I got POOPED on in PRAGUE!

I got pooped on in Prague...literally. More on that later...

After flying to Frankfurt, Germany for the day (Frankfurt was not that cool. The city was destroyed during WWII, only rebuilt in the past 2 decades or so, and is now known as a business center, so it was pretty much a mini modern city with not much to see), Ale and I arrived in Prague around midnight on Monday. I have to say that Prague was the city I was most looking forward to seeing in Europe; but I was disappoionted. There are a lot of really beautiful and really old sights to see here, but the city seemed lifeless to me. I couldn't really pinpoint it. One possible explanation could be that it is not that long ago since the Czech Republic was under Communist rule...I don't know...something about the city just seemed so dark. The scenery is beautiful, but I could never live here.

Our 2 days in Prague were spent walking around and exploring. Our hotel was in the Old Town part of the city which was settled in the 1200's. The New Town (only new compared to the Old Town...it was settled in the 1300's) is just on the other side of the Vltava River. Since the city is so old (like 5 times as old as America) the architecture is a mix of Gothic, Renaissance, boroque and neoclassical. The city's layout is somewhat of a maze an streets and pedestrian-only lanes weave their way among the old buildings. We took a tour up to Prague Castle, which is actually many castles and a cathedral put together which was pretty cool. The castle was high up on a hill so a bus drove us up, we toured the castle and cathedral, and walked our way back down through the castle gardens and city streets. The view of the city was beautiful up there. We also got to see Charles Bridge...which was beautiful and full of street vendors and musicians, a bunch of old churches (which is wierd because the country was communist and everyone is athiest), the Jewish quarter, and the Astronomical clock which has a bell-ringing skeleton on the hour. We also ate some pretty awesome Czeck food. They eat really heavily...meats, graveys, breads. Lunch is enough to last you the rest of the day. No need for dinner.

**Funny note...as we were walking around the street vendors, one had a stand for those russian dolls...you know, the ones where you open the first one to reveal another doll. Then you open that doll and there's another inside that. I found one set of CUBS players! Seriously! They had Lee, Ramirez, Theriot, Soto, and Fukodome! Crazy. I totally would have bought it but the guy wanted like 8000 Czech Crown for it which was the equavelent to 20 Euro or $30. Total rip off! But I did take a picture...its posted on facebook!

Despite all of this, Prague is kind of a shady city as well. Ale and I had an uncomfortable situation at one of those Asian stores when the lady tried to charage Ale the equivelent of $50 for 2 AA batteries which were not even in a package...they could have been dead for all we knew. Ha! We have heard that the Czeck people try to intimidate and swindle foreigners, but we didn't think the ghetto markets where THEY don't even speak Czech would... Also, one night after going out, we were headed back to our hotel when this black-American guy approached us and was like "hey ladies, where's the party?" We had seen several groups of black guys hanging out together with pamphlets and who knows what else. We were like, "uh...at home" and kept walking, but he kept asking us to let him show us where the parties are at. Finally, I was like, "yah, and what else are you selling?" and he just smiled, laughed and said "What do you think?" I'm not sure what he meant, but I'm pretty sure I didn't want to know. We also had a funny encounter with an American guy. He approached us and asked us if we knew English. Yes, of course we do, and when we said so he was like "Oh man, like as in you are not from here know English?" We think he was high. We told him we were from the US and he was like "Shiiiiiiit Man. I need to get home to the TV Tower." Yes, at that point we knew he was definitely high. I don't know where the TV tower was, but I was pretty sure it was no where near Old Town Square where we met him.

On Tuesday night, Ale and I had a late start going out. It happened to be the night of the Michael Jackson tribute. It was on every TV channel and we totally got sucked in! We are talking, glued to the TV, tears streaming down both of our faces, sucked in! I mean, come on...the "Heal the World" song with all of those kids singing and then the daughters speech. We lost it...When it was over, I felt like such a loser! There seriously has been Michael Jackson make-shift memorials and programs on TV and his music playing in EVERY city we've been to so far...UGH! We came to our senses very quickly, got ready and headed out for a night on the town...which turned out to be pretty lame. Perhaps the place our consierge told us to go were not great, but it turned out to be an early night for us.

So about getting pooped on...Ale and I were walking down a pedestrain street taking in the sights and sounds of the Old Town in Prague, and all of a sudden I felt something wet on the back of my leg. When I finally looked to see what it was, it was POOP! I'm still wondering how it got on the back of my leg; but the crazy thing is, is that this isn't the first time this has happened to me! When I lived in San Diego, a bird pooped and hit the front of my leg. Wierd!

On Wednesday evening, we took an overnight train to Vienna, Austria. It kind of sucked. We got to the station extremely early because Ale had heard that these trains sometimes oversell so we didn't want to get stuck sleeping in the hallway...which is exactly what happened. When the conductor came to take our tickets, she told us we had to move a few carraiges back because the train was going to split and the car we were in was heading to Budapest. When we got to the Vienna car, there were absolutely NO seats. Actually, there were, but people were sleeping and taking up 2 seats. They would wake up and see us, but go back to sleep. I have been experiencing this over and over again...Europeans are so rude. Several of us where in the hallway for several hours. Luckily, about 4 hours into the 6 hour trip, some people got off and we were able to take their seats and get some sleep. I will definitely be skeptical of taking an overnight train again...