Days 305-306: Prague, Days 1 and 2

I'll be honest: we didn't do much our first day in Prague. We've been feeling sick and, after that horrible travelling day, we just wanted to sleep in. So all we really did was go have dinner at KFC. It was actually cheaper than the lunch we had at the Dublin airport. After dinner, we looked around the area a bit. Noticed a Thai restaurant, a sushi place, and some vegetarian restaurants. One convenience store sold bongs and cannabis gummi bears. Far out!  One thing I notice so far is that everyone speaks English to us automatically. Maybe we look like we're not from around these here parts.  And the English is good: not great, but I can understand people, which is nice. It's less stressful and challenging for English speakers than China is, that's for sure.

On the second full day, we were much more productive. We decided, first of all, to eat the breakfast that the hotel offered. And it was surprisingly better than we thought it would be: it offered not only scrambled eggs, but cottage cheese (yay!), and lots of other protein options, such as bavarian sausages and even liver.  Quite tasty. Later on, we decided to follow the Wenceslas Square Walk in the Rick Steves guidebook to Prague that we purchased. It was pretty accurate, overall. We started at the statue of Duke Wenceslas, glanced over at the National Museum and the Communist Era Building (which Steves describes as an "ugly" modern structure...not sure I agree). As we were walking, I learned what a place of revolutionary history the square was. There was a memorial to the victims of 1969 who set themselves on fire, and we saw the balcony at which the Velvet Revolution took place, which allowed the Czech people to free themselves from communism. I also admired the beautiful Grand Hotel Europa. I think my favorite thing on this walk was a funny statue in the Lucerna Arcade, which showed an upside-down statue of Wenceslas on a horse!  We traversed over to the Svetozor Mall, then the Franciscan Garden (with some flowers, but not many...very few rosebushes in bloom), and then we ended up in Jungmann Square where we walked over to the end of Wenceslas Square. That was a crowded, busy area with a touristy souvenir store, a dancing polar bear who preened for photo ops (including one with me), and a silver-painted Oliver Hardy who made himself look like a statue (Kerry had a photo taken with him).

We then walked back to the hotel and had dinner at Deminka, a bar/restaurant nearby. Kerry and I both had a "steak" (which was more like roast beef), covered in a sweet sauce and a side of bread on the plate. We also sampled the fried cheese with potatoes and served with tartar sauce. Both dishes were quite good!

I was pretty tired from all the walking and have a feeling that my resistance will be worn down for the tour of Prague Castle...tomorrow.

The Grande Hotel Europa

Upside-down statue of Wenceslas's horse ride

Me with a dancing bear!