Sigh. Lufthansa… no good. Well, definitely not great, and because the company is german… filled with real German people (not Australians who have the last name ’Schneider’. Unfortunately. Because we‘re mostly awesome) who think they own their seat, your seat and the whole plane. Word to the guy in front??? You can’t beat a headrest into a comfortable shape. It’s not made of that kind of substance. You’re just knocking the drink of girl behind you into her lap every 5 minutes. And when it came to “put your seats into upright position” time, a certain two obedient (POLITE, rather) Australians complied. As did the people behind. But the germans in front… nein. Which left us SFA room between our faces and the inflight screens. Which meant that every time that damned german man bashed his seat, I was obviously at risk of getting a black eye as well as an even-more-saturated lap, and Nick doesn’t want TWO continents thinking my occasional (note: not ’rare’, per se) accidental (toilet doors, car doors, and potential air-plane-headrest slam) black-eyes mean woman-beater…
Munich - the efficiency of the germans (how this was taken an incredibly sinister/evil turn I will describe in the Krakow post) meant that even though we were early for our car booking, they thought they could do something for us. That’s when the usual extra gee-up of car rental prices came out… we thought we’d booked for 2 drivers… but apparently nein. Being that it was going to be an extra $700 plus AUD we thought we’d stick to one. Which had to be Nick, because I was keen to try out every wine region in Eastern Europe, and my Slovene for ‘I‘ve only had one glass‘ (hiccup) is not so good. So we picked up our beautiful Mercedes (they’re cheapin Germany obviously, EVERYONE has new beemers, Mercedes, Vws… so shiny, and FAST) and headed the one hour to Deggendorf. Our ’close-to-Munich’ place of choice for a night to gather our wits after the flight. NOTE: bad planning meant we were flying into Munich at the start of Oktoberfest. Which sounds awesome, except when you realise cheap accommodation books out a year in advance and… well… you planned badly (well, 'poorly', whatever).
The Autobahn was… a place of contrasts. Cool-as-a-cucumber Nick, and crying/scared/white-knuckled-bracing Lauren. I know where I get that (I know from my driving lessons, that is). Completely undeserved on Nick’s part Imight add (I.e. that I would be scared) but it’d been a long flight and it’s weird sitting in the ’driver’s seat’ by Aussie standards, and seeing a corner hurtling towards you but having no control over preventing your seemingly-inevitable death. Anywhoo, so clearly day one (and let’s not mention days 2 and 3) of Europe were… challenging. For both of us. But let’s leave that alone.
So, Deggendorf was cute and pretty typical (I imagine) of a german 'dorf' (look it up…) It was pretty much German Lismore. We went out for tea to the local pub, which was packed with locals (what a surprise,but that meant we knew it was good). Waittresses were very kind with our crap german, and the locals pretty much ignored us until (reading from my “Lonely Planet German phrasebook”) I said (at a coincidental lull in conversation in the room) “Huh. Condom is just Kondom is german”. Awkward.
Anyway, the next day we drove to prague on German and Czech super-duper-awesome, eat-your-heart-out-Australia roads. So it was fast. And safe. And surprisingly flat (surprising to me, at least). By the time we got there, we’d forgiven Lufthansa (or put it aside, at least) and had nicknamed the car ‘Klaus’. Very reliable, safe and cute as a german button. GPS… details to come in ‘Krakow‘ episode.
Nick had a baptism of fire in terms of ’ancient street driving’. You know, narrow, crazy turns, and for large portions of road, Prague trams SHARE YOUR LANE. Yes, the tram tracks are in your lane for trams going both directions for sometimes a couple of hundred metres. Everyone else seemed unphased (which we later learned is actually just the primary blank expression Eastern Europeans use) so we just kept on truckin to our hotel. Thank god for the GPS (beerrrh baaarrrh - for later…) Anyhoo here’s the view from our window!
Prague is HUGE, there are just suburbs upon suburbs of 150+ year old equisized, but differently coloured buildings…here’s a shot (with a tram. We never took one, figured we’d fail epically in the discussion about how much it costs and where we’re going).
The next couple of days are a bit shady (we’ve been to 2 places since then!) in the actual order of things, but I’m pretty sure we went to a place called the Beer Factory on the first night. A place where the beer taps are in the middle of your table, and you pour your own beer and get the bill at the end. I’m almost sure it’s that we’ve been to two places since that I don’t remember much… apart from that Nick had his first taste of Gulyasleves (Gulash) there and I had a half a duck with some cabbage, which was surprisingly delicious. Beer factory was on Wenceslas Square (one of “the sights”) of Prague, but it’s really just a looooooooong square of shops/cafes/casinos/bars/nightclubs/markets/strip joints/food stalls. And it’s awesome. And by Australian standards… very cheap.
Top of the square looking back up our hotel's way. They have those smarmy politician posters too. Since then, I have found they are common to all countries. Yay.
Looking down Wenceslas Square. And yes, he is the 'Wenceslas' of 'Good King Wenceslas' fame. Obviously the Chrissy carol was sung constantly under my breath. Nick had prevouslybeen unaware of said carol, but... now he's definitely not.We later found out that the two main tourist drags (Wenceslas and Old Town Squares) offer food and drink about 3 x the normal price, bu sometimes that’s worth it, depending on how keen you are to try your luck with Lonely Planet phrase-book and the waiter’s patience. Nick described Wenceslas as Times Square on valium. With sweeter local laws re drinking… or rather, all of Prague has these. Please see my pic below of the next day’s ’cart food AND BEER’. And of me looking like someone who is really enjoying their cart-food, which was the barbequed paprika chicken skewer placed in a roll (so you get the same amount of chicken as everyone else, and it‘s all cooked perfectly… how smart is that!!!!), with mustard. Yuuuuuuuum. Nick loved his huge Czech sausage (tee hee) hotdog too. There’s people just walking around at 9am with cans of beer, or cups of beer (cart beer) and at lunch, it’s part of the culture to be having a beer with lunch. So all of the food/beer carts are going off, and the sitting areas and well-positioned tables (I.e. next to cart J ) are filled with people eating and drinking. There’s a slight problem of cute old men (and less-than-cute/dirty/angry men) hitting you up for your change, in Czech, but the locals ignore them and you kind of have to as well or there’d be a bit of a swarm.
My most attractive eating face, clearly. Although to be honest I was of the impression Nickwas taking a picture of the beer (piva) and food. Anyway, back to the sights. Old Town Square. Amazing. Our first experience of the real true amazing historical parts of Europe. Even the walk there, through tiny cobblestone lanes, was really touching. It’s a cool place, and I’d already long decided that I could live there. Something I would later re-emphasise… and then state more strongly about other places on the trip, to-date. Argrggh.
The pic below is the Astronomical Clock, which is really old (can't be bothered looking that up or finding the Tourist Guide for Prague) and to the right is the streets on the way to the Old Town Square.
To the right is a view of the Square itself. And there's us there (I like to include a few mugshots, vain as I am).
So, I know you can see how old Town Square would have blown our mind. Perfectly preserved buildings, and a several-hundred-year-old clock that are just fairy-tale to a simple Aussie girl like myself. What blew my mind just as much was a couple of hundred Belgian bikers (I.e. a middle aged motorbike appreciating club, by the looks) rolling up, doing circles, parking in the middle of the square and then heading into various cafes for beers and lunch, one of the days we were there.
Re the astronomical clock, we discovered that night (after we’d piccied up) that the clock does ’something’ on the hour. Something about apostles and bells, and Nick said his mum said something about a monkey. So anyway, we went back the next day… nick sat in the nearby bar having 2-4-1 (saying, incorrectly, that he could ’see from his seat’) and 5 min before I joined the crazy throng developing in front of the clock to see what the fuss is about. Ummm. Maybe I have high standards for things that are supposed to do things… but I saw 2 statues ringing bells, and then there was a guy at the top blowing a horn/trumpet. I think I was looking at the wrong part or something, although the clock itself is a thing of immense beauty, and it’s really incredible to think that any kind of mechanical components made that long ago have lasted so long and still can hold the attention of a crowd of 1000+ on a random Tuesday at 11am.
Anyway, we also visited Prague castle (how could you not) and as we rose the steady climb of stairs Nick turned and said “Look at the view… it’s almost breathtaking”. And it was. And he wasn’t talking about me, ha ha. Prague… when we got to castle, the view was something to write home about.
Check it out…
Looking up at the castle on the way there.
Just a third or a quarter of the view you get up there. It just wraps around.... streets and streets and suburbs and suburbs of beautiful old buildings and churches. And from up here you can see how maze-like the streets are.
See? We were here too.
The one above is taken in the 'village' part of the castle, so inside the castle walls from when they used to bring everyone inside when sieges were going down (or when the town was smaller...or both).
One of the churches within the walls. A few generations of polish royalty from wayyyy back are in a tomb here. We went to the free tomb bit - which appears to be some more recent additions, cos there was a lady in there sobbing on her knees in front of a big sarcophagus thing as people traipsed through. We made a quick get away.
On the way to Prague Castle we visited the Jewish Cemetary, near the Old Town Square. This was on the recommendation of Donna-sky, and a bit of additional google research. It’s one of the last jewish cemetaries left in Europe (or rather, the area that was occupied by Nazis during WWII, which we learned at Auschwitz was most of the continent…) because Hitler ordered them destoyed. The tombstones are all higgledy piggledy because in the Jewish religion you cannot/do not touch a headstone after someone is buried. And they’re so close because people are buried up to 12 deep there. It’s not a scary cemetery, if anything… it’s a beautiful, communal use of space. :)
We did the obligatory walk along Charles Bridge on the way home, as the weather just turned from beautiful and slightly hot to slightly threatening. It’s an amazing piece of architecture, having been built in 1357 (I looked that up) but it is THRONGED with tourists. And market stalls. And hawkers. And pickpockets, they say, although Nick and I have figured were among the few tourists they wouldn’t target first up as a) we’re of an age where we’d probably have diddly worth taking; and b) we’re able-bodied enough to give them a good chase, and perhaps a clip around the ear. I would have liked a quiet moment with the bridge (to really enjoy it) but the thought of a dawn tip across town (about 5km) was beyond me. Here’s Nick on the bridge.One photo I’m proud of from Prague (not being artistic, myself) is this one, looking up to the Charles bridge from the bridge closer to the castle…
Two more note-worthy (but I have problems with keeping things concise,so see what you think) things are that Prague people are… or Czechs are (not having explored the Republic at all beyond Prague, I can’t say how far this extends) really into Marionette Theatre. And, ergo, there a lot of marionette shows. Freak-a-deaky, in my book. I’m sure we saw around 10 such shops in our wanderings. But I think ONE is too many. Supply and demand, I guess. Check this out:
The other thing (sans picture, but just imagine our confused faces) was that Nick and I attempted to use Czech poker machines in Wenceslas Square to try and use up our spare Czech coinage. Yeah. I know they call them ‘money takers’ in Australia, but if you can’t understand the Instructions, and the buttons which normally would make it ’more lines’ don’t do anything that you can discern… that’s what it was. It was a long and painful attempt to become Czech millionaires (which wouldn’t make us anything of the sort in Australia) but it was all for nought. And the small number of calories used in pressing every button on the thing trying to get it to work. Cart food, cart beer and half a duck? Everything helps.
Cheers for now,
L.
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