I am back from Prague! (photos)

[Dasquian Belargic]

... for a couple of days. I thought I would post this now, since I am doubtlessly going to be busy over the coming days and might not get a chance (or remember!) to post this after the weekend. On Tuesday, I'm going to Prague for 3 nights/4 days. I'll take lots of pictures and see you soon.

:wave

UPDATE
See post #24 for trip report and photos.

[Evangeline]

I'm so jealous, you go all the good places! :rolleyes

:hug Have fun! :D

[Hurukan]

Apparently Prague has the biggest castle in the world, so I am going there ASAP :cool

It's full of all cool gothic stylee architecture :thumbup

[Morgan Evanar]

The beer! Have fun!

[Daiquiri]

Go have an adventure! [/Finding Nemo] :wave

[Lady Vader]

Have fun! Bring me back a rock! :wave

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
The beer! Have fun!

I have heard that Prague has cheap alcohol and fabulous women in abundance. I will confirm/deny this when I return!

Also, I want to see this:
http://img1.travelblog.org/Photos/4040/12791/f/54558-Sedlec-Ossuary-0.jpg

[Razielle Alastor]

:eek

that's very impressive! Okay I'll put it on my list of places to takeover. ;)

Where is that exactly..? LOL

[Dasquian Belargic]

Czech Republic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

[Kelt Simoson]

its also made from humans remains, i should imagine.

[Sanis Prent]

Bring me pilsner urquell and absinthe

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Kelt Simoson
its also made from humans remains, i should imagine.

"The ossuary contains approximately 40,000 human skeletons which have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel."


Originally posted by Sanis Prent
Bring me pilsner urquell and absinthe

I'm definetly going to try and get some absinthe :D

[Darth Viscera]

Good heavens, how terribly uncouth! I don't suppose they could just hide their bones underground like everyone else?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

That is so gross. :x

HAve fun! :D

:uhoh

[Razielle Alastor]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
I'm definetly going to try and get some absinthe :D

:love

[Kelt Simoson]

Jen, researched on Norway, we can go, i got ze' money :D

Talk to you when ya get back about it :)

[Shawn]

Originally posted by Sanis Prent
Bring me absinthe.This, and show me pictures when you get back.

[Darth Viscera]

show me pictures of prague too when you get back, but make them boneless

[Blade Bacquin]

I want pictures of lots of hot women next to the bone chapel. :D

[Daiquiri]

I want a hot man with a bone, chapel not necessary :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Kelt Simoson
Jen, researched on Norway, we can go, i got ze' money :D

Talk to you when ya get back about it :)

Awesome. Helen was very excited at the prospect :)


Originally posted by Blade Ice
I want pictures of lots of hot women next to the bone chapel. :D

I don't think I'll be able to get to the bone chapel sadly. It's a little too far away :(

[Morgan Evanar]

I want to go with you :(

[Blade Bacquin]

Fine then the women will do just fine. :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

I have returned from Prague! Let me tell you what a fun time I had. This post will be long. I've just linked most of the photos.

Tuesday
We arrived at Prague airport around midday to find that, hooray, the sun was shining. Being 29 degrees (84 Fahrenheit), it was rather warm for us northern Brits. Luckily we had an air-conditioned taxi to shuttle us to our hotel. Well… I say hotel. Being poor student types, we had opted for budget accommodation. At about £10 ($17) a night, this ‘hotel’ was 1 star at most. Here is a tour, in photographs, of our room and what the rest of the place looked like:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260002Small.jpg
Laura displays the finely crafted sink.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260003Small.jpg
Helen admires the craftsmanship of the chairs.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260004Small.jpg
I lavish praise upon the exquisite art…
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260005Small.jpg
…then wonder if this was *really* the best place to stay.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260006Small.jpg
I thought it looked like a converted mental ward, or a scene from a zombie movie. Helen agrees.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260007Small.jpg
The scenic view.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260008Small.jpg
Our stash of food.

After getting accustomed to our wonderful new living quarters, we decided to set out and explore! … We quickly realized that would not be as easy as it sounded. Having shacked up in the old working class district of the city, we found ourselves pretty far outside of the city centre, and unable to find people who could speak more than a handful of words in English (mostly words that involving demanding payment for something). Luckily, though, we found a pair of friendly Americans who directed us towards the train station. A short ride later and we were in Prague city centre!

One of the first things that you notice about Prague (with the exception of where we stayed) is how beautiful the city is. Many of the buildings are preserved from as long ago as the 15th Century, with gothic and baroque towers dotted about the streets. The next thing we noticed was that wherever you went, there were sculptures. Art was peppered all over.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260009Small.jpg
Helen and I on what I presume is the ‘main’ street.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260010Small.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260011Small.jpg
A row of iron men was the first sculpture we saw.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260012Small.jpgThis reminded me of the Terminator.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260013Small.jpg
I can confirm that Superman has balls of steel.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260015Small.jpg
At the top of this main street is the National Museum.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7260016Small.jpg
As I said, all of the architecture is so beautiful. I couldn’t resist taking so many pictures.

After wandering about for a little while longer, we decided to have something to eat and call it a day. Pizza’s all round before heading back to our oh-so-comfortable beds.

Wednesday
Well-rested and with our confidence bolstered by the previous days success, we decided to once again trek into the city centre. First, however, we needed breakfast. We didn’t fancy our chances with the hotels breakfast, so decided to make some sandwiches of our own. Unfortunately we didn’t count on our hotel not being able to give us a knife to butter them with…

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7270017Small.jpg
…so we had to improvise.

After that meager meal, we set off. Back in the city centre, we decided that we were going to go on one of the many city tours that were being advertised. For a pretty cheap student discount, we bought tickets to go on a boat trip down the river. Before it was time for that, though, we had some time to kill, so decided to do some more exploring! It had gotten hotter since the day before…

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7270018Small.jpg
… so it was essential that we eat ice cream.

Essential ice cream consumed, we headed to the Old Town Square. This was one of the most tourist-heavy places that we visited – understandably so.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7270020Small.jpg
One view of the square.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7270022Small.jpg
A church that overlooked the square…
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7270027Small.jpg
…and the statue of the man who built the church.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7270028Small.jpg
Horse and cart rides ran from the edge of the square.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280041Small.jpg
The famous clock tower…
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280040Small.jpg
…and it’s face in close-up.

At last it was time to go on our boat trip. A quick bus ride and we were drifting down the river.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7270033Small.jpg

Unfortunately, we didn’t go very far down the river. I suppose that’s what we get for opting for the cheap trip! There was a 20 minute walking tour after the boat journey, which lead us through the Jewish Quarter of Prague. Apparently the Jewish ghetto in Prague was exempt from Nazi destruction during the war because they intended to turn the area of the city into a museum to the ‘extinct race’. The oldest synagogue in Europe, dating back centuries, is still standing there, along side many others, all incredible to look at. In the centre of the quarter is a cemetery, which houses a synagogue whose walls are covered with the tens of thousands of names of the Jews killed during the Second World War. Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit this. A real shame.

Armed with a pocket-sized city guide, we decided that we were going to try visiting somewhere new in the evening. Reading through the various restaurant and bar recommendations, we found that there was a highly recommended jazz club that hosted concerts nightly. Following a delicious meal, we paid to get in to the concerts and watched round about 2 hours of modern jazz, with piano, bass and drums. No photographs from the concert, however. Though it didn’t have the typical smoky atmosphere that I expected, it was still dark and my camera is pretty awful at dealing with bad lighting. On the plus side, this was our first experience of Prague’s cheap alcohol, so we got ourselves tipsy without burning a hole in our pockets.

Thusday
We didn’t think that we would be able to top the jazz club. How wrong we were. Making a beeline for the famous Charles bridge, we joined hundreds of other people flocking across the river in the sweltering heat. Somehow, it had managed to get even hotter, and we were longing for the chilly climates back home. Just as a precaution to avoid sunstroke, more ice cream was consumed.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280045Small.jpg
Alongside the scores of stalls peddling everything from jewellery to badly drawn portraits of Angelina Jolie, there was this amusing band of old men.

Over this bridge, it was our intention to visit Prague castle. The weather was against us, however. Unable to fathom the idea of walking up a hill, we decided instead to head back to the hotel to chill for a while. On the way to the train station, I spied something interesting looking through an open doorway. It was what I can only assume to be some kind of royal garden, complete with important looking buildings and fountains to be frolicked in.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280051Small.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280052Small.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280054Small.jpg
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http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280060Small.jpg
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http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280058Small.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280064Small.jpg

With much reluctance, we left the fountain – though not without leaving our mark. We had started a trend! Now everyone was using the fountain to cool their feet down. While we were there, we saw someone looking at us from one of the big important buildings. We like to think that we were riling up some upper class types with our low-brow antics.

We decided to go back to the same restaurant we’d ate at the night before. It was right next door to the jazz club, so we could nip back in there if we felt like it. It had other merits, however. Beside the jazz club was a rock café. While wandering around Prague, I had seen a couple of posters advertising that the Cruxshadows were playing some rock bar on the 28th July. It just so happens that this very bar was where they were! I had thought that it would be completely sold it, but that wasn’t the case. For £6 ($10), we got into a room of what couldn’t have been more than 30 fans. The venue was tiny, but the crowd were very lively and the band looked to be enjoying themselves. On numerous occasions Rogue (the singer), the violinist and dancers came down into the audience.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280069Small.jpg
This picture gives some idea of how small it was.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280073Small.jpg
Here Rogue is just standing up on a bar stood in the middle of the crowd.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/byjove2/prague%20july%2005/P7280068Small.jpg
And this one is just awesome. Rogue was moving through the crowd a lot, singing to people. He spent quite a long time with me and my friends and was nice enough to pose, even while singing, for a photograph. I managed to grab one of the posters advertising the concert too, which now proudly hangs on the back of my door.

After the concert, which ended with Rogue pulling half the audience onto the stage to “Marilyn, My Bitterness”, we went to the ‘after show party’. This was basically them herding us down into the bar. The barman completely blanked us, though – but a nice Australian man befriended us and bought us all drinks, so it turned out alright in the end!

All in all, it was an excellent trip. We didn’t get as drunk as I had expected and there weren’t as many fabulous women as were promised, but it rocked none the less.

[Shawn]

Crüxshadows are awesome live. :cool They did the same show for us, and I was stunned by how much Rogue gets into the whole thing. Prague is also very pretty; I'd love to visit there some day.

[Tear]

YAy good trip and photos:D

Have you ever thought of staying at a hostel? They can be cheap but its more of a sleep over atmosphere with strangers because you share a big room basically.

Its neat though because most travellers stay at hostels so you can meet alot of interesting people.

[Dasquian Belargic]

We thought this place we were going to was a Hostel, actually. We just wanted the cheapest thing possible.

[Navaria Tarkin]

You.... you suck!!!! pictures made me jealous ;)

:lol I am so glad you had a safe trip and totally had awesome fun!!!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Helen looks a bit like Maggie Gyhlenhal (can't spell her name!). And it looks like you had a fantastic time. Glad you got back safely!

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Helen looks a bit like Maggie Gyhlenhal (can't spell her name!). And it looks like you had a fantastic time.

I hadn't noticed that before! There is a slight resemblance.


Glad you got back safely!

I freaked out a bit on the way back, when I wondered if we were at the right airport, and then our flight just wasn't showing up on the departures list :uhoh It was cool, though. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be about it all. :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Flying is okay, i just don't like takeoffs or landings. ^_^; In actuality, they're not all that bad.

[Darth Viscera]

Did Helen change her hair color? I could have sworn it wasn't black before.

Also, I daresay you look rather like a somewhat lazy pirate.

http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=730269

[Dasquian Belargic]

She's had it dyed black for a while now. It's naturally a darkish brown.

And yes, the pirate look was what I was going for :D

[Darth Viscera]

yes well tell her to make it brown again, won't you?

[Dasquian Belargic]

I like it black, so I don't think I'll be doing that :mneh

[Darth Viscera]

but she looked prettier with her hair the way it was before! The way it is now her hair conflicts with her complexion, because she's fair and hasn't got a mediterannean skin tone.

[Serena Laran]

I don't think what you think about it really matters, Visc. :)

[Razielle Alastor]

Most excellent Jenny! I have to admire your staples of Pringles and Capri Sun. That is the very edifice of healthy eating. :p

Glad you had a good time, even more glad that you are back safe and sound! :hug

[Hera]

Glad you had a great time.

I really like the ones of the square. So cool.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Darth Viscera
but she looked prettier with her hair the way it was before! The way it is now her hair conflicts with her complexion, because she's fair and hasn't got a mediterannean skin tone.


Originally posted by Serena Laran
I don't think what you think about it really matters, Visc. :)

NYAH :p


Originally posted by Razielle Shadana
Most excellent Jenny! I have to admire your staples of Pringles and Capri Sun. That is the very edifice of healthy eating. :p

We feasted like Kings!

[Boba Fett]

Funny, Crüxshadows are in Prague on tour or something?

I'll be seeing them when DragonCon comes next month.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Boba Fett
Funny, Crüxshadows are in Prague on tour or something?

I'll be seeing them when DragonCon comes next month.

They're touring Europe at the minute. Prague was their only show in the Czech Republic before moving on to another country.