Prague Trip (Part 1)

Imagestation (where I used to upload my photos) is closing down in Feb 2008, so I have stopped using it. At my Photos! section at the sidebar of my blog I've uploaded photos from my HK/China trip, Sommeruni Course, Berlin trip and Prague trip. No captions, sorry. It'll take up too much time. Alternatively if you are friends with me on Facebook you can just see the photos from there.

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This trip was a sudden one and me, Bernard and Enrique made the sudden decision to join the Spanish guys after they invited us. Plus, the train ticket wasn't expensive and we had wanted to see a bit of East Europe.

Day 1

The train was a really early one so we got to Hauptbahnhof (main station) really early. It took some time to find our seats. Wasn't the usual type of train compartment and was not really as comfortable, but nonetheless acceptable by my standards. This is the first time I've travelled with Westerners (sorry, can't think of a better word). And this is also the first time I've travelled to a foreign country without a guide where they don't speak a language I know of.

Present: Me (M'sia), Bernard (S'pore), Enrique (HK), Ludovic (Fr), Jacobo, Maria, Pablo, Victor (Sp).

Arriving at the train station

The train ride was OK, but halfway I realised I didn't bring my passport! Got worried for awhile but thank goodness we passed the border and no one checked. The scenery in Czech was nice and calm... We reached the main station in Prague near noon time and proceeded to the hostel that Victor booked. He accidentally booked for next year! Lol! So we had to go to another hostel. We exchanged money at a shop below the hostel (They use Czech Koruna. I thought they switched to Euro; apparently only in 2012 or later).
Went to a restaurant recommended by the counter lady at the hostel. We wanted to eat the 84 Koruna meals but apparently they had none left (and they serve those until 3pm only. It was almost 3pm when we arrived). So we had to settle for 100+ Koruna ones. I tell you, it tasted so Chinese. Haha. Subsequent meals proved that the food tasted similar to Chinese food as well... Anyway, one thing I learned during this trip is that Spanish mealtimes are soooo "off" from what I deem "usual mealtimes". Lunch to them was like 3-4pm and dinner could be 10-11pm. @.@
Then we went to the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí). This should be the 布拉格广场 that is referred to in Jolin Tsai's song. The first thing that we saw as we walked towards the Old Town Square was the Astronomical Clock (Pražský orloj). "The Walk of the Apostles", which is a mechanical movement of some figurines occurs at the Astronomical Clock every hour.

Týn Cathedral

Me and Victor

We then went over to the famous Karlův most (Charles Bridge). It was quite dark already so we couldn't really see much. It would've been rather romantic if there wasn't such a huge crowd though. There were street musicians filling the air with some nice jazz music. And some distance away the castle was bathed in floodlights.

View from the Old Town side of Prague

We then went back to bathe. The Europeans then went to party and the Asians stayed behind. However the next day we heard that they didn't manage to go to any party though.

Day 2

Went out late coz we all woke up late. We actually skipped breakfast and lunch today. Crazy. Anyway the main objective today was to visit the castle. To go there we had to pass by Karlův most. Still too many people on it. But anyway we crossed over to the other side and had to walk a distance and climbing a long flight of stairs before reaching the castle grounds.

Karlův most and lots of people

Maria and Victor

Musicians. They were not bad!

Entrance to the Castle

We first visited the St. Vitus Cathedral, which is located within the castle compounds. Climbed up one of the towers to have a view of Prague.

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral

View from the top

We then went to see the Starý královsky palác (Old royal palace), Zlatá ulička (Golden Lane) and some other places within the palace grounds.

Zlatá ulička. Shops here sold mainly tourist-oriented stuff

Backside of St. Vitus Cathedral

We had dinner at restaurant near to area where I and Bernard call the "Pasar malam" (night market in Malay) area coz it's really similar to that. It was an OK meal, but wasn't quite worth the price we paid.

Then at night as usual we didn't go out with Europeans, who went to a disco. We instead chit chatted a lot in the room. There was this guy who could open our door (we had locked it previously), so we were a bit worried for our belongings. But we didn't lose anything. Anyway I was still awake when the Europeans came back. They were laughing uncontrollably and playing pillow fights! @.@ Haha...

Next up, Day 3 and Day 4.