The next day we got the bus to Praha Zoo, a steal at 150 Czech Koruna each, and could easily have spent the day there. The zoo was huge and had many animals I had never seen before up close, such as polar bears and a honey badger, and also animals I didn't even know existed, like the shoebill.
A hungry / sexually frustrated lion frightened me by roaring its head off and the giraffe's enclosure was lovely, as was the gorilla enclosure. We sat and watched them for a good 20 minutes. After three hours of walking around it started to rain so we got the tram and metro into central Prague. One problem with this city is the lack of change available for visitors. The trams, metro and buses all run frequently and are easy enough to use with the option of 30 minute, 90 minute and daily tickets which are all cheap; the problem is that there are few ticket offices open and the only way to get a ticket is from machines that only take change. It is very frustrating as a visitor having to waste money buying things you don't need from stores to get coins because most places refuse to swap money.
Prague is a very pretty, bustling city, with gorgeous architecture and history. We had a look at the astronomical clock and had a walk about before trying some Czech beer in a little pub. Beer varies in price depending on how central you are so the Pilsner I got was quite expensive at 50 Czech Koruna. Beer was followed by a stroll over St Charles Bridge, one of the most visited sites in Prague. We felt a little cynical about the historic landmark considering most of the bridge had been refurbished and all of the statues were replicas. It started to get dark so we booked ourselves in for a dorm room at Ritchie's hostel, right in the city centre.
With our beds for the night sorted we went to join a pub tour, but only one other person showed up so we figured there was no point paying someone 300 Czech Koruna to take you around some pubs when you can just do it yourself. Ali got some honey wine from a German market before we went to Battalion, a bar and comic museum in one. We didn't go to the museum but had a beer each while watching Kerrang's hottest men list.
Really though?
We shared our dorm with a guy who was asleep by the time we got back and was out just after the crack of dawn. It was the first time I had used a dormitory at a hostel though and slept with one eye open out of fear I would be chopped into bits and flushed down the toilet. I blame horror movies. The creepiest thing to happen was that I had unknowingly shared a bed with two toe nails, that weren't my own. Nice.
We left at eleven and walked to the main train station near Wenceslas Square to go to the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora, trying out a Czech hot dog and walking past a man shaking his needle of heroin on the way. Ali also found some weed in a bag on the floor and kept it for later. Getting train tickets was a nightmare. Apparently Czech people 'fucking hate' tourists, and the people we met at the train station were no exception. The man we went to buy tickets off told us to go upstairs to get tickets, even though we were in the ticket office. When we told him we had already been upstairs and there was nothing there he angrily told us again to go upstairs so we went to the tourist information office and were greeted by a sour faced, eye-rolling bitch who told us to go back where we had just come from. In the end we got our tickets and on to the train where two Canadians studying in London chatted to us.
Once at Kutna Hora we headed to the skull church in the drizzling grey weather... very pathetic fallacy. It took about 20 minutes to get there, plus the hour on the train and to be honest, although it is impressive and bizarre to see, I wouldn't really say it is is worth it. The ossuary is very small and you can get round it all in less than 15 minutes. I also found it a bit unsettling that even back in the old days people were a sucker for fame. Just because some guy threw a bit of 'holy mud' in the church gardens, isn't any reason to give your bones to that church and allow them to do whatever the Hell they want with them. One poor sod's bones were used to create a bird that looked to be pecking at a skulls eye socket. How is that honouring the sacred?
We left Sedlec Ossuary and went into town. There wasn't a lot there so we decided to head back to the train station early. On the way a puppy ran over to us and rolled on its back, wanting a belly rub. I obliged and went to walk off thinking it was with the group across the road. When they all got in a mini van it was then we realised the dog was lost and decided to take him with us. He kept running in the road so we took it in turns to carry him until we came across two women with a baby and a dog. After a game of charades (we speak no Czech, they spoke little English) they understood that the puppy wasn't ours and needed help. They called the dog warden and said they would stay with him until the warden came. Relieved that the pup would be alright we headed back to the station, trying out the weed on the way, and got the train back into central Prague to get the metro to luxury hostel Czech Inn. After two days of slumming it, Czech Inn was perfect. We had a gorgeous private room with a comfy bed, our own kitchen and a lovely bathroom with a hot shower.
We took advantage of Czech Inn's happy hour, two beers for 50 Czech Koruna, then went to a cafe for some food. Ali had the Czech delicacy goulash, while I had Mexican. Goulash is definitely recommended as Czech food to try.
In the morning we had our complimentary All You Can Eat breakfast at Czech Inn. They even had pancakes, fit. We had hours until our flight so took to the trams to view as many sights as possible, such as the castle and Prague's mini version of the Eiffel Tower. Because we were both feverish (Ali was particularly ill), we weren't really enjoying the sights and viewed them more as 'yet another fucking building' and 'yet another fucking statue' but tried to be optimistic about it all seemed it was our last day.
We went around the Jewish Quarter and got a single admission ticket which allowed us to go in the Jewish Museum, the Spanish Synagogue, the old Jewish cemetery and other buildings under their control. It didn't include the Old-New Synagogue, which was separate. The Pinkas Synagogue is a memorial to the 77,297 Czechoslowak Jewish victims of the Nazi's. Their names fill the walls of the Synagogue and upstairs are drawings that the children drew while held in the Terazin concentration camp during the war.
Once we had been round the Jewish Quarter we headed to the airport. Prague is a city of great beauty, but ultimately can be done over a weekend. Any longer and it all starts to look the same.
