Day 14: Prague (Praha), Czech Republic

It was a rough train ride to Prague, or Praha. It was supposed to be a 5.5 hr. train from Salzburg with a switch at Linz. But we ended up being herded off the train somewhere in the middle of the Czech Republic and all the passengers put on busses to another train station 45min. away, about 40km. from Prague. All of this happened without any English-speaking officials providing any direction and the bus was packed with no AC on an especially warm May day.

We finally got to the main train station in Prague and it was a rough walk finding our hotel in a somewhat seedy neighborhood on the edge of the Old Town. I'd gotten pretty good at German and making my way, but written (and verbal) Czech is just crazy! So many consonants - Cs and Zs and Ks and Vs and all in a row! It's like every street is the last name of someone in Shiner. (And what's worse is that in most places, a site has basically one name - like Neuschwanstein Castle. It's not called New Swan Castle, it's Neuschwanstein no matter what language. But here everything has an "English" name and its real name, which could be totally different. For example Wallerstein Garden is actually Valdštenjnská zahrada. And not every map/guide/sign has both. So you have to figure out where you need to go in the guide book, look up its Czech name, then find it on another map and try to find it in real life... Very confusing.) So we were a little grouchy and a little overwhelmed with all the Czech consonants.

So grouchy, hot, tired, and feeling dirty from trains, busses, and the differing hygiene of Eastern Europeans, we were so thankful to find a lovely little hotel room that had been converted from an old theatre - our first time with a shower and WC (water closet/toilet) in the room in a long time. And our first room with a bathtub and a fridge and a balcony! And so cheap!

We cleaned up and made our way to Restaurace Akropolis - a nearby restaurant Chris had found in Lonely Planet. Best find ever! They had some traditional food (Czech is somewhat similar to German in that it's heavy meat and potatoes stuff) but also tons of other more standard fare. Chris got an awesome pasta dish - penne, creamy garlic basil sauce, mushrooms, leeks, grilled chicken, parmesan. So so good. I had chicken with sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese and couscous. Great beer and incredibly reasonable - probably our best, cheapest meal yet. (It made up for the rough day getting there and prepared us for a full day of site-seeing the following day.)