Day 19: 2013/2014 Europe
After breakfast, which was much busier today being Saturday and all, we headed to Prague Castle.
How to make a buck in Prague: pimp out your castle. Allow me to elaborate. Prague castle has the following features for your historical enjoyment, Prague’s best Christmas decorations shop, souvenirs, cafes, restaurants and a Starbucks. Yes you read that right. In the historical heart of Prague, in the castle representing architecture and development over millennia there is a Starbucks. This caused me great rage. Now to be fair I don’t like Starbucks anywhere, their coffee isn’t good and they remove the essence of the coffee shop/cafe/house in favour of speed, generic roast and a menu that isn’t that much cheaper. I’m sure they have a place which is why they are so popular but in a castle? In the current political seat of Prague’s president? Really? End rant.
OK so now the castle, we walked but to the castle only to discover that there was a tram taking you most of the way up. Global siblings walking our butts off. We waited for the changing of the guard at the front gate but turns out the changing of the guard actually happens in the inner courtyard, whoops. We walked around the castle finding whole sections that seemed to have been ignored by tourists and then suddenly we realised we had walked through it and were facing the suburb behind the castle. Retreating a little we tried to walk through the castle gardens/woods but the gates were locked and some very serious men in camo were standing around in the trees. The president of the Czech Republic lives here and at Michaels suggestion we googled “drunk Czech president crown jewels”, real deal check it out.
Trying to avoid the mass of people going in or out of the castle we took the scenic route down, a winding path that clearly hosts a wine bar in the summer. Eventually we found ourselves back in the streets of Prague. With the evening approaching and the sunset yesterday disappointing we headed for the funicular that would take us to the Eiffel Tower. Yes you read that correctly. In 1891 Prague decided it was going to build a replica of the Eiffel Tower, circumstances and sanity won in the end and they built a miniature version at the top of Mala Strana. You can walk through the winding pathways to the top however the funicular is almost as famous having been first installed in 1891. What makes it even more of an oddity is that the ticket is a public transport ticket. This means if you puchased a 24hr ticket for a day in Prague it will get you to the top. Never fear though you can also purchase the 30min or 90min tickets and just activate them as you board. It makes the whole thing a very cost effective tourist moment.
Tip: don’t get caught without a valid ticket on Prague transport. This means the ticket MUST be stamped. Its not hard to do just don’t rush or forget the fine isn’t worth it.
The fake Eiffel Tower gave a wonderful view of the Prague castle and the city. We also got our first really good sunset… unfortunately it was on the other side of the tower and not over Prague from where we were standing. So Prague.
Thinking like the locals we had made a reservation at our local, Lokal. Try saying that 3 times fast, especially after a few beers and a pear brandy shot that tasted like metho. We got there almost an hour before our reservation starving and tired so it wasn’t long before the beers were doing their job. We ordered a starter to keep at bay the hunger pains but as it arrived an early table became available, hallelujah! For dinner I decided to try steak tartare as it is on every menu here and our tour guide Michael recommended the one at last nights pub and I didn’t try it. It is served with deep fried bread and cloves of garlic that you rub on the bread before adding the raw beef. I was surprised. It was fantastic! The Czech’s mix a sweet pickle in which in my 3 beer haze I may have said tasted like McDonald’s… Awkward. Anyway it is really good and because its so common here pubs do it well so do yourself a favour and try it! Not to be satisfied we tried some strange Czech pastries for dessert.
Tip: Lokal is insanely popular for a reason, do yourself a favour make a reservation drink some cheap good beer and have a great meal.
As we stumbled from the bar o became convinced the weird hollow pastry was not enough for me (shocker I know) and headed for a bakery I remembered seeing on the way home. Mister waved me off threatening that if I got lost in the 2 block walk there would be much laughter.
I returned to share cookies the size of my head with Mister but he was unimpressed as I sat and munched typing our daily digest, but now Mister is sleeping shhhh
Goodnight all
Sister
Global Siblings 