Praha! and home in a week

So I survived Praha. What to tell...hmm...The main river is the Vltava and I was confused because I had never heard of it, but then I found out the German name is the Moldau, so it all made sense then. My "travel companion", Jess, and I stayed at Hostel Elf, which sounds shady but we got free breakfasts and still have our kidneys, so it was a good deal. We walked all around the city and it is amazing that consistently, everywhere the architecture was great. Really everything stunning. We hit all the big sites, the Old Town Square, Stare Mesto (Old Town), St Charles Bridge, Wenceslas Square, Praha Castle with St Vitus' Cathedral, the Jewish Quarter, and a good number of bar/restaurants.

We found a really old beer hall, U Flecku, dating from 1459 and serving the same dark lager recipe since its inception. It had a really good atmosphere and a lederhosen-wearing accordionist and tubist. The next night we went, we felt the lack of tuba impacted the atmosphere and I kept chanting, "NEEDS MORE TUBA!!!" The decor seemed really old style, like out of the 1500s. But on the first night we were there, we would have given anything to understand Czech. Next to us sat a man and woman and we couldn't tell if they were dating or married (they had no rings so marriage unlikely), and whatever was happening, their relationship was on the rocks. The woman would not look him in the face and even ripped her hand out of his hold. He must have been out of his mind because he kept playing the duo musicians to play at his table and would hum them tunes to sing and he was paying them, at the one time I saw, with a 1000 Coruna note (that's 30 quid!!!) The woman kept telling him not to and shaking her head, but he would not listen. He kept asking people for a lighter for a cigarette (by asking for 'fire' and making a lighter motion with his hand) but alas no one had it. So then after a time he gets up and the woman says 'no no' and shakes her head and covers her face. He goes over to the table behind us and then all of sudden gets belligerent and security and the waiters rush him and we think we are going to get fallen on top of by this guy and the huge bouncer and a brawl will break out! But luckily they finished their drinks and were escorted out. I really wonder why he tried to attack them if he was looking for a lighter...

The next night we tried our luck with the Green Devil: Absinthe. 70% alcohol and a mix of Anise flower, Wormwood, and Fennel. It is very aromatic and very good to drink (in sips only of course!) It had a fiery taste to it but not in an unpleasant way like vodka, gin, or bourbon. Very good, I hope to have more in the future. Also that night Jess and I discovered that between a Georgetown friend coming to London before we left and our eating habits in Praha, we had consumed 20 alcoholic drinks in the span of one week, yet were never drunk. On the way back, we got distracted and wound up severely lost and outside a police station. We asked the officer where to go to get to the hostel and showed him the map. We both had a collective sense of doom as he moved his finger quite a distance away from our destination. He said "Take taxi" We said "No, we'd like to walk which way to go?" and he said "No take a taxi get you there in good time" so then we asked "Which way to the Vltava?" and we walked it back. We ended up in Nove Mesto (New Town) because we took one right turn too many and went south instead of north.

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun and we both agreed to future travels in midweek jaunts. Perhaps Amsterdam calls next?

Also I fly home the 14th. Can you dig it? This last week is going to be busy...