Cheese that is grilled and metaphorical cockroches

Finally I can talk about Prague! I'm going to combine day 1 and day 2 so be ready for a lot of pictures. So we left on Saturday to get here in time for a daylight savings time change. I met this adorable, very drugged cat on the train, as well as a very interesting man named Johannes who I sat next to. I learned quite a bit about Trannsylvania than I knew before.

He's so cute, ugh, I can't handle it.

Saw a lot of beautiful countryside of course

The first thing I noticed about Prague was that the train station opened out into a park, which was new. Usually we get a crowded street with lot of traffic. We saw this beautiful statue there.

Floweeeeeeeers

After a quick tram ride (and a little bit of direction confusion) we made it to the hostel. It's super funky and cool, and literally everyone on the staff has seemed super nice so far. They've been really helpful. Also, they have more than one bathroom available, and cheap laundry, which is fantastic. 

Super chill deco in our room

This is a really fun place to hang out and meet people. I'm actually at that computer on the desk right now.

Once we had checked in and dropped off our stuff we went to get some food at a market we passed by. It's a super fun little area.

I'm assuming this is a fall festival or something?

So much cheeeese

So they had grilled cheese at this place. Like, actual cheese, that is grilled. What the heck?

I don't even know what this looks like but cheese doesn't spring to mind.

I couldn't resist trying it so I got a piece smothered in garlic and jam. It was fantastic. This needs to be a thing.

Got some hot spiced wine and enough ham to last me for three meals or so.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and were ready to turn in for the night, but I spent some time in the main room meeting people and our desk attendant at the hostel was adamant when he got off that we needed to make use of the extra hour we had that night to go out, so I got to explore a bit.

This is the main town square at night, the giant statue in the middle was an imposing sight to suddenly come upon from around the corner.

There's a lot of really old buildings, especially as this city was mostly spared by the Nazis. The different mixes of architecture are fascinating. 

CARLSBAD?!?!?!?!

The next morning we got up early to go explore and get going on some wakling tours, so we could learn more about the city. I was really impressed that there were finally flowers around the city. We haven't been getting a lot of those around. So happy. T_T

Floweeeeeers, so prettyyyy

This picture needs some lightening, b ut the statue is a lot less imposing in the day. Also this square gets ridiculously crowded by the afternoon.

There are a lot of beautiful stained glass windows around the city

There are a TON of Kafka references throughout the city. Apparently they're all relatively new, because censorship during communist rule prevented many people from reading his works. Now they seem to be very proud of him.

Just Cafe Kafka of course.

Kafka snob food? .... What does that even mean....

Apparently his boots are shiny because touching them will give you luck before a test?

I had a bit of time before the Prague walking tour we were taking so I wandered around a bit.

More flowers!

There's so many bridges in this city, and most of them are rather pretty.

This so called "spanish synagogue" is apparently a symbol of unity and friendship amoungst the related religions - it's a synagogue with mosque influences and the ten commandments as well as crusifixes layered into its design.

There are jewelry stores ALL over prague. They're very popular. They're also famous for Bohemian crystal.

I'm always amazed by the pure variety of buildings around the city.

Around 11 we showed up for the walking tour, where we got a very fun guide. The whole tour was really interesting, enlightening, and a little gory at times.

Our guide stops to tell us about the history of the old town square, including information on the large statue, and the history of the buildings behind him, and the defenestration of Prague.

This Astronomical Clock is one of the most famous sights in Prague. It tells the time since the last sunset, the position of the sun and moon, the positions of the zodiac constellations, and puts on a little show every hour.

St. Wensceles Square, scene of the main events of the Velvet Revolution

We got a ton of cool history background and saw a lot of the old town area of the city. At one point we stopped at a church where there was a human hand hanging from the cieling. The legend goes that tried to steal the necklace off of the madona statue in the church. Apparently the madona grabbed the thief's arm before he could make off with the jewels, and wouldn't let go until the priest sawed the man's hand off.

Our tour guide re-enacts with a volunteer a story of a thief attempting to steal the necklace

Apparently there is one artist, David Černý, who was considered a rebel at his time for painting a Russian tank pink. Now he's pretty mainstream, as his works are seen everywhere around the city. If you see a city scultpure it's probably by him. We saw a few of his works around the city.

Statue of a woman "giving birth" in the middle of Dlhoua square. The inside is hollow and you can  climb between her legs to "be birthed".

We stopped for lunch around the statue. Apparently minions are popular even here.

I learned more about the Metronome statue later - apparently it's supposed to represent all the changes in the regime the city has gone through, from Austro-Hungarian, to Nazi, to Communist, to Czechloslovakian, to the Czech Republic today. It stands on the ground of what used to be a truly gargantuan Stalin statue, that was an emarrasment to the city for some time because it was too big to take down.

It's supposed to move with every changing of the political tides.

As we continued the tour we passed by the jewish district that I had spent some time in that morning. Apparently the "old new synagogue" (so named because it replaced what used to be the oldest running synagague, and because eventually the new oldest) is supposed to have a famous golem in the attic. It was fun to come accross this cafe after learning that.

The cafe also had a mosaic depiction of the golem on the ground in front.

After the tour I had some time before my next planned event, so I wandered around again. The main square had gotten really busy by this point, with entertainers, food, and horse drawn carriages, and people advertising segway tours.

Some politics happening in the square 

Stopped to watch the hourly show. Was a bit anticlimatic, but cool.

They are REALLY big on chocolate here. Not as much as beer (they are famous for having the highest beer consumption in the world), but there are multiple cafes around dedicated entirely to chocolate.

sausages from the street fair.

Around 3pm I headed off to the "red prague" tour, talking about Prague during communism. The tour was pretty new, so they were still getting their land legs, but it was really interesting and informative.

Another sculture by David Černý, depicting his view of the state of intellecutalism. The man hanging off the pole is supposed to be Sigmund Freud.

The old headquarters of the secret police, now the regular police headquarters.

Another David Černý, and yet another Kafka statue. It swivels around and distorts constantly.

We eventually crossed the river to see a monument on the other side, and got some great pictures.

Prague Castle lit up at night.

This whole area is just gorgeous.

The walk back to the hostel was fun, with a full moon and building all lit up.

There was a great full moon. the National Theater is a huge building that seems to have a very, very heavy Vienna influence, with its larger than life sized horse statues and a square all its own.

Prague is the center of Bohemia, and home of Alphonse Mucha's art Noveau style. This building has some beautiful examples of that.

After I got back to the hostel Andrea, Gerd and I decided to check out a jazz club in the area. Apparently Jazz Republic is the most famous jazz club in the city, and they have live performances every night. There was a small entrance fee, and I can see why because 20 minutes into the performance the cafe was packed. It was a good thing we got there early.

And that was a first full night in Prague! Pretty eventful. The more I learn about this city the more interested I am in its history. The next day we visited Prague Castle, and got to see a little more into that history.

Vienna and the Art Hole

So the post that I wrote last night never published until I sent it just now. We're in Prague! We're staying at the Art Hole hostel, and so far its very fun and the staff is very friendly and helpful. But before we get to that, we need to catch up! So, Vienna day 2!

We started the day by going to a tourist center to get some information and good maps. I took the route along one of Viennas main shopping districts, and saw even more cat advertisements. Awesome. I also walker through a really nice house behind the main museums and saw a butterfly house. (The german word for butterfly is schmetterling. Such a fun word. But apparently to schmetter something is to smash it? So theyre like, little smashers? For the way they fly I guess.) apparently theres something about rabbits in vienna, I saw a couple of colored rabbit statues throughout the city. Then we headed to the ridiculously fancy Sacher cafe, world famous for their Sacher chocolate cake. It was too early for me to get a chocolate cake, but mine was a delicious nut cake, and I got to try some of andreas chocolate. Everything was delicious.

We got a hop-on-hop-off bus pass from the tourist center, so we began a trip around the city stopping for the sites. The first place we stopped was a huge church that was apparently built when the royal family survived a plague. We then rounded the church to check out  the rathaus (city hall) and parliament building. There was a theater nearby that when it was built had terrible accoustics AND lighting, so apparently there used to be a saying that in the rathaus you cant see anything, in parliament you cant hear anything, and in the theater you cant see or hear. Also the rathaus had a really nice park by it with tons of benches. Parks everywhere. And WHILE WE WERE THERE there was a conference on walkable cities AT THE RATHAUS. But apparently civilians werent invited!! DDDDD: I WANTED TO GO

We then returned to our bus stop, walking through sigmund freud park on the way, where there was an interesting abstract sculpture. Also, vienna has adorable walk signs.

The bus took us through the jewish quarter (with a very creative appartment building) and past a kind of amusement park area, with one of the oldest functioning ferris wheels. We then circled a newer part of the city where you can bungee jump off a tall building, and got off to wander around a park in the middle of the danube that was built to help dry up the swamp that was the north east side. 

Our next stop was a huge park with statues of famous artists spread theoughout, and a very pretty landscape clock. After which we continued to Mozart Cafe for a gorgeous and fancy lunch. I had a pumpkin quiche that was ridiculously good. 

Next we killed some time in the park until it was time to line up for stand up seats for the opera, Don Giovanni. I found yet another mozart statue.

On the way to the opera I saw a very nice dramatic fountain, and yet another comored rabbit. The opera itself was amazing, and the theater was beautiful. The standing seats behind the main seating area are dirt cheap, but also crowded, and you have to save your place by tying a scarf to the railing. Very interesting experience.

After the opera we went back to the hostel for an early night, because we were getting up early to go to salzburg the next day. Salzburg was absolutely gorgeous, the birthplace of mozart, the "Silent Night" christmas carol, and setting for The Sound of Music. I have tons of beautiful scenery photos.