Europe Trip Day 9 & 10

After the long awaited, detailed planning, I am finally going to PRAGUE!! Together with 11 of my colleagues! We boarded the train at 6.58am from the Hauptbanhoff, again.. at 6.58am sharp the train moved. It took about 2 hours to reach Dresden, our transit town.. we got down from the train and changed into a Harry Potter train. Yeap! The train has cubicles which sit 5-6 person each and it's exactly like what we watched in Harry Potter movies. Being a super fans for Harry, I'm overjoyed!

- Ok, Hogwarts first year students reporting!! (HG out of spec!) -

Along the way we saw lovely sceneries, the yellowish green mountains, the flowing river, smoking chimneys, old nostalgic houses, lovely...plain lovely.. it will remain in memory for a long long time..

- Nobody managed to shoot really nice photos along the way -

As we reached Prague, Sanju was late. She went to another train station instead of the one we were at. Anyhow she made it there and yeappie.. we've finally met after so many years! She was my classmates buddy back in form6. How nice.. Sanju had grown up much, she was once a naughty girl in our class but now she's such a mature lady married to Zenon, a Czech-Polish guy. Sarah is so jealous! haha..

- Girls in my class in form6, okla.. I looked so noob and nerd -

So then Sanju lead us to tourist info center to buy day tickets for the "Metro" which is actually LRT in Prague. We then boarded the Metro to center of Prague, the Wenceslas Square where we first saw some small stalls around the area with blacksmiths, food stalls, artists etc.. We walked all the way downhill to look for the guys' hostel "Manhattan Hostel".

- Walking down the Square, first sip of Prague air -

We spent quite some time settling the hostel stuff, and later we headed straight to get food. We opted for the 24-hours convenient sausage stall nearby. I tried the Fried Cheese burger as recommended by Sanju. It was heavenly delicious! I love cheese!! And this is fried hot, in the chilly weather! Oh, about the weather, we were so lucky to have a clear sunny 16 degree weekend. It was 10 or so earlier that week and it was misty.

- The sight of the long long sausage enough to kill me -

So then we officially started our tour, with first destination to visit an Uncle statue where all visitors love to take photo with him. We didn't really posed, quite shy at first.. erm, nevermind bout HG..

- We've been to Prague! -

Then we moved along and reached the Mustek Market where we browsed through the souvenirs to buy. I bought some tit bits and drawing from this market. Everything here was cute and artistic, the stuff bring out the colour of Prague.

- Shopping mood -

Next we walked through some alleys and reached The Old Town (Staré město). We were so awed by the beauty of the town. We were surrounded by rows of buildings each few hundred times older than us. Each building is unique and has a story of its own and most notably are the famed Astronomical Clock (Orloj) and the pure Gothic Týn Church. Both buildings enough to make the town flooded with tourist. We managed to swarm through the sea of people to check out the very anticipated "cuckoo moment" of the old clock. So it was like this..

The astronomical clock was constructed in 1410, some 600 years ago and it's still functioning. Under the clock dial is the Calendar, painted by Josef Manes in 1805. Well, the one you will see is actually a replica, the original are safely kept on the sides of the stairway of the Prague Museum of History.

- The Tyn Church, looks more like Disneyland to me -

Then we moved on, and came to this bridge across the famous Charles Bridge. We were supposed to be on the way up the Prague Castle. So we took the opportunity to snap some photos here. The castle can be seen from here, not far away.. up on the hill.

- I lurve this photo (sorta miss my long hair now) -

Before we reached the entrance to the Castle, Shelly found some apple trees along the way. Well, I was with Sanju buying drinks so didn't join them to see the apple trees. How sad.. but from the photo, the apple trees were beautiful.

- Apple trees, for real -

We reached the Senate of Czech Republic located nearby the Castle then. We rested at the Wallenstein Garden in front of the Senate. Entering the garden from the palace, our attention was drawn by a large wall opposite the entrance. It was a wall with artificial stalactites imitating limestone cave (grotta). To the right of the cave you can see a aviary for exotic birds where we saw the biggest owl in our lives.

- The Senate, occasionally there will be open concerts here -

- The Grotto -

After some relaxing at the Senate Garden, we moved on. Along the way we passed by a Trdelnik Stall. Trdelnik is a famous local Czech tit bits that every Prague visitor should try. Here we learn the ugly side of the Czech people, as described by Sanju. Felix paid for 5 Trdelnik from the stall but she only gave him 4 and denied her mistake thoroughly! She didn't even bother to negotiate! Felix was really pissed off here and swear on those Czechs. Well, despite that bad experience, the Trdelnik is so yummy.. it's like a roll of crunchy bread topped with sugar and hazelnuts. Each cost 50 Czech crown, almost equivalent to Euro2.

- Yummy!!!! -

So next move, we started to climb the slope up the renowned Prague Castle.

- Up up.. climb climb -

Along the slope we came across the Absinthe Shop, selling absinthe obviously. The greenie liquor which has around 70% of alcohol in it. There had been lots rumours bout this alcohol, some said the famous artist Van Gogf when berserk from this drink and cut his ears off. Many countries had banned the consumption of this liquor but you can find it here in Prague.

- The source of artist talent -

Alright, about 20minutes walk and we were up the hill to the Prague Castle. We had a clear sky line view of Prague up on the hill. It was really beautiful. We can see the horizon very well from there.

- The beautiful sky with cooling breeze -

A history of more than 1100 years speaks for itself. The Prague castle consist of many courtyards, palaces and church around it. One of the most significant church is the St. Vitus Cathedral. It was the most impressive building I've ever seen in my life so far. We walked through a tunnel and poof! the Cathedral stood in front of us, leaving our jaws wide dropped. Felix said that the Cathedral looks like a wallpaper, indeed it does. I had hard time choosing who took the best photo of this cathedral. This is what I chose:

- Make a guess, who took this? Hint: not me -

- Internal of the sacred cathedral -

We were really lucky to be able to squeeze ourselves into the usually packed tourist attraction. Sanju believed that we have really good luck and arrived at the right time. We also walked to the back of the cathedral to check out... it was as beautiful as the front side.

- Found this photo from Soon Hee's folder, he's the best photographer in the group -
(I'm waiting for HG to object...)

After this great great visit, we walked down the hill to meet Sanju's fiance, Zenon. He has got the Czech's blood, so he loves beer. While waiting for us, he pop into a bar for a beer. We shooked hand and he said "Hi, you must be MAI KAH"... why on earth everyone call me MAI KAH. zzz.. I'm Mei Kar.. Anyhow, we continued the journey to Charles Bridge, which is near to the castle.

- Ok, now down the hill! Am I seeing Felix's tummy bulged out? opps.. -

In the place that Charles Bridge is standing today once stood a wooden bridge, destroyed by floods in the 11^th century. The construction of the bridge as we can see it today is built around the 14th century. It is said that egg yolks were used to strengthen the mortar used to bind the stone blocks. Although the saying cannot be verified, modern laboratory tests have indeed proved inorganic and organic ingredients in the mortar. Amazing isn't it? The bridge is decorated with 30 statues and statuaries, erected around 1700. Now the original statues are kept in the Lapidary, the statues on the Charles Bridge are replicas.

- Soon Hee, Felix, Khoo and Peter happily posing on the bridge -

We walked along the bridge, where many artists display their arts for sale. Prague is such an artistic fairy tale town. Sanju is like living the life of the princess in our bedtime stories. So envious of her. We also climbed up the bridge arches to shoot some great photos!

- It was quite hard to get up there! -

And me too, the Miss 2-weeks could see the autumn leaves here. So glad that I came..

- Why Felix looked so tall one? -

Well, after the stroll on the bridge, we moved on to look for food. Our stomachs were calling.. Initially Zenon wanted to bring us to an underground very-local-Czech restaurant, but it was fully booked! So we had to give that up and went to another restaurant nearby. With Zenon's help, we could easily order food we prefered. Here's what we had:

- Top: Cheese, Bread, Vegetarian -
- Bottom: Roasted Duck, Pork with bread dumpling, Pork with potato dumpling -

The main character: Czech Beer, claimed the best beer in the world

The guys had great time at another table too! They had their "high class cheese" too!

After dinner, we walked along the opposite bank of the Charles bridge, we took some night scene photo of the bridge and castle. Our cameras mostly ran out of battery by this time.

- The bridge at night -

- The castle at night -

After the stroll we caught the tram back to the guys' hostel to get our luggage. The girls will be staying with Sanju. We boarded the Metro to Sanju's place, few stations away from the town center. Sanju's house is really a small and cute heaven.. we took some wine and chocolate before calling it a day. Did catch up with her a lot after many years MIA...

- Wine, chocolates and girls -

The next morning, we made our way to find the guys ourselves without Sanju's help. We made it to the town center and I bought another fried cheese! It was too yummy and I'm still craving for that.. any idea where to get it other than Prague? The guys ate Macdonalds that morning. We then went to Mustek Market to buy some souvenirs we missed out the day before and walked around the old town once again. Before bidding goodbye to Sanju, we all shared some presents for her to thank her good hospitality.

Before heading back, we saw this...

We had a really weird experience on the way back, some Czech Polizeis stopped us on the train. Requested for our Czech Visa!! What the... we have Germany visa meaning it's applicable to all European Union Countries right? So we missed our train because of this 2 cute Polizeis.. zz! And got stranded at some unknown desserted town in the border of Czech Republic.

- The stranded gang, we managed to smile wor -

After stranded for 2 hours, we managed to get onto the next train back Leipzig transiting at Dresden. We did touched our feet on Dresden! Haha, had to take photo!

- Lovely DRESDEN... train station.. haha! -

Upon reaching Leipzig at 8pm, we were all devastated. So so tired! Just had a simple magee and there goes our PRAGUE trip!

I just had to shout..
Life is Beauuuutifffulllll~~~~

Haha...

... to be continued