Bohémiene

After a week of pure misery I took the chance and met with Lydia in Lille in order to go together to Charleroi airport in Belgium.  We had a 7:00 flight to catch and a 3:00am bus to catch to get us there.  Angela made us both a delicious dinner and I hungerly ate up my first meal of the week.  That didn't go well and left me in misery for the next few hours, thankfully I caught two hours of sleep and miraculously awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed and so did Lydia.  At the airport I was patted down, I think my bruised eyes and overall druggy look set off some alarms.  We were herded like cattle on to the packed til bursting cheap Ryanair flight to Prague.  

What can I say about Prague....  Go there, get your bags packed and get a move on.  I guess I really didn't think that Prague was going to be quite as awesome as it is, I was thinking that it would be starkly communist or dark and gothic but oh no no.  This is the capital of Bohemia everybody and the bohemians don't do stark.  Prague is a sea of colors; ochre roofs, verdigris bell towers, gold ornaments, pink/green/yellow/etc. facades.  Prague is gorgeous.  Is it just a pretty face?  No, everywhere you turn there are musicians and street performers and guys making bubbles and artists and food stands and trams going every which way, it's incredibly full of life and super fun.  Another perk is that it's not in the European Union they use the krona which means that the exchange rate is in your favor.  

We arrived in Prague on Friday morning and like savvy travelers figured out if you buy the tickets for the bus inside the airport they are half the cost, if you would buy them on the bus, so we paid a whopping 2€ to take the AEbus from the airport to the center of town.  By the way I was much in demand during this trip because I can speak English and almost everyone in Prague does also (I learned how to say in Czech 'do you speak english'). We hiked up to our apparthotel, settled in and went out searching for lunch.  Our receptionist recommended a traditional place nearby so we went to try it out.  We opened up the heavy brass and gummed up wooden door and with bright smiling faces at the same time greeted 'hello!''bongiorno!' we were nonchalantly acknowledged by an ex boxer type sitting at a table directly in front of the door drinking a pint of beer, smoking a cigarette and eating pasta.  He took one look at us, blew smoke in our faces and pointed to a reception stand with no receptionist.  By this time everyone in the restaurant had gone silent and stared at us we walked in disconcertedly and we quickly decided to change restaurants. 

Friday we walked most of Prague, about 15km worth.  We saw the famous clock on the hour when it becomes a coo coo clock, walked the charles bridge up to the castle, saw the changing of the guards and a man dressed like a Templar knight, listened to street performers and had a blast.  The whole weekend was sunny and crisp.  That evening we met up with Lucia ate some okay pizza and went to bed.  The next morning I was feeling so much better I woke up stretched sat cross legged in my bed and yelled out thank you Jehovah!  Saturday we visited the other corners of Prague the other main square, the dancing house, the Jewish disrict, tried out tdlo and used the trams and the metros and shopped a bit.  Lucia was irritated that everyone spoke English but not French or Italian and started to believe that there was an English conspiracy out to get her, haha.  That night we met up with Rosario, Lucias son who lives there, and we ate at an awesome Italian place where of course they know the chef, yep Italians.  

Sunday morning we headed out to Bratislava with a short detour in Vienna.  The one thing I wanted to do in Vienna (other than see the Spanish riding academy or attend a ball, waltzing anybody?) was to go to a coffeehouse.  I researched and found what was called the best coffeehouse in the world by several websites.  What a disapointment, the food was good but the coffee wasn't the service was horrible and everything was a bit dirty.  Vienna to me is a super calm rich town with wide streets and celloists walking down the streets to go to their next performance.  We headed out to Bratislava, Slovakia.  Everything I thought Prague was is what Bratislava is.  Dark, stark, and actually a bit of a scary town.  We saw the Danube, walked around in the old town with all its bronze statues, saw the castle and ate at an awesome restaurant.  I got to try two new types of red wine Frankovka and Svatovavrinecké and I will say they are some good red wines you guys, grown around Brno.  We stayed basically at an apparthostel and left the next morning to catch our flight from the ultra modern Bratislava airport (it costs 15€ to fly from Bratislava to Belgium).  We made good use of public transportation and got home that evening.  An amazing trip, loved it immensely.