Farewell Prague
We've gotten to be swift and organized packers, after having slept in 4 different hostels in about 10 days (not including the overnight train accommodations), so we had stored our baggage and headed out to
Praha Bakeshop to grab some breakfast by about 10 a.m.
Unfortunately, we discovered we were not Prague's only visitors, as we battled crowds around Prague Castle throughout the morning. We visited the Golden Lane, which is a row of storybook houses, including one where Franz Kafka once lived, but the charm of the space was completely lost in the crowds of tour groups and the conversion of all the houses into souvenir shops.
The interior of the Royal Palace and climbing to the top of the tower in St. George's Basillica were the highlights of the rest of our crowded tour of the Castle area. The views of Prague from the area are amazing, but battling the crowds was exhausting and frustrating.
We headed back down toward the Old Town to have a beer at the Executioner's Pub and lunch at an Indian restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet. We filled out the afternoon with some souvenir shopping before heading to the train station to store our bags until our 11:23 p.m. train for Budapest.
The weather looked ominious, so we were happy to be inside at the Globe Bookstore when the downpour began. Journaling, emailing and enjoying just sitting for a change consumed several hours before we headed out for dinner at nearby bistro Universal. After waiting at the train station for about 30 minutes, we got settled into our couchettes -- happy once again to have reserved bottom bunks. Our roommates included two gentlemen originally from South Africa (now from the U.K. and Prague), as well as two girls from Dresden. A somewhat sleepless night due to various border control checks and climate issues in the car ended with our arrival in Budapest around 8 a.m.
Visiting the Bone Church
We awoke, hit
Bohemia Bagel for breakfast, and headed to the train station to meet Brieanne and her friend to catch the train to
Kutna Hora. Our original hope was to go to
Cesky Krumlov, but Kutna Hora was just an hour away (rather than 3) and seemed to be a more reasonable choice for a daytrip.
We arrived and began the walk into the center of town from the train station. Our first stop was the Cemetery Church and Ossuary, which is Kutna Hora's most talked-about attraction. Throughout the church there are displays and structures built from human bones found at the sight of the church, including a chandelier made with every bone found in the human body. The macabre attraction was interesting, but certainly not worth all of the hype I had heard.
We got a bit lost during the continued walk into town (which isn't surprising, considering we had rejected the option of buying a map at the train station for 100 CZK) but eventually made it via a slight detour. It was a refreshing experience to have avoided the crowds of Prague -- while Prague is lovely, constantly navigating crowds made me think of Times Square (and not in a good way).
We continued wandering through the center of town and reached the Cathedral of St. Barbara. For me, this was the highlight of our day. This church is also known as the Miner's Church (Kunta Hora was a famous mining town, and had the deepest silver mines in the world at one time). Many of the frescos and statues reflected this history and it was interesting to learn about. The views of the surrounding countryside were amazing from the Cathedral's perch atop a hill.
Stopping to look for souvenirs at many small shops along the way, we slowly made our way back to the center of town and choose a cute restaurant overlooking the countryside for lunch. They had a lunch menu with four choices for 58 CZK, but it was all in Czech. Between the four of us, we translated most of the lunch menu and made our choices. All of the food was delicious, and even though we each had a beer, it came to less than 100 CZK each ($4).
Taking our first city public transportation of the entire trip, we boarded a bus back to the train station to return to Prague. Several of us dozed off during the ride back, tired from the long day of walking (and I'm sure the beers didn't help).
Back in Prague, we spent a bit of time catching up on email, and then headed out for dinner. We had dinner at Kolkovna, a pub style restaurant near the Old Town, before going to check out Ungelt Jazz and Blues Club. The subterranean club felt uniquely Prague, and inspired us to try some Absinthe. Our old age was revealed when we both refused to drink it since we didn't like the way it tasted. We headed off to Marquis de Sade, a popular ex-pat watering hole, for a nightcap and dragged our tired selves back to the hostel to sleep.
Hostel Love and Visiting Prague's Jewish Quarter
Woke up early to the lovely sound of jackhammers outside of our hostel and decided to head out and find a new place to stay. The "highly recommended" listing in Lonely Planet suggested
Youth Hostel TYN which was closer to the Astronomical Clock and cheaper than the hostel we were staying in. Much to my surprise, the man behind the counter said he had 2 beds available in a 5 bed dorm and that we could have access immediately. I nearly wanted to hug him. I returned to the Apple Hostel, woke Cate up, and we checked out. Fortunately, there was a different receptionist than the night before, and we told her we weren't staying even though we reserved for the additional nights -- she seemed confused, but didn't insist on getting any additional money from us, so we were thrilled.
We checked into the new hostel and were thrilled to discover it was clean, the beds weren't bunked, we each had a locker, and the showers were private and clean. The weather outside was beautiful as well, so we were genuinely thrilled after having so many rainy, dreary days.
We headed to Prague's Jewish Quarter to follow the walking tour from my Frommer's guidebook. We visited all of the synagogues that make up the Jewish Museum in Prague. Highlights included the beautifully restored Spanish Synagogue and the moving display of pictures drawn by children while interred at Terezin Labor Camp displayed in Pinkas Synagogue. We were glad to have started the tour early, because by 1:30 p.m. when we finished, the crowds were overwhelming and irritating.
Ready to refuel, we headed to Cafe Flambee to indulge in their somewhat-secret lunch deal. For $9 each, we had beef goulash with amazing speck studded dumplings, a glass of wine, and shared an order of apricot dumplings for dessert. So far, this lunch was the culinary highlight of our trip.
After lunch, Cate headed off to check out the Mucha Museum while I caught up on email/blogging. We met up at the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square and waited for Brieanne to meet us for a drink. We had a beer and chatted, grabbed a light dinner and agreed to meet up to go to Kunta Hora in the morning. Cate and I headed to Chateau Rouge, a popular ex-pat bar near our hostel, and had several beers before calling it a night around 1 a.m.
On Our Feet All Day in Prague
We awoke about 45 minutes outside of Prague (well, we were originally awoken around 3 a.m. by Czech border patrol, but quickly went back to sleep) and arrived in Prague at 8:15 a.m. After wandering a bit, we located our hostel, winced at the less-than-spectactular digs, and locked our packs up at the hostel until we could return after check-in time at 2 p.m.
Our first stop was at Cafe Imperial for coffee and their free jelly donuts. It was a beautiful spot, and for just under 2000 cK (about 80 USD) you could even purchase a bowl of yesterday's donuts to throw at other patrons (being budget travellers, we opted out). We were pleasantly surprised to have arrived in the affordable world of Prague -- coffees for under $2 were a pleasant treat after the expensiveness of Austria and Germany because of the weak dollar.
We then wandered over to the National Theater to try and get some opera tickets for our stay -- unfortunately, during the summer ticket prices are dramatically higher than the rest of the year (damn tourists!) and the few cheap tickets were all sold out.
Not to be completely defeated, we picked up some postcards and headed to the National Museum to meet up with our walking tour. The next five hours involved chasing after our tour guide who lead us around Prague at a nearly frantic pace. We did get to see an amazing amount of Prague, but there was little time for pictures or pausing, as our long-legged (and Cate confirms the cute trend had continued) tour guide. From beginning at the National Museum, we got glimpses of all of Prague's major sites, including Charles Bridge, the Jewish Quarter, the Old Town and even the Castle area. Tiring, but a speedy overview of Prague.
After dragging our sore feet back to the hostel to check-in, we discovered several unpleasant facts about our hostel: push button group showers (meaning you get a stream of water for about 10 seconds before you need to push the button again), surley receptionists, and a hostel full of parent-funded travellers who seemed to spend their days and nights hanging out in the hostel. After having such nice hostel experiences in Salzburg and Munich, it was a bit of a disappointment, though I was very glad to have brought the sleep sheet with me! We showered and headed out to find dinner and some entertainment for the evening. After several misses (including a very nice wine bar that had no room for us, a former pizza bar on the water that converted into a swanky restaurant and the discovery that Bohemia Bagel didn't serve liquor) we ended up at a Mexican restaurant where we soothed our homesickness with a pseudo-Senor Panchos experience complete with fajitas, quesadillas and margaritas. We headed back to the hellish hostel, and decided that we'd find a new place to stay in the morning for the remaining two nights in Prague, despite the receptionist insisting that if we didn't want to stay for the next night we'd still have to pay because we cancelled with less than 24 hours notice.
Rainy Munich and Off to Budapest
We were greeted by yet another rainy day in Munich, so we headed to
Munich Residence Museum and Treasury. The Treasury collection included quite a few fancy items, including beautiful crowns, glassware and silver service for a banquet. The Residence was interesting as well, but since most of the building was destroyed during WWII, it has been rebuilt, and most of the rooms are furnished with items never actually used in the residence.
After getting lost in the winding halls of the Residence, Cate and I managed to find each other outside, and decided to go for the most authentic meal available in Munich -- conveyor belt sushi! Ok, so it's not authentic, but at some point, a girl can't eat any more schnitzel, dumplings or sausage. Heck, after our night at the Hofbrauhaus, we disappointed the entire tourist community by skipping beer altogether and drinking Coke and green tea. It was a refreshing change from all the heavy food we had been eating.
Our overnight train to Prague left at 11:08 p.m., so we spent the late afternoon/evening doing internety things, getting pictures from our memory cards burned onto CDs, purchasing some food for our trip and generally getting psyched up for spending the night on the train. We were very happy to share our room of couchettes with four young Korean girls -- they were so young and tiny they could barely pick up their own bags, let alone run off with our things (combined with their lack of detectible body odor this made them perfect roommates). A little bit of reading and we were off to sleep en route to Prague uneventfully.
Biking and Beer in Munich
We woke up to the unfortunate news that we would have to switch rooms at the hostel, which meant checking out at 10 a.m. and checking back in after 2 p.m. Not the end of the world, since we were planning on going on
Mike's Bike Tour of Munich and would be out during that time anyway. We had breakfast at the hostel, packed up our things to store in the luggage room, and headed out to meet up with the tour despite the ominous looking weather.
There were about 18 people on our bike tour, which began just south of the Marienplatz. Our guide, Sigi, was fun and friendly throughout the tour, which included most of Munich's highlights, from the Residenz and the Peace Angel to the surfer wave and Chinese Tower in the English Garden. About 2 hours into the ride, we stopped for lunch and beers at the beer garden in the middle of the English Garden, which is Munich's equivalent to Central Park. Our guide claimed that the English Garden is six times the size of Central Park, but that's not true, since the English Garden is 1000 acres and Central Park is over 800 acres :) Everyone bikes a little more comfortably (and dangerously) once they drink a Liter of beer, so the return ride was fairly amusing. It poured during lunch, and then again just as we were returning to drop off the bikes, but we survived. We headed back to the hostel to check into our new room, do laundry, and make phone calls. Not very exciting, but such is life, even when you're travelling.
We made our reservation to take an overnight train to Prague on Tuesday night, so we had no choice but to hit Munich's most famous beer hall, Hofbrauhaus to drink beer and listen to the house oompah band. We ran into a guy that we met on the bike tour and joined his rowdy table, full of flirty drunk Germans waiting for a bus to Venice, several girls from Australia on a Contiki tour, and a few other American travelers (MA, NYC, and Washington, D.C. all represented). Several liters of beer later, we returned to our hostel and I think I had the best night of sleep I've had since I left home.
To Munich
We surprised ourselves and boarded an earlier train than expected to Munich, arriving here at about 11 a.m. We checked into our hostel, and though we couldn't get into our room, we were able to drop off our bags in the luggage storage and head into the heart of the city. We went to see Munich's famously overrated tourist requirement --
the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz. At 11, 12 and 5 daily, the figures in the Glockenspiel move about and tourists watch and cheer. As predicted, it was not very impressive, but it's a must-see attraction, so we did it.
By now, we were quite hungry, so we went to Weisses Brauhaus for a couple of delicious Weisse beers, outstanding potato pancakes and spinach spaetzel. Not an especially healthy meal, but everything was outstanding, especially the Schnider Weisse, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better € per calorie value.
We headed back to Wombat's to put our things in our room. We were pleasantly surprised that our 6-bed dorm had its own shower and was extremely clean. Since it was raining out, and we were tired, we spent the afternoon checking email, reading and getting some rest. We grabbed some bratwursts from the train station for dinner and spent the evening at the hostel bar where we were suprised to run into the two girls from California (Megan and Brianne) who we had met at the hostel in Salzburg. We discussed going to see the Cinderella Castle with them the next day, but instead decided to stick to our original plan of going on a bike tour before heading to bed.
The Ice Caves and Going With The Flow
The Good: Salzburg is a small city, and we had hit most of the major sights, so we decided to take a daytrip to the
Eisriesenwelt Caves. There are a bunch of tour companies that organize trips from Salzburg, but it's cheaper to do on your own, so we took a train from Salzburg to Werfen and then a shuttle bus to the caves. It was much more strenuous than I had imagined -- good thing we've been so diligent in our gym-going before the trip. There was a 20 minute hike from where the shuttle drops you off to the cable car and then another 20 minute hike from where the cable car drops you off to the entrance to the caves. Of course, the views were amazing, so that made the hiking went by easily.
Visiting the caves involves a 75 minute guided tour with 700 steps up and 700 steps down total. The exercise is helpful though, because inside the caves it's 0°C (which I suppose isn't that surprising since they are ice caves). We had worn all of the (few) warm clothes we had packed, but the Austrian tour guide took pity on Cate and gave her a jacket to wear during the tour. (Cate has noticed a theme that we seem to always have cute Austrian tour guides, we will see if this continues for other countries.) I wish I could post my pictures, because the views en route to the caves were amazing. We were up over 1700 meters and the mountains and valley views were just amazing.
The Bad: We got an email in the morning from Hostel Celica that they had no rooms available, which was a major let down for me, as I had my heart set on staying in this former prison that had been converted to a hostel. I emailed them about ten days before we left New York, but never got a response to the room request. There are only a few hostels in Ljubljana, and we would be arriving in mid-afternoon, which is tough time to get a room without a reservation. We emailed an alternate hostel, and hoped to hear from them by the end of the day. The train to Werfen (which then goes to Vienna) was a popular choice, so we had to stand for a while since most of the seats were reserved. After an uneventful return to Salzburg, we decided to book a reservation for our train to Ljubljana. Even though we'd managed seats for our train to Werfen, we didn't want to be crouched in the aisles for the 5 hour ride. While we booked the reservation, we did some research about our trip from Ljubljana to Prague, and discovered that the least expensive option would require spending 4 hours in the Salzburg train station in the middle of the night, and the expensive option would require changing trains in the middle of the night -- and both options would take nearly 20 hours of travel time! So now we had a)no where to sleep in Ljubljana and b)an unpleasant 20 hour trip back to look forward to. After some contemplation, we decided that it didn't make sense to go to Ljubljana and instead that we would head to Munich in the morning. Munich was en route to Prague, rather than in the opposite direction, our current hostel was able to call Wombat's Hostel to confirm a reservation for us and the ticket would only cost about 26€, rather than 41€ (though it ended up being mostly a wash once we deducted the ticket change fee). It was a bit disappointing, as I was very much looking forward to Ljubljana, but sometimes it just makes sense to change your plans.
The End: Once we got over the initial disappointment, we were actually excited about Munich and headed to Augustiner Bräustübl Tavern at Mülln (Salzburg's most famous beer garden) for some dinner and a few celebratory beers.
A Perfect Day in Salzburg
Since we were asleep so early, we had no trouble getting up early to get our day started. We had breakfast at the hostel (yes, we ate at the hostel far too often) and headed to the Mirabell Gardens to meet up for
Fraulein Maria's Bike Tour (who incidently has the most poorly optimized website
ever). Salzburg is famous for being where
The Sound of Music was filmed and for being Mozart's hometown. This tour focused on the sights featured in the
The Sound of Music, but was an outstanding overview of Salzburg. We biked about 14km total, covering most of Salzburg's major sights, but the most impressive part was the amazing views of the mountains throughout the tour. Our guide, Ian, was kind enough to wait while the members of our tour (8 of us total) visited
Hellbrunn to tour the trick fountains. Clearly the Archibishop who called Hellbrunn home had a great sense of humor, and didn't mind if his guests got a little wet while they visited.
Hungry after our morning of bike riding, we stopped at Stieglkeller for some beers overlooking the city and some cheese and sausage to refuel. We walked down from the top of the hill and stopped at Cafe Tomaselli for another beverage, pastries and people watching. Cafe Tomaselli is 300 years old and serves outstanding hot chocolate -- the balcony was also a great place for watching the many people wandering through the square -- everyone from folks in tuxes and evening gowns heading to the opera to families with small children and even a troop of Girl Guides (many of whom happened to be staying at our hostel).
We headed back to our hostel, exhausted from our day, and left only to wander a few streets away to get a couple of currywursts for dinner... someone on http://www.chowhound.com had raved about them -- it was fine, but was just a sausage covered in ketchup and curry powder. Back at the hostel we hung out with a couple of our roommates from California in the bar until it was time to crash.
Getting to Salzburg
We realized shortly after Dan dropped us off at the airport that neither of us had brought a watch -- of course, I had OTC drugs for every imaginable ailment, cups, a picnic blanket, but no watch? We have since become huge fans of churches and train stations with an abundance of clocks :-) After a fairly sleepless flight (they showed
Field of Dreams and
Fever Pitch), we made our way to Zurich to catch the train to Salzburg. We'll be back in Salzburg again for a night en route home, but we had about an hour free, so we went to the
Jelmoli department store to have lunch (apparently lunching in department stores is a typically Swiss thing to do) and stock up on supplies for our ride to Salzburg.
The train ride allowed us to passively enjoy amazing alpine scenery -- we certainly don't have mountains like that in New York (or even Vermont). The ride was longer than we thought it would be -- nearly 6 hours -- but we arrived in Salzburg and were at the YOHO Youth Hostel in no time. We were in a room with 6 other girls who were all travelling together in pairs -- the girls from California and North London were very friendly and it was fun to hang out with them at the hostel bar (2.50€ weisse beers!) after a long day of sightseeing. We were beat after being in transit for nearly 24 hours, so we had a light dinner of goulash soup and apple strudel in the hostel bar and were sleeping soundly by 10 p.m.
Our Itinerary
Wednesday, August 10
- Flight from JFK to Zurich
Thursday, August 11
Friday, August 12
Saturday, August 13
Sunday, August 14
Monday, August 15
Tuesday, August 16
- Ljubljana
- Overnight Train to Prague
Wednesday, August 17
Thursday, August 18
Friday, August 19
Saturday, August 20
- Prague
- Overnight Train to Budapest
Sunday, August 21
Monday, August 22
Tuesday, August 23
Wednesday, August 24
- Budapest
- Overnight Train to Switzerland
Thursday, August 25
Friday, August 26
Saturday, August 27
Sunday, August 28
- Train to Airport
- Fly Zurich to JFK
Links of Interest
Europe Trip
Zurich
Prague
Ljubljana
Budapest
Interlaken, etc.
Salzburg
