Well! I'm now halfway through exams, and not nearly halfway done with my blog posts about Europe, but I will soldier on, and hopefully get some more written in the next week or so! From Berlin a small group of us took the train to Prague (where we would meet the others taking the bus). While the bus might have been more economical, using the train to get between cities was definitely a great decision, as we got to enjoy some amazing views taking a scenic route. This was a great introduction into the Czech Republic, which was absolutely picturesque. Prague itself really seemed to epitomise the fairytale idea of Europe, and we were staying in the centre of the old town so we especially got to enjoy it. The only reminder that we were well in truly in the 21st century were the fast food chains which, for some reason, were unbelievably well signposted, with directions from hundreds of metres away. We also had a good laugh when we realised our hostel was directly opposite a Tesco. Suddenly the Czech Republic didn't seem quite so foreign after all.
Our first morning in Prague we took a walking tour offered through the our hostel. Our guide was actually a Brazillian now living in Prague. Although our tour wasn't as informative or well organised as the one in Berlin, we certainly got a unique perspective on the city. We started our tour in front of the great disappointment which is the astronomical clock. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure that the actual functioning of the clock is impressive, but when you wait in a fully packed square for the clock to strike 11 with other tourists eagerly holding up phone cameras you expect a little more than a glorified cuckoo clock. It was fine. A much better sight, in my opinion, was the Charles Bridge.
We crossed the river via the bridge and it was a great walk. First of all, we were blessed with some beautiful weather, and there were performers and artists all along the bridge. Although I do have to say I have never understood caricature artists, of which there were plenty in every city, including this one. Why would you travel to a foreign city only to pay someone to draw a picture of you with a larger nose than usual. Why, I ask?! From there we wandered around the city on the other side of the river, and then alongside the river. We didn't actually see many of the sights of Prague on the tour, but it was nice just to get a feel for the city, and we did see a few some interesting buildings and sculptures along the way, including this famous depiction of Freud.
After our tour we headed to what would soon become my favourite place in Prague, the Easter markets. Unsurprisingly, the markets were chocka full of delicious and, more importantly, affordable food as well as some local musical entertainment, and lots of craftwork. It was a really great way to get to know the local customs and cuisine. We all quickly formed an obsession with Trdelink (your pronunciation guess is as good as mine), this kind of sweet bread which I was actually first introduced to at farmer's markets in New Zealand as a Hungarian speciality. Travelling around Europe we did find that a lot of cuisines we might associate with one particular country were in fact quite ubiquitous throughout the continent. In any case, the Prague version was delicious.
In the afternoon we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather to walk up the Petrin hill, which has a lookout at the top.The hill itself is a park, so lots of greenery, which luckily made the walk more enjoyable, as we did find climbing the slop a little brutal. Honestly it probably wasn't that steep, but we were all very weary and perhaps a little out of shape. But reaching the top of the hill was definitely worth out, and we had some great views of Prague.
In the evening we took a pub crawl, as Prague is apparently well known for its nightlife. Up until that point in the trip we had encountered a lot of American and Australian tourists, and I was disappointed at the lack of kiwis, so I was amused to discover that all of our guides on the pub crawl were from New Zealand which, really, sounds about right. In general the nightlife wasn't that different from anywhere else I've been, and they still played mostly American and British music, although I suppose that could have just been the places we were taken. It was also really more of a club crawl, with the final venue being a "five story extravaganza". Basically every floor was dedicated to a different music style, although the "hip-hop" floor was playing Ke$ha and Katy Perry, so I'm not sure if they quite had the genres mastered. Our tour guide from the morning had assured us that Prague, especially the old town, was a really safe city, so we decided to walk back to the hostel to save money, and it did actually feel very safe. There was hardly anyone about, no drunken hooligans, and we got to enjoy an empty Charles Bridge which was very cool. I think that there are three ways one must experience a city in order to really get to know it, from the city centre, from above, and at night. Luckily I got to experience all three in Prague.
Our second day in Prague we visited the beautiful Prague Castle. This looked exactly like something out of a Disney movie, and is also the largest ancient castle in the world, so we were certainly impressed. Getting to the castle involved another steep climb, up a hill opposite the Petrin hill, but we got some more great views of the city. The castle had a lot to see, including the Basilica of St Vitus, reproductions of the Bohemian Crown Jewels and a mock-up of a historic street. Unfortunately the weather again took a turn for the worse, so we didn't spend much time exploring the castle grounds, but the buildings we did see were beautiful and detailed a lot of Prague's history.
The next day we had to get a train to Vienna, but not until the afternoon, so we had some more time to explore. The Jewish Quarter had been recommended to us. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the first synagogue we realised that it was in fact Saturday, which is the Jewish sabbath, so everything in the area was shut. We decided to still wander through the Quarter, as we could see some of the buildings from the outside. The place was funnily enough still packed with non-English walking tours. We did get to see this very strange Franz Kafka statue.
Unfortunately this mostly served to remind me that I didn't manage to read any Kafka while in Prague, despite the best of intentions. Having worn ourselves out, we ended our exploration of Prague with one last visit to the Easter markets, before heading to a new destination. Prague was very much the traditional European city I had been dreaming of before I started travelling, and it did not disappoint.
Well, well, well, look who's back! Having finally returned from a month of adventuring through Europe, it's time to start writing about it. Unfortunately I'm also heading into the exam period which means I may be a little busy studying to keep blogging, but fortunately I'm willing to do pretty much anything to avoid studying in the first place (just kidding, mum!). Basically my trip in Europe involved travelling with a group of other exchange students from the USA, Australia and one lone New Zealander, getting the train from city to city, seeing some of the major sights that Europe has to offer.
The first place we arrived was Berlin, which is a pretty great introduction to Europe I think. I do have to say that I think my experience in Berlin suffered a little from timing. Being right at the start of the trip I hadn't quite settled in to the rhythm of travelling, we only had two full days there, and the weather was less than ideal. I did like Berlin, but I think I would need to visit again to really fall in love with the city. Our first day was largely spent walking around, first a little exploring on our own, disrupted by repeated sudden downpours, and in the afternoon a walking tour. In my head I thought that I would prefer wandering around a city at my own pace and picking out my own sights, but I went along with the rest of the group and realised that this was by far the best way to be introduced to a city. We took a Sandemans free tour which uses tipping instead of a set price (ideal for us poor students!) and had a great English guide for the 2.5 hours of walking. We started at the Brandenburg Tor and were then taken around the central city, seeing sites mostly associated with World War II and the Cold War. A lot of this was quite sad, because the effects of the past 100 years are still very visible, and it really lacked the classic old architecture in most other European cities. On the other hand I guess this is what sets Berlin apart from everywhere else, it gives it some of its unique character and culture. In any case, our guide did a great job of balancing both the good and the bad within Berlin's history.
Having tired ourselves out from basically an entire day on our feet, and put off by the miserable weather we spent the evening at the hostel. I have to say I was pretty nervous about hostel living, having had the privilege of only ever travelling with my parents in relative comfort, but it ended up being great. Everything was clean, the showers were surprisingly great and I even survived the top bunk. The hostel in Berlin had its own bar which was a nice place to hang out, and meet people. In our case this was an entire Norwegian girls choir. While eating our dinner suddenly the table next to us burst into beautiful song in a foreign language, causing every boy in the bar to turn towards this table of blonde norwegian girls in an entirely comical way. As one of my friends pointed out, it was basically like the Veela in Harry Potter.
The next day a few of us walked out to the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall which was commissioned to be covered with street art.
This was a very cool sight, with a huge range of art from the beautiful to the creepy to the just plain weird. We only walked a short section of the wall because it really did seem to stretch on forever. I think the only disappointing thing was the amount of graffiti covering the art, despite the many signs requesting otherwise. I mean is it neccessary to write "John and Jane 4eva 2k14" on a historic wall, I don't really think so. We walking back into the city with the intention of visitng the Holocaust Memorial and underground display. We got to the memorial, but the queue for the display went on for days, so we just walking through the memorial itself.
That evening we took a train out to Edelweis, a bar recommended to us by our tour guide for its Tuesday Jazz Nights. In explaining how to find the bar he said "you'll walk through an abandoned railway at which point you might think you're going to die but if you just keep going you'll get there and it won't be at all dodgy". Heeding his words we did eventually find the place, without dying, and it was much nicer than the surroundings might suggest. We headed upstairs to a small room where the jazz band was setting up. At first it seemed very quiet but in just a few minutes the whole place really filled up. The first hour or so was a jam session from the house band, a group of americans, and then an open session. The whole thing had a very cool vibe, and it was a nice relazing evening, although it got a little suffocating with a crammed room full of people smoking (an experience to be repeated many a time in Europe). In any case, it felt like a really authentic experience and a great way to end our time in Berlin.
Having satisfied my need to eat a Berliner in Berlin we hopped on a train to our next destination: Prague.
