Prague

Prague. Capital of the Czech Republic. $1AUD = about 15kr. In 5 words.... beautiful, but incredibly, UNBELIEVABLY cold! When I arrived on the plane it was 3 degrees, and I'm pretty sure it's got colder since then. I've never been ANYWHERE so bloody cold in my life, and can't quite comprehend how a city can function in these temperatures..... remind me to head closer to the equator when the end of this year approaches! I'm surviving in lots of layers, lucky I brought my warmest hoodie and my Cats scarf, but wishing I had some gloves as well! I can tolerate up to 4 hours outside and then I start getting ridiculously cold and have to go back to the hostel (or find a heated building!). Lots of people wear two jackets or heavy fur-looking coats which I really hope are fake. Beanies are pretty popular - definitely the go if you're heading to Prague this time of year. There's lots of moisture on the ground, which I thought was overnight rain but I now realise is (was) actually frost or melted snow. Saw a few huge piles of white icy stuff in the street being shovelled away the other day.

Spent my first day at Prague Castle, the main tourist attraction in Prague. Great views, and an impressive cathedral as well as the Palace and other buildings. Rented an audioguide and learnt a bit about the history of the place - just as well, too, because there were no signs or pamphlets or anything else to give you information! Audioguide is the way to go!

King (well, Saint) Wenceslas is the man around here (yes, that's right, he was Czech). Ruler from 921-935, he was murdered by his brother on the way to church (nobody seems to know why). Haven't really found out whether he DID anything other than be murdered yet, but he's pretty popular - is now regarded as the patron saint of Czech republic, and also the eternal ruler of the Czech state (other kings just borrowed the right to rule from him). The Wenceslas crown, symbol of Czech rule, is still kept near his tomb (in St Vitus Cathedral, the centrepiece if you like of Prague Castle), in a room guarded by a door with 7 locks. Cool. Wenceslas Square is also a big attraction, featuring an enormous statue of Wenceslas, surprise surprise.

There seem to be plenty of brutal and violent stories in Prague's history. As well as Wenceslas' murder, there was a woman who had her mother strangled because she was worried about the Christian influence she (the mother) was having over the son. Then there's the two Catholic imperial councillors who were thrown out of a window (the famous Defenestration of Prage, which was a catalyst for the Thirty Years' War, I think) after a hasty trial condemming them for suppressing religious expression, along with an innocent bystander, a secretary, chucked in (no pun intended) for good measure. Somehow they survived the 16m drop to the ground (and the following gunfire). Even St Vitus (of the Cathedral) was killed in pretty gruesome circumstances by the Roman emperor Diocletian, AFTER he survived being thrown into a pot of boiling oil and fed to a lion (he wasn't Czech, by the way, Sicilian I think) for having the audacity to be a Christian. There's also a statue in St Vitus' cathedral devoted to some saint whose remains they dug up - and thought they'd found a piece of his tongue! Naturally they all rejoiced (later on they discovered that it was actually a bit of his brain that hadn't decomposed yet.) The Czechs love these stories. And yet they got rid of the communists without even a fight. Amazing.

Things I'm still not used to:

• The personal space thing (typical Aussie I guess, but even when you know to expect it, it feels weird)
• Standing on the right (especally on escalators)
• Cars travelling on the right
• Smoking in public places
  
• The cold
• Light switches in the hostel: down is off, up is on. WHY?!
  

Fireworks are pretty popular here around this time of year. I don't think they are illegal here, but if they are no one seems to care. Even the night before New Year's Eve, when I arrived, people were letting a few off, but they started in earnest last night at about 8pm. Apparently the city is not the place to be on New Year's Eve, unless you like crowds so thick with people you can't move, and drunks setting off fireworks nearby, so I was planning to go to a nearby bar which apparently has really good live music. I decided to have a nap at about 9pm, and only woke up when the fireworks started at about 10 to 12! I had a good view from my room, though - there were fireworks from every square km of the city that I could see (which is a lot), including a family letting some off from the balcony of the building next door! Crazy people....

I'm staying at the Clown and Bard, a cool but slightly sub-standard hostel just out of the city. I'm sharing with 2 Finnish guys, Miika and Niko, who are pretty cool. They are both studying to be teachers, and speak English fluently (of course). They have spent the last 2 nights playing poker tournaments in one of Prague's many casinos - not doing too well, I think, possibly because they get free drinks and food once they buy in. O_o Until this morning there was also another girl, but we don't know anything about her because she always came in when we were asleep, and she was still asleep when we left in the morning (like, 11am). Breakfast is free, which is cool, and the hostel is close enough to be able to wander into the city and enjoy the many sights..... but more on that to come....

Herrrrooooooo........

Well, hi everyone, and welcome to my blog. I decided a blog was preferable to mass emails - so you can check out what I'm doing as often (or seldom!) as you like. I hope to keep a pretty detailed record of my travels around Europe here, and I hope you'll forgive me if it's a bit self-indulgent occasionally, but it's the only 'diary' I'm keeping. Hope you enjoy it, anyway.

So, after almost 48 hours of travel/airports with a brief interlude at a hotel in Tokyo, I arrived safely in Prague the night before last. Packed 21kg! Big surprise, I've only packed max 15kg before! I arrived at Melbourne airport expecting to be spending the whole time on planes or in airports - my travel agent hadn't told me otherwise and hadn't given me an itinerary, and the last thing I saw, I was pretty sure I had only a few hours to wait at Tokyo and Frankfurt airport. Imagine my surprise when the guy who checked in my luggage told me that I had 14 hours to wait overnight in Tokyo! The airport at Tokyo closes overnight because of noise restrictions, so I HAD to find somewhere to stay. I cleaned the Melbourne Airport Travelex out of Czech Koruna (500kr, about $35), and headed to the internet cafe.

My plane from Melbourne left almost 3 hours late (we were all given $14 vouchers for food at Melbourne Airport to compensate so I bought up big on muffins and cookies!), which left me with a bit of time to try a few places, and I flew out with a list of airport hotel names but no booking! Fortunately one of the girls in Tokyo airport helped me book a place overnight (at enormous expense!) - you have to have a booking at a hotel in Japan before they let you out of the airport. Nice to get a decent night`s sleep and have a shower and a break from plane travel and airports though.

The airport is actually about 70km away from Tokyo, in a kind of outer suburb called Narita. I had a bit of a walk around Narita in the morning, it was pretty interesting. I was seriously pretty surprised to find myself walking around Japan, though, somewhere I had no plans to visit any time in the next few years! It also meant another currency to withdraw, another public transport system to negotiate, another series of check-ins and luggage scans to go through... There were a lot of Japanese people on my flights to Tokyo and to Frankfurt, and most of them were pretty keen on wearing those paper sars masks - particularly the people working at Tokyo airport.

I didn't sleep much on the plane and got pretty bored - watched Hairspray on the way to Tokyo, and enjoyed it so much I watched it again on the way to Frankfurt! (well, there were only 2 other movies on that flight!) Aaaah, corny goodness... The security at Frankfurt airport was even tighter than at Melbourne - the underwire in my bra set off the beeper thing that you walk through, and I was thoroughly frisked (as were about a third of the other people - took AGES to get through! So anyway, now I'm here safe and sound in Prague, at the Clown and Bard hostel - with free internet! Woot! Will write more soon. Happy New Year everyone!