Off to Prague! 7/16/08

Wallet: Day 10
Back to Jeans & Tshirt

This morning we woke up and got moving quickly. We wanted to check out St. Thomas Church where Bach is buried before we headed to Prague. We made it to the Church and heard some amazing organ music and saw Bach's tomb, pretty cool stuff. All in all, I didn't get to see all that much of Leipzig but I know that I will be back here in the future, hopefully on a family trip.

We checked out of the hostel and headed for the train station. We were supposed to get on a train to Dresden that arrived at 1 in the afternoon and our connecting train left for Prague at 1:10. Needless to say, we were cutting it close. As we rolled into Dresden we had only two minutes to get off the train, buy tickets since our Eurail passes don't work in the Czech Republic and find the track where the train was. Yikes. I was sure we had missed the train but we ran up to the platform a good 10 minutes after the train should have departed. To our surprise, the train was still sitting at the track so we hopped on. Sweet!


Once we arrived in Prague, the station we pulled into set the mood very quickly. Unlike the high ceilings and large stations we have been used to seeing at each of our stops, the Prague station screams old Eastern Europe, with concrete everywhere and rusting metal abound. We found and information booth in the station that was littered with backpackers. The location of our hostel is right in the Stare Mesto or Old Town of Prague where the Jewish area used to sit. Once we dropped our belongings off at the hostel we left to walk around. We explored the map and headed towards the Vltava River that runs directly through Prague. We crossed the Manesur Bridge and walked down the river towards the more famous Charles Bridge. As we walked down Cihelna street I snapped a picture of Loyd in the smallest entrance I have ever seen to a restaurant. The entrance walkway was so narrow that there was a traffic light that guided traffic. After I took the picture I let go of the camera, assuming the wrist strap was still on but then I felt something horrible, the weight of the camera didn't catch on my wrist and I watched the camera plummet towards the cobblestone street. SMASH! The camera had still not completely shut off so the lens was still out and it took the brunt of the force. I picked up the camera and I knew it was done for, the lens was bent and the camera was making crazy noises. Also, the die cast metal body had a deep dent in it. GAME OVER.

My reaction was what you may expect, totally bummed out. Luckily, Loyd and I started coming up with different ideas of how I could get a new camera since there was no way I was going to spend the next 6 weeks without a camera. As we made our way back to the hostel we had already come up with about 4 different ideas. As soon as we got back I hopped onto one of the computers in the lobby and started looking for cameras online and camera shops in Prague. I figured my parents could FedEx me the camera overnight. I googled camera shops and found one nearby that said it had Casio cameras. I circled it on my map for us to check out the next day. By the time I was done with all of that and starting to feel better about the situation, it was 8:15 and we still had no plans for the night. The lobby area was packed with flyers for Pub Crawls so we grabbed the one that looked most appealing to us and headed over to the restaurant where it met, about 2 minutes away. The biggest draw in for us was the offer for a free t-shirt and considering how sick we already are of our clothes, a new shirt sounded excellent.

We arrived at Bohemian Bagel and grabbed dinner and some free beer they were handing out. I had to put some food in my stomach since we hadn't eaten since we were in Leipzig. A good bagel sandwich always seems to do the trick for me. We paid 15 Euros and got our wristbands. We toured a few local bars including one where Loyd had his first Absinthe shot. I snapped a few pictures using his camera of his reaction and they came out priceless. Later on we hopped on some party buses that took us to a massive club outside the city called Mecca. There was a rave going on there, it was absolutely crazy. The house music was blasting, the drinks were flowing, and the people were mingling. We danced the only dance that you can when house music is playing, whatever random movement your body has you do. It is always a good time.

It was great night capped off by a crazy taxi cab ride home through the Prague streets. The cabbie had no idea where he was going so our prenegotiated price of 20 dollars turned out to be our savior since he drove around for close to an hour. We made it home around 3 AM and crashed, we have a jam packed day tomorrow including hopefully picking up a new camera for me!

Cheers from Prague!