Praha, Czech Republic: Part 2

Where did I leave off?  Ah yes!  We stayed at the all night café until about 0430 and then migrated to a McDonalds to grab a bite and await the coming of the Starbucks opening time of 0700 (can you believe that!?).  Greeting them with a hearty "Mornin',"since morning it was and we were the first, I grabbed my first peppermint mocha of the season and we walked towards Charles Bridge to cross over to the old city and visit the castle.  The plan had been to watch the sunrise on the bridge as it lit up the buildings on the other side of the river, but gray skies meant that we just watched the gray get a little lighter.  Oh well, next time.  The statues dotting the bridge were amazing.  They were so diverse and detailed that it took us probably 30 minutes to cross this bridge, and half of it was under renovation so half the statues were inaccessible.  Getting over to the other side, we begin by walking around a park area bordering the river.  Turns out there is an art museum there and a strange restaurant with a large row of bright yellow penguins.  I have no idea what use they have.  None.  

Heading farther away from the river, we walked south of the castle and wandered an orchard there, which along with the fruit trees also resembled a large field that was tilted at a huge angle.  It was quite the hike but afforded an amazing view.  The castle was filling the view but it was still several streets away.  I glanced at my map and realized that a little idea I had been toying with was going to bear fruit.  Several embassies were in the immediate area on the way from the orchards to the castle proper including the US one.  All I know about them is from movies or what not and I think I heard from a non-movie source that you can go visit and just say hi if you wanted.  Thinking this was not too dumb an idea and finding it amusing to stand on US soil again, we wandered over.  We walked up and saw our flag flying high.  A couple guards outside I could tell were looking our way and we simply walked up to one and asked if we could just go inside.  They said that all we could really do was visit this anteroom but not actually go in.  Inside behind some glass was a young marine and we yakked with him for a bit, basically telling him we just wanted to say hi.  It was fun.  

At the castle we picked up some sort of deep fried mass of cheese placed between two soft warm buns.  It was a most welcome treat especially for the trek up to the top of the hill that the castle sits upon.  At the top, a beautiful view and at least two tour groups awaited us.  Oh well.  Getting to see the entire area from way up high is always a hoot.  I enjoy getting the bird's eye view.  Rae and I are frugal travelers and we will only occasionally pay to go into somewhere, which is why we did not go into the inner area of the castle.  Perhaps next time.  After walking down from the castle hill, we roamed the surrounding area some more, finding little nooks and crannies and random streets.  In truth, we were trying to find our way over to the river just to walk along that park again and then cross the bridge.  Nothing much more happened for some time besides walking along and taking in the city until we started to get hungry.  We also started thinking about moving along back to the airport.

We both decided on an early dinner/late lunch and so commenced a search for the cheapest place with local food we wanted to try.  We must have wandered for an hour at least just looking at every restaurant's menu we passed for prices or deals.  Lo and behold!  We stumble on one of those nooks I previously mentioned.  A restaurant sequestered down an alley with a 'tourist' special that included starter, entrée, and dessert.  But that wasn't the most interesting part.  It was that its a jazz restaurant and jazz music was playing from speakers in the courtyard.  Whoa.  It may have been early but we were hungry and this place just seemed to unique to pass up.  In we went and old instruments, posters of the great jazz musicians, and wonderful aromas greeted us.  We were the only people there in the area they sat us and our meal was prompt and well timed (salad done, there's the main course).  Overall a really good experience.  

I cannot continue to ramble on, this is too late in coming to you already.  Suffice it to say, once done with dinner, we moseyed the city one last time and then returned to our subway, bus and plane combo.  No large hassles greeted us that need be told here.  Perhaps I'll get a chance to rant about a slight experience we had on the return train to Giessen one day.  Regardless, my apologies for dragging out my first foreign foreign country experience.

Rae and I at the top of the castle hill.

Those penguins. I don't know what purpose they serve at all.

Just makes you think, doesn't it?

Praha, Czech Republic: Part 1

Yes, part one.  I don't want to bore people and I think an extremely long blog post would lose people's interest at interesting times.  Therefore there will be 2 posts about my visit to the Czech Republic and more pictures will be with the second post. 

Rachel and I found our journey beginning with a late lunch of döner immediately followed by a walk to the Bahnhof and a free trip down to Frankfurt by train.  Once there, we sought and found the bus that would take us on the 1 hour and 45 minute trip to the airport in Hahn.  Little did we realize that this bus would cost us 12€ each!  Gar.  The trip on the bus was less than interesting but it got us to the airport.  There we encountered our first real excitement: security at a non-US airport.  I admit to being very curious as to how it would be and I was not disappointed.  Shoes could stay on but you had to take off all your tops down to the t-shirt and to be safe (I learned afterwards) everything out of your pockets.  I had a chapstick and my belt on still when I came through the detector.  The man who waved me through had me put my arms up and I got the wand...which promptly goes off for my belt and once that was off, my chapstick.  The man removed the cap carefully while asking what it was and then proceeded to run my belt and chapstick through the scanner.  Rachel was similarly scrutinized by a female.  But wait!  I had a flashlight in my bag which they did some sort of swab test on with a paper in a plastic bag!  During this, I calmly stood there and tried not to have a smirk on my face from my bemusement.  Anyway, we got through.  

The flight was on Ryanair and I hear tell they are based out of Ireland, which means that all of my inflight instructions were in English first with German second.  The flight was supposed to be an hour but we had a 130 km/h tail wind which got us to Prague in 30 minutes.  Shortest flight I've ever been on.  From Prague airport, we bussed to a subway station and took the S-Bahn to the center of town!  The time is 10:30p.  We step up and out of the subway to buildings that look old, weathered and chock full of history.  Spires dot every other structure and a tenth of them are lit up by large soft colored floodlights.  We pick a direction and mosey that way.  A huge promenade greets us.  It is dotted with Glühwein stands that also sell sausages of all kinds.  This mall way slopes gently up and at the top is a huge old structure that is now a museum but at one time I could have seen it as a capitol building.  But it could have always been a museum, I don't know.  

Rachel and I proceeded to zig-zag our way from there to the river and in 2 hours we had seen very nearly all of the new (new being 400ish years old) city.  Around 12:30 we decided to head back to a small alleyway we had walked through that had several 24 hour bar/cafés that looked just right for college kids like us.  We picked one that looked nice, sat down and stayed there for the next 4 hours.  It was amazing.  We had failed to really learn any phrases in Czech but I managed to order 2 coffees (hold up two fingers, say coffee with a 'please' in my voice).  The bartender was very nice in that he didn't talk to us but kept on eye on his customers and was ready to help anytime.  I liked that.  The coffee was incredible.  It bordered on Turkish coffee because it was very thick and rich.  I ordered a second round.  About an hour into our stay, a soft pop followed by the lights going out interrupted my reading of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  The barkeep comes out and starts jibber jabbering with some of the ladies at another table.  They sound like they're all joking around about the lights and the atmosphere of the place is one of amusement only.  The barkeep grabs a flashlight and is looking around and makes his way downstairs, all the while cracking jokes (we think) in Czech which just sounds awesome (think of Zelenka from Stargate: Atlantis).  Well, the lights come back on after about 5 minutes and life at 2 in the morning in Prague goes on.  

to be continued...

One of the statues near the top of the promenade.

One of the many kiosks dotting the area. Yum! 

Marburg an der Lahn, Germany

On Friday, Rachel and I went up to Marburg, which is north of Gießen, for a date day/night.  It is only a 14 or 30 minute train ride (depending on if you get the fast train).  We had gone before already but the trip had not been for long and there had been other people.  Last time, we left the train station and took a turn that consisted of step stairs leading towards a cemetery and small chapel.  We saw that the path continued and so we continued climbing until we reached the summit of one of the hills of Marburg.  Looking across the valley from way up high and surrounded by trees was very cool.  Quite peaceful as well since there were no other people around.  

On this trip though, Rachel and I started making our way to the castle immediately.  We passed St. Elizabeth's Church, which will be performing Verdi's Requiem soon (I'm thinking of attending).  Marburg has retained its older architecture and road style and as such is very new for me.  Roads twist up and down, stairs connect different street levels, building seems skewed based on the angle of the road and multiple generations of cobblestones pepper the ground.  Beyond Elizabeth's church is a quiet group of streets with small shops and cafes.  For a Friday, the streets here seemed oddly quiet, but I'm sure the dreary weather was a contributing factor.  We stopped in one of these cafes and had chai lattes (amazing!) and a snack.  After that, we worked our way step by step up to the castle.  There are some pictures I hope I'll get to post once Rae gets them up because otherwise I can't say much.  It's large, old, has grounds that you can wander (which we did), and is dominating this hill with a view to kill for.  I promise pictures will be forthcoming. 

After the castle, we made our way down the hill and went to a central plaza area for that shopping area I mentioned.  There we sat and had some beer in a local establishment.  There weren't a lot of people in there and it was nice to escape from the sprinkling rain for a time.  A second round was inevitable and we talked for over hour.  We then decided we were hungry and the most important part of date day/night was upon me - dinner.  

We had passed a place earlier in our wandering named Barfuß, which means barefoot.  Inside was a small, well lit and quiet restaurant.  We were seated and Rachel immediately wanted Auflauf, which it seems (additional research pending) is a local dish and resembles a casserole.  Needless to say I was nervous but we ordered and split the Spinach and Lachs Auflauf.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I hope that says it all.  Having smoked salmon with potatoes, cheese, and spinach all cooked together was the most amazing thing ever.  Of course, I didn't think it would fill me up so we also ordered two more entrees for us.  One wiener schnitzel and filet mignon with accompanying fried potatoes and green noodles in a mushroom cream sauce (respectively) and we are pretty much dead.  We don't know the policy, or if there is one, for doggie bags so we ate as much as we could.  It was amazing though and I'm getting my own Auflauf next time.

We waddled our way back to the train station and caught the train home.  All in all a pretty successful date and visit to another city.  I hope to have those pictures up soon of the castle.  Bis später!