Well, we've got our traveling shoes on again! And while we're on the train to Interlaken, Switzerland, we are preparing our next update for you! This update is a longer one, but we've been a few places since we've last written.
The last few days have been a whirlwind. We left you last on our way from Berlin to Prague. Seeing Prague was the suggestion (nay, DEMAND) of my sister, and we are so glad we heeded her advice. Why do we love Prague? Well, for starters, we were 9 days out and Prague was our first hot shower experience. (It may have gotten cold at the end, but it still counts!) We also love Prague because it is breathtakingly beautiful. The beauty may have been what got us through those first scary moments after arriving on the train Thursday evening and realizing that we didn't speak Czech and somehow had to find a hostel before nightfall. A set sun and 3 hostel quests later, we were settling into Hostel AZ, where a 6-bed room was a welcome change from the 20-bed room in Amsterdam.
Everywhere you look the buildings are old and pastel colored and lit up at night. The old town square has a giant Astronomical Clock that not only tells the time, but the current astrological position. Every time you happen to glance northwest, you catch a jaw-dropping glimpse of Prague castle.
Since Hostel AZ was booked the rest of the weekend, Friday morning we got up and moved house to Hostel Chilli, where we enjoyed a foam-and-springs bed that was surprisingly comfy, free internet, and 6 other roommates who came in from partying at 7 a.m. It is also where we encountered "the shower stealer" - a girl who, when she saw us getting ready to head for the showers in the morning, jumped out of bed and ran out of the room to get the big bathroom and the first (read: only) hot shower, only to rub it in our faces by going back to bed afterward. That one hurt.
On Friday we started the day at the Museum of Medieval Torture. Educational, yes. Disturbing, absolutely. It was there we made the mistake of using a restroom behind an unmarked door, and paid for it by being yelled at in Czech by a very feisty woman. Yikes! On the whole, Czech people are not the friendliest people we've met on our trip. We did meet several exceptions, though, like the young man who sold us a bottle of Becharovka - a delicious aperitif we decided we needed to bring home with us. Speaking of alcohol, it's true that you can buy a (large) beer from a street vendor for under $1.00. Thayer was endlessly excited by this.
One sight that we'd call a "do-not-miss" is the Jewish cemetery. It is a small plot of land with 12,000 grave stones, the the number of people who are actually buried there is much higher. The stones are next to each other, nearly on top of one another, poking out every which way they could fit, because the Jews were only given a certain amount of land to bury their dead and it is against Jewish religion to move a person once they have been buried. People were buried one on top of another with only a meter of soil in between. The last to be buried there was sometime in the 1700s.
That evening, we sat at an outside patio of the Hotel U Prince and had a delicious meal right on the square among the beautiful buildings and passers-by. Later, we wandered into a Kabaret. Not what Americans think of when they think "Cabaret".
The next day, we walked across the Charles Bridge and stopped to listen to the absolutely delightful Charles Bridge Swing Band. We climbed the billion stairs to Prague Castle and marveled at the many-centuries-old gothic basilica within the castle walls. On the way back down the hill, we stopped for a Pilsner Urquell and some meatballs at the "oldest pub in Prague". It was candlelit and wooden, just like we imagined an old pub in Prague would be. That place has been a pub since the 1200s!
Later that evening, we went walking through the dark, cobbled streets in the neighborhood of our hostel, found a little bar/restaurant where we ate chocolate mousse and sipped on Becherovka, and just had an amazing time soaking it all in.
The next morning, Sunday, we had to catch a train to... Salzburg, Austria, the winner of the poll! (Thank you for info and votes from Carol, Brad, lore, Margie, Ellen, Rafe, Jessica, Cory, and Amy.) We got up at 5, just as our roommates were getting in from partying, to get to the train by 6:30. Six hours later, we were in Salzburg checking into our favorite hostel thus far: Institut St. Sebastian.
This hostel is a former nunnery (!) connected to St. Sebastian church, behind which lies the Friedhof (cemetery) where Mozart's widow Constantia is buried. Our hostel was a few minutes walk to the Old Town, the Mirabelle Gardens (so lovely), Mozart's birth house, and the other house where Mozart lived as an adult. (Salzburg is nuts about Mozart!) We took the Sound of Music tour and were able to express our geekiness by singing Julie Andrews tunes all afternoon. As it turns out, the hills ARE alive with the sound of music! That evening, we had dinner at a restaurant just down the lane from our hostel, and chatted with an adorable Scottish couple on holiday.
Our roommate situation in Salzburg also proved to be interesting. First, there was Jess, the sweet student from Portland, Maine studying German in Salzburg for the next 9 months. We liked her quite well. Then there was Kristin and her cronies, Stereotypical American #1 and Stereotypical American #2. They proclaimed that they were going out to get drunk, and when they returned, they were so loud that a woman from a neighboring room came in and asked them to be quiet. In German. They were livid and baffled as to why this person would be speaking to them in German, and assumed that she had simply come in to insult them.
This morning, they reminisced about last night's events, and Kristin stated that she did not speak German, but she DID speak "The Global Language". Could this be why Americans have such a bad reputation?
Roomies and all, we loved Salzburg and definitely want to return someday. But for now, it is off to Switzerland!
Much love,
Hayley and Thayer
**Memorable Trip Quote**
How our new term "Panda House" came to be:
[Passing a run down house with broken windows alongside the train tracks]
Hayley: Whoa, who lives there?
Thayer: Abandoned.
Hayley [having misheard]: The pandas?
[later, passing more run down shacks]
Thayer: Dude, look at THOSE panda houses.
[later still, while looking for a hostel in Prague, we find a very rough looking one]
Thayer: Well, THIS is a hostel...
Hayley: Please let's not stay here. It looks like... the pandas live here.
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