Castle of St. Stinkus

The rest of Prague finished without any major incident. A truly beautiful city – probably my favorite so far (but that will change once I get back to Rome). After Prague we went to Vienna. The guy on the bus told us all about Vienna and how it’s real easy to go to Bratislava, Slovakia from there as a day trip. So the group of crazy Ozzies and I decided we would do that one day while we we’re there.

We met up in the morning and on the way to the bus station I realize that I didn’t bring my passport with me (yes I know I have a habit of doing this). In this case, it turns out I didn’t need it so all was good. We got over to Bratislava and all the signs were in whatever they speak there (Slovakian?). So we just made stuff up (the castle of St. Stinkus for example) until we found a tourist info center that had maps and descriptions in English – though our explanations were more fun. We walked around the city center and saw the old buildings and such (it was really pretty), grabbed some lunch and then headed over to see the castle, which was uphill as these things tend to be. The uphill wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t so freakin’ hot. It was around 32 Celsius (which is around 98 Fahrenheit my Ozzie friends told me). After the castle, we found a cool spot under a tree in a little park and we all fell asleep for about an hour. Then we headed back to Vienna.

Just roamed around Vienna the last day, took some pictures and hung around. It was a great, lazy sort of day. Vienna is really beautiful as well (it’s all really pretty over here – except Berlin). I got some great shots which I will post when I can. We got into Munich yesterday afternoon and it’s been raining since. Don’t know how much I’ll get to see in the rain, but I’ll keep you posted.

Gypsy Biscuits

So Prague is even more beautiful than Amsterdam was (pictures to come). I love it. The locals are a little rough around the edges but, for the most part, friendly. The architecture is amazing. The weather has been a little weird - from sunny and hot to raining and cold to dry but windy back to sunny and hot - all in a couple of hours. And we thought New England weather was unpredictable.

Spent yesterday on a walking tour covering the city - the new and old city plus the castle and surrounding area. It was pretty cool and I got a ton of pics that I still need to go through and then upload - but that gives me something to do on the bus to Vienna.

I've managed to hook up with a bunch of wacky Australians, or Ozzies, as I've been told to call them. They are truly a strange bunch of people but a lot of fun to hang out with. After all, how can the descendants of English criminals be anything less than a lot of fun? You'll see some of them start popping up in the pictures as I post them.

There's a particular Russian from Australia that none of them seem to like to much as she's a bit "off." I've talked to her and she isn't playing with a full deck - that much is clear. They've labeled her "gypsy biscuits," which makes zero sense but makes me laugh none-the-less. Every once and a while I just say "gypsy biscuits" in my head and I chuckle a little.

Well that's it for now - sorry it's not too exciting. I've uploaded the Berlin pics and organized things a little, so now if you go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjacome/sets things will show up in sets so you don't have to scroll through all the pictures you may (or may not) have already seen. The pictures from the Flickr site also feed the slideshow that shows on the right hand side of the page.

Bye Bye Berlin, Hello Prague

I didn't like Berlin so much. The best thing about it was the poeple I met there from the bus and the room. The city itself has a lot of history with the Berlin wall and Communism and all that - which was really interesting. I took a walking tour that was really informative and showed all the major points of interest from WWII and the Cold War. But the buildings are all so new (because the city was bombed to the ground bascially) and generic - thanks to soviet contruction. It's rather dirty and the Berliners just didn't seem all that friendly. So I'm glad to be out of there - don't think I'd go back (but never say never).

Got into Prague last night and had a chance to look around. It's seems much more my speed from a tourist standpoint. Lots of old buildings, a castle, great bridges - just what i'm looking for in a European city. Plus things are pretty cheap here, though they're still on their own currency (the Czech crown) which is weird. It's sort of like how the Lira used to be, things cost like 500 crowns but that comes out to something like $25. So I went to the ATM and got 2000 crowns out and it just gave me this one 2000 crown bill. You feel rich for a while.

I'm bound to get some great pictures here. I'll post them as soon as I can.