6.23.2007 Karlstejn

We went on a short excursion 30 km southwest of Prague to see the Karlstejn Castle, which was built by King Charles in the 14th century. We walked around the village at the bottom of the castle, and had some delicious soup, goulash, bohemian dumplings, beers, and apple strudel dessert for about $6 each.

The village was charming, and the whole Karlstejn area was lush, and probably a perfect place to go camping. The castle was marvelous, but we did not take a tour.

6.22.2007 Night in Old Town

We didn't do much this day because we woke up ridiculously late. We went out to Old town at night and took some pretty nighttime pictures. It's some amazing sights at night, enchanting indeed.

6.21.2007 Boat Trip for Kyle's B-Day

Today we woke up and tried to find a place to use the internet which was damn near impossible. The internet cafe was ghetto and did not have wireless, and was in the basement level of an un-airconditioned shopping center. It was 8 computers in a tiny ass room.

At night we went on a boat ride around Vlatava River. The views were great, and there was good food and live music. The Goulash was especially scrumptious because the meat was ridiculously tender. We met a nice couple from Norway and talked to them a bit.

We went to Karlovy Lazne disco afterward with our hostel mate. Supposedly the building used to be an old Roman bathhouse, and was 5 stories, with differently themed rooms and separate lounges. It was fun times, and the drinks were cheap but we still managed to spend a lot of money.

6.20.2007 Poor Man's Tour, Joos, Drinks & Food

We started out on a tour that was supposed to take 6 hours, but we were having second thoughts since we had already seen a lot of the sights anyway, and there was another activity we were considering anyway. The decision was made for us when massive foot traffic separated us from the group before we had paid. We got about 30 minutes of a free tour out of it, haha. Picture above is of Jenn at Wenceslas Square shortly before we lost the group. Other picture is of Grand Europa Hotel, where Mission Impossible 1 was filmed.

We moved on to the Jewish Quarter, and visited some museums, synagogues, and the old Jewish cemetery. The museums were not that thrilling. Not like communism or anything. There was not enough history, but an overabundance of collections of pots and cups and trinkets.

Then we went to eat at a restaurant we had been to before, and had some Devil's stuffed chicken breast, and some beers.

6.19.2007 A Whole Lot of Nothing

We walked around, decided to eat at a cafe with a great view of Prague Castle. However, we couldn't get service, but it wasn't a big deal because you're paying for the view, not the food anyways, and we got to sit there for free for a while. We decided to go over to an island where there is supposed to be some beer garden, but we didn't realize that the only way to access the island is by freeway, and that you can't walk over. We walked around forever trying to get across before we finally realized this. It was a little frustrating, and it was not a nice area of town either.

The picture posted is from earlier in the day when we walked by a park near Vlatava River.

We came back, cooked some food, and watched Hannibal Rising which was a terrible movie. It's getting really hot here, which is why there is a water bottle in our hands in most of the pictures.

6.18.2007 Museums

We took the metro to Wenceslas Square to walk around a bit. The architecture of the national museum is very impressive, like many buildings in Prague. Wenceslas Square is a nice walk with flowers and a million casinos along the way. We ate some great Bavarian sausages on the street.

We went to the Communist Museum first, which was very interesting and informative. We were there for a while reading up on history. Then we went to see the sex museum, but decided against it because it seemed kind of stupid and not worth the money.

Next was the torture museum, which had a display of various devices used to kill people painfully or torture them into "confession" throughout European history. Some of the stuff was so disgusting only someone completely sick could have thought of it. There were definitely a lot of sadists in charge of "delivering justice".

We came back, made some dinner, and went out to bars in Prague. We went to trendy cafe, then a place called the M-1 Lounge, and then to a dive with lots of Americans.

6.17.2007 Bus Tour and Concert

This day we went on a bus tour to see some sights. It stopped at the castle which we had already seen. We also drove by the national museum and Wenceslas Square, which is the main square where the Czechs protested against the Communists.

We wandered around the Jewish quarter for a bit afterward. We had Goulash at a cafe, and did some more walking

At night, we ate at the Italian place again and went to a concert at Smetana Hall. The program consisted of Dvorak's New World Symphony and a Smetana piece. We bought the cheapest seats but somehow that section included the balcony which were some of the best seats there. The symphony was really good and we both enjoyed it thoroughly. The concert hall was beautiful, but we forgot the camera.

We came back afterward, met a hostel mate and did some drinking and talking.

6.16.2007 Seeing Prague

Today was our first eventful day in Prague. We visited a church, a cathedral, the astrological clock, Old Town square and Prague castle.

The church of Tyn was what inspired the Disneyland Castle, and was really beautiful, gold, and gaudy inside. The picture we have posted is a view from the astrological clock, which we don't know much about, but basically its a huge cookoo clock that does a little show on the hour, with a cute little skeleton that pulls the bell. You can go to the top of the tower and have a beautiful view of the city, which is what we did.

Old Town square has live street bands which are great to listen to, and a bunch of cafes, all surrounded by marvelous architecture.

We walked across Charles Bridge, which has a bunch of statues and a huge archway. From afar, it looks similar to all the other bridges, but once on the bridge, it is clearly distinguished by its thirty-something sculptures. We had lunch close to Charles Bridge, and ate a traditional Czech meal of really amazing Bohemian garlic soup and potato pancakes filled with ham.

We saw the castle afterward, it has great views and a really impressive facade. There was also a cathedral inside, but it wasn't as impressionable as the church. We have no pictures of the church because photography was not allowed.

6.15.2007 Prague

We arrived in Prague at 8am, and Kyle's luggage was lost. At least we didn't have to carry it to the hostel. They delivered it the next day. Almost every corner of Prague is picturesque. We slept all day, went to the grocery store to buy some Czech foods, and had dinner at an Italian restaurant on our block. The food is very cheap, and you can get good beers for a dollar at the restaurant, spaghetti meals for $4. We went to the Hilton casino afterward, where apparently Bush stayed a few days before. There were a lot of Asians in the casino of course, especially Chinese and Korean men smoking cigarettes. Half the tables at the casino only accepted dollars; it was interesting. The best place for exchange rates are always casinos. Kyle made some $$$.

6.14.2007 Brussels

We left for Prague. and had a 7 hour layover in Brussels. We didn't have time to go anywhere far, so we ended up at a little bar near the airport. We were going to walk, but we got a ride from a nice lady at a gas station when we passed to ask for directions. We did the layover on purpose so that we could have a free night in Belgium. Belgians are very friendly. They give rides to random people liberally and schmooze well. We tried 5 beers and they were all amazing. Leffe is some great beer. AMAZING. The bartender even gave us some cherry beers to go for free when the bar was closing up.

6.11.2007 San Sebastian Palaces

We were tired as hell, but had all day to kill before our night train, so we walked around town, had Chinese and Kashmir food again, and went to some palaces. The first one had a nice view, but it wasn't that great. The second palace had beautiful gardens and a small pond with swans and small trails. We didn't get any pictures because Kyle lost the converter for electricity and we couldn't charge the camera.

We bought some more wine, had some more pintxos, and left at 11pm and slept in tiny train beds on the way back to Barcelona.

6.10.2007 Castle, lots of Chinese, and bars

We moved out of Hotel Hesperia Donosti and checked into a hostel this day. We then hiked up to the castle, which had a gorgeous view of the city. We had a lot of Chinese food because it is filling compared to pintxos. My Chinese came in handy and at least we knew what we were ordering. We did some shopping, bought a bottle of wine and drank it in the park. We went out to bars again.

6.09.2007 Biking around town

We rented bikes for 4E each, and rode around the town. We went to the beach, and swam out to a dock. I went back to shore first because I was smart, while Kyle insisted on continuing to swim out and got stung by a jellyfish. Ouch!

We rode around in the pouring rain afterward to buy a train ticket back to Barcelona and to eat more Kashmir food. We ran into Canadians we met on the train twice, randomly, during the day. I came back from swimming and they happened to be laying out right in front of us. Kyle was laughing at me out from the dock because he saw me wandering aimlessly, unable to find our stuff.

6.08.2007 San Sebastian and Pintxos Bars

We took an 8-hour train ride to San Sebastian and arrived in the evening. Our hotel was really nice and swank. We drank on our balcony and then went out to bars. Most of the bars there are Pintxos bars, which basically serve lots of booze for cheap, and tons of intricate and tiny appetizers. It's very difficult to get full without paying tons of money. It's very difficult to find restaurants that serve full meals that are open for more than 30 minutes a day.

6.07.2007 Monjuic

We finally made it to Montjuic. We haven't blogged in a while because we did a lot of lounging and going to the beach, and nothing new.

We went to the Montjuic castle first, by taking a rail car and a ski-lift. The view was nice, and we walked around the castle for a bit.

We went to the Miro museum afterward. Some of his stuff was good, but a lot of it was lame and unimpressive. It was entertaining nonetheless. The sculptures were particularly amusing.

After the museum, we ate Kashmir food, which was some of the best food since we have been here. We saw the magic fountain, and had some sangria while the fountain show was going with music and lights.

6.01.2007 Montjuic Area

Today we had plans to go to Montjuic to see the magic fountain, the castle, and the Miro museum, but we got lost and ended up wandering around aimlessly. We found a cafe with a lovely view of the city, walked around a garden, and ate Indian food at a shady place. Even though we didn't do what we were planning to, we had fun times. We saw "Elephant Man" while we were lost. He is some old dude with tattooed-on Speedos, and walks around the city streets naked. He has a penis piercing and is called "Elephant Man" because his penis resembles an elephant's trunk. We had heard about him from a tour guide, but were very surprised to actually see him walk by.

The day before and the day after this, we just lounged around, and Kyle played a lot of poker.

5.30.2007 God Day

Today we visited the Sagrada Familia again, but we went inside this time. It's been under construction for about 125 years, and is not even close to being finished. It has 8 giant towers, but there are supposed to be 10 more, and the project will eventually require expanding into the surrounding neighborhood. It was beautiful inside, and we went to the museum afterward.

Afterward we went to the church that we had gone to once before, thinking it was the cathedral of St. Eulalia. It was beautiful but we still have yet to see the inside of St. Eulalia's Cathedral. We met up with my friend Casey and walked around La Rambla, then had some drinks.