Pronunciation, Puppets and Peppermint Liqueur - A Weekend in Prague (25-27 March)

Our second attempt to go to Prague for the weekend was almost another non-starter, as we arrived at the Prater metro station to find no bus in sight. Luckily we were just too early (incredible though it may seem) and a few minutes and some seat-shuffling later we were safely on the bus. While Hannah and I had managed to switch seats so that we were together (and to show his gratitude for being able to sit with his wife, the man who I'd switched with took it upon himself to tell me about the Napoleonic battlefield we were driving through), Christina made friends with the man sitting behind, a Czech man who taught her about the Czech tradition of eating carp for Christmas dinner and in return refused to be taught the correct way to say the word 'cathedral'. The resulting sound of "ca-theeee-dral" "cat-tay-dral" kept Hannah and I amused for the best part of ten minutes, for the rest of the four hour journey we entertained ourselves with Beatles music and beer, giving ourselves sufficient Dutch courage to meet our first ever CouchSurfing host.

Apparently our luck was still in, because Milan was not only not a rapist/murderer/general crazy person, but he also took us all over Prague, gave up his huge bedroom to us while he slept on the sofa, kept us constantly supplied with bread, cheese, coffee and cherry tomatoes, and let us watch videos from his impressive collection at the expense of any of us getting a good night's sleep. All in all, the recipe for a good CouchSurfing experience!

On the Saturday we did a whistle-stop tour of the sights of Prague, but as usual we didn't exactly focus on mainstream sights. Although we saw everything the guidebook wanted us to see: the castle, Charles Bridge, Wenceslas Square, and the Old and New Towns, the highlights were, as in Budapest, the slightly wacky things which we sought out. The top three are listed below:

Rozhledna
This was Hannah's choice from the guidebook, mostly because "it looks like the Eiffel Tower". And it did indeed look like the Eiffel Tower, albeit being smaller and slightly more shabby-looking (being built on a hill, it didn't need to be anywhere near as high as the Eiffel Tower itself). Climbing the steps to the top felt a little like a death-defying experience, although not nearly as death-defying as getting back down the hill. Milan (trying to disprove his earlier reputation as a non-crazy person) decided that paths were for wusses and led us down the hillside instead, although he did offer assistance and there was a park on the way down, so I can't fault his shortcut too much!

John Lennon Wall

My choice also came from the guidebook, but it was obscure enough that the guidebook wasn't exactly sure where it was. But once again our luck held, and with minimal amounts of getting lost we managed to find the wall, which is painted with hundreds of tributes to the dead musician, and put our own mark on it. They may not have been quite as impressive as the giant painting of the Yellow Submarine, but it was the best us non-creative types could come up with!

Absintherie

Another thing that we couldn't leave Prague without trying was the absinthe - unlike the cheap imitation in the Undie, this stuff was 70% alcohol and came with a risk of actual blindness (disclaimer - risks possibly exaggerated and/or falsified). It also had an incredibly bitter aftertaste that ensured we would hesitate before drininkg it again, a disappointment that was worse than the potential(ly fake) blindness.

Other wacky highlights included the creepy puppet shop which Milan dragged us into halfway up Castle Hill (I'm amazed I'm not still having nightmares about Charlie Chaplin, I swear the puppet's eyes followed me around the room!), the Kafka Café in which we drank Kafka coffee (ingredients: coffee, peppermint liqueur, whipped cream, and not the slightest hint of a cliché), and the crazy steam punk bar which we unfortunately couldn't afford drinks in, but which was awesome all the same. Although we left Prague too exhausted to even concentrate on Music and Lyrics (and that film does not require many brain cells to concentrate on it), we took that as one more sign of a successful weekend!