DAY 7: Prague and the journey to Budapest

Friday, August 13th 2010

Our alarms went off at 7 am. Bright and early. We had to check out of the hotel by 9 am, so we tried to be efficient. We got ready pretty fast and left our room by 8:30, left our luggage in a storage room and went off to explore Prague in greater detail. We took a metro to Vyšehrad and strolled around the beautiful park. Saw the Church of St Paul and Peter, and the graveyard near it. The grave of B. Smetana was there, and that was just about the only name we recognized. No Franz Kafka there, or at least we didn't find it.

View over the Vltava river

It was time for lunch, so we got on a tram, hoping that it would take us somewhere where we could eat. It turned across the bridge, which we didn't expect, but didn't really mind either. After a while of walking back and forth and trying to ask for directions, we found some shopping mall and had coffee with cake at Coffee Heaven. Pinky spotted Sephora, a make-up store, and I spotten New Yorker, an awesome clothes store. We visited both, and didn't really find anything interesting, although Pinky bought nail polish. 

After that little detour we took a tram back across the river and to the Petrin Hill. Saw the creepy monument to the victims of communism and took the funicular up to the top of the hill. We walked around there and saw the observatory, the beautiful gardens and the wannabe Eiffel Tower. Pinky would've wanted to climb up there, but we didn't have much cash left, and so decided against it.

The victims of communism and the Tower

We began walking down the rather steep hill and out of that area. We then headed uphill again, towards the Castle. It was cool, as all castles tend to be. There were huge crowds of tourists everywhere though. Otherwise, the city of Prague seemed very empty - only the Castle area and the Old town were crowded. The massive church (St Vito's Cathedral) was very Gothic, and beautiful inside. It was so tall that it didn't fit into pictures:D

We then walked down and out of the Castle area, and ended up in a park. There was a pond with fishies in it. And also a mama-duck with several baby-ducklings. They were cute. We walked further into the park and there was some important building there (I wanna say courthouse, but I'm not sure. The Czech language can be tricky at times). The wall made of artificial rock was pretty cool too. Oh, and there were peacocks, one of which was completely white. We were getting hungry again, so we left the park and found a place to eat. We settled on KFC, because we were too hungry to look any further. The food there wasn't very good, but at least it's something we don't have in Finland.

I wanted to see the astronomical clock in daylight, so we began walking in that general direction, and on our way stumbled upon a strange sculpture made of keys. Lots of people were trying to get the keys off, and of course we had to try as well. I was too weak to succeed, but Pinky found some good spot and came up with a proper technique and managed to detach two keys. So now we have something to remember Prague by. Another souvenir from Prague that I have is a bag I bought there. One of those touristy black bags with "Prague" in white and red (Pinky got a similar one in Berlin). I left my old shoulder bag in some phone booth, because it was so old and worn. What can I say, some people throw coins in fountains, I leave bags in phone booths.We also walked past the Dancing House - it's so cute.

We then took a bus to the Troja Palace. Pinky managed to lose her day ticket, so that was a minor setback. It also started raining right when we got off the bus, so we went inside some part of the palace and stayed there for a bit. Once the rain stopped we went outside and walked around the park. I love parks, and this one was no exception. And the air was fresh after the rain, so it was nice. The whole area was deserted - it really felt like everybody was in the Old town...

We went back to the Old town, got some groceries and headed for the hostel. Both of us were exhausted from all the walking. And we saw just about everything we planned to see in Prague, although not in such great detail.. At the hostel, we got our bags and hung out at the "bar" - used their free internet and played cards. We left for the train station, and the train was already there when we got to the track, so we found the right wagon and boarded. The ticket dude took our InterRail passes and made marks on them with a pen!! I was slightly annoyed at that, but tried not to show it. Our compartment was empty, and right outside, the ceiling lamp was making the most annoying sound. Everyone that walked by tried hitting it, but that didn't help. The ticket dude hit it a couple of times too, and then said something with his funny Czech accent that sounded very funny to me. A British girl moved from the sitting places to our compartment, and all of us went to sleep. I slept very badly because the train kept stopping, or then went really fast and shook from side to side. But I couldn't hear the lamp noise, so I guess it stopped once the train began moving. :D

One of the many lovely views

-Brain

DAY 6: Berlin and Prague

Thursday, August 12th 2010

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.

View from the hill where the old palace is situated

The Chinese house

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.

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

Day 6: Potsdam and the way to Prague

Thursday, August 12 2010

We woke up bright and early at 7 am. We saw our hostess briefly before she left for work. We had packed all of our stuff on Wednesday so that we wouldn't have to do that in the morning. We walked to Griebnitzsee station, and went with the S-bahn to Potsdam Hbf with our luggage. We left it there in the luggage boxes, cause there is no way we could've taken that with us to where we were headed. We had to get the biggest luggage box for the two of us. It was 4€. 

We started walking to Sansoucci. The center of Potsdam was very quiet, there were hardly any people around. I had imagined that it is a long walk to Sansoucci, but it wasn't. And I'd been there before but we'd gone there some other way the previous times. We arrived there around 10 am. On the way there we were stopped once again, and they asked us for directions, in German this time as well. We sure do look like locals then...

We walked around the park, saw the old palace, the new palace, the dogs' graves that the habitant had, I forgot his name already. Friedrich the Great I believe. I had told Brain about the potatoes that people bring to the graves, and she totally didn't believe me. But there they were, the potatoes. On the dogs' graves.

 

This is either the kitchen or the servants' house. It is by the New Palace. 

The Chinese Teahouse

Earlier we had asked for a tram & bus schedule from the security guards. They didn't really understand a lot of what we asked, I felt. The bus 695 goes every 10 minutes. When we were walking towards the bus stop we waw the bus leave. We waited for a 606 to S Hauptbahnhof. I was a little scared that would we make it to the regional train that was to take us to the Berlin Hbf where our train for Prague left.

We did make it. It was the 11.57 regional train. We had a little time to go buy water bottles from one of the shops in the main train station. The previous day we'd checked the platform where the train was going to leave from. It was platform 2. We then noticed that it was platform 2 on the big screens. Didn't think much of it, they had just changed it. There were a lot of other people too. We saw two Finnish InterRailers, I asked them if they were going to Prague, the whole platform change had confused us. There was an announcement, that the train for Prague leaves from platform 2 instead of the one we were on. All the people rush to platform 2, because the train was to leave any minute now.

We didn't have reserved seats, so we just had to find a free compartment. We didn't know which end of the train was reserved, and of course we started to walk that way that was reserved. All the compartments were becoming more and more reserved. I had my part of the tent attached to my bag horizontallly, so it was quite wide. I didn't know how else I would've attached it to my bag. So I kept getting stuck and hitting people with my tent when I was trying to walk in the train's small corridoors. People were coming towards me, and walking after me, trying to find their reserved compartments or free compartments, like we were.

We turn around and walk and walk and finally find a compartment where we weren't alone, but it wasn't packed either. We had two Spanish guys there too. They didn't talk to us. Except at one point, when they asked where we were from. Since we speak English together, it is confusing for other people. I don't think they really believed us when we said we were from Finland. They said they're from Spain. Like we hadn't figured that out. C'mon, it's easy to guess where they were from. We didn't tell them that.

The scenery in Bad Schandau was gorgeous! 

We got to Prague, got some money out from the ATM. We found our hostel  (Hostel Jednota) that was really close to the train station luckily. We went to check in, and soon left to go back to the train station to reserve spots from the night train to Budapest. We walked around Prague, and Vaclavske Namesti, had salads and huge beers in Cafe Amsterdam. Brain's post is more detailed about this night.

-Pinky