Ah, I have fallen behind again – lack of internet’s fault, not mine! Haha, anyway, time for a post-Prague update!
We caught a train from Krakow to Prague, which lasted an excessive 7 hours. Prague is one of those cities that’s like, so overwhelmingly impressive it doesn’t even really seem real. Though, with that you also get flocks of tourists, which kind of detracts from the awesomeness… But it was still an amazing city!
We had gone on one of those free walking tours in the morning, and there was a choir group singing in the middle of this square, and loads of tv cameras and such around. We didn’t stick around long enough to see what was up, but ended up being back in the same area that night. All the choir people were semi-fancily dressed, and there were Christmas lights and it was beautiful. So we stood and watched them for a bit, they sang some Christmas songs and others. Then they each took one of the pink balloons, and inhaled the helium from it, and sang their choir-y songs with helium voices – it was seriously the coolest thing ever. I think what made it even better was that we totally weren’t expecting it, which was funny. We still didn’t really know what was going on, but finally this guy came to up to us and told us that it was a shoot for T-mobile commerical, and asked if we would sign a waiver/release to be used in it, in case we were in any of the shots or anything. It was funny because Sophie was sort of hesitant and first then guy was like “Yeah, if we use you, you’ll get compensation, some 5000 crowns”, which is their currency, except Sophie thought he said “pounds” and very enthusiastically said yes. So, we may possibly be in a random T-mobile commercial someday, haha.
There were loads of spires everywhere, and cathedrals that looked like mini castles all over the place. It’s apparently nicknamed “city of a hundred spires”, which is pretty appropriate, even though I’m pretty sure there were far more than a hundred… The old town square was home to both the lovely Tyn church as well as The Astronomical Clock.
The clock reminded me a bit of the Glockenspiel from Germany – lots of complicated and ornate things, but the actual on-the-hour display was kind of laughable. Granted, for being created some 400 years ago, it’s still pretty darn impressive.
Prague also features an impressive castle on the other side of the river. The walk up the stairs to the top was pretty tiresome, but the views – both inside and around – were totally worth it.
It was actually more like a mini city with a massive cathedral in the middle than a castle. They do the whole guards at the front of it and everything as well, which made it feel like we were in some fairytale land (we often found ourselves singing that “Duloc Is The Perfect Place” song from Shrek, ha). When we were walking out, we heard this noise from behind us, and didn’t think much of it, just that it was a rude tourist or something, so we kept walking. Then the next thing we knew we turned around and there were these three guards with like full on bayonettes walking behind us, so we jumped out of the way. I guess Sophie’s reflexes weren’t quite up to par, and the front guard guy shoved her out of the way. It was kind of funny in a terrifying sort of way. It reminded me of that Walker Texas Ranger intro – “When you’re in Prague, look behind you, ’cause that’s where the guards’ll be” – ha.
Anyway, the cathedral itself was probably the highlight. The inside was breathtaking; I decided I would never be able to attend a church in a cathedral, because I would never be able to focus on what was being said – too many random statues and shiny things to detract my attention.
There were many impressive doors as well, which was exciting!!
The view from the castle to the top of the city was also stunning – it was a bit foggy the day we went, but I imagine it’d be even better on a clear day!
We were there for quite a few days, and ended up just wandering around for a good part of it. We were all pretty amused with the old/grand/cool buildings that were everywhere!
We then flew to Frankfurt, where we proceeded to spend far too many hours breathing airport air and attempting to sleep on the floor. We almost got run over by the floor cleaning people a few times; it was pretty hardcore.
Aaaand, that concluded our Euro-venture! It was a really great trip, I enjoyed it quite a lot! Also, it’s nice not having to carry around way-too-heavy bags everywhere and do seemingly complex math algorithms to determine how much things costs. Well, actually I still have to do that I guess, but not as complicated, woo!
Stockholm is absolutely beautiful – if it weren’t for the ridiculous prices, I think I’d love it a lot more, but it’s still pretty awesome. This was the view from our hotel/boat – it was seriously stunning! For most of the time the weather wasn’t too bad, fairly mild, but there was always loads of fog around. It was really sort of eerie at times. We were saying it really looked like a fairytale city or something that was computer animated. The trains would run through the city almost constantly, it was almost so perfect it was fake. Also, Swedish people are exceptionally nice!
There’s a little island in the middle of the river (there’s a river that sort of cuts the city in half), which is where the old town is. Basically it’s got lots of little shops and restaurants and things, and just old buildings in general! We found this really cool coffee shop on the second day there, called Cafe Art. It was pretty much the only semi-afordable thing would could find that was open that, so we went in and ended up loving it… we even went back for coffee the next day. Mm! It was underground and everything was made from bricks, and you had to duck under the arches to get to other rooms – really unique!
The city was pretty empty at most times, not too many tourists, which was kind of cool. Also, due to it being night and needing long shutter speeds, this means there were less people giving me funny/irritated looks for sitting on the ground with a camera…. ha.
Also, lots of pretty lights!!
And boats!
Even though we missed the main Christmas market, a lot of places had started to Christmas-ify their shops. They seemed to like to put candles out in front of their doors too, which really added to the atmosphere!
We left this morning, and arrived in Krakow this afternoon – it’s a lot different than Stockholm, but beautiful in it’s own way. I’ll have to post about it tomorrow!
We arrived in Stockholm yesterday after a series of trains, plains, and automobiles (/cheesy)!
Yesterday was a pretty weird day in its entirety, even before leaving Belfast! We had decided to get up a bit earlier and grab some breakfast on the way. We got near the bus station and popped into a Spar across the street, where we proceeded to meet this old Japanese lady (she was 76, to be exact). Being that we don’t speak Japanese and she didn’t speak English, we hadn’t a clue what she was saying, but she kept talking to us anyway. I think it started with her asking if a certain brand of water was actually made in Ireland, and it somehow ended with her making us miniature origami things out of random bits of Japanese paper she had in her bag (I’ll have to post a photo later…). First she made Kerilee a shirt, then Sophie and I swans… after piecing together bits of what she said, we later determined that she thought Kerilee was a boy – boys got shirts, girls got swans, ha! She bought us gum, too. It was really random, but she was really nice – I think her name was Edo.
Then we caught the bus and flew to Stockholm! It was actually kind of funny, because Kerilee’s not overly fond of flying, so throughout the flight Sophie and I were trying to reassure her about it. Then came landing, and it was seriously one of the weirdest landings ever. It was crazy foggy outside, so you couldn’t see anything – I didn’t even see the ground until like 5 seconds before we touched down. Crazzyy! Not only that, but when we did land, the plane kind of did some slight sliding, and when we got off it smelled of burning plastic, and Sophie reports having seen smoke coming from behind an engine… Ha! I couldn’t help but laugh, I thought it was rather ironic thus quite funny.
Alas, after more wayfinding, we arrived at our hotel! It was really cool last night, because there was some kind of party or event going on in the restaurant bit, so there was live music and stuff. It was like a party boat without the weird partying bit, haha. Anyway, it’s quite a cool place to stay, with beautiful views of the water on the other side – especially at night when the lights reflect and it’s quiet and calm.
We walked around quite a bit today, went to a gallery of photojournalism (awesome + free!), and an orchestra (also awesome + free!). I love the architecture here – it’s a really weird mix, definitely not what I would have pictured for Sweden! It’s kind of French-Medieval-Italian, if such a combination exists. Lovely colours and textures, which makes me pretty happy!
The orchestra thing was absolutely amazing. The speaking bits and program explination were in Swedish, so we’re not actually sure what the theme or reason was, but the music was amazing! It was in this massive concert hall (Konserthusen), and it was a mix of piano and string instruments. Towards the end, they started putting humour into the middle of playing, which we didn’t understand what they were saying, but it was funny no less. At one point one of the violin players put a mustache on and was running around while playing, then another who put on a police-type hat and started yelling something and doing some sort of follow-the-leader with the violin bow. I’m still not entirely sure what was going on, but it was a cool experience anyway!
It’s funny, because the Stockholm airport reminded us of IKEA, and then we realized that IKEA was Swedish. We passed a massive one on the way to the city as well. I’m not sure why I find that so amusing, but I do. Haha, anyway, a couple other random pictures from walking around:
We have another day here tomorrow, then we’re off to Krakow!
