Prague

Modern Prague is a combination of fair tales and Communism. It holds the world record for the largest medieval castle, it was under communist oppression until 1989 and the modern Czech Republic wasn't established until 1993.

Now when we decided to go to Prague it was simply a decision based on proximity and rumors. I had heard whispers about Prague for years, but I hadn't really talked to anyone about it extensively. Anyways long story short I had no idea what to expect.

We awoke in Munich bright and early Wednesday morning and boarded the train. We had our own cabin for much of the trek and were able to sprawl out and sleep a good bit on the way over. No air conditioning, which seems to be the norm in the Czech. Anyways we made it to our hostel (The Czech Inn) with out any issues. It was a good thing we bought a metro ticket though because they were actually checking them that day.

The hostel was one of the nicest and cleanest I have been in yet, it had a very modern design with metal bunks and concrete showers with wonderful waterfall style shower heads.

The first afternoon we simply made our way to the Old Town and got our bearings.

The next morning we joined the "Free Prague Tour" it was a good deal we got to see a lot of the inner old city and learn some history and fun facts about Prague. For example: 95% of "Euro Trip", the sniper scene of Triple X and part of Mission Impossible I were all filmed in Prague. Prague also had a strong protestant following well before Martin Luther and of course there is always the the defenestration of Prague (google it if that wasn't covered in your western civ class). One of the most morbid facts though is that the Jewish district was not destroyed by the Nazis because Hitler wanted it to be a future museum showing how the Jews lived. Consequently the synagogue and much of the jewish district is still in tact and was the home of Franz Kafka.

After the tour we made our way to Prague's own Eiffle Tower... The Tower actually over looks the city from a nearby ridge (read: straight up hill hike) it was built by the tourist club in the early 1900s and was inspired directly by the famous Paris icon (it is much smaller though). So we hiked up to the tower and enjoyed the sights, afterward we made our way to the world's largest medieval castle in the world. We watched the changing of the guards and saw the window where the defenestration of Prague acutaally took place. After a long day of sightseeing we retired for the afternoon and prepared for an evening out on the town.

Nick and I along with a few other people we met at the hostel partook in the Backpacker's Underground Pub Crawl. We had a great time, met people from UVA among other places and it ended near our dorm so we were able to walk home.

The next morning we headed out for Vienna