In the morning I asked at the desk and paid. When they came down, we set off the walk the town for a bit before the tour started at 15h45. They were 4 people from Australia. Dan, Tom, Tom, and Teagan. After a bit of talk, I found out they were going to Berlin at the same time I would be there, so we would try to meet up there. 3:45 rolled around and we set off to the meeting point. Someone had told me the caving tours were cool and the tour guides start off being closed and quiet when you first meet them but when you get in the cave, they open up and are crazy. That's exactly what happened with ours. It was really funny because I could not understand half the stuff he said but that didn't matter. Before we got in the cave, we got suited with overalls and a helmet with a light on it! Sweet! Being in the cave was a lot of fun and I climbed around on all the rocks and had a good time crawling through the little spaces. I'd probably be a good spelunker because I'm so skinny!
Once back at the hostel, I didn't shower even though I was covered in cave dust, eh, I'm not trying to impress anyone. We got some more hot wine and watched Juno. It was really nice to have time to chill and watch a movie. Seems like I haven't gotten to do that in a long time. I said goodbye to them then because I would be getting up early to catch a train to Prague.
In the morning I walked to the metro and walked passed the ticket office without noticing it and ended up at the train, so I thought I would risk it and see if I got caught or not. Well, I got caught. And paid 6000 Fourint, about 30 dollars. Oh well, that's what you get! I caught the train to Prague just fine and made my way to that hostel. After I got settled in, I asked the reception where a good place to get some turkey would be. After all, today is Thanksgiving! I ended up at a place and ordered turkey stuffed with cheese and cranberries with a side of Bohemian potatoes and a Budweiser! Pretty good Thanksgiving dinner, and Czech Bud is really good. Too bad the US had to ruin the name...
The hostel I was at (Czech Inn) let you rent an unlimited public transportation pass for 70 crown, or about $2.50 so I did that. My first mission was to get breakfast which I did at a bakery. The next was to buy myself a sweatshirt. After looking around for a while, I decided that I would not be able to get a good sweatshirt, they were all too thin! So I went on a search for a jacket. I found one I liked at Tesco. It's comfy and warm. Kinda looks like a pilot's jacket. I also bought a new long sleeve shirt because all I had was my plaid and for some reason, people picked me out as American really easily. I don't know why. When I put this jacket on, I all of a sudden got a lot of people approaching me thinking I was Czech or a local or something. Guess it worked in that regard! Now that I had food in my belly and a warm jacket, I was ready to see the city! I took the tram to Prague's Castle and went in the Cathedral. That was big with a lot of cool stain glass. After a bit of wandering around there, I went to the mini Eiffel Tower next. Climbed to the top of that and got a good view of the city. Since it starts to get dark around 3, I started to walk back. I walked across St. George's bridge on the way back, neat thing, but I don't know much of the history there. While walking, I picked up a cup of hot wine for 35 crowns. Mmmm. Then I was getting hungry and wondering if it were dinner time, but it was only 16h30, so I got a kielbasa to hold me over. That was tasty! Except I dripped mustard everywhere... Finally after waiting, I found a restaurant and ordered an amazing mixed grill with sausage, duck, ham, turkey, bread and potato dumplings, and cabbage. I also got a side of cole slaw. Delicious dinner! Czech food is good!
The next day, November 29th, I got something I've been craving for a while: a real breakfast. My hostel served an all you can eat breakfast so I got 2 plates of eggs and break, 2 bowls of granola with yogurt, 4 glasses of OJ and some tea. So good, so full. Most of today was spent wandering the many markets because they are a fun place to be around. I saw St. Wenceslas' square, which isn't so much a square as a really long thing. After a day of walking, I went back to my hostel and went to a book store nearby and picked up a new book since I'm done with all the ones I bought in England. This time I got The Green Mile. We'll see how I like it. For dinner I got Goulash! Never had that before, but it was pretty good too. Well, now I'm not really gonna complain about food. I've come to have little peaks of what it's like to not have it. I'll take what I can get!
Again I had an awesome breakfast and set off to wander a while. Before I left I asked the front desk if there were any hockey games going on and after a little searching, we found one in town, sweet! One thing I really wanted to do was go to a Czech hockey game. The game was a 5 so back to the markets for a while where I bought myself a new hat! It's really warm an green! When 15h00 rolled around I made my way up to the arena and bought my ticket, 200 crowns (10 bucks) for a really great seat! When I got in, I got my first beer at a sporting event, a 30 crown bud, beer is so cheap! Gonna be weird to go back home... Then the game started and I was really happy because I haven't gotten to watch a hockey game for a really long time and I'm missing Wild and Falcon hockey right now! Aye aye aye. It was a good game and the home team won. One thing I noticed was the refs were not sissies. When there was a fight or something like that, they jumped right in the middle to break it up. Not like the NHL refs who watch it happen and don't interfere until they fall. I know, it' for the fans and what not, but still. Tough refs!
That was my last night in the hostel and in the morning I caught a train to Berlin. I changed my status on Facebook (for you who don't know what that is, don't worry, it's not important) to say I was going to Budapest. One of my friends from high school saw it and said he was making a trip to Budapest in December. I asked him if he was in Europe and turned out he is! He's got an apartment in Berlin and it letting me stay with him. So I'm on his computer typing this now and that makes it free!
Ok, I've been typing for a while because I had a lot to catch up on but now I'm gonna go catch up with him. Hope you enjoyed the read!
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