As we pulled into the Prague train station we realized something was terribly wrong. My iphone did not have service... how were we gonna ever get to our hostel without the iphone? Turn by turn directions, maps on demand, hostel numbers, and confirmation emails were all lost behind those horrible words: NO SERVICE. So Ryan and I grabbed a map and found it the old fashioned way.
As one of the few cities that survived WWII unscathed Prague is an especially colorful, old, and charming city. Cobblestone sidewalks with intricate patterns trace colorful buildings with spires, clocks and large windows. This older part of town, know as "Old Town" is very popular, and it also was right near our hostel. We figured we would check out Old Town upon our arrival and quickly found a cool looking restaurant in the most famous square in the city...we soon realized that this was the ultimate tourist trap and ate very average food for a hefty price. For the remainder of the trip we trecked a mile outside of the city for great food at extremley good prices. I even tipped a guy here because I felt like I had just stolen pizza from him.
Given our late night in Berlin and the long day of travel Ryan and I decided to take it easy for our first night in Prague. While hitting up facebook at our hostel Ryan noticed a post from one of Kelly's old college friends Amer: "in prague." Ryan quickly sent Amer a messege and 30 minutes later our night in turned into a low key night our with Amer. Amer had recently lost a match in the French Open (ya hes really good at tennis) and was taking a break from tournaments for a few days. We went to a few bars in old town before ending up at Coyotes where the girls juggled/tossed and dropped, plastic wine bottles, and blew fire out of their mouths. This was mildly entertaining and was accompanied with enjoye Amer's cool stories about pro tennis.
On the way home a desperate women made a feeble pickpocketing attempt on all three of us, which we easily avoided. A few minutes later we heard a whiny, high pitched male voice screaming: Give me back my camera. We assumed the women had snagged his camera, and from the sounds of it she was tangling it in front of his face like he was a small child. Needless to say Ryan and I imitated this kid for the rest of the trip.
For our first full day in Prague, we found another free tour (from the same company as the one in Berlin). Like Berlin this tour was very good, and we saw the astronomical clock (The biggest tourist let down in the world besides the liberty bell in Philly, the crack is just not that cool, sorry Sam) the golden gate to the city, the Jewish Quartier Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle. Between stops I struck up a conversation with our tour guide. I asked him the typical questions and then I asked him where he went to school. He explained, "I went to a small school in Virginia, maybe youve heard of it, University of Richmond." I couldnt believe it and asked him how long ago he graduate. Apparently he was in my class. Wierd. The tour ended with a short story from the tour guide in a park along the river. Tired from the 3 hour tour Ryan and I stretched out during the story, and following it we quickly agreed that a nap would be awesome. We woke up unecessarily close together but highly refreshed. Night 2 in Prague was spent in making calls home and surfing the web.
The next day we woke up early to rent bikes. We rode to a huge, but very disapointing market. Every stand had the exact, litterally exact, same items. Purses, knives, watches and tee shirts and brass knuckles...? We rode along the river later and planned to grab some cheap food outside of the city when I heard a wierd sound coming from what was once my fully functioning tire. Yup, the rent a bike had blown a flat. Luckily we werent too far from the rental office and we dropped the bikes off tired of riding. At this point we headed for a park at the end of the city, to climb a hill, and eventually the mini (and terrible recreation of) the eiffel tower. This walk was exauhsting. Despite the crappyness of the eiffel tower rip off the view was spectacular. The color of Prague, and its beautiful bridges really made the city look great.
That night we met up with two of Ryan's friends from Iowa for a Prague pub crawl. The girls had eaten and we hadnt so one our way to the first bar we grabbed Subway to eat. This may seem like a minor detail, but amazing things have been happening to Ryan and I at subway. This marked our 3 visit to subway on our trip, and on our first 2 visits, the promotional sub of the day was turkey and ham (sidenote: turkey and ham is both of our personal favorites from subway, although Ryan goes for jalepanos, while im all about the pickles). Anyways the Prague subway offered the same promotion, and on this random thursday night the sub of the day was sure enough turkey and ham, amazing.
The pub crawl was very enjoyable, and kicked off at a small restaurant in town. This was a nice change from the typical bar, because we could play some beer pong and enjoy a more relaxing atmosphere. No one could handle Ryan's rusty arm as he went 3-0 on the night. Following the restraunt we went to 3 other cool bars, and ended a the five story night club on the river. Here we had our selection of 80's music, techno, or pop, and we cycled through them all. It was a fun night, and unlike the Berlin pub crawl this one ended very close to our hostel.
We woke up the next day and headed for Vienna.
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