Day 6 - Train to Budapest

-My train to Budapest was scheduled to leave at 9:39am, so after a quick breakfast and a final check of my personal belongings, I bid Pavel farewell and Irena accompanied me to the train station. We made a quick stop at Starbucks before I boarded my train, and poured out my gratitude to Irena for her and Pavel's outstanding helpfulness and hospitality.

My little cabin, all to myself

-I was a bit worried that the 7hr ride to Budapest would drag on and on, but it actually passed quite easily. I had a "cabinmate" at first, but she got off in Brno after two hours, and I had the six-seat cabin to myself for the rest of the trip. Went to the restaurant car for lunch around one o'clock (which was about six cars away from mine), caught up on my journaling, had a glass of wine, read some Stephen King, put my iPod in my ears and watched the countries go by out the window. When we crossed the border into Hungary, border patrol officers boarded the train and checked everyone's passport. They took mine, mumbled something in Hungarian about me being American, I flashed them my sweet smile, and they handed it back to me and said, "Ok, thank you. Byee byee." LOL.

The restaurant car

Arriving at Keleti train station in Budapest

-Arrived in Budapest at about quarter to 5, I exchanged some Euros for Forints, booked my ticket for Belgrade for Friday night, and after a short search outside I located the metro, bought my 3-day pass, and headed to Deak Ferenc Ter to meet my second host, Kaitlyn. She's American, and teaching at an International School. She's a self-professed Holocaust buff, and when we were out to dinner that night and I was telling her how when I was researching this city I noticed there were lots of Holocaust memorials, museums, etc.; she lit up like a Christmas tree with a face like she'd just discovered her long-lost sister, and said, "Are you a Holocaust buff, too??" I laughed and said no, but that I'd thought she'd be a well of information about it.

My Hungarian dinner - chicken with paprika and gnocchi-like pasta stuff. Delicious. 

-We wondered the surrounding streets a bit, laughed about how annoying Vegans are, and headed to the bus when it started to rain. Went home and excitedly mapped out my route for the next day.

Day 5 - Solo Wandering in Prague

-Woke up Monday morning to snow outside! Nothing too heavy, but enough to beautifully dust the trees, cars, and any open lawns/fields. Irena was off to work for the day and Pavel was working from home, so I set off to tackle Prague on my own.

snow!

part of the hill I climbed

-Started with the Loretta church, which was up a VERY steep hill (reminding me, yet again, how terribly out of shape I am). It was a lovely church though, and worth the climb.

-On my way back down the hill I stopped at the KGB Museum - this little building womewhat tucked away up the road from the US Embassy. This little Russian guy owns/runs it, and is overflowing with information, and gave a wonderful tour, encouraged picture-taking and questions.

It says "Keep quiet!"

Museum owner posed this picture lol

This one also

Women's wilderness uniform - they attached horse hair to it so that the dogs used to find them would only smell horses and not them

Each red dot was one of the KGB's prisoner camps

-Made my way down to the Charles Bridge, bought some awesome green earrings from a vendor who asked if I spoke English or Russian, haha, then followed Krizovnicka street to Staroměstská metro station, rode it to Vyšehrad, where I finally surrendered to my cravings and had Thai food for lunch. My food was exceptionally delicious, though I can't say it tasted authentically Thai (and shamefully, that's probably part of why I liked it so much). They provided me with knife, fork, spoon, and chopsticks, but since Thais do not use chopsticks for anything except noodles, I only used them to pick out the bean sprouts, and finished everything else with the fork and spoon. (I did, however, enjoy watching all the other customers, who I'm sure "eat Thai food all the time," fumble around trying to eat their fried rice with chopsticks. lol)

Another of David Cerny's pieces of work

My yummy delicious food

Ahaha! It says "toilet" in Thai...well, with English letters

-After a too-frothy cappuccino and a visit to the hong-naam, I ventured back out into the brisk March air, this time in search of Vyšehrad Cathedral. I didn't have to look far, as there were plenty of signs to point me in the right direction. Just before the cathedral and its stunning cemetery of famous/important dead Czech people, I stumbled upon a magnificent lookout spot with a breathtaking view down the Moldau river, and started contemplating a rash decision to come live in Prague simply for its beauty.

The view

Talk about the understated next to the overstated lol

-Once through the cemetery, I crossed a noisy (and windy) bridge to a street with no name (that I could see anywhere), so I turned right and followed my frostbitten nose until I found one that did. Matched it up on my map, then followed it along until I reached Anděl metro station which is in the middle of a busy shopping square with a once-a-month farmer's market in full swing out front. Irena was due to get off work soon, so I hopped on the metro, switched to the tram at Dejvická, and trotted 'round the bend to their place for a delightfully warm casserole dinner and an evening of youtube comedy sketches.

Farmer's market

The long escalator down to the metro

Day 4 - Church and Other Sightseeing in Prague

-Irena and Pavel asked if I wanted to attend a mass/service Sunday morning, and I said yes. Not because I can understand the language (because I can't) but because I love seeing cathedrals in Europe when they're actually being used, and the enormous organs filling the entire church with beautiful music - GAH! I love it.

The entrance to the palace, church is inside

 -We attended the 10am service at St Vitus Cathedral; although Irena is atheist and Pavel is Jewish, they told me they enjoyed the service, for some of the same reasons, and said that it was nice to go every once in awhile. Plus, if they hadn't gone with me, I wouldn't have gotten in, as the service was for Czech citizens only, no tourists. Almost blew my cover when we were entering and the guards asked us, in Czech, to turn our cell phones off, and I opened my mouth to say "mai mee"("don't have" in Thai), but caught myself, coughed and shook my hands to indicate I didn't have one.

-Though it was quite chilly inside the cathedral, it was a fairly sunny day, so we headed down the road to Petrin Hill. It was quite a hill indeed, and despite the cool air I felt halfway to a heat stroke by the top. There is a small tower there "inspired" by the Eiffel Tower, and I few other small buildings, including one with a maze of mirrors.

-The path down the hill was a long zig-zagging switchback style road, so we all looked at each other for a moment and then took off in a straight bee-line, cutting across all the grassy areas. We made excellent time this way, even with the occasional slippery patch.

-At the bottom was the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, created to represent the loss of life and humanity of those in prison camps during the war/occupation.

-Had traditional Czech for lunch again, and this time I had schnitzel - best schnitzel I've ever had.

-After lunch we made our way to the Žižkov Television Tower (voted ugliest building in Prague), where artist David Cerny designed giant babies crawling up and down the tower.

-On our way home we passed by one of the Jewish cemeteries; it was closed, but we could see through the fence and walked along until we reached the road on the other side.

Interesting new church

A tasteful and understated memorial  to Jan Palach, the Czech student who burnt himself to death in January 1969 in protest against the Soviet occupation of his country. It also commemorates Jan Zajic, another student who immolated himself a month later on almost the same spot.

-I had a ticket to Rusalka (Dvorak's Opera) that evening at 7, so we returned home around 5 so I could freshen up and such before going. Rushed off at 6:20 to make sure I arrived before it started, but true to form I forgot my camera, and was unable to take any pictures of the beautiful inside of the opera house. I had the best seat in the house, smack in the middle of the first row of the first level balcony and had not only a fantastic view of the stage and all the action, but I could also see a good portion of the pit orchestra as well.

-About 10 minutes into Act I, there was some...commotion...about 5 rows behind me - people were frantically climbing over each other to get out of the row and jabbering away in Czech. I had no idea what the probelm was, and still don't, but they eventually sorted themselves and calmed down, and I turned back to the excitement on stage and the lovely screen above it with the English subtitles.

-Came home afterwards to hot chicken soup and toast from my lovely hosts. Chatted a bit and mapped out my route for the following day's solo exploration.