour train trip... On an overnight train.

The Spanish rail company Renfe run what they call a 'trenhotel' between Lisbon to just over the French border, passing through San seb. It basically is just that, a hotel packed onto a train, complete with a cafeteria and a fine dining carriage. It has a range of accommodation from 1st class private cabins, same-sex only mixed 'dorms', to the tourist class sleeper seats. Thinking that we could use the overnight train as an opportunity to save on a night's accommodation, we opted for the tourist seat, just to test how sleeping in a seat could be. After battling with the online booking system (Spanish websites seem to reject every credit card we have), we managed to confirm some seats. All seemed well.

We arrived at Coimbra B station to board the train, and walked down the aisle to find our seats. The train was arranged in rows of two large-ish, reclining seats on each side of the aisle, and then at the very end of the carriage there was a group of four seats, with two of the seats facing backwards. There were only 8 seats on the ENTIRE train that faced in the opposite direction to the way the train was moving, with seat backs up against the wall so they couldn't recline. So of course, which seats did we end up getting?? If anyone ever travels this journey, never ever get seats 9A and 9B- the backwards seats.

A nice English-speaking conductor let us swap to some normal seats for a few hours, telling us that the people who would take those seats wouldn't be on for about 3 hours. Just as we were settling in to get a bit of sleep before the rightful seat owners came, we must have crossed over the border to Spain, meaning the nice conductor finished his shift. I woke to a Spanish speaking man asking for our tickets, saying something to me I couldn't understand and pointing to our backwards seats. We still got the point- get back to where you belong.

At about 1am, 7 hours into the journey, they finally dimmed the lights in the train. The other people in our little four-sweater had the smart idea of swapping so that mike and I could sit opposite each other and stretch our legs out, and we managed to get a bit of sleep (if you count 4 hours sleeping upright as enough to rest for one night).

We arrived in San Sebastian at 6.30am Spain time (though it was only 5.30 for us running on Portugal time), and when we got off the train it was still pitch black.. And raining. An hour later after walking in the rain, getting lost, and eventually getting a taxi, we had made it to our hostel.So while it wasn't the best start to our 3 nights in San Sebastian, it actually turned out really good.

Our first day started off cold and rainy, and since beach was out of the question, sleep and Spanish hot chocolate were on the menu so we could stay dry.

We also found out that it was the last day of the San Sebastian film festival that day, the Spanish version of the big international film festivals like Cannes. We looked up on the website and found out people like Dustin Hoffman and Penelope Cruz had all been in town that week, and since it was the last day, we thought we could try and escape the rain by buying tickets to one of the films. Once we realised that all the good tickets were sold out and the rest were foreign films with subtitles, we decided to give it a miss becasue we probably would have fallen asleep. But it was nice knowing we had actually timed something good this time and were in town when a major event was happening!

By about lunch time the weather started clearing up and we noticed people wearing blue and white soccer jerseys on the streets. Little did we know what we were in for. It turns out there was a special Derby football match between two of the teams from the Spanish Basque region: San Sebastian v Bilbao. By mid afternoon, the entire streets around the 'old town' area (especially the street of our hostel) were packed with football supporters preparing for the game: drinking outside the bars, singing and chanting team songs and even a couple of people playing marching band music. It was such a crazy vibe to experience, and you could easily be mistaken to think the game was on that afternoon- kick off didn't actually happen until 8pm. The Phillipino- Spanish guy at our hostel told us that people in the Basque area of Spain are actually really friendly, and so although the majority of the supporters in the streets were wearing the blue and white of San Sebastian, the other team supporters could drink alongside them without any hassles. He was quick to mention though 'if this was Madrid, they would all be fighting'.

When game time came, we decided to tapas- hop along the bars so we could get some food and watch the game in between. San sebastian has this certain type of tapas called 'pinxtos', where all the bars lay out this buffet of food served on these little toothpicks and basically you just grab a plate, help yourself to a few sticks, and then pay at the end. So you can go into a bar, see what sort of food they have on offer, grab a stick or two, and then move on to the next place.

After a bit of food we managed to find a bar with a tv that we could actually see (the rest were too packed), and watched the second half of the game. San seb won 2-0, so the town was in full party mode that night when all the supporters returned. We cleared out of there before that time, and watched a bit of the cheering and chaos unfold from the balcony of our hostel.

Our next two days in San Sebastian were beautiful and sunny, and we spent our time soaking it all up on one of the two big, beautiful beaches in the area and getting our last bit of Spanish sunshine... I even went swimming (last time I think I will for the next 4 months!).

We also went for a walk up to a big hill that had beautiful views over San Sebastian:

Our nights were spent with people from the little hostel we were staying at- Rogers House. They took us to a place with €1 tapas one night, and on our last night they cooked us a big paella so we got our last fix of spanish food. Albert, one of the guys that worked there, was a really sweet guy- he tried teaching mike and a few others how to make roses out of napkins; he gave me and a few of the girls there origami paper crane earrings that the other hostel guy, Mario, had made; and every time I walked into the kitchen he would say 'how are you Shelby?'... I was impressed that he managed to remember all of our names!

By the end of our 3 nights, it was time to say goodbye to Spain. San Sebastian was a really amazing place and completely different from what I expected- I thought it was a small beach place similar to Ericeira in Portugal. It actually is a pretty modern beachside town, with a beautiful old quarter and a developed, rich persons resort side of town.

Since it is so close to the border there was a lot of French influence there, with lots of French series on the streets, and every second person in the bus could be seen with a baguette in their shopping! Although the nights were pretty cold, the last few days of sunshine was the perfect way to end our time in Spain. I'm going to miss that country.