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A 2 hour flight from Leeds, and we arrived at our first stop, Prague. Fran's organisation skills came into play early on, when we managed to navigate to Sklep Hostel via a bus, metro and tram! Our room was small, but with clean shared bathrooms and at a bargain of 13 pounds a night, we couldn't complain.
Being known for my bad sense of direction, I decided to let Fran take the map for the first night. We started well, wandering 10 minutes to the centre, and finding a nice Italian restaurant recommended by our book. After some food and a few beers we decided we would head to the famous "Charles bridge" for a few more. Trusting she knew where it was, we began to make our way through some of the smaller cobbled backstreets of the old town, and came across the old square, where the astronomical clock was. Having been to Prague before, I had a feeling (albeit a weak one) that I knew a quicker way to get to the bridge, but Fran insisted that we go a different way. After about half an hour, we realised that we had arrived at the wrong bridge. My statement of "so we are both crap at map reading" was not well received. It was half 1 in the morning, so we decided to call it a night.
The next day we decided we would go for a wander back to the old square and have a second attempt at finding the bridge. Just as we reached the square we bumped into Ellie (fran's home friend) and her friend Matilda. Some bar crawl promoters convinced us to go to their bar crawl that night, so we arranged to meet later. Meanwhile, Fran and I went on a mission to find cheap beer (a frequently occurring theme). We found the perfect spot on the square, and sat outside drinking beer for 45 Kc, (about £1.80) which was half the price of the ones that Ellie and Matilda had just had. Feeling smug about my find, i proudly put my beer down, only to spill it all on the floor when I sat down. Brilliant. Half price beer isn't half price when you have to buy two! Afterwards, we found the Charles bridge, and hung out there, enjoying watching characatures being drawn and some street bands performing.
The bar crawl that night was pretty epic. It started off in what I can only describe as an underground church, apparently nearly a thousand years old. It was practically pitch black in there bar a few candles dotted around the place. There we had around 2 and a bit hours of unlimited drinking of beer, wine, sangria and shots. As can be imagined, things spiralled from this point. We got chatting to a couple of guys from new zealand who played underwater hockey nationally. (yes, we hadn't heard of it either) There was also an American that looked a little like Michael buble. I also had a massive "small world" moment when I got talking to two girls who went to bristol and were in my year. Turns out one was a medic and not only knew Rahul, but had apparently been in my old uni house? The other knew my friend who did law and a few other random mutual friends. To be honest, I can't really remember much about the next few bars they took us to, apart from a few irrelevant dance floor related memories. (obviously I was busting out some sick moves as per usual). We ended the night with a long walk home in the rain.
Next morning we woke up with quite a bad hangover and were quickly told we should've been out of the hostel 2 hours earlier. On our way out we once again bumped into Ellie and Matilda, and went for breakfast/lunch with them. The restaurant we went to gave us each a free "welcome drink", to which we were excited until we saw that they were shots. Not a massive fan of hair of the dog. We then said farewell to the other two and went to the train station to book our night train. We trekked through a back way to the station, literally walking along the tracks, only to find the train was booked up for that night. This forced to stay an extra night and get the train to Vienna the next morning. Our hostel was booked up for that night, so we spent about half an hour sat outside it using their wifi to try and find another hostel. Hostel Geo turned out to be incredible, with an ensuite and tv in the room! We headed back to the bridge for one last time, which was even better all lit up at night, and was buzzing with people. A quiet drink and we caught the metro back to 'luxury'.
As I write we are sat on the train in a cabin with two german girls who are having a feast, and a french woman. Next stop: Vienna!
Bean x
- comments
Tom Crewther Sounds awesome Ben. Did you not head up to the castle in Prague then? You'll love Vienna btw, crossing the old city walls into old town is great. Enjoyed your story about smugness cut short btw. Keep 'em coming.
the bald headed sock seller that makes you Mr Bean!!