9/23-9/25 Beginning of Prague

Jessica and I fit in one more sight, Belvedere Palace, before catching our early afternoon bus from Vienna to Prague. Another thank you to George for recommending we take a bus instead of train. We easily saved $100 and the bus ride was great.

Also, one more thing about Vienna: Jessica and I loved the english directions from the metro ticket machine. After you select your ticket, you select to pay and then it says, “Ok, I print the ticket now.” Yes, please print my ticket, thank you. It was so cute. I don’t know why but Jessica and I made up a voice for the machine and we LOVED saying aloud the directions, especially, “okay, I print the ticket now.”  Imagine that Scandinavian guy from the capital one commercial who pretends to be Peggy. That’s the best way I can describe the voice. A slightly tentative non-native English speaker, who unlike Peggy is trying to be really helpful. I will re-do the voice if you ask me later.

Okay, Prague stuff now

After arriving in Prague, between Jessica and I, we successfully figured out public transit to our hostel. Jessica described our dynamic well in that we both notice different things around us which is why together we can figure things out. We spent our first night trying out Czech beers, walking around our neighborhood, and planning our trip to Terezin, an old fort town turned concentration camp during WWII.

I didn’t even know there was a concentration camp close to Prague and if Jessica hadn’t read about it in her Rick Steves book then we would never have gone. It was about an hour bus ride to this quiet, kinda empty, town. We got off at the Jewish Ghetto Museum and checked out the museum exhibits/memorial inside. The part I liked best about the whole museum was the column of quotes taken from various letters and journals from people of all ages who lived in the ghetto there. I learned alot from this museum, its film, and the film from the small fortess.

Apparently, the Nazis used this concentration camp as an example for Red Cross inspectors. Though they wouldn’t allow any visitors/inspectors until they brought the population down to a reasonable level and after the remaining citizens had beautified the town. We spent a good 4-5 hours in this seriously somber town.

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okay, I’m back. I couldn’t really write about the rest of the trip right after writing about Terezin. It seemed disrespectful to jump to other stuff. Sorry, I don’t have some sort of transition piece but maybe leave and come back

(btw, the “lesson learned” was that I should always stop to take a picture and not wait to do it later. We passed this yard on our walk to the small fortress but I figured I could do it on way back. Bad call. When we passed this place again the residents were out and the lighting just wasn’t quite the same. Just take the picture.)

post Terezin, back in Prague

On our way to grocery store for dinner, I saw an advertisement for a restaurant located around the corner. Even though we had already decided to cook dinner, I wanted to check out the prices and menu. Money!! It was COMPLETELY in Czech and mentioned daily specials of foods recommended by Rick Steves as traditional Czech foods. Jessica and I both got excited by it and so we decided to cook in another night and eat at this place.

I ordered a Gambrinus beer to start off and it was a great choice. They had already run out of the daily special so Jessica and I used the Rick Steves book to try and figure out the menu. I thought I ordered a fried pork dish and Jessica thought she was getting a chicken dish with other stuff which included mustard. We kinda deciphered the menu correctly—-kinda.

I ended up with a plate of three triangles of fried cheese with a side salad. Jessica’s meal was hilarious. She got a cutting board as a plate with a pig’s knuckle/knee. There were some sauces on the side including mustard so, yeah, we got parts of our order correct.

I also had ordered a very typical Czech cabbage soup since I was still sick plus I managed to cut up the roof of my mouth somehow and I figured soup wouldn’t hurt to eat. (I ate the fried cheese super slowly and in tiny pieces and didn’t even try to eat much of my salad b/c it stung ahah)

I never got my soup though lol. Our waitress brought the soup bread to our table but I think she got a little overwhelmed by the sudden invasion of boys. When we got to restaurant there were maybe 6 other people. Then a huge group of boys, dressed in athletic clothes, arrived at the bar and all proceeded to order a red drink and a draft beer. Then they all were served a bowl of soup at their table. Cue group #2 of guys who do the exact same thing. And finally, group #3 arrives so I didn’t mind that she forgot my soup since she had to deal with all those guys. Next time, I’m in Czech Republic I’m definitely trying the soup b/c it must be awesome if all those guys ordered it after playing some sort of sport.

We spent the rest of the evening napping and showering in preparation for a night out at Karlovy Lazne, the supposed biggest club in central Europe. Before hitting up the club, we met up with a very old friend from San Antonio who just happened to be in Prague at the same time. SUPER UNEXPECTED. Jessica had been looking at comp with me when she noticed his picture of prague castle on my newsfeed. I’m really glad we met up. We all stepped inside a very chill bar/cafe/idk and just talked for a long time about where we’ve been in Europe thus far and about our future plans.

Eventually, Carlos, Jessica, and I headed to the club and it was interesting. Jessica and I just had a great time dancing on the different floors. However, I think I had more fun waiting for the trams back to our hostel though and I have three Parisian guys to thank for that.

“All day, all night, all day, all night (repeat alot) What the ****??.” Recognize the song? One of the guys played this on his iphone and it inspired him to sing-song say, Where’s the ******* bus?? This song and phrase now are another fond phrase memory that Jessica and I loved repeating randomly throughout rest of our trip. It was just nice to pass the time by joking around. We all got off at the same stop and said goodbye only to ran into them again maybe ten minutes later because they were lost and had walked in a circle. They ended up waiting for our next tram to arrive so we wouldn’t be waiting alone then we actually said bye and I hope they found their hotel soon.

The next morning, we checked out of our hostel and while I went to an English Catholic mass, Jessica went to the Lennon Wall since I wasn’t too interested in it. Looking at her pictures though I wish I had seen it after all. Thing #2 to do in Prague next time

We had some trouble checking in to our next hostel because I made the reservation for the wrong date online. We waited on the sofa where I proceeded to fall asleep on the sofa. Jessica was really nice and didn’t wake me while she handled fixing reservation. Thanks, Jess, that nap was clutch.

We started sightseeing of Prague itself with the Strahov Monastery where I found the most amazing library. The Strahov Monastery complex has a library with centuries old texts and these two amazing rooms, the Philosophy Room and the Theology Room. I loved, loved, loved the Philosophy room. From the picture, illegally taken, you can see that it is two stories but what you can’t see is the painted ceiling and the secret staircases, hidden in the corners by bookshelves, that serve as only way to 2nd floor of library. Seeing this library reminded me of Aley and the Beauty and the Beast Disney movie. I thought of Aley because for some reason we have repeatedly mentioned our desire for an open room lined with books, big windows, and space to read. I knew she would love it as much as I did. And I thought of Beauty and the Beast because Belle finds a massive library in the Beast’s castle similar to the Philosophy room. I bet that the drawers for the movie were inspired by this room.

I don’t have any pictures of the Theology room but I’ll share some facts about it. This room is only one story but similar in size to Philosophy room. In the back there is a locked cabinet that contains all then revolutionary books by people such as Kepler and Copernicus. In order to read those books, the monks had to have permission and receive a blessing from the bishop/someone higher up (the details are fuzzy now)

We then went to the Prague Castle complex. We did so much in one day that I need to write another post to finish.