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Well, I’m currently sitting in the brilliant Sir Toby’s Hostel in Prague (hats off to Foster for his recommendation on accomodation in both Berlin and Prague) so I thought I should catch up with the last few days and what they’ve brought me.

I arrived in the Czech Republic’s capital at the lovely train station Praha Holesovice. The Czech people certainly are an interesting bunch. Some are really friendly (thanks heaps to the lady who sold me my week ticket) and some evidently hate anyone not as gruff as them (the info booth at the main train station). As with all new city’s the first problem is faced early - how the hell to get to the hostel!? Ended up being easier than I thought. Jump on the metro one stop back, leave the station, any tram going to the left and get off after two stops… For some reason however the tram didn’t stop at the second stop, so it was an interesting 15 minutes attempting to gather my senses again. Found the hostel eventually and came in for a warming cup of (not great) tea.

With Manly High School’s concert band on tour in the Czech Republic and Austria this January, the family of one of my students, Elizabeth, (Manly High’s girl captain for 2005) families was/were/are here due to the younger daughter, Rosemary, spending 6 months on exchange to Ireland. I headed into the city with a vague recolection of the name of their hotel, a map I scrounged from the hostel kitchen and an even vaguer sense of how the hell the trams work in order to get into the old part of Prague.

After going into a similarly named hotel, I eventually found the right one where I was greeted by the girls father who thrust a beer into my hands. After a couple of drinks, and some time to catch up with the family (Elizabeth caned it in the HSC, despite not telling me her UAI her folks proudly did, and managed to score a scholarship to USyd), we headed out to a traditional Czech restaurant for dinner before retiring for a coffee at their hotel. After a great dinner, my next challenge was to actually work out how to get home. Thankfully Prague’s public transport is about on par with Sydney’s - so it really wasn’t too bad.

Next day we met up at Prague’s infamous castle for a touristy day. Beautiful day for it too. A magnificent blue filled the skies, something that was missing in France/The Netherlands/Germany, and made it possible to actually see the vapour trails from the jets. I soon discovered that Czech art is rather morbid and has an almost exagurated emphasis on Christianity - the fire and brimstone version at that.

With the Miller’s having to take Elizabeth to meet up with the rest of Manly High’s band, I left to find a return to the hostel. Upon my arrival I ran into a bunch of Melbournians and we headed out for beers and pasta at an Italian restaurant in old town. After bailing from their planned all nighter, I came back to the hostel and hit the pub downstairs with a few other guys I’d met earlier in the day.

Now up to yesterday I went back up to the castle to cover the few locations I’d missed when up their the day before (luckily the passes are valid for two days). Then meandered through old town and did a spot of buying.

Final day was spent in old town and the districts, a visit to a Czech photographer’s exhibition and some Apple Strudle. Not sure where dinner will be tonight, but a few beers will definitely be drunk to finalise my visit to the wonderful city of Prague. Tomorrow I’ll be grabbing a 2hr train ride back into Germany to Dresdent to enjoy the sites of a city flattened in WWII.

Until next time, take care!

flickr photos for prague