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Hello all! I am in Prague! And it occurred to me that I have not blogged in a bit. Also I drank some honey mead in a Prague restaurant. To tell the full story of the honey mead I need to elaborate on one of the things in Prague which is that on all street corners there are people standing around handing out fliers saying 'free drinks'. These drinks of course are usually not free, they are free when you buy a drink but anyway we collected a number and then decided to do a pub crawl of these bars. We went to a bar called Propaganda which served great pilsner (did you know the Czechs invited Pilsner which is basically all the kinds of beers we drink now - also, fun fact, the Czechs consume more beer than any other country in Europe. 160 L per person per year). Then we went to a bar which actually had a free drink no strings attached. I gave the flyer to the barman and he laughed at me and poured me a small glass of a lurid green liquid. I was quite startled by this as, being in Prague, I naturally assumed it was absinthe and I was about to experience a horrible, horrible taste. But it turned out to be creme de menthe which is quite nice.
Then we went to a Czech restaurant to have soup served in a bread. Yes, edible bowl! I noticed on the drinks menu that they had something saying FLAMBE which I know means 'on fire'. You can imagine that I had to try it. I ordered the flambe and it turned out to be fire-warmed honey mead in a huge, huge, huge glass. And I dont mean it was a huge glass of mead, I mean it was a small amount of mead, served in a glass about the size of a fish bowl. Very cool. Then, returning to the hostel, I thought it would be funny to knock on the door of our dorm in a Don Giovanni ghost-of-the-dead-general-esque kind of way. Turns out there were people sleeping in there. But I'm sure that if they were Mozart fans they would have appreciated the reference...?
The point of that story is... it has no point. Where have I been since I blogged last? Marseille! In Marseille I had bouillibaise ... yes, from Harry Potter! It is an intense seafood cheesey soup. It was so strong I felt full only halfway through, and it really is just soup. So that gives you an idea of the intensity.
Rome. Saw a lot of old buildings in Rome. Did you know that apparently gladiators did not fight to the death? This is a myth perpetuated by a movie made by a very bad man called Russell Crowe. No, it's unfair that he should get all the blame. But they didnt'. Normally when people died in the Colloseum, it was prisoners fighting gladiators. The gladiators were too valuable to die. True story. Hmm, what else did I learn in Rome? Well, unlike pretty much every European city, Rome does not have a totally awesome metro system (underground inner city rail network) because most archeaological ruins are underground so they could only biuld two lines. Also, you know how when you see photos of the Colloseum half of the outside wall is missing? Well, that's not the sands of time that did that to the Colloseum. It's because after the fall of the Roman empire the Romans looted their own city and monuments for building materials! Yes, the Colloseum and most other ancient buildings in Rome are the way they are today because later Romans stole stuff out of them. All sanctioned by the Pope. Yay Pope. Also the Popes used to try to Christianise the old buildings which is why every time you see an ancient (stolen) Egyptian obelisk in Rome it has a Christian cross on top. Nobody is fooled, Popes.
Then we went to Pompei. I don't have anything to say about Pompei except you should go there, it is so cool. Also there is a tiny dancing fawn. Hooray, dancing fawn! And a whole bunch of dogs! Omg there are so many dogs just wandering inside Pompei, and one cat which got stuck up this wall, poor cat.
Then, Venice. Venice is the best city. You don't even need to do anything in Venice, being there is enough. All the houses have doors opening straight onto the canal which makes you think, 'wouldnt want to be drunk and confused in any of those houses'.
Now we are in Prague. Prague's history seems to be marked by a number of DEFENESTRATIONS! Yes, it is a word which means 'to throw out of a window'. There have been two major defenestrations in Prague's history. Basically Prague is a largely protestant country, right, but the ruling class are Catholic, who historically don't really like protestants and vice versa. So every now and then the Catholics would bring in really discriminatory laws against protestants and the protestants would be like, 'hey, Catholics, give us a break', and would go to talk to the Catholics about it. But of course the Catholics would not be budged and then the protestants would get kind of angry and these negotiations ended by the PROTESTANTS THROWING THE CATHOLICS OUT OF THE WINDOW! Yes, it happened at least twice. Once they threw them onto spikes. Another time they threw them onto manure so the lived, but they were covered in poo. Hmmm. Each time the defenestrations were the start of a terrible, terrible war. So really if the Czechs had just made their windows a little smaller it could have saved a lot of bother.
Oh, and also we went to a church just outside of Prague decoated by the bones of 40, 000 humans! Yes, there was a chandelier made of human bones! I havent posted any pictures in ages as it is kind of hard in hostels but if I do get a chance I will definitely try to post pictures of the BONE CHURCH!
Hope all are well. Next stop is Berlin. Then Perian the Great goes her own way for two weeks and I am making my way solo down through Germany and the North of Italy, to reconvene with the Perian in Liverpool in England, home of the Beatles, one of the coolest bands ever. Hooray!
- comments
Trish Firstly, I am upset by people who use the Christian cross (the Pope) or call themselves Christians (Protestants) when they do horrible stuff - genuine Christians are a lot better than this and these people marr God's name. Secondly, everything else sounds awesome! Doors leading straight to the canals! I just imagine stepping out of a door and falling into the river! Haha! Oooh bouillibaise... AWESOME!!! Keep having fun and you're so brave for travelling by yourself for 2 weeks! You go girl!!!