Prague!

17th May (Thursday) was Auffahrt public holiday, and Friday was my free day from school. And i'd say my weekend was utilised to the max, cos I was in Prague!! The most beautiful city of Europe.... (though I somehow like Zurich better) Still, the city lived up to its reputation and was gorgeous. There was a lot to see, and could get a bit overwhelming if you attempt to see too much in one day. The weather was sunny and warm, which made it picture perfect to snap pictures, though it started feeling really uncomfortable after walking long enough under the merciless sun.

Kay, I'll start from my train ride from Zurich Hauptbahnhof. I got on the 22:40 train on Thursday evening, which was supposed to take me direct to Prague in 13 hours. Shared a cabin for 6 lying couchettes with another 2 Taiwanese ladies and a Hawaiian chinese guy. Haha i actually communicated effectively to both sides, switching from English to Mandarin successfully! Unbelievable that I didn't get tongue-tied when it came to Chinese. So we just slept, ate and talked lots through the whole ride, which made it seem like it passed so fast. We wished each other good luck and went our separate ways upon arrival.

Met up with Dixie's friends (who're exchange students in Mannheim) in Prague and we navigated ourselves through the main attractions as stated on the map that day.

Prague's city is also divided into two, with a river running between the two sides, and the famous Charles bridge stretching from one bank to the other.
It was really crowded! Look at the number of people on the bridge itself. Tourists came from EVERYWHERE; saw many japanese and korean tour groups, as well as many English speaking free and easy tourists. And on this bridge, many artists set up their 'stalls' (the kind u pay them to draw a portrait of yourself), as well as others selling paintings and accessories.

This is one of the main Platz of the city area. Almost all the buildings in Prague have some architecture going on at the top of their building, which gave every building a unique look, but also made it look somewhat messy. Haha and this 'old-town' part was so huge....

The 2nd day, we took a three hour bus ride to the southern part of Czech to this place called Cesky Krumlov, a UNESCO protected site. A palace sat amidst the quaint little town, which was really relaxing to walk through. Unfortunately, pictures are in other people's cameras...

The third and last day, we visited the palace in Prague, and this day became my try/take/buy as-much-as-i-could day. So I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Oh yea, there were quite a few representative items of this country, i noticed.

Bohemian crystal was one, as there were many shops selling glassware and proudly proclaiming 'bohemian crystal'. The other one which I saw almost every 8 shops were puppets. The kind that had strings attached to them, and the 'witches' would cackle and do that evil laugh every now and then. Like this shop below:

A shot of Charles Bridge from the tower at the beginning of the bridge from this side:

And more snapping...


And here's the local specialty I tried: Fried Cheese. It was super goooooood...


I had to catch the 5.14pm train back to Zurich, in order to arrive in time on Monday morning to put my things down and go to school. I was thinking, since I'll have the 13 hour ride to sleep, it shouldn't be any problem in school.

BUT, we were cheated! Instead of having a direct trip, like what I was told I would get when I bought my ticket, there were some problems along the way, and we had to change from train-bus-train. Man! Luckily I gathered with a group of other travelers who were also going to Zurich, and we found our way around, when we had to change to a bus from Sommerau to Linz in Austria. Only in Linz did we get the proper night train, the kind with beds, and I felt even more cheated when i saw my cabin! (I had to get the first class sleeping wagon, cos there wasn't any vacancies on the other wagons by the time i bought my ticket), and it was sooooo comfortable! I had my own sink, and an armchair, and there was even a cabinet with hangers! Thing is, I supposed to be in this cabin right from the start of the trip, but with all those 'problems' was stuck in this run down train and had to sit through 5 hours of it, then an hour's bus ride, before I finally got to enjoy this! Sheesh!


What's more, I could choose 6 items from a menu for breakfast. Fantastic! To think the kiasu Singaporean mentality in me bought so many cups of joghurt and bars of fruit snacks from the supermarket before my train ride! Haha so breakfast this morning in the train, and looking out into the pretty swiss countryside scenery before arriving in Zurich, was pure luxury... :)