Prague!

"Go to Prauge!"
"Oh! Don't miss Prague!"
"I'm going to Prague too!"

Everyone I met along my trip recommended I go to Prague. "Prague is beautiful!" Well, they were certainly right. Prague wasn't in my original plan, but I had the flexibility of going anywhere I wanted between Amsterdam and Athens. I'm glad I was able to meet so many travelers that made this recommendation to me. If you're even close to the Czech Republic I would recommend you not miss Prague.

I actually met this nice former journalist while in Munich. Her name was Ching Yee and she was from Hong Kong. We met in the lobby of where we were both staying. It was an opportunity for me to practice my Mandarin, which of course I welcome these days. Luckily for me, when my Mandarin failed, her command of English was pretty good. Anyway it turned out that she was going to Prague too, only a day earlier than me. We decided to exchange email addresses and see if we could meet up in Prague.

I was still searching for a place to stay in Prague online. My first choice was all booked which sucked. Luckily for me I ran into another traveler. Her name was Clara and she was from Oklahoma and had a really cool accent which I liked. She was a Taiwanese American Happa, and I guess she could tell I was American by my mixture of Mandarin and English. She had actually been to Prague already and gave me a card of the hostel she stayed at: Sir Toby's. I decided to take Clara's advice and I'm glad I did. The hostel was nice, safe, and the location wasn't too far from the sites.

By pure luck it turned out Ching Yee was staying at the same place. We decided to see the sites together that day and wandered around Old Town. Man, talk about a beautiful town.

Old Town Square

Old Town Square

Old Town Square

The Astronomical Clock. It has a little mechanical performance every hour I think. The performance, like the Glockenspeil in Munich, is quite underwhelming.

I find this statue quite inappropriate! I don't mind naked people, but a naked little girl that's just hitting puberty??? It seems wrong to me.

Prague Castle. I took like a billion pictures of it cuz it's gorgeous. It's also the biggest Castle in Europe and it's still in use by the Government.

Charles Bridge, one of the best examples of gothic bridges in Europe.

Medeval dress

People walking on Charles Bridge.

The view from Charles Bridge.

One of the many statues along Charles Bridge.

There's a saying that everyone in the Czech Republic is a musician. This band was playing Jazz on the bridge and attracted quite a crowd. I walked by them later though and they were playing the exact same song. I guess they didn't have much of a repertoire.

Prague Castle again.... it's it just amazing?

What the hell is that thing on their heads?

A view of the other side of Charles Bridge.

Discko Duck!

A begger. Beggers in Prague generally do not show their faces. Maybe it is due to shame?

Towards the end of our Day Ching Yee and I decided to take a canal cruise. It was just before sunset and we thought we could get a great view of the castle as the sun went down. Well we were the only people to book and so, just like in third world countries I have been in, we had to wait for more people to show up. We didn't get onto the cruise until the sun set, so I had to settle for my view of the sunset without the cruise. At least the people let us wait inside the warm boat which wasn't going on the cruise.

Damn boat got in my shot of the sunset!

Obama! (the exclamation point doesn't mean i'm happy with him. quite the contrary, even though i made sure to send in my absentee ballot for him while I was in china and watched him win in cambodia, i'm quite disappointed with him. legislatively he and the dems got a lot done, but they conceded so much it's like we have the republican party from the 70s and the crazy conservatives. i don't regret my vote though because the alternative was much much worse. i'll take the least bad when it comes to politics this day in age.)

Damn! Bin Laden's a celeb here too?!?!?!