Prague last 3 days (26/06 - 28/06)

Prague - 26/06/06

It was to be CJ’s last day in Prague and so we decided to join Stephen’s walking tour. This crazy guy is actually a old guy (don’t let him hear me call him that, else he might strangle the “stupid Singaporean” to death) who’s a history professor in Heidelberg, Germany, so I thought a tour by a professor couldn’t be any bad. It turned out to be a good decision, and it was a lot of juicy information he fed us. Things we could never get right on a guided tour, even by a guide trained in the specifics. After all, a history professor who’s supposed to be drilled in facts like the country’s history with Russia, the ACTUAL wish point along Charles Bridge, and stuff like that. We got a lot of stand-up comedy along the way as well, so the 300 Czech Crowns (10 euros) was really worth it. After the tour we rested at the hostel and then it was time to send CJ off. I saw him off at the bus stop, and he continued the rest of the way to the airport himself. I’m sorry for not being able to see him all the way, but my legs needed a good break from all the walking. Interacted a little with the rest of the roommates at night, then retired for the night.


27/06/06

Woke up after a refreshing sleep. Was chilling out at night the night before, doing nothing in particular and using the Internet and hence my legs had some rest finally.

Eva (who was coming back from Oulu) messaged me the day before to meet at noon at Wenceslas Square and then go to Lucie’s house for lunch! I was so excited to see them again. We took a metro and bus to where Lucie lived and she came out to meet us at the bus stop. Joe came from work to meet up with us too. We then had a sumptuous alfresco lunch in the garden prepared by Lucie’s mum.

Lucie's sister's twin boys, 2.5 years old. The blonde one is older by 1 minute. Eating ice cream!

Lucie’s sister has 2 very charming twin boys (as evidenced above) and they were running around naked and playing like boys should. Did I mention, Lucie’s house is big (by Singapore standards anyway) and they have a whole playground for the kids. I then showed my pictures from my Europe trip to them, and apparently Lucie and Eva visited some of the places that I did, and we had a good chat about them.

In the evening the sky turned dark and ominous, and hence we decided to make a move. Lucie’s sister and husband offered to give us a lift to the nearest metro station so that we wouldn’t get wet. It was really nice of them to do so, and it saved us a lot of trouble. We then bade a long farewell to Lucie and her family (all of them were really friendly, although her parents weren’t speaking a lot of English and we had to communicate via Lucie, and I managed to surprise her with a few Czech words too! =) )

Eva and Lucie, in Lucie's house.

Lucie, if you are reading this, you are welcome to visit Singapore too! I know I told you before, but yeah, you know it ya?

I was rather wet when I returned to the hostel, but after drying, I went out to dinner with some of the guys who were on Stephen’s walking tour the day before. Turned out that Marco (Mexican) and Jennifer (American from California) were great chatting buddies. After dinner, the rest of the people at the reception in the hostel wanted to go to a club (Cross Club) and so I agreed to go along, this being my last night.

We had some drinks there, and I drank my first vodka of the month (got a rash subsequently cos I haven’t been drinking recently) at the club. We didn’t do any dancing to my disappointment, and we went back at around 2am. That wrapped up my day, and I packed some stuff before turning in.


28/06/06

Woke up and packed everything after having a bath. Most of my roommates were gone cos they had a flight or connection to another city early that morning. After leaving my luggage in the storage room, I went out to Vlatavska metro station to meet Eva, who would be joining me for some sightseeing. That’s right, a Czech native seeing more of Prague. She’s living in Brno so Prague is not a familiar ground for her. It’s kind of hard to imagine for a Singaporean to not know his own country, yet if I ask you this, how much do you know about all the other neighbourhoods in Singapore, most would probably realize where this would lead to. Czech Republic is huge (at least much bigger than Singapore, so it is not very strange for someone not living in the capital city to not know the place at all (it is the case for most other countries.)

We walked around the town square a bit (in fact only walked across it) and then over the Charles bridge (where I corrected her misconception about the wish point on Charles Bridge, taught to me and CJ by the “very eminent” and very humourous Stephen during his walking tour). I was quite amazed that many people make that mistake, and apparently the error made by a tour guide tens of years ago got perpetuated. Eva was convinced only after asking a Prague native. So it turns out that Stephen was right after all!

We wanted to go up the Petrin Tower, Prague’s answer to Paris’ Eiffel Tower (in fact it is almost an exact copy of its design!) but it turned out that the weather wasn’t good and it was drizzling a little, plus the fact we were running out of time and we only made it up halfway. The funicular wasn’t working cos it was under repair, so really we had no choice but just take pictures from halfway up the hill.

We hung out at a café and had some Czech bread. I had some East European cake with honey. According to Eva, it is from Bulgaria originally and it was really good cos it was sweet. (what do you expect from a honeyed cake?)

After buying some bread we then headed back to our respective apartments, me to Sir Toby’s Hostel for my flight back to Helsinki and Eva to her sis’ place to get her luggage to catch a bus to Brno. We said our goodbyes and I really hope I get to see her and Lucie in Singapore. Maybe sometime in the future.