Day 18 (Prague)

Baa! Welcome to Prague! I am a lucky sheep.

I could probably spend a few more days here without getting bored. Prague is pretty awesome. Well, except for their no-foot-stomping rules.

Sometimes you just gotta.

It was a touch of a slow morning. I clung to my bed as long as my conscience would let me. I had planned on walking about the city with a new friend from Scotland, but unfortunately I had to raincheck. I was 3 days behind on mah blogs after all. Plus, I think I prefer walking about aimlessly with my headphones in, lost in my own little world. It reminds me of home.

Prague has some crazy rad architecture, from lots of different time periods, one just kind of built on top of the other. And lots of statues. Sometimes statues on buildings. Like, one day some guy was like, 'Let's make my house much more manly. Like... put a stag on it. Or something.'

And they did.

As I was taking the tram in to town, I literally jumped off at a completely random stop, just to take a picture of this. It's huge, so I will put it up from left to right.

RADICULAR CANCER that is awesome. I had just been a little sad that most the graffiti I had seen was just tagging (boo), so this gave me hope. This is your new standard, Prague.

I went up to Pradsky Hadt, or something ridiculous with too many consonants put together. This is Prague Castle. You know my affinity for castles. I like 'em. I wasn't allowed to take too many pictures inside, as I did not understand the signage whatsoever, but I was pretty sure the camera with a big red slash through it meant it was a no-no. Plus I totally got the glare-down from some of the security people. I did sneak a few, though.

First, I had to trek up a bunch of hills.

 I got me a magnum for good measure. This one is 'Magnum Gold?!', yes, with surprised question and everything. I think it's butterscotch, which is tasty, but they decided to actually spray the whole thing with shiny gold food paint, so I had the Midas Touch all afternoon.

Find the nun and win 50 Czech Crowns!

Did you find her? Congratulations! By the way, that's like... a dollar. Yeah you totally got ripped off. By me. Sucker. Oh, and also, I don't have a dollar. So I don't want like a thousand emails asking for it.

The Czechs also have some fancy guards that stand around without moving at all. Like them silly Brits over yonder.

I was lucky enough to be there when they did a shift change, in all their gun-slamming, goose-stepping glory.










The cathedral was massive, and gothic, and awe-inspiring.

 Inside there were actually some purple stained glass windows, which you don't see very often. You can sort of tell in the photo, but inside it was creating beautiful light in the little chapel it was in.

I also found this super creepy dude. I'm assuming he was guarding the sort of grave place he was in, because nobody wants to steal from this guy.














The views were of course breathtaking, from all around the castle and in the palace, and everywhere. It never quite translates through photos, but I'll give you a couple just for a taste.

Gettin fancy with the layout... Yeah I'm pretty sure it looks like a 5 year old put this together, but it amuses me, so enjoy.

THIS

 is the throne of King Wenceslas. YES I spent the rest of the visit singing Christmas songs. Everyone loved it.

This is called "Golden Road" or something. The only reason I can think of is because maybe some goldsmiths stayed here. Basically, there was an old wall with some arches in it, and they built some house fronts onto said arches to make the tiniest houses imaginable. 

 I walked through, with a newfound appreciation for my studio apartment. I checked out some old stuff.

 Old stuff.

Then I was beckoned upstairs by this kind gentleman. I should really stop following people around just because they have armor.

It led to a hallway that spanned the entire length above the "houses", and had a bunch of armor and weapons and crap. I like that crap. I observed that the Czechs also liked fighting as much as the Spanish.

Check out this guy's... crown...

By the way, aren't you glad we don't poop in THESE anymore?

I stared at this, and hugged the nearest plumber I could find.

Sometimes I think I have little monsters that follow me around. I spotted this creeper today:

I ran.

Into this guy. Sol I'm pretty sure that bronze all fades into that dark sort of color. So either the city is polishing him up, or some people just can't help gettin' handsy with the statues.

 Dirty Czechs.

EEE! Then I found this statue. It's called "The Pissing Statue", 3 guesses why.

 In case you are geographically challenged (as I am), the "puddle" that they are standing in is in the shape of the Czech Republic. Way to go, CR. Way to take one for the team.

 THIS.

 This is the lovechild of a waffle and a cookie. It is a Czech waffle. I was skeptical at first, as I've eaten things that appear similar, but I assure you they are not. THEY ARE NOT. It is filled with a layer of sugary goodness that feeds your very soul.

 Hi soul. I'm feeding you. 'Mmm' it says.

More cultural differences:

I guess it is a law in the Czech Republic that when you see a car driving by your small home on the corner, you are to roll your official ball in front of it, and chase it into another person. I must have done it wrong, because everyone got really mad.








Speaking of horrible accidents! I saw someone get wheeled into an ambulance from...

the Segway store. No joke. I just keep imagining the 20 segway pile-up that would warrant an ambulance's presence. I shouldn't make fun of hurt people. They were alive though, and non-bleeding, so I assume that it was probably just shock from riding a mythical vehicle that drives when you "imagine" it to.

So I saw the clock. During the daytime. I'm thinking it may have done it's thing last night as well, but it's... less than you would imagine. I was still glad to have seen it though. I found the skeleton that rings the bell (pictured on the right), and there were dancing apostles in the upper windows, and the upper statues also danced about.

I picked a good time to come to Prague. Why? There is a FESTIVAL!! What does that mean? FOOD. Ridiculous amounts of ridiculous, delicious food. I am desperately trying to cut down the number of pictures, but it is extremely difficult. Make sure you go check out Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/alimook).

FESTIVAL!

Complete with music!

 Giant bowls of food in big fire pits!

 Spits of meat!

 Fried things! With things on them!







They even had a smithy!

I combined these two desserts, hot sugary fried thing, and ice cream cone, to create a powerful hybrid. Fear it!

 Potato-Sauerkraut(?)-Sausage business!







This man straight up killed that potato

  to make me these:







CANDY!!!!!!

 I'm still not quite sure what this is, but I ate it anyway. As my dad put it, I'm on a "see food" diet. Badoom-tsh

And no festival would be complete without... looming!

And so much more. But you'll just have to scope out flickr for that stuff. And if you just skimmed through this and missed the link, haHA. Now you have to go back through and find it!

After a freaking radtastic day, I dragged my heiny back to my hostel, and took a little swim

Pretty nice, eh? The only thing is, when the management said "heated" pool, I'm pretty sure they really just mistranslated "thawed". Also, apparently here, the deep end is where you get in, and they force you to swim to the other side to reach any shallow water. It is a cruel joke. At first was just soaking my feet, in hopes that maybe the next morning they would not be doubled in size again, but then a group of people came in, and I'm just too proud too look like a sissy. Because I'm NOT a sissy. I gracefully glided right into the water, and just couldn't breathe for about 3 minutes. I looked super cool though. I was all like, yeah, I can... swim... in cold water... They all thought I was cool. That's all that matters.