Gelato or Bust
Chris & Gina’s Travel Blog

We’ve had some pretty amazing experiences so far. Its really hard to believe that we are only half way through our trip so far as we have seen and done so much.
The remainder of our stay in Prague was certainly enjoyable. Most of the people we encountered were really nice and smiley. The second day we were in Prague we visited the Prague Castle. It was a beautiful walk once again through the park that overlooked the whole cityscape. We paid for the ticket to tour parts of the castle, however, have since determined that the areas you can access for free would have been adequate as the most spectacular part of the castle was of course, the church… which is free. I (Gina) did, however, love pretending that I was a part of the Royal family as we walked the grounds.
We intended to follow the Royal Route into the city, however our GPS and geocaching tendancies led us a little off of the path to another beautiful, very steep park with a gorgeous view of the city. We quickly made a cache entry and then made our way to the top of the hill where there is a large wall (which we never found out what it was for), a mirror maze, and a rose garden. The mirror maze was closed and the roses were not yet in bloom… but the trip wasn’t worthless as we enjoyed the trip down on a wieghted-tram-pully-thing.
The evening was concluded with a walk across the Charles Bridge, and a night in Old City Square where we enjoyed the food and entertainment of the night.

The next day was definately the most relaxed of the trip… but I think we needed it. We did, however get to enjoy another performance of folk dancing in the Old City Square followed by a performance by the Czech’s most prestigeous orchestra.

Our last day in Prague could have been a gong-show, however it wasn’t. We missed the train to Karlestein Castle by about 1 minute and had to wait an extra hour… which was a problem because the Castle is only open for a few hours a day. We really had no idea of what station to get off on… but we got off on the right one. As we walked up to the castle we realized we were the only ones going up, rather than down… and we had our first sprinkle of rain. This actually ended up meaning, however that we enjoyed a private tour of 3 people for the tour. Unfortunately we got no pictures of the castle, as our camera died that morning… and our video camera had no battery power left, and it appeared that the adapter/converter we have was meant only for large appliances. This has ended up being a thing of enjoyment, however, as we bought a new and improved camera.

And Brenda… I’m sure all of your suggestions have been well intended, however they have caused a number of awkward moments for us. We went to the Grand Cafe where you said that there was the most amazing Gellato. I’m sure you must have had dinner there and then dessert… because when we went in there and asked for Gellato they gave us a lot of weird looks. We ended up with a very small ball of Gelato in a glass bowl and a very awkward waitress who clearly was making things up as she went along. We were very happy to get out of there as fast as we could.

… and on to Vencie…

Gina - So far Praha has simply been a joy!  After figuring out the new transit system (which is of course the first challenge we face in every city, but once you figure that out… you’re golden) (and yes Shaun… we have both been comparing the systems in Europe to ours at home and see a huge difference) we quickly made our way to our hotel room.  Our “room”, however turned out to be the same size as our house.  I don’t know if we can get video on here… but if we can we have taped a tour of the room .  It is a HUGE change of pace from the 7′ by 8′ room we had in London and the not much larger room we had in Berlin.  It has its own living room, complete kitchen (better than our own at home as it has a dishwasher), bathroom, balcony and massive bedroom.  Needless to say… we looked like giddy children running around when we realized that indeed there was no mistake and we are only paying 38 Euros a night!

Chris - I had been thinking before getting here that the language was getting progressively more challenging as we went from city to city. In London we only had those British accents. In Berlin of course everything was in German, but I had taken classes in high school and many of the words are easily translateable to English. Thinking about Prague though and having no language guide I thought we might be in trouble. However, It’s much easy for an English person in Prague than it is in Berlin (as far as I’ve observed).

Gina - Observations about Praha: everyone owns a dog.  On our way to the hotel I felt like I saw more dogs than people (obviously an exageration… but it makes a point).  Secondly as we walked through the park it looked like everyone was just enjoying themselves and having fun… it’s definately a different atmoshpere (I don’t know… maybe these two observations go hand in hand).  Anyway, Grandpa John, as I’ve been walking through the streets I’ve been thinking about you a lot and wondering why on earth I didn’t get you to verse me in some of the language before we came.  Anyway, it’s neat to visit your birth country.

Chris - After we dropped our stuff off at the hotel we had a short walk to a park. As we walked through the park, we realized we were on top of a hill and we actually had a magnificent view of the city just across the river. It really was a spectacular first view of Praha (Prague), especially since the sun was setting. For me - definitely one of my favourite moments of the trip so far! I don’t think the pictures we took will do justice though.

Gina - It was a bittersweet day, however, as this was the day we said goodbye to our travel bug “Gelato or Bust”.  We place him in the “Travel Bug Hotel” which overlooked the magnificent view Chris mentioned.  Goodbye old friend… we wish you well on your travels.

Chris - First, yes, Gina really is that emotional about the travel bug. Anyways, after we walked through the park we crossed the bridge into the City and ended up walking into the Old City Square where the Astrological Clock is located and as it turns out there is an Easter fair on all month. The square was filled with stalls with vendors selling their goods (marionettes, czech desserts, hand painted Easter eggs, etc.) And every day this week there is scheduled to be free entertainment in the square (including cultural dances/performances, etc.). It’s certainly great timing.

Everyone had told us Prague is a beautiful city and it certainly lives up to its reputation. Even the dark creepy alleyways that Gina led us down were “romantic”. We’ve certainly enjoyed this city so far, we look forward to the next three days.

 Love Chris & Gina.

PS. Brenda/Sharelle - where was it that you had your “train incident”? Also, how much did you pay for internet here?