Melting Clocks and Astronomical disappointment.

Day 51. Wow time flies!! I can’t believe it’s already been 51 days! I am over halfway through my trip and it couldn't be more amazing (Well I suppose you could be here with me Anthony, but you will be soon!!). I woke up very early from the sun this morning and couldn’t seem to fall back asleep. After lying in bed for a while Luke, Georgia and Sophie (his two friends) and I all got breaky together. Muzli (oats and dried fruit) with yogurt and milk, a healthy and delicious way to start the day! Last night I exchanged maps with Georgia, she made a map of Prague for me and I showed her Budapest (Thanks Georgia!!), go travelers! My throat is feeling a little funny today and I am hoping that will go away with some better sleep and loads of water. I barely caught the 11:30 train to Prague (WHY AM I ALWAYS SO LATE!?), and am on my way to see Chris again (he is working at the hostel I will be staying at in Prague). I have heard great things about the latter section of my trip and am SO EXCITED!! The landscape was beautiful on the way to Prague, rolling green hills COVERED in trees so close together it looked as if the tree tops were the hillsides, and the train tracks were along the river for most of the trip. You can see houses dotted and scattered in the jungle-like trees, farmlands, vineyards, and I even saw castles on the hill tops! I finally got all caught up on writing my blog (Now if I could just post pictures) and then relaxed the rest of the voyage and watched Angels & Demons for a hint of Rome. I made it to Prague and took the right tram but in the wrong direction to get to my hostel. So I flipped a U-ey after asking for directions and caught it the other way and was welcomed with open arms. The Madhouse is an amazing hostel very similar to Carpe Vitae in Budapest. Another fantastic hostel so far and I am excited to see Chris again here in Prague! After chilling at the hostel for a bit and getting situated/ working on adding pictures to my blog, we all went out to a couple bars. The first one was only alright, but then we went to another bar in the OLD city. Now I say OLD city because it was quite literally underground in the old city of Prague. Prague was built ontop of another city because it was under sea level. You had to climb down some stairs, then more stairs, then a long tunnel, another tunnel, more stairs and viola... underground labyrinth, I mean awesome bar. It was cool and the people were great (We had a huge group form the hostel), after a couple drinks and making some fantastic new friends we decided to go dancing! Gabi from Montreal Canada and I got along just splendidly and danced together all night. We went to a two story (also underground) club that was amazing. Stayed for a long while and danced the night away. I led a group back to the hostel where we watched Eurotrip (I thought it was an appropriate movie choice given we are all ON a Eurotrip) until the wee hours of the morning. Welcome to Prague!

Day 52. I slept in just a bit this morning (As I am sure you could have guessed), but I was excited to explore the city and went out with some friends I made last night, Chaz and Lewis(Jambo) from the UK. They were heading to a Salvador Dali exhibition and I loved Salvador’s work in Madrid so I was definitely down to go. The exhibit was very cool and I got to see the famous melting clock painting as well as some very giraffe-like elephants and much more, sweet! We left the exhibition 4 minutes before 2 pm and it was right outside the astronomical clock, so we watched the super underwhelming astronomical clock that seems to attract so many tourists. In my opinion, the glockenspiel was definitely better. This clock only had a skeleton ringing a bell, 12 rotating apostles in a tiny window, and a rooster’s cock-a-doodle. At the very end a trumpeter plays his horn atop the tower (Although, I think they add a live trumpeter because it is just so completely underwhelming), but at least I can check seeing the clock off my tourist to-do list, haha. We unknowingly timed it perfectly to head out on a free walking tour that met right under the astronomical clock tower at 2pm, lucky us!  The walking tour was nice and it took us through all of the important sites and all throughout the Jewish Town which was very interesting. The graveyard they have there is ridiculously crowded. Everyone is buried on top of everyone else in a very small amount of land so its many layers deep. All the headstones go in every which way and the ground itself rolls with the varying amount of bodies buried. On a lighter note, Prague is quite the incredible city, it’s the nicest city with having its history so fully preserved I have seen so far. ALL of the buildings are old and impressive and you can see so many different styles of architecture. There is one corner on a street that has a different type of architecture on each of its four corners and its small enough you can walk everywhere without any problems. After the tour we went to a restaurant that was recommended for some Czech food. I got pork, sauerkraut and dumplings and it was delicious (Their sauerkraut is a lot sweeter and somehow different than any that I have tried in the states, it is very good.) and then we headed back to the hostel to take it easy before dinner. They were cooking at the hostel tonight for just the cost of ingredients so I was definitely in. We 'chatted for a bit at the hostel quite a bit before dinner, and it was great to get to know so many travelers (I think I have mentioned how amazing most travelers are, travelers are fantastic!). Dinner was superb (Seriously Chris, SO GOOD, thank you!), it was a pasta with sausage and I could not get enough of it was so amazing. I decided to stay in tonight to try and get sleep and turned on a movie and then all of a sudden it was 6 am, oops! I fell asleep on the couch at some point and am definitely ready for my bed, goodnight!