We woke up bright and early, at 7 am. Our hostess was leaving for work at 7:30, so we had just enough time to say goodbye. She wished us a safe journey and even prepared sandwiches and fruit for the road. So nice of her :) We got ready, had breakfast and finally left at 9 am. We took an S-Bahn to Potsdam Hbf, left our heavy bags in safety lockers at the train station, and walked to Sanssouci. The streets of Potsdam were more or less empty, and even the fountains weren't working yet because it was so early. We got to the Sanssouci park just before 10:00. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately we didn't have a whole lot of time to spend there because we wanted to catch a train to Prague, which was scheduled to leave Berlin Hbf at 12:36. We saw the old palace, and the new palace, and the Chinese house (I'm too used to seeing just red and gold colors in Chinese-styled houses, but that one was like a minty-green color). The whole time we were in the park, there were people jogging past us - what a scenic jogging route.
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| View from the hill where the old palace is situated |
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| The Chinese house |
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| The new palace |
We didn't estimate our time very well, because we ended up being in a bit of a hurry to make the bus heading for the Potsdam train station. We got to the bus stop in time however, and some well-dressed lady helped us out with the ticket machine, which was very nice of her. We were at the train station on time and ended up even having some time to kill before the train to Prague. There was some confusion with the track for our train - it changed at the very last minute and there was a rush of people from one track to the other. Because of this mix-up all the people boarded the train at once, and madness ensued. A lot of the seats had been reserved, and we had some trouble finding two seats in the same compartment that would be free. Also, Pinky's half of the tent kept getting her stuck in the narrow hallway, which was funny. Eventually we turned around and started walking towards the front of the train, and it turned out that there were a lot of free seats there. We settled for a compartment where two Spanish guys were sitting, and breathed a sigh of relief.
When the train was passing through Southern Germany, the scenery was absolutely stunning. Bad Schandau was gorgeous: mountains on either side of a river and small houses all along the riverbanks. The trip to Czech Republic took about 4.5 hours, and we arrived in Prague around 17:30.
As soon as we arrived at the main train station of Prague, we headed for our hostel. We'd reserved it in advance, and we didn't want to carry our bags for longer than we absolutely needed to. The hostel was very easy to find, it was close to the train station. The receptionist gave us the key and explained the rules. Our room was on the 3rd floor, and we took the stairs. With our rinkkas on our shoulders. Not so smart. The room was better than we'd expected it to be, and we had it all to ourselves even though it was a dorm, which was awesome. Lots of closet space, which we didn't really need because we were only staying there for one night.
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| The stairway at our hostel |
It was very warm outside, so we changed into lighter clothes and went on a walking tour around the city. We had a tasty dinner at Café Amsterdam, and a giant beer each. The waiter was very nice so we left him a tip of whopping 30 CZK (which, as we later realized is about a euro, so I'm sure he was over the moon about it). After we'd eaten, we walked towards the Charles Bridge. The sun was setting at that point and there were tons of people everywhere. The view across the Vltava river was amazing - the castle was illuminated and the sunset made it even more awesome-looking. The Charles Bridge was beautiful, but packed with people. Mostly tourists, of course. We walked across it and then back, and started walking towards the Old Town, where the Tyn Church and the Astronomical clock are situated. The crowds made it slightly more difficult to appreciate the landmarks though.
It got dark quite fast, and we were both tired, so we went back to the hostel. We went to bed sometime between 23:00 and midnight, and set our alarms for 7 am. We wanted to see as much as possible the following day, because we were supposed to take a night train to Budapest.
-Brain
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