What...what the hell is that?
In this house, it's normally poo. But...it's too shiny to be poo.
And, it's far too...symmetrical.
I'm crouching over a step on our staircase, doing a little mouth breathing in case it IS poo (don't need a face-full of stink), trying to figure out what the hell it is.
The dog and cat are staring at me from the landing. No, they're looking down on me from the landing. Is it a trap? Did one of them plant this for me to stare at, and now the other one is going to push me down the steps? It's gotta be Rufus' plot, if so. The cat is always the mastermind.
But...I just don't know what it is. So, I decide to leave it there. I'll deal with it tomorrow.
------------
And, I really would have left it there for the night. Except, I realized I forgot to do something, and I now have to go BACK downstairs.
I arm myself with a paper towel, and crouch back over The Blob. It's now or never.
It's...awfully squishy...but, squishy like a gummi bear, not squishy like poo.
What the hell...
HOLY FUCK IT'S A SLUG!!! I'M HOLDING A SLUG!!!
A FUCKING SLUG GOT TRAPPED IN BETWEEN SASHA'S TOES, AND SHE TRACKED IT INTO THE HOUSE!!
God, I wish it had been poo...
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Blergh
I had big plans to blog today about our trip to Austria.
Instead, I woke up sick.
And now, I have no energy. Yes, I know I'm blogging NOW, but this'll be quick.
Whenever Josh goes on business trips, bad things happen in my world. Nothing majorly horrible, but irritating enough to make me want to shove a pen in my eye.
This time,
- issues selling our house in the states (including have to pay out the ass to sell)
- car broke down
- water heater flooded in our house here. Landlord was gone on vacation, so I had to get his 80something father to come help (the 80something father who's missing most of his fingers, can't bend his leg, and can't raise his arm)
- elderly father-in-law fell, broke his leg, and found out he has semi-serious (unrelated to the leg breaking) medical issues
- dog having stomach issues
None of these things are particularly bad in and of themselves. And, everything's really calmed down the past week or so.
But...now I'm sick. Apparently the universe is having a grand time fucking with me.
Instead, I woke up sick.
And now, I have no energy. Yes, I know I'm blogging NOW, but this'll be quick.
Whenever Josh goes on business trips, bad things happen in my world. Nothing majorly horrible, but irritating enough to make me want to shove a pen in my eye.
This time,
- issues selling our house in the states (including have to pay out the ass to sell)
- car broke down
- water heater flooded in our house here. Landlord was gone on vacation, so I had to get his 80something father to come help (the 80something father who's missing most of his fingers, can't bend his leg, and can't raise his arm)
- elderly father-in-law fell, broke his leg, and found out he has semi-serious (unrelated to the leg breaking) medical issues
- dog having stomach issues
None of these things are particularly bad in and of themselves. And, everything's really calmed down the past week or so.
But...now I'm sick. Apparently the universe is having a grand time fucking with me.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Advent Calendars
I'm a sucker for an advent calendar. When I was little, my parents would occasionally get one for me. They couldn't just get them anywhere, they had to go to a "fancier" grocery store, probably in Houston, to be able to get them. I loved opening one every day, and getting to eat piss-poor chocolate first thing in the morning before school. Until about a week or two into the month, when I'd forget to eat the chocolate first thing, and I'd eat it when I got home from school. Then, another week would go by and before I knew it, it was Christmas and I still had 9 days worth of waxy chocolate that I had forgotten about.
But, it was AWESOME!! I'm a sucker for Christmas traditions (which is ridiculous for a non-believer to be into, but what can ya do?).
Anywho, while the advent calenders we used to buy were dollar-store quality, the ones in Germany are AMAZING!!!!!!
I went to a huge local grocery store yesterday, just to check out the holiday goods. There was an entire section of the store dedicated to different advent calendars.
They had a section JUST for toy calendars - a different Hot Wheels every day, a different Lego piece every day (and at the end of the month, you'd have a finished model of whatever), a different modernized Polly Pocket every day, etc.
Then, there was all the chocolates. They had dozens and dozens of different chocolate advent calendars - fancy pants chocolate, and some of the calendars were almost €30 each. Ferrero Rocher, chocolate covered liquors, pralines. They also had cheaper chocolates with different cartoon characters (Smurfs, Spongebob, Simpsons....not sure why I only thought of the ones that started with an S...).
Then, there were some non-food advent calendars that were for adults. Like, the beer advent calendar. (What!? Yes!) They also had a "for him" and "for her" calendar filled with toiletries and liquor. One day you'd get a stick of deodorant, and the next day you'd get a mini bottle of Schnapps.
I almost bought the tea advent calendar for €14. Until I saw the advent calendars for pets. One kind for cats, and one kind for dogs. Each day, they would get a different treat, and then on Christmas Eve, they'd get a toy.
I seriously almost bought one for Sasha & one for Rufus. How flippin' dorky am I? I'd like to blame it on the fact that Josh is gone for work, so I'm becoming a crazy pet-lady. But really, I'm a crazy pet-lady anyway, and it doesn't matter if Josh is gone or not.
In fact, the only reason I didn't buy one is that we're going to be gone for a week in December, so what's the point?
Although now I'm thinking I should just buy some anyway. We could skip the week we're going to be gone, and just do a Countdown to New Year's Day (and Josh's b-day).
But, now that I REALLY think about it, I should just buy a bunch of various advent calendars, and do them throughout the year. That's just how awesome they are.
Ugh, maybe I really am turning into a crazy lady. It's like I'm Howard Hughes, only I'm obsessed with random German holiday items. Josh, you better hurry home...
But, it was AWESOME!! I'm a sucker for Christmas traditions (which is ridiculous for a non-believer to be into, but what can ya do?).
Anywho, while the advent calenders we used to buy were dollar-store quality, the ones in Germany are AMAZING!!!!!!
I went to a huge local grocery store yesterday, just to check out the holiday goods. There was an entire section of the store dedicated to different advent calendars.
They had a section JUST for toy calendars - a different Hot Wheels every day, a different Lego piece every day (and at the end of the month, you'd have a finished model of whatever), a different modernized Polly Pocket every day, etc.
Then, there was all the chocolates. They had dozens and dozens of different chocolate advent calendars - fancy pants chocolate, and some of the calendars were almost €30 each. Ferrero Rocher, chocolate covered liquors, pralines. They also had cheaper chocolates with different cartoon characters (Smurfs, Spongebob, Simpsons....not sure why I only thought of the ones that started with an S...).
Then, there were some non-food advent calendars that were for adults. Like, the beer advent calendar. (What!? Yes!) They also had a "for him" and "for her" calendar filled with toiletries and liquor. One day you'd get a stick of deodorant, and the next day you'd get a mini bottle of Schnapps.
I almost bought the tea advent calendar for €14. Until I saw the advent calendars for pets. One kind for cats, and one kind for dogs. Each day, they would get a different treat, and then on Christmas Eve, they'd get a toy.
I seriously almost bought one for Sasha & one for Rufus. How flippin' dorky am I? I'd like to blame it on the fact that Josh is gone for work, so I'm becoming a crazy pet-lady. But really, I'm a crazy pet-lady anyway, and it doesn't matter if Josh is gone or not.
In fact, the only reason I didn't buy one is that we're going to be gone for a week in December, so what's the point?
Although now I'm thinking I should just buy some anyway. We could skip the week we're going to be gone, and just do a Countdown to New Year's Day (and Josh's b-day).
But, now that I REALLY think about it, I should just buy a bunch of various advent calendars, and do them throughout the year. That's just how awesome they are.
Ugh, maybe I really am turning into a crazy lady. It's like I'm Howard Hughes, only I'm obsessed with random German holiday items. Josh, you better hurry home...
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Naughty and Nice
My cat, Rufus, can be a little shit sometimes.
He is constantly trying (and sometimes succeeding) to rip off large sections of the wallpaper in our house. I try spraying our walls with this 'keep off' spray (which makes the house smell lovely, by the way), but every time I forget - I wake up to a new chunk of wallpaper on the floor.
Every night, when I let the dog out for her last bathroom break before bed, he will hide behind the door. As soon as the dog comes back in, and I close the door behind her, here comes Rufus and his sneak attack. He leaps out from behind the door, and grabs her around her chest & legs. He doesn't hurt her, but he always catches her off guard.
If I have any paper out in his vicinity, it's his duty to chew on it, and leave teeth marks all over.
He does little smarmy things like that all the time.
However, in general, he's a real sweetheart. He's not super cuddly, unless it's kneading-time. But, he has to be in the same room as us at all times. No closed doors allowed, according to him! Those traits are really typical of a Maine Coon, also.
The latest cute thing he did...
Josh has been gone for business for a couple weeks now (and a lot more weeks to go...ugh). We were Skyping, and the cat was rubbing all over my feet (remember my post from awhile back about Rufus' obsession with feet?)
Anywho, as I'm talking to Josh, I tell him that Rufus is there, rubbing my feet. Sooo, I point the laptop at the cat, so Josh can see him. Josh then starts whistling. Rufus LOVES LOVES LOVES when people whistle. Whistle a few bars in my house, and the cat will literally run to you, and start rubbing all over you.
(Josh and Rufus are also buddies. They have a morning bathroom ritual - Rufus will bang on the bathroom door while Josh is getting ready for work, until Josh opens the door and lets him in. He'll then sit at Josh's feet, and rub and purr the entire time Josh is getting ready.)
So, Josh starts whistling to Rufus, while I have the computer pointed at the cat. The cat perks up, and runs over to the laptop. I know cats eyes don't work the same as human eyes, so I'm not going to pretend that the cat was able to actually see Josh in the computer, and understand fully what was happening.
So anyway, Rufus comes running over to the computer as Josh starts whistling. He then proceeds to rub his face ALL OVER the edges of the laptop, purring loudly.
I think Rufus may miss Josh as much as Sasha and I miss him.
He is constantly trying (and sometimes succeeding) to rip off large sections of the wallpaper in our house. I try spraying our walls with this 'keep off' spray (which makes the house smell lovely, by the way), but every time I forget - I wake up to a new chunk of wallpaper on the floor.
Every night, when I let the dog out for her last bathroom break before bed, he will hide behind the door. As soon as the dog comes back in, and I close the door behind her, here comes Rufus and his sneak attack. He leaps out from behind the door, and grabs her around her chest & legs. He doesn't hurt her, but he always catches her off guard.
If I have any paper out in his vicinity, it's his duty to chew on it, and leave teeth marks all over.
He does little smarmy things like that all the time.
However, in general, he's a real sweetheart. He's not super cuddly, unless it's kneading-time. But, he has to be in the same room as us at all times. No closed doors allowed, according to him! Those traits are really typical of a Maine Coon, also.
The latest cute thing he did...
Josh has been gone for business for a couple weeks now (and a lot more weeks to go...ugh). We were Skyping, and the cat was rubbing all over my feet (remember my post from awhile back about Rufus' obsession with feet?)
Anywho, as I'm talking to Josh, I tell him that Rufus is there, rubbing my feet. Sooo, I point the laptop at the cat, so Josh can see him. Josh then starts whistling. Rufus LOVES LOVES LOVES when people whistle. Whistle a few bars in my house, and the cat will literally run to you, and start rubbing all over you.
(Josh and Rufus are also buddies. They have a morning bathroom ritual - Rufus will bang on the bathroom door while Josh is getting ready for work, until Josh opens the door and lets him in. He'll then sit at Josh's feet, and rub and purr the entire time Josh is getting ready.)
So, Josh starts whistling to Rufus, while I have the computer pointed at the cat. The cat perks up, and runs over to the laptop. I know cats eyes don't work the same as human eyes, so I'm not going to pretend that the cat was able to actually see Josh in the computer, and understand fully what was happening.
So anyway, Rufus comes running over to the computer as Josh starts whistling. He then proceeds to rub his face ALL OVER the edges of the laptop, purring loudly.
I think Rufus may miss Josh as much as Sasha and I miss him.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Trip to Prague - Part 3 of 3
Our last full day in Prague! Thankfully the nights cooled down a little bit, so we weren’t sweating at night anymore. Well, at least I wasn’t sweating. Poor Josh, and his furnace-body.
After breakfast, it was time to go to the Prague Castle! I was pretty excited about this. This was also the only time we ever needed to use the tram while in Prague - we took the subway almost as far up as we could go, then took the tram up to the castle. BTW, don’t sit their at the bus stop for 20 minutes thinking that it’s the bus line you’re taking. I think sometimes the locals would use the word ‘bus’ and ‘tram’ interchangeably.
Prague Castle is a huuuuuge compound, on top of a big hill overlooking the city. It’s also on the side of the river opposite Old Town Square, and our hotel. The tickets for the castle were pretty reasonable - we paid for the “short visit” which included entrance to St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica, and Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower ($12.50 per person). I could have easily paid for the “long visit” and been very happy (that included St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, permanent exhibition "The Story of Prague Castle", St. George's Basilica, Convent of St. George - National Gallery /until February 28/, Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower, Prague Castle Picture Gallery, Powder Tower, Rosenberg Palace for $17.50). There was so much to see and do there, it basically was a mini city within the city.
First stop was inside the palace. It was pretty sparsely furnished, but no biggie.
Checkout the stove. I LOVE the stoves they used to use in castles/palaces. I want one.
Quite a view from the palace, eh?
Next up - St. George's Basilica. They still regularly hold concerts in this church - in fact, they were having one that night (couldn’t make that one, unfortunately).
Next stop was my favorite area of the castle grounds - The Golden Lane. (I swear, that name just reminds me of some of the ickier parts of the Sex Machine Museum).
The Golden Lane is the street right outside the palace where the servants/workers would have lived. They are TINY houses, and some of them are redone to look how they would have looked back then, and some were converted into shops.
We all walk into the Lane. I turn around, and suddenly Lacie & Josh are just gone. Vanished. It was fairly crowded, but not so crowded that we would have lost site of those two. Yahreen and I just stood there looking dumbfounded and slightly lost. I ran into a few gift shops to kill time and wait for them. They still weren’t back from whatever black hole they had jumped into. So, I went looking for them, while Yahreen stayed with The Squirt. Still couldn’t find them.
I swear it was a good 25 minutes before we found them again. They had gone into the houses and museums without us. Actually, the two went in SEPERATELY, and then found each other halfway through their little let’s-escape-Courtney-and-Yahreen party.
For shame, people.
After getting over the shock of abandonment, we went to Daliborka Tower, which was where the jail/dungeons were located. This was pretty amazing, and really pretty creepy. I can imagine being in a jail today is like being in The Ritz, compared with the dungeons from back then.
We had one more stop on our “short visit” pass - St. Vitus' Cathedral. Unfortunately, today was Sunday, meaning there was mass. They were allowing people in after mass let out, though, so that’s when we went to the Golden Lane. After the Lane, we went back up to the Cathedral.
I’m not good with crowds. I know that’s kind of a dumb thing for a traveller to not be good with, but it’s true. I’m talking elbow-to-elbow, some Japanese-person-smelling-your-armpit type crowding. That’s exactly the kind of crowded it was in this church. Yahreen didn’t even attempt it with the stroller. When the three of us finally made it inside the cathedral, there were even MORE people in there. It was pretty ridiculous, actually.
Josh is the type of photographer that likes to take 20 pictures of the same thing on slightly (if at all) different settings. Normally, I’m okay with that. But, in situations such as this, I was about to pull my hair out. I just wanted to walk thru, see the stuff, and quit waiting around for Ansel Adams to finish his damn portfolio. So, Lacie and I broke off from him (we DID tell him we were leaving him, unlike SOME people did at the Golden Lane). I thought we’d be able to make it around the Cathedral and out in a quick fashion.
Nope.
It took flippin’ forever to get thru the masses of people. It was a nice church, and very ornate....but so’s every other Cathedral around here. Yes, I’m jaded, whatevs.
After basically Roman-Grecco wrestling our way outta there, and Josh making is way out shortly thereafter, we left to walk around the outside of the palace, and down the steps.
As we left the Cathedral, we did get to see the changing of the guards. That was pretty cool (and some of those guardsmen...phew! not bad at all).
I’d say it took us about half a day to do the palace. One could easily spend the whole day there, and if I went again, I’d do the “long visit”. There are a few restaurants and cafes up there, so that would help a lot.
As for us, we were starving. We made our way down eleventy-million steps (ow) and went menu-reading. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but Josh and I are always on the search for good Mexican food in Europe. I know that’s a ridiculous thing to search for, but sometimes we get desperate.
We actually found a Tex-Mex restaurant in Prague. Whhhaaaaa?? Yes, please! And actually, it was probably one of the best Mexican restaurants we’ve tried in Europe. Granted, that’s not saying much, but it is saying something. I mean, sure, the salsa was really a kind of pico de gallo made of red bell peppers instead of tomatoes....but still, they actually had guacamole! And it’s hard to mess up a veggie quesadilla. Lacie was the only one to get Czech food (goulash with dumplings) and she said hers was really bad. So, if you’re ever in Prague & get the hankerin’ for faux Tex-Mex (but NOT Czech food), try Jo’s Bar.
After lunch, it was time to find Lennon’s Wall. In the early 80s, somebody painted a portrait of Lennon on a wall. It stuck. People have been painting messages of peace, love, and Beatles ever since. Every once in awhile, the city will paint over the entire wall, but people just re-paint it. The wall was in a very quiet area, and would be completely miss-able if you didn’t know where to look.
After the wall, we walked towards St. Charles’ Bridge. There was a market right before the bridge, and can you guess what we purchased? Come on, I know you know.
Yup, takeaway beer. Love it.
St. Charles’ Bridge is for pedestrians only, and crosses the river. It’s full of crafters, and artists, and tourists. Great for people watching, and city watching, and general hustle-and-bustle watching.
Here's a view back up to the Prague Castle Complex.
I really loved the whole area at the base of the castle. I wish our hotel had been on that side of the water, really.
But, c’est la vie.
It was getting kind of late in the day, and we had to go back to our hotel to find out where we were going to eat for dinner. Tonight was the night we were supposed to do our included 3-course meal at the restaurant at our hotel. The reviews for our restaurant were really really excellent (Italian, with wood-fired pizza ovens). We were excited to eat there.
Except for the fact that that morning, our concierge told us that the restaurant was unexpectedly closed that day. She was really irritated with the restaurant owners, and I almost felt bad for her (I think she was expecting us to be really mad at her). But, she ended up scrambling, and finding us reservations at the restaurant in their sister hotel, the Residence La Bologna.
The real drag was that we didn’t find out what restaurant they were sending us to until AFTER we had come back from sightseeing that day. Of course, Residence La Bologna was back in town, and we had to treck back out AGAIN. Oy.
We get back on the subway, walk our way around town (getting lost & confused), and FINALLY find the La Bologna, and it’s restaurant.
It’s 7:30pm. The restaurant is completely empty. This should have been our first warning sign of problems to come. Actually, it WAS our first warning sign, and we all made comments about how bad it was that the restaurant was empty. Yes, we were off the beaten path, but we weren’t THAT far off.
Normally, we would have just left - no way would I have eaten at a restaurant like that. Buuuut, the meal was included, and we wanted free stuff. That was our downfall (well, the downfall of a certain member of our party).
Since it was a set 3-course meal, we all started out with caprese salad (which was very good). Then, I had pasta for my main meal, and the other three had grilled chicken. My pasta was actually really good (it was an Italian restaurant, so I should hope). Lacie didn’t like her chicken, and only ate maybe 1/2 of it. Josh ate all of his. Yahreen ate all of his, but on the last bite stated, “That chicken didn’t taste good. In fact, that last bite tasted bad.” (foreshadowing) Then we had chocolate ice cream for dessert. For being free, the meal was fine (well, WOULD have been fine, except....)
After a let-down of a meal, we walked back to the subway, and back to our hotel. But not before running by the local shop & picking up a bunch of wine. Of course, we got all the way back to our hotel before realizing we didn’t have a bottle opener. Oops. Josh went to the front desk, and THEY didn’t have a bottle opener. They even knocked on the door of another suite, and asked if they had one. Nope. So, Josh went back to the shop, wine bottles in hand, and had the shop owner open them all, with his own opener that he had to grab from his house (he lived in the home connected to his shop).
FINALLY, wine & games!! We had a great last night, and drank a lot (shocker), and laughed a lot. It was so much fun.
The next morning it was time to make the drive back home. Except, one of us wasn’t feeling so good. Poor Yahreen was having stomach issues. Everyone assumed it was the wine.
Nope.
He felt bad first thing in the morning, but after about thirty minutes (and a little pepto, and a little making-himself-puke) he was completely fine. Whole new Yahreen. It HAD to have been the wine.
Except, when we stopped for lunch, he got sick again. And, he was sick for the entire ride home. Josh drove home, and he drove faster than he normally does, and had to weave & stop on the shoulder of the autobahn every thirty minutes. What should have taken 3 hours (we had gone almost 3 hours by lunch) took 6 hours. We drove L&Y straight to the ER on base. It was such an awful trip back for everyone, most of all Yahreen (obviously).
Folks - no matter what super awesome deal you’re getting - DO NOT EAT AT A RESTAURANT WITH NO CUSTOMERS DURING PRIME MEAL TIME!!! I know food poisoning can happen at any restaurant, but ESPECIALLY in restaurants such as the one we went to the night before. We all knew it was a bad idea to eat there in the first place, but we did it anyway. Lacie and Josh REALLY dodged a bullet with their chicken.
I still maintain that my pasta was delicious, though...
Other than that awful, awful incident - the trip to Prague was great fun. I don’t know if I necessarily need to go back, but I sure wouldn’t fight it. I’d probably stay on the Castle-side of the river if we went back - and I’d definitely go see a marionette show. Oh, and do the Ghost Walk (I’m still torn up about that, btw).
So, here’s our rundown:
Courtney’s favorite: The Golden Lane @ Prague Complex
Josh’s favorite: I'm not sure...forgot to ask. I'll update when I ask him, but I'd guess his favorite was Prague Castle.
Courtney’s least-favorite: Sex Machine Museum
Josh’s least-favorite: Sex Machine Museum
Best meal: lunch stop at Kutna Hora
Worst meal: restaurant inside Residence la Bologna (duh)
Must sees/dos: Prague Castle, drink Czech beer, the town of Kutna Hora (there are a ton more, but those are the top three)
On a completely unrelated note - at the metro stop nearest our hotel, we kept seeing a movie poster and it had us completely intrigued. I don’t know what this movie is about, but I sense an Oscar.
After breakfast, it was time to go to the Prague Castle! I was pretty excited about this. This was also the only time we ever needed to use the tram while in Prague - we took the subway almost as far up as we could go, then took the tram up to the castle. BTW, don’t sit their at the bus stop for 20 minutes thinking that it’s the bus line you’re taking. I think sometimes the locals would use the word ‘bus’ and ‘tram’ interchangeably.
Prague Castle is a huuuuuge compound, on top of a big hill overlooking the city. It’s also on the side of the river opposite Old Town Square, and our hotel. The tickets for the castle were pretty reasonable - we paid for the “short visit” which included entrance to St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica, and Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower ($12.50 per person). I could have easily paid for the “long visit” and been very happy (that included St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, permanent exhibition "The Story of Prague Castle", St. George's Basilica, Convent of St. George - National Gallery /until February 28/, Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower, Prague Castle Picture Gallery, Powder Tower, Rosenberg Palace for $17.50). There was so much to see and do there, it basically was a mini city within the city.
First stop was inside the palace. It was pretty sparsely furnished, but no biggie.
Checkout the stove. I LOVE the stoves they used to use in castles/palaces. I want one.
Next up - St. George's Basilica. They still regularly hold concerts in this church - in fact, they were having one that night (couldn’t make that one, unfortunately).
Next stop was my favorite area of the castle grounds - The Golden Lane. (I swear, that name just reminds me of some of the ickier parts of the Sex Machine Museum).
The Golden Lane is the street right outside the palace where the servants/workers would have lived. They are TINY houses, and some of them are redone to look how they would have looked back then, and some were converted into shops.
We all walk into the Lane. I turn around, and suddenly Lacie & Josh are just gone. Vanished. It was fairly crowded, but not so crowded that we would have lost site of those two. Yahreen and I just stood there looking dumbfounded and slightly lost. I ran into a few gift shops to kill time and wait for them. They still weren’t back from whatever black hole they had jumped into. So, I went looking for them, while Yahreen stayed with The Squirt. Still couldn’t find them.
I swear it was a good 25 minutes before we found them again. They had gone into the houses and museums without us. Actually, the two went in SEPERATELY, and then found each other halfway through their little let’s-escape-Courtney-and-Yahreen party.
For shame, people.
After getting over the shock of abandonment, we went to Daliborka Tower, which was where the jail/dungeons were located. This was pretty amazing, and really pretty creepy. I can imagine being in a jail today is like being in The Ritz, compared with the dungeons from back then.
We had one more stop on our “short visit” pass - St. Vitus' Cathedral. Unfortunately, today was Sunday, meaning there was mass. They were allowing people in after mass let out, though, so that’s when we went to the Golden Lane. After the Lane, we went back up to the Cathedral.
I’m not good with crowds. I know that’s kind of a dumb thing for a traveller to not be good with, but it’s true. I’m talking elbow-to-elbow, some Japanese-person-smelling-your-armpit type crowding. That’s exactly the kind of crowded it was in this church. Yahreen didn’t even attempt it with the stroller. When the three of us finally made it inside the cathedral, there were even MORE people in there. It was pretty ridiculous, actually.
Josh is the type of photographer that likes to take 20 pictures of the same thing on slightly (if at all) different settings. Normally, I’m okay with that. But, in situations such as this, I was about to pull my hair out. I just wanted to walk thru, see the stuff, and quit waiting around for Ansel Adams to finish his damn portfolio. So, Lacie and I broke off from him (we DID tell him we were leaving him, unlike SOME people did at the Golden Lane). I thought we’d be able to make it around the Cathedral and out in a quick fashion.
Nope.
It took flippin’ forever to get thru the masses of people. It was a nice church, and very ornate....but so’s every other Cathedral around here. Yes, I’m jaded, whatevs.
After basically Roman-Grecco wrestling our way outta there, and Josh making is way out shortly thereafter, we left to walk around the outside of the palace, and down the steps.
As we left the Cathedral, we did get to see the changing of the guards. That was pretty cool (and some of those guardsmen...phew! not bad at all).
I’d say it took us about half a day to do the palace. One could easily spend the whole day there, and if I went again, I’d do the “long visit”. There are a few restaurants and cafes up there, so that would help a lot.
As for us, we were starving. We made our way down eleventy-million steps (ow) and went menu-reading. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but Josh and I are always on the search for good Mexican food in Europe. I know that’s a ridiculous thing to search for, but sometimes we get desperate.
We actually found a Tex-Mex restaurant in Prague. Whhhaaaaa?? Yes, please! And actually, it was probably one of the best Mexican restaurants we’ve tried in Europe. Granted, that’s not saying much, but it is saying something. I mean, sure, the salsa was really a kind of pico de gallo made of red bell peppers instead of tomatoes....but still, they actually had guacamole! And it’s hard to mess up a veggie quesadilla. Lacie was the only one to get Czech food (goulash with dumplings) and she said hers was really bad. So, if you’re ever in Prague & get the hankerin’ for faux Tex-Mex (but NOT Czech food), try Jo’s Bar.
After lunch, it was time to find Lennon’s Wall. In the early 80s, somebody painted a portrait of Lennon on a wall. It stuck. People have been painting messages of peace, love, and Beatles ever since. Every once in awhile, the city will paint over the entire wall, but people just re-paint it. The wall was in a very quiet area, and would be completely miss-able if you didn’t know where to look.
After the wall, we walked towards St. Charles’ Bridge. There was a market right before the bridge, and can you guess what we purchased? Come on, I know you know.
Yup, takeaway beer. Love it.
St. Charles’ Bridge is for pedestrians only, and crosses the river. It’s full of crafters, and artists, and tourists. Great for people watching, and city watching, and general hustle-and-bustle watching.
I really loved the whole area at the base of the castle. I wish our hotel had been on that side of the water, really.
But, c’est la vie.
It was getting kind of late in the day, and we had to go back to our hotel to find out where we were going to eat for dinner. Tonight was the night we were supposed to do our included 3-course meal at the restaurant at our hotel. The reviews for our restaurant were really really excellent (Italian, with wood-fired pizza ovens). We were excited to eat there.
Except for the fact that that morning, our concierge told us that the restaurant was unexpectedly closed that day. She was really irritated with the restaurant owners, and I almost felt bad for her (I think she was expecting us to be really mad at her). But, she ended up scrambling, and finding us reservations at the restaurant in their sister hotel, the Residence La Bologna.
The real drag was that we didn’t find out what restaurant they were sending us to until AFTER we had come back from sightseeing that day. Of course, Residence La Bologna was back in town, and we had to treck back out AGAIN. Oy.
We get back on the subway, walk our way around town (getting lost & confused), and FINALLY find the La Bologna, and it’s restaurant.
It’s 7:30pm. The restaurant is completely empty. This should have been our first warning sign of problems to come. Actually, it WAS our first warning sign, and we all made comments about how bad it was that the restaurant was empty. Yes, we were off the beaten path, but we weren’t THAT far off.
Normally, we would have just left - no way would I have eaten at a restaurant like that. Buuuut, the meal was included, and we wanted free stuff. That was our downfall (well, the downfall of a certain member of our party).
Since it was a set 3-course meal, we all started out with caprese salad (which was very good). Then, I had pasta for my main meal, and the other three had grilled chicken. My pasta was actually really good (it was an Italian restaurant, so I should hope). Lacie didn’t like her chicken, and only ate maybe 1/2 of it. Josh ate all of his. Yahreen ate all of his, but on the last bite stated, “That chicken didn’t taste good. In fact, that last bite tasted bad.” (foreshadowing) Then we had chocolate ice cream for dessert. For being free, the meal was fine (well, WOULD have been fine, except....)
After a let-down of a meal, we walked back to the subway, and back to our hotel. But not before running by the local shop & picking up a bunch of wine. Of course, we got all the way back to our hotel before realizing we didn’t have a bottle opener. Oops. Josh went to the front desk, and THEY didn’t have a bottle opener. They even knocked on the door of another suite, and asked if they had one. Nope. So, Josh went back to the shop, wine bottles in hand, and had the shop owner open them all, with his own opener that he had to grab from his house (he lived in the home connected to his shop).
FINALLY, wine & games!! We had a great last night, and drank a lot (shocker), and laughed a lot. It was so much fun.
The next morning it was time to make the drive back home. Except, one of us wasn’t feeling so good. Poor Yahreen was having stomach issues. Everyone assumed it was the wine.
Nope.
He felt bad first thing in the morning, but after about thirty minutes (and a little pepto, and a little making-himself-puke) he was completely fine. Whole new Yahreen. It HAD to have been the wine.
Except, when we stopped for lunch, he got sick again. And, he was sick for the entire ride home. Josh drove home, and he drove faster than he normally does, and had to weave & stop on the shoulder of the autobahn every thirty minutes. What should have taken 3 hours (we had gone almost 3 hours by lunch) took 6 hours. We drove L&Y straight to the ER on base. It was such an awful trip back for everyone, most of all Yahreen (obviously).
Folks - no matter what super awesome deal you’re getting - DO NOT EAT AT A RESTAURANT WITH NO CUSTOMERS DURING PRIME MEAL TIME!!! I know food poisoning can happen at any restaurant, but ESPECIALLY in restaurants such as the one we went to the night before. We all knew it was a bad idea to eat there in the first place, but we did it anyway. Lacie and Josh REALLY dodged a bullet with their chicken.
I still maintain that my pasta was delicious, though...
Other than that awful, awful incident - the trip to Prague was great fun. I don’t know if I necessarily need to go back, but I sure wouldn’t fight it. I’d probably stay on the Castle-side of the river if we went back - and I’d definitely go see a marionette show. Oh, and do the Ghost Walk (I’m still torn up about that, btw).
So, here’s our rundown:
Courtney’s favorite: The Golden Lane @ Prague Complex
Josh’s favorite: I'm not sure...forgot to ask. I'll update when I ask him, but I'd guess his favorite was Prague Castle.
Courtney’s least-favorite: Sex Machine Museum
Josh’s least-favorite: Sex Machine Museum
Best meal: lunch stop at Kutna Hora
Worst meal: restaurant inside Residence la Bologna (duh)
Must sees/dos: Prague Castle, drink Czech beer, the town of Kutna Hora (there are a ton more, but those are the top three)
On a completely unrelated note - at the metro stop nearest our hotel, we kept seeing a movie poster and it had us completely intrigued. I don’t know what this movie is about, but I sense an Oscar.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Trip to Prague - Part 2 of 3
After a rather uncomfortable night's sleep (it was sooooo warm in our room), it was time to get up and take advantage of our free breakfast. The Aycocks LOVE free breakfasts! The one at this hotel was fine. They did provide a panini press, along with sliced breads, cold cuts, cheese, coffee cake (truly horrid), cereal, and sausage. Nothing super special, but Josh learned the joy of having a panini press at hand. It was also fun to people watch in the restaurant (especially the guy that seemed to be the pure embodiment of a Hoover vacuum. I've never in my life seen somebody eat that fast, or that much.).
The hotel provided us with maps of Prague - the concierge even mapped out the subway stops we would need. Whenever you travel, make sure you ask if the hotel has a city map you can have. It makes things SO much easier. Also, on the back of the map were deals to different places around town. One "must see" on my list for Prague was the Sedlec Ossuary outside the town of Kutna Hora. I had planned for us to just take a train out there, and just figure out our own way. Buuut, on the back of the Prague map was an advertisement for a Kutna Hora tour. The tour was around 5.5 hours, and included a tour of the Sedlec Ossuary, the town of Kutna Hora, lunch, and a tour of St. Barbara's Church. The price was also around $60 per person. We all decided the night before to go ahead and do this tour. All we had to do was find the lady with the green umbrella, at the base of the Astronomical Clock.
Well, we found her. And jeez, was she cranky. Some people might accuse me of being culturally insensitive. "Maybe that's just the way the Czech people are," you'd say.
False.
We found the Czech people to be friendly & helpful. This Kutna Hora tour guide was just an ol' biddy (or young biddy, as was the case). Throughout the day, she made slightly disparaging remarks about several things, including, but not limited to:
- how annoying it was that we would bring a baby with us
- how awful it was that we didn't speak German while living in Germany (probably should have remembered OPSEC on that one)
- how "interesting" it was that I didn't have a job
- how "interesting" my necklace was ("why would you wear a bicycle necklace if you don't have a bicycle?")
- how everyone else in our group was slow, and she wasn't going to get paid for overtime
Nothing was too overtly cranky, or else certain members of our party would have had words with her. Just cranky enough to notice.
But I digress...again.
There were about 8-10 other people in our group - Brits, Aussies, Italians. The trip up to Kutna Hora took about an hour and twenty minutes.
IT SHOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN THAT LONG!!!!!
I swear to Zeus, the driver refused to take us above 80kph. It was like Reverse Speed. Truly awful. At this point, Josh is turning into Bad Josh, and having a fit over being stuck in a slow moving short bus. Mentally, I was really irritated at our situation. BUT, I have to be Shirley Freakin' Temple and keep up my bright, happy exterior - mainly because the trip was my idea, and I'd be damned if I was going to have my bright idea go in the pooper.
FINALLY we make it to the Sedlec Ossuary. The church exterior was much smaller than I'd imagined, but I still had high hopes. As we all piled out of the bus/van from Hell, Miss Crank-butt says, "Ok, you have about 20 minutes at the church."
What?
I think a blood vessel in Josh's brain popped when she said that. Of course, I chime in with a, "It'll be ok. It'll still be fun. Let's just go in and make the most of it."
Sometimes I want to punch myself in the face.
Anywho, we elbow our way through the scads of people who refuse to move out of the entrance, and finally make it inside the church - where we were almost completely overwhelmed by the overpowering stench of mildew.
Blech.
BUT, the church itself was pretty awesome. The Sedlec Ossuary was decorated with the bones of 40,000 corpses - most of whom died during the Black Plague.
The Ossuary is definitely a bizarre site. We had about 3 minutes left, so we ran outside to check out the cemetery. That’s when we found out that there was a whole upper level of the church we could have explored. Damn! We could have used at least another 20 minutes to view the church.
But really, 40 minutes is all you need to check out the Sedlec Ossuary. We were all really thankful that there was more to the tour than just the Ossuary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we did it - but don’t go to Kutna Hora to JUST see the bone church.
We all piled back in to the Short Bus from Hell, and drove about 5 or so minutes to the actual town of Kutna Hora. The town made this trip worth the time & money. It was such a lovely place. While it was a Saturday when we went - the town was so quiet & peaceful.
After walking around for awhile, and learning about the history of this silver mining town, it was time for lunch! Lunch was included in our ticket price, but not alcohol. But, it doesn’t matter, because we were all in desperate need of some Czech beer. Miss Crank-Pants & the Hell Bus were driving us to it. The lunch stop was really great, and I wish I had written down the name of the restaurant. Oops. This was one of those restaurants where beer was only 30czk (about $1.50) for a liter. And it was goooood. We could have hung out at the restaurant for another hour, sitting out in the courtyard, enjoying refreshments. But nooooo. Basically as soon as our dessert forks were set down, we here, “Ok, we really need to go now, we’re running late & I don’t get paid for overtime.”
Oy.
So, on we went towards St. Barbara’s Church, way too full & fuzzy from good food & good beer.
St. Barbara's Church was pretty awesome.
This is probably one of my favorite churches that I’ve seen since being here. The imagery inside the church was hilariously awesome.
This row of seats was painted with ox blood.
After spending maybe 30 minutes here, it was time to get on the bus & go back to Prague. I must say, we weren’t looking forward to the ride home. Luckily, the driver took a different way, so we could at least see new scenery while traveling at a snail’s pace.
But then, something very strange happened. As soon as we got to the outskirts of Prague, and left the freeway, the bus driver went FREAKING CRAZY!!! Speeding, screeching around corners, blasting thru yellow lights. At one point, I just knew we were going to roll over while taking a turn too tightly (alliteration, ha!). I don’t know what got in his ass, but it was slightly terrifying. At least the last little bit of the trip went by quickly, though...
When all is said and done, I'm really glad we did the Kutna Hora trip. It definitely could have used an extra hour (at least), and it would have been much nicer without the Queen of the Harpies running the show. If I were you, I would definitely do the trip - but if you have multiple days in Prague, maybe wait until you get a different tour guide. I can send you a picture of our guide so you know who to avoid, if you wish. ;)
When we were finally on terra firma, back in Prague, it was time to go shopping. L&Y had been to one of the malls here before, and wanted to go back. Everything really is cheaper in CR, so it’s the perfect time to stock up on clothing, especially for babies. I guess when you have a baby, you have to keep them clothed or something. I don’t know, that’s what they said anyway. So, we headed off to the mall.
I'm not much of a shopper, but it's really fun to see the different styles of clothing, and different setups of malls around Europe. This mall was huge, and while there were a lot of people there, it certainly wasn't packed for a Saturday.
After shopping, we headed back to Old Town. It's not that Old Town was that awesome, it's just that it's in a centralized location, and on the same side of the river as our hotel.
Josh's favorite artist is Salvador Dali. While Prague has nothing to do with Dali, they did have a Dali gallery at Old Town Square, so we decided to go. L&Y weren't interested, so they hung out in the square while Josh and I Dali'ed.
After doing Dali (ha!), we walked around to all the little food kiosks along the square. Tons of meaty foods everywhere - sausages, potatoes with bacon, cabbage with bacon, etc. We sat behind the kiosks to enjoy our snacks (well, their snacks) and takeaway beers. After we were sitting there for awhile, we noticed that we were basically in a drunk tank. I guess behind these food kiosks is where all of the local "street people" come to dig thru garbage cans, and sleep off their alcohol. Lacie accidentally dropped her fried potato-on-a-stick, so she threw it away. Almost as soon as she put it in the garbage, some guy fished it out and ate the potato. Then, the guy that was sitting on the bench next to Yahreen fell over onto the ground (and continued sleeping).
At this point, we decided we'd had enough of that area, so we decided to go get our tickets for the Ghost Walk. I was so excited about this!! The only problem was I wasn't sure exactly where to pick up the tickets. We kind of assumed that there would be somebody selling tickets at the base of the clock tower (that's where L&Y got their tickets the last time). But, nobody was there. So, we had to go find the ticket counter. There was a period of about 15 minutes where we looked exactly like a Benny Hill skit - racing back and forth, map in hand, misreading the map, etc. Now, there were two ghost walk tours. One at 7pm, and one at 10pm. We were going to do the 7pm walk.
Now, it's like 7:05pm. I FINALLY find the ticket booth, and ask if we are too late for the 7pm walk. Then they laugh at me.
That's never a good sign.
"You're actually too early for the 7pm walk. The 7pm walks don't start until after October 1st." (keep in mind this was the end of August)
FUCKADUCK
I've never felt so defeated & dejected in my entire life.
Okay, well, that's a lie. But at the time, it sure felt like it. ESPECIALLY when I reread the ghost walk information I had, and noticed the little asterisk next to the 7pm walk time. Of course, at the bottom of the information, it explains that the asterisk means the 7pm walk doesn't start til after October 1st.
Kids - always always always look for asterisks when planning trips!!!
Even though we had another night in Prague, we knew we weren't going to be doing a ghost walk on this trip. The next night was when we had our free 3-course meal reserved. We could have done the 10pm walk, but we knew that wasn't going to happen. For one thing, L&Y wouldn't have been able to do that with the baby. And, Josh and I didn't want to go BACK out to the city center, after we had been back to the hotel. Count it as laziness on our parts, I guess.
Anyway, we couldn't do the ghost walk. Wait! I had planned to do the marionette museum, and we still had time to do that! The marionette museum was also joined up with the marionette theater. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard to find.
It was rather strange that there wasn’t a museum sign, but the theater was there, so I went in and asked about it.
“Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me where the marionette museum is located.”
“Well, it’s about 200km away, down in Austria.”
...
WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK!?!
I KNOW I found information about a marionette museum in Prague. I had the times it was open, the address. I was so confused!!
But, at this point, I just wanted to sit & cry. My plans had not worked out. Then the guys were like, "hey, let's just go find a place to sit & have a drink. We can listen to the band that's playing outside. It'll be fine."
Of course, at this point everyone's cranky. We sat down at a few different restaurants, but nothing looked good, and they were all restaurants that sold crap "popular" beer (Bitburger, Heineken, etc), not good Czech beer.
We ended up not doing a restaurant, and decided to just get takeaway beer & sausage for cheap. God, I love Europe and their to-go beers.
At this point, we were just ready for the hotel. We had an awesome time playing games, and chatting - which more than made up for the foibles of the day. It definitely wasn't a bad day, the ending just didn't go exactly according to plans - and you really have to get used to stuff like that happening, when you're traveling.
The hotel provided us with maps of Prague - the concierge even mapped out the subway stops we would need. Whenever you travel, make sure you ask if the hotel has a city map you can have. It makes things SO much easier. Also, on the back of the map were deals to different places around town. One "must see" on my list for Prague was the Sedlec Ossuary outside the town of Kutna Hora. I had planned for us to just take a train out there, and just figure out our own way. Buuut, on the back of the Prague map was an advertisement for a Kutna Hora tour. The tour was around 5.5 hours, and included a tour of the Sedlec Ossuary, the town of Kutna Hora, lunch, and a tour of St. Barbara's Church. The price was also around $60 per person. We all decided the night before to go ahead and do this tour. All we had to do was find the lady with the green umbrella, at the base of the Astronomical Clock.
Well, we found her. And jeez, was she cranky. Some people might accuse me of being culturally insensitive. "Maybe that's just the way the Czech people are," you'd say.
False.
We found the Czech people to be friendly & helpful. This Kutna Hora tour guide was just an ol' biddy (or young biddy, as was the case). Throughout the day, she made slightly disparaging remarks about several things, including, but not limited to:
- how annoying it was that we would bring a baby with us
- how awful it was that we didn't speak German while living in Germany (probably should have remembered OPSEC on that one)
- how "interesting" it was that I didn't have a job
- how "interesting" my necklace was ("why would you wear a bicycle necklace if you don't have a bicycle?")
- how everyone else in our group was slow, and she wasn't going to get paid for overtime
Nothing was too overtly cranky, or else certain members of our party would have had words with her. Just cranky enough to notice.
But I digress...again.
There were about 8-10 other people in our group - Brits, Aussies, Italians. The trip up to Kutna Hora took about an hour and twenty minutes.
IT SHOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN THAT LONG!!!!!
I swear to Zeus, the driver refused to take us above 80kph. It was like Reverse Speed. Truly awful. At this point, Josh is turning into Bad Josh, and having a fit over being stuck in a slow moving short bus. Mentally, I was really irritated at our situation. BUT, I have to be Shirley Freakin' Temple and keep up my bright, happy exterior - mainly because the trip was my idea, and I'd be damned if I was going to have my bright idea go in the pooper.
FINALLY we make it to the Sedlec Ossuary. The church exterior was much smaller than I'd imagined, but I still had high hopes. As we all piled out of the bus/van from Hell, Miss Crank-butt says, "Ok, you have about 20 minutes at the church."
What?
I think a blood vessel in Josh's brain popped when she said that. Of course, I chime in with a, "It'll be ok. It'll still be fun. Let's just go in and make the most of it."
Sometimes I want to punch myself in the face.
Anywho, we elbow our way through the scads of people who refuse to move out of the entrance, and finally make it inside the church - where we were almost completely overwhelmed by the overpowering stench of mildew.
Blech.
BUT, the church itself was pretty awesome. The Sedlec Ossuary was decorated with the bones of 40,000 corpses - most of whom died during the Black Plague.
The Ossuary is definitely a bizarre site. We had about 3 minutes left, so we ran outside to check out the cemetery. That’s when we found out that there was a whole upper level of the church we could have explored. Damn! We could have used at least another 20 minutes to view the church.
But really, 40 minutes is all you need to check out the Sedlec Ossuary. We were all really thankful that there was more to the tour than just the Ossuary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we did it - but don’t go to Kutna Hora to JUST see the bone church.
We all piled back in to the Short Bus from Hell, and drove about 5 or so minutes to the actual town of Kutna Hora. The town made this trip worth the time & money. It was such a lovely place. While it was a Saturday when we went - the town was so quiet & peaceful.
After walking around for awhile, and learning about the history of this silver mining town, it was time for lunch! Lunch was included in our ticket price, but not alcohol. But, it doesn’t matter, because we were all in desperate need of some Czech beer. Miss Crank-Pants & the Hell Bus were driving us to it. The lunch stop was really great, and I wish I had written down the name of the restaurant. Oops. This was one of those restaurants where beer was only 30czk (about $1.50) for a liter. And it was goooood. We could have hung out at the restaurant for another hour, sitting out in the courtyard, enjoying refreshments. But nooooo. Basically as soon as our dessert forks were set down, we here, “Ok, we really need to go now, we’re running late & I don’t get paid for overtime.”
Oy.
So, on we went towards St. Barbara’s Church, way too full & fuzzy from good food & good beer.
St. Barbara's Church was pretty awesome.
This is probably one of my favorite churches that I’ve seen since being here. The imagery inside the church was hilariously awesome.
This row of seats was painted with ox blood.
After spending maybe 30 minutes here, it was time to get on the bus & go back to Prague. I must say, we weren’t looking forward to the ride home. Luckily, the driver took a different way, so we could at least see new scenery while traveling at a snail’s pace.
But then, something very strange happened. As soon as we got to the outskirts of Prague, and left the freeway, the bus driver went FREAKING CRAZY!!! Speeding, screeching around corners, blasting thru yellow lights. At one point, I just knew we were going to roll over while taking a turn too tightly (alliteration, ha!). I don’t know what got in his ass, but it was slightly terrifying. At least the last little bit of the trip went by quickly, though...
When all is said and done, I'm really glad we did the Kutna Hora trip. It definitely could have used an extra hour (at least), and it would have been much nicer without the Queen of the Harpies running the show. If I were you, I would definitely do the trip - but if you have multiple days in Prague, maybe wait until you get a different tour guide. I can send you a picture of our guide so you know who to avoid, if you wish. ;)
When we were finally on terra firma, back in Prague, it was time to go shopping. L&Y had been to one of the malls here before, and wanted to go back. Everything really is cheaper in CR, so it’s the perfect time to stock up on clothing, especially for babies. I guess when you have a baby, you have to keep them clothed or something. I don’t know, that’s what they said anyway. So, we headed off to the mall.
I'm not much of a shopper, but it's really fun to see the different styles of clothing, and different setups of malls around Europe. This mall was huge, and while there were a lot of people there, it certainly wasn't packed for a Saturday.
After shopping, we headed back to Old Town. It's not that Old Town was that awesome, it's just that it's in a centralized location, and on the same side of the river as our hotel.
Josh's favorite artist is Salvador Dali. While Prague has nothing to do with Dali, they did have a Dali gallery at Old Town Square, so we decided to go. L&Y weren't interested, so they hung out in the square while Josh and I Dali'ed.
After doing Dali (ha!), we walked around to all the little food kiosks along the square. Tons of meaty foods everywhere - sausages, potatoes with bacon, cabbage with bacon, etc. We sat behind the kiosks to enjoy our snacks (well, their snacks) and takeaway beers. After we were sitting there for awhile, we noticed that we were basically in a drunk tank. I guess behind these food kiosks is where all of the local "street people" come to dig thru garbage cans, and sleep off their alcohol. Lacie accidentally dropped her fried potato-on-a-stick, so she threw it away. Almost as soon as she put it in the garbage, some guy fished it out and ate the potato. Then, the guy that was sitting on the bench next to Yahreen fell over onto the ground (and continued sleeping).
At this point, we decided we'd had enough of that area, so we decided to go get our tickets for the Ghost Walk. I was so excited about this!! The only problem was I wasn't sure exactly where to pick up the tickets. We kind of assumed that there would be somebody selling tickets at the base of the clock tower (that's where L&Y got their tickets the last time). But, nobody was there. So, we had to go find the ticket counter. There was a period of about 15 minutes where we looked exactly like a Benny Hill skit - racing back and forth, map in hand, misreading the map, etc. Now, there were two ghost walk tours. One at 7pm, and one at 10pm. We were going to do the 7pm walk.
Now, it's like 7:05pm. I FINALLY find the ticket booth, and ask if we are too late for the 7pm walk. Then they laugh at me.
That's never a good sign.
"You're actually too early for the 7pm walk. The 7pm walks don't start until after October 1st." (keep in mind this was the end of August)
FUCKADUCK
I've never felt so defeated & dejected in my entire life.
Okay, well, that's a lie. But at the time, it sure felt like it. ESPECIALLY when I reread the ghost walk information I had, and noticed the little asterisk next to the 7pm walk time. Of course, at the bottom of the information, it explains that the asterisk means the 7pm walk doesn't start til after October 1st.
Kids - always always always look for asterisks when planning trips!!!
Even though we had another night in Prague, we knew we weren't going to be doing a ghost walk on this trip. The next night was when we had our free 3-course meal reserved. We could have done the 10pm walk, but we knew that wasn't going to happen. For one thing, L&Y wouldn't have been able to do that with the baby. And, Josh and I didn't want to go BACK out to the city center, after we had been back to the hotel. Count it as laziness on our parts, I guess.
Anyway, we couldn't do the ghost walk. Wait! I had planned to do the marionette museum, and we still had time to do that! The marionette museum was also joined up with the marionette theater. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard to find.
It was rather strange that there wasn’t a museum sign, but the theater was there, so I went in and asked about it.
“Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me where the marionette museum is located.”
“Well, it’s about 200km away, down in Austria.”
...
WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK!?!
I KNOW I found information about a marionette museum in Prague. I had the times it was open, the address. I was so confused!!
But, at this point, I just wanted to sit & cry. My plans had not worked out. Then the guys were like, "hey, let's just go find a place to sit & have a drink. We can listen to the band that's playing outside. It'll be fine."
Of course, at this point everyone's cranky. We sat down at a few different restaurants, but nothing looked good, and they were all restaurants that sold crap "popular" beer (Bitburger, Heineken, etc), not good Czech beer.
We ended up not doing a restaurant, and decided to just get takeaway beer & sausage for cheap. God, I love Europe and their to-go beers.
At this point, we were just ready for the hotel. We had an awesome time playing games, and chatting - which more than made up for the foibles of the day. It definitely wasn't a bad day, the ending just didn't go exactly according to plans - and you really have to get used to stuff like that happening, when you're traveling.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Trip to Prague - Part 1 of 3
I'm just going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted in 3 months. Y'all don't want to hear my excuses, and none of them are any good, anyway.
Soooooo, here we go. In August we went to Prague with our friends, Lacie, Yahreen, and baby AJ. They had been to Prague before, but I found a super awesome LivingSocial deal that none of us could pass up. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I LOVE finding travel deals on Groupon & LivingSocial! Anywho, the deal was 3 nights at the Residence La Fenice in Prague, including breakfast every morning, a welcome drink, and one 3-course dinner at their on-site restaurant. The cost? $150 per couple. Total. How amazing is that?
Prague is about 6 hours away from us, so we were up and out pretty early. With us, we always plan to leave at a certain time, but in reality we leave 30 minutes later. It's a little more difficult to leave on time with two couples and a baby. Especially when someone forgets to charge the gas card, and we have to run on base to add money (I'm lookin' at you, Yah). And, we had a ton of stuff to pack.
I think I've explained the gas thing before, but here it goes again, just in case. If you're stationed over here, you get American gas prices - as long as you go to an Esso, and use your charged Esso card. BUT, you only get American prices if you're in the country where you're stationed. So, we get American priced gas in Germany, but that's it. Luckily Prague is only an hour and a half, two hours or so from the German border, so we didn't have to worry about paying for gas on the economy. Which is a lifesaver - I mean, have you seen gas prices lately?? It's almost $8/gal in Germany! Sheesh. And do you know how fast some locals go on the Autobahn? I get regularly smoked, while going 80mph. Redic.
But, I digress. Anywho - trip to Prague! We only hit traffic once, I believe, and it really didn't last too long. We did have to stop several times (damn my bladder!), but I learned the joy of self-cleaning rest stop toilets! Each stall automatically locks when you enter. A little light on the outside of the toilet turns red. When you're done, and leave the stall, the stall automatically locks again (light's still red). There is an AUTOMATIC CLEANER in the stall, that sprays & cleans the whole damn bathroom. Then, the light turns green and the next person can go in. Genius!! Especially for my germaphobic self. Although I must say I'm not a huge fan of damp toilet seats.
The last place we stopped for gas before the border was in Nürnberg. I'm not sure if that's the last Esso before hitting Prague, but we didn't want to take our chances. We had ourselves a parking lot picnic at that Esso (which are sometimes the best kinds of picnics), then continued on.
The Czech Republic is one of those countries where you have to buy a vignette to display in your car, if you're going to be driving on the freeways. Austria & Switzerland also require vignettes. It's basically in place of tolls. At the CR border, you'll see huge signs directing you to places where you can buy vignettes - right over the border was a huge gas station compound. I could have sworn we paid €16 for 10 days, but all the sites I can find say €12 for 10 days. This is what I get for waiting so long to write a blog. Oy.
Really, though, L&Y said that they didn't even buy a vignette last time, and they completely got away with it. The only problem was that for our trip, everyone forgot their international drivers licenses (we had our German licenses with us). Ooops. So, we decided to buy a vignette, just in case we got pulled over & got into even more trouble for not having a license.
That's right, we live on the edge.
So, we're finally into Prague - it really did only take us 6ish hours. Not bad! Our hotel was in a quiet area, but still within walking distance to everything. However, we were only a block from the subway system - score! One thing I will note about our hotel - the staff were SO helpful! They had wonderful customer service, and they helped us with directions, helpful hints, suggestions, etc.
Unfortunately, our rooms were really far apart. We were on the first floor, and L&Y were on the 6th. Our room was very old-school - antique furniture, very very high ceilings. No a/c, which we're used to, being in Europe. We actually ended up getting a two bedroom, two bathroom suite, and both rooms had kitchenettes. We thought our room was nice.
Until we went upstairs to see L&Y's room.
We got hosed.
Their room was COMPLETELY updated, with a living room, a view, and air conditioning. It wasn't until spending the first night in our stuffy, faintly moldy room that we became completely jealous of their awesome room. But, that just meant we spent more time in their room, and just used ours for sleeping. It was nice they had a living room, because then we were able to play games together.
But I'm skipping ahead.
After we unloaded the car, became disillusioned over losing the who’s-got-the-better-room game, and had a glass of wine, it was time to explore Prague! Like I said, we were only about a block from the subway - score! The subway is NOT very extensive. Basically, there’s a straight line, and we only used 2, maybe 3 stops during our entire trip. There are two off-shoots from the main subway, but we never needed them. It would be very very very hard to get lost in the subway system. You’d pretty much have to be a slack-jawed yokel, a la The Simpsons, in order to get lost there. It was a little harder figuring out how much we should spend on subway tickets. Rather than figure it out, certain members of our party (who shall remain nameless) decided it would be best for everyone to buy just one thirty minute ticket each, and keep that ticket the entire time. There are scanners for you to scan your tickets, but they don't prevent you from continuing into the subway system if you DON'T scan them. We also NEVER saw any sort of law enforcement in the subway area. I'm not necessarily proud of what we did, but...well...hell, we rode the subway for free (or mostly free).
I should note that the escalators going to & from the Prague subway system were the scariest escalators I have EVER been on. They had to have been the steepest, fastest ones in the world. At least the ones by our hotel. Truly terrifying, and I even had to keep my eyes closed the first few times.
Our plan for the afternoon/evening was to explore Old Town.
Old Town is definitely a great place to people watch. One thing we discovered, though, is how different big-town Czech Republic is to big-town Germany. You can tell that CR is a poorer country. Things are a little dirtier, a little more run-down. Not bad, by any means, just noticeable. Germans tend to have more of a pride in the upkeep of their cities (which I’m sure has a lot to do with the fact that Germany has more money than CR). Also - there were a lot more “street people”. (I was trying to find a PC way to say “bums”. Actually, I rather like the term “street people.”)
Old Town Square also has the Astronomical Clock. At the top of the hour, the clock goes off, and all of the moveable figurines come to life, and put on a little show. Then, somebody at the top plays a trumpet for a few notes. It's worth waiting around to see, just keep track of who is surrounding you. Prague has a problem with pick-pockets, and hundreds of distracted tourists gaping up at a moving clock make for perfect targets.
When we went to Amsterdam, Josh and I had a great time at the Sex Museum. It was so much fun there, and hilarious! So, we decided we HAD to try the Sex Machine Museum in Prague. Yahreen didn’t care about seeing it, so he stayed outside with the baby, while the three of us went in.
I believe it was €10 to get in. I don't know if I would have done it, knowing what was inside. Some of it was really interesting, but there were some rooms......oy, it was uncomfortable. Josh and I have no shame, and we never get weirded out about stuff. Well, some of the contraptions in this place gave us the willies (ha! get it? willies? sex? haha!).
After being completely skeeved out, we all decided it was time to eat. Right across from the Astronomical Clock was a restaurant that L&Y had been to the last time they were in Prague. The Restaurant U Zlate Konvice, which is located in a 14th century cellar. We were all really hungry, but the first thing we needed was a Czech beer.
One thing we ended up learning is that you should judge the restaurant based on the price of its beer. You can get a half liter of super awesome beer for 30czk (about $1.50). Well, a lot of the places near the most touristy areas will sell beer for 80czk ($4). Now, $4 for a liter is pretty normal in a lot of places, but NOT in CR. That's waaaaay too expensive. But, that's not to say that the beer isn't worth it. Czech beer is awesome. I actually really really liked the dark stuff (normally I'm a pils drinker). Anywho, the restaurant we were at (Zlate Konvice) was one of the touristy places - 80czk for beer. But, at this point, we were starving, so we really didn't care. Plus, certain members of our party get really crank when they're hungry (I'm lookin' at you again, Yah). Btw, even though the Czech Republic is part of the EU, they're still using the Czech Koruna for currency (right now, 1czk = 0.039 Euro = 0.05 USD).
Sometimes, certain European towns seem to have just one option for vegetarians. For instance, in Brugge, Belgium, every restaurant had a vegetarian lasagna as the veggie dish. Well, in Prague, the vegetarian dish on every menu was fried cheese. I’m so not complaining about that, either. :) Most of the food was more “peasant-style”. Boiled meats & vegetables (well, cabbage & potatoes), boiled bread (dumplings), etc. It sounds a lot less appetizing than it actually is.
Even though the restaurant was kind of expensive, it had a good atmosphere, and we all left full & happy.
Yahreen's "I'm hungry" shot:
Yahreen's "I'm happy" shot:
I guess it's true what they say. The way to a man's heart really is through his stomach.
After dinner, we really wanted to go on the Ghost Walk. L&Y did it last time, and really liked it. It also has very good reviews on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately, it started raining. Boo! But, since we were staying three nights, we decided we could do it another night (FYI, kids, don't ever put off for tomorrow what you can do today...). So, we went back to the hotel to play games & drink wine (when traveling by car - always bring a box of wine with you on vacation). Although, that night we never actually played games, we just ended up chatting all night. It's so awesome to be able to travel around Europe with good friends. Gah, we're so lucky!! (and maybe a little spoiled)
Stay tuned for Prague Part 2.
Soooooo, here we go. In August we went to Prague with our friends, Lacie, Yahreen, and baby AJ. They had been to Prague before, but I found a super awesome LivingSocial deal that none of us could pass up. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I LOVE finding travel deals on Groupon & LivingSocial! Anywho, the deal was 3 nights at the Residence La Fenice in Prague, including breakfast every morning, a welcome drink, and one 3-course dinner at their on-site restaurant. The cost? $150 per couple. Total. How amazing is that?
Prague is about 6 hours away from us, so we were up and out pretty early. With us, we always plan to leave at a certain time, but in reality we leave 30 minutes later. It's a little more difficult to leave on time with two couples and a baby. Especially when someone forgets to charge the gas card, and we have to run on base to add money (I'm lookin' at you, Yah). And, we had a ton of stuff to pack.
I think I've explained the gas thing before, but here it goes again, just in case. If you're stationed over here, you get American gas prices - as long as you go to an Esso, and use your charged Esso card. BUT, you only get American prices if you're in the country where you're stationed. So, we get American priced gas in Germany, but that's it. Luckily Prague is only an hour and a half, two hours or so from the German border, so we didn't have to worry about paying for gas on the economy. Which is a lifesaver - I mean, have you seen gas prices lately?? It's almost $8/gal in Germany! Sheesh. And do you know how fast some locals go on the Autobahn? I get regularly smoked, while going 80mph. Redic.
But, I digress. Anywho - trip to Prague! We only hit traffic once, I believe, and it really didn't last too long. We did have to stop several times (damn my bladder!), but I learned the joy of self-cleaning rest stop toilets! Each stall automatically locks when you enter. A little light on the outside of the toilet turns red. When you're done, and leave the stall, the stall automatically locks again (light's still red). There is an AUTOMATIC CLEANER in the stall, that sprays & cleans the whole damn bathroom. Then, the light turns green and the next person can go in. Genius!! Especially for my germaphobic self. Although I must say I'm not a huge fan of damp toilet seats.
The last place we stopped for gas before the border was in Nürnberg. I'm not sure if that's the last Esso before hitting Prague, but we didn't want to take our chances. We had ourselves a parking lot picnic at that Esso (which are sometimes the best kinds of picnics), then continued on.
The Czech Republic is one of those countries where you have to buy a vignette to display in your car, if you're going to be driving on the freeways. Austria & Switzerland also require vignettes. It's basically in place of tolls. At the CR border, you'll see huge signs directing you to places where you can buy vignettes - right over the border was a huge gas station compound. I could have sworn we paid €16 for 10 days, but all the sites I can find say €12 for 10 days. This is what I get for waiting so long to write a blog. Oy.
Really, though, L&Y said that they didn't even buy a vignette last time, and they completely got away with it. The only problem was that for our trip, everyone forgot their international drivers licenses (we had our German licenses with us). Ooops. So, we decided to buy a vignette, just in case we got pulled over & got into even more trouble for not having a license.
That's right, we live on the edge.
So, we're finally into Prague - it really did only take us 6ish hours. Not bad! Our hotel was in a quiet area, but still within walking distance to everything. However, we were only a block from the subway system - score! One thing I will note about our hotel - the staff were SO helpful! They had wonderful customer service, and they helped us with directions, helpful hints, suggestions, etc.
Unfortunately, our rooms were really far apart. We were on the first floor, and L&Y were on the 6th. Our room was very old-school - antique furniture, very very high ceilings. No a/c, which we're used to, being in Europe. We actually ended up getting a two bedroom, two bathroom suite, and both rooms had kitchenettes. We thought our room was nice.
Until we went upstairs to see L&Y's room.
We got hosed.
Their room was COMPLETELY updated, with a living room, a view, and air conditioning. It wasn't until spending the first night in our stuffy, faintly moldy room that we became completely jealous of their awesome room. But, that just meant we spent more time in their room, and just used ours for sleeping. It was nice they had a living room, because then we were able to play games together.
But I'm skipping ahead.
After we unloaded the car, became disillusioned over losing the who’s-got-the-better-room game, and had a glass of wine, it was time to explore Prague! Like I said, we were only about a block from the subway - score! The subway is NOT very extensive. Basically, there’s a straight line, and we only used 2, maybe 3 stops during our entire trip. There are two off-shoots from the main subway, but we never needed them. It would be very very very hard to get lost in the subway system. You’d pretty much have to be a slack-jawed yokel, a la The Simpsons, in order to get lost there. It was a little harder figuring out how much we should spend on subway tickets. Rather than figure it out, certain members of our party (who shall remain nameless) decided it would be best for everyone to buy just one thirty minute ticket each, and keep that ticket the entire time. There are scanners for you to scan your tickets, but they don't prevent you from continuing into the subway system if you DON'T scan them. We also NEVER saw any sort of law enforcement in the subway area. I'm not necessarily proud of what we did, but...well...hell, we rode the subway for free (or mostly free).
I should note that the escalators going to & from the Prague subway system were the scariest escalators I have EVER been on. They had to have been the steepest, fastest ones in the world. At least the ones by our hotel. Truly terrifying, and I even had to keep my eyes closed the first few times.
Our plan for the afternoon/evening was to explore Old Town.
Old Town is definitely a great place to people watch. One thing we discovered, though, is how different big-town Czech Republic is to big-town Germany. You can tell that CR is a poorer country. Things are a little dirtier, a little more run-down. Not bad, by any means, just noticeable. Germans tend to have more of a pride in the upkeep of their cities (which I’m sure has a lot to do with the fact that Germany has more money than CR). Also - there were a lot more “street people”. (I was trying to find a PC way to say “bums”. Actually, I rather like the term “street people.”)
Old Town Square also has the Astronomical Clock. At the top of the hour, the clock goes off, and all of the moveable figurines come to life, and put on a little show. Then, somebody at the top plays a trumpet for a few notes. It's worth waiting around to see, just keep track of who is surrounding you. Prague has a problem with pick-pockets, and hundreds of distracted tourists gaping up at a moving clock make for perfect targets.
When we went to Amsterdam, Josh and I had a great time at the Sex Museum. It was so much fun there, and hilarious! So, we decided we HAD to try the Sex Machine Museum in Prague. Yahreen didn’t care about seeing it, so he stayed outside with the baby, while the three of us went in.
I believe it was €10 to get in. I don't know if I would have done it, knowing what was inside. Some of it was really interesting, but there were some rooms......oy, it was uncomfortable. Josh and I have no shame, and we never get weirded out about stuff. Well, some of the contraptions in this place gave us the willies (ha! get it? willies? sex? haha!).
After being completely skeeved out, we all decided it was time to eat. Right across from the Astronomical Clock was a restaurant that L&Y had been to the last time they were in Prague. The Restaurant U Zlate Konvice, which is located in a 14th century cellar. We were all really hungry, but the first thing we needed was a Czech beer.
One thing we ended up learning is that you should judge the restaurant based on the price of its beer. You can get a half liter of super awesome beer for 30czk (about $1.50). Well, a lot of the places near the most touristy areas will sell beer for 80czk ($4). Now, $4 for a liter is pretty normal in a lot of places, but NOT in CR. That's waaaaay too expensive. But, that's not to say that the beer isn't worth it. Czech beer is awesome. I actually really really liked the dark stuff (normally I'm a pils drinker). Anywho, the restaurant we were at (Zlate Konvice) was one of the touristy places - 80czk for beer. But, at this point, we were starving, so we really didn't care. Plus, certain members of our party get really crank when they're hungry (I'm lookin' at you again, Yah). Btw, even though the Czech Republic is part of the EU, they're still using the Czech Koruna for currency (right now, 1czk = 0.039 Euro = 0.05 USD).
Sometimes, certain European towns seem to have just one option for vegetarians. For instance, in Brugge, Belgium, every restaurant had a vegetarian lasagna as the veggie dish. Well, in Prague, the vegetarian dish on every menu was fried cheese. I’m so not complaining about that, either. :) Most of the food was more “peasant-style”. Boiled meats & vegetables (well, cabbage & potatoes), boiled bread (dumplings), etc. It sounds a lot less appetizing than it actually is.
Even though the restaurant was kind of expensive, it had a good atmosphere, and we all left full & happy.
Yahreen's "I'm hungry" shot:
Yahreen's "I'm happy" shot:
I guess it's true what they say. The way to a man's heart really is through his stomach.
After dinner, we really wanted to go on the Ghost Walk. L&Y did it last time, and really liked it. It also has very good reviews on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately, it started raining. Boo! But, since we were staying three nights, we decided we could do it another night (FYI, kids, don't ever put off for tomorrow what you can do today...). So, we went back to the hotel to play games & drink wine (when traveling by car - always bring a box of wine with you on vacation). Although, that night we never actually played games, we just ended up chatting all night. It's so awesome to be able to travel around Europe with good friends. Gah, we're so lucky!! (and maybe a little spoiled)
Stay tuned for Prague Part 2.
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