Czech, please!

Last Friday was a special day in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The Duke’s birthday was being observed, and of course that means it was a national holiday in Luxembourg. Another long weekend! Everyone got Friday off work for the celebrations. Happy Birthday Duckey...er...Dookey…er…Dickey…er….

Actually, we heard this was a great weekend to stay in Luxembourg because there would be a big fireworks display on Thursday night and all the bars would be open till 6 (in da mo‘nin!). Throughout the rest of the weekend, bands would be playing in the center square, vendors would be out, etc. In fact, Franz Ferdinand was playing a show on Saturday night. Crazy.

However, we had the opportunity to meet up with our friends, Matt and Brandi Render, in Prague for the weekend and felt that the trip there could be a bit more fun. So, we skipped the parties and went to bed around midnight (after watching the fireworks display from our bedroom window) and woke a measly 5 hours later to head to the Luxembourg Airport for our 7am flight. We went from Luxembourg to Paris, Paris to Prague, and arrived in Prague around 12pm. We jumped on the first bus to the city and were off!

We first headed to the hotel, where Matt and Brandi were meeting us. Along the way, I talked with Render and apparently there was a slight hitch with the hotel we had booked. They had a group of 90 people coming and staying for an entire week. Therefore, they wanted to move us (for the same rate) to another hotel that was at the foot of the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge is one of the main sites of Prague and is basically at the center of the city. The one catch was that the place was in the process of being significantly renovated. Therefore, there were only 6 rooms that were considered fit for habitants. The painters were basically the concierges and receptionists! Honestly, the day we were leaving, our main contact for the property called the painter on his cell phone and he came to our room and put me on. This was the way we confirmed our check out and method of payment!

Anyways, we didn’t sweat the construction too much because the location was awesome and how much are you really in your room when you are traveling anyways? So we took the “new” hotel option and it turned out to be PERFECT…that is, except for the water. I would like to think that Ag and I are pretty smart individuals. However, neither of us could get the hot water to run for more than 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, the water turned to this horrible, freezing cold. Not even lukewarm. Arctic. If my drinking water could be that cold for the rest of my life, I’d have no complaints. I was so tempted to call Agnes into the bathroom and offer to show her a “disappearing act” (Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal, it’s great!), but I couldn’t catch my breath long enough to let out anything but a muffled “Oh God!” If old Bushey needs any ideas for new torture methods at Gitmo, I’ve got one great suggestion for him!

So, where were we. After we got to our new location, we immediately dropped off our things and ate at this awesome restaurant right by our hotel. We had a delicious, full three course meal and several beers for very cheap. After we rolled out of there, we headed across the bridge to explore and see the sites of the city. The Bridge has several cool, old statues lining both sides of it. It’s got almost as many vendors as well, selling photos, offering to do caricatures, etc. The view of the city off of the Bridge was amazing.

We walked along the cobblestone sidewalks and roads into Old Town. Side note: Prague has GOT to be the cobblestone capital of the world. I’m talking like small stones, big stones, 6 inch gaps between some of them, etc. They had ads up for their marathon and it made me wonder if they have an unproportionate number of twisted ankles as compared to every other marathon in the world. We saw women pushing their babies in strollers and the kids were seriously like about to bounce out of the things. At one point Agnes let out a little gasp. “What’s wrong?“ I asked. “I thought that baby was gonna flip right out of that thing!“

The small streets were lined with many shops, restaurants, etc. The center of Old Town was where it was at! In the center, there was a huge screen TV showing the soccer games with burger, brat and beer stands. It was like Kaiserslautern, but not as intense. On the outskirts of the center were horse drawn carriages, lots of restaurants and people just everywhere. There were a few areas, (on the Bridge, in the center, etc ) where people were just out singing and playing music…very enjoyable and entertaining.

The city was surprisingly very clean and it was just beautiful. There were many tourists and many people speaking English so we had no problems in any place we went. Our evening ended at a great Italian restaurant, where we enjoyed some good food and watched the rest of the soccer games. After we ate, we walked up to the Bridge and opted to cross over and take in an evening view of the city. As we crossed, we saw several boats passing by. One boat had about 50 passengers on it and the best way to describe what we saw was a moving orchestra. The group on the boat was belting out the “Star Spangle Banner”. Honest to God. Where were we?? It was the most bizarre thing. After that number, they started to sing some slow song in another language….very random.

The next day we woke up and had the pleasure of taking our ice cold showers. No need for coffee!! All I have to say is good thing it was so hot outside. Otherwise, I don’t think my core body temperature would have reached the normal 98.6 degrees. Our “contact lady” had put a fridge in one of the rooms and we had a breakfast of cheeses, salami, apples and peach juice (surprisingly good). We ate and then headed to the Prague Castle.

The Prague Castle is set high up on a hill, so we made the trek up the cobblestone roads and stopped to take a few pictures on the way. Tickets for The Castle were very expensive and, to be honest with you, we were under whelmed. The place is more or less a tourist trap. We made light of the situation and I even managed to play soldier for a few minutes and give some unruly chap a good spankin’ (see pics).

After the castle, we decided that we were starving and found a hole in the wall restaurant that was serving another awesome lunch. Again, it was a 3 course meal, delicious and cheap. We continued our decent down the hill and once we reached the foot of the hill, we found an Irish bar that was playing the soccer games. We watched the 5pm game, went back to our place to shower and then went back to the same bar for the 9pm game. Of course, this bar was close to our hotel and since we were taking 30 second showers, we were quick and didn’t miss a thing! After we thawed out, we were able to enjoy some good beers and some good sports.

The soccer game was between Mexico vs. Argentina and ended up being a great match that went into overtime. (Argentina won 1-0.) After the game we headed to this brick-oven pizzeria that Josh had actually ate at when he was in Prague several years ago. Of course, because it was 11:35pm, the restaurant had just closed (closing time was 11:30p). Tons of restaurants were closing shop and me, being who I am, had to have something. So we opted for the quick and easy, Subway!

I have to say, the Subway’s in Luxembourg and Prague are really, really good. It puts the Subway’s at home to shame. Plus, the best part is that they serve beer! We took our beers to go and walked over the bridge and into the city center again. The square was all lit up and people were finishing up their meals and drinking everywhere. It was a perfect night.

Sunday we packed and enjoyed our “pick me up” showers. We confirmed with our “contact” that we could leave our bags in the rooms. In fact, she said to me “Oh, it’s Sunday. No one’s coming in so you can leave them in there all day if you want.“ She was so lax, I honestly think we could have stayed there Sunday night for free, and she would have had no clue. Anyways, we got ready and off we went to visit a few more sites. We headed over to the Old Jewish Quarter. This was an area that included an old cemetery (over 200,000 people are buried in a space the size of a basketball court), several synagogues as well as the oldest remaining synagogue in Europe. There was a lot of history centering around WWII and such, so it was pretty interesting.

Afterwards we walked around the Old Town area and did some shopping. Then we headed back to the pizzeria for lunch. This time they were open and we were very happy….again, very tasty food!!

At this point it was early afternoon and we had to head to the airport for our 4pm flight. We said our goodbyes and were whisked away in the cab down the cobble stone streets.

Prague is probably my favorite city so far. Some random facts:

- The currency is Czech Crowns (Kc). $1 equals about 22 Kc. (Side note: at the majority of places, half liters of good beer were 25 Kc) So, when all was said and done, we spent about 9,000 Kc (roughly $400) and we treated ourselves like kings (and queens). I have to tell you, it’s hard not to feel like a high roller when you take 4,000 of anything out of the ATM! Or when you pay for your hotel in cash and whip out a wad of 1,000 bills. What What! Holla!

-The food is amazing at every place you eat. And the city is filled to the brim with amazing restaurants. Every one has an outdoor garden, many of which are unique, near the water, candlelit, etc.

- The streets and sidewalks are all small, very pedestrian and cobblestone, beautiful as hell during the day…even better at night. The city is pretty clean and lots of English is spoken by everyone.

So now in a couple of days, it’s onward to Ireland. We’ll be flying in and out of Dublin and hitting Neanaugh, Cork, Limerick, Galway and the Aran Islands (Inishmore) throughout the week. I’m not gonna lie, once that fresh Guiness hits my lips….it’s sooooo good!

Bon voyage to us, and au revior for a week or so!