Hello hello!
First a few catch-up items, which you may see more often than not thanks to my fantastic memory.
1) We found an amazing church out here last Sunday called C3 and we met some girls who invited us to their flat for lunch. We are going to try and meet up with them every Sunday after church, which we love because they are all Dutch, so we'll get a good taste of how the locals live. They have been so great to hang out with.
2) We met three girls from Germany that we went for dinner with to this really cute Mexican restaurant on Thursday. After our dinner we went on a hunt to find Cafe Winkel, home of the "best apple pie" in Amsterdam. Lets just say that there is no false advertising here.
Now for Prague! Our flight left on Friday night and we were greeted at the airport by Filip and Jan, our couch surfing hosts (if you don't know what couch surfing is, check it out). They were SO nice and we were pleasantly surprised to find out they drove a bmw suv. As we pulled onto the freeway Filip turned on his music, and what you ask, came on? Eminem. Yes, I felt like I was back at home driving with Mark or Jason. It was so nice to be back in a car after so much time on trains, metros, buses and bikes. They took us to his flat which was in a really nice building, and had two sleeping bags all set up for us on this huge couch. It was SO nice! It was about 9pm and we hadn't eaten, so we grabbed the tram into town a bit and went to this hidden gem for dinner. Their friend Thomas joined us, who was also a great time. Filip and Tomas's English wasn't as good as Jan's so making conversation was a bit of an adventure. We headed back to their place after dinner, watched an episode of Friends, and called it a night.
The next day we gave them a list of everything we wanted to see, and it looked something like this:
1) The Charles Bridge
2) Petrin Hill
3) Prague Castle
4) Prague Old Town Square
5) Astronomical Clock
6) Wenceslas Square
7) Municipal house
8) St Vitus Cathedral
9) Old Jewish Quarter
10) The National Museum
11) The National Theatre
I am happy to say that they found us a FREE (we love the F word) walking tour that covered all of these spots and more. The guys not only told us about the tour, but came on it with us! The tour was fantastic because it gave us a history of all of these sights and let us appreciate Prague so much more. Filip and Tomas even learned a thing or two! I have pictures on Facebook of everything we saw, so check out my page if you can. We started our day of sightseeing at around 10am and didn't finish everything until about 7:30pm. It was a LOT of walking (which Filip pointed out every so often by falling onto the ground), but it was a beautiful day so we didn't mind. After everything the guys took us to this restaurant right on the water that had these amazing beach volleyball courts surrounding it and a stage where a Czech band played and there was a big break dancing show. There were hundreds of people just hanging out, many of which had just ran in the Prague marathon that day through the city. It was such a nice way to end to our day!
After dinner we headed back to Filip's flat and crashed. Our plan was initially to go to this 5 story club and watch the sunrise on the Charles Bridge (advice from Steph), but we decided we were way too tired once we sat down on our bed. Thankfully though Tomas had jumped in the shower already and was really keen on going into town, so we forced ourselves to get ready after lying around for awhile, and headed back into town around 1:30am. Yes, we left the house at 1:30am for a night out. Europe clearly never sleeps. We got to the 5 story club which was indeed an experience. We checked out all of the floors, each plays a different genre of music, and settled on the fifth because there were seven guys who were really good dancers having a little dance off. Filip knew some of them because he himself was an amazing dancer, so we sat and watched for awhile. I couldn't believe how good they were! After we had our fill of inspiration, we headed to the first floor which was playing radio hits, and danced ourselves. It was HOT. We were sweating within seconds, but having so much fun! Tomas and Filip were actually really good dancers, something you rarely see at home (sorry guys). Around 3:30am we needed some fresh air, so we decided to go for a walk over the Charles bridge. It was so nice at night and we met this guy Thomas from Belgium who said we can stay at his place when we go there and that he'd make us waffles! True Belgium waffles, can't wait!
We headed back into the club for another hour of dancing until 5am when they started kicking people out. We headed back to the bridge and killed an hour until the sun started coming up and Sel took some really amazing pictures (also on facebook). Thanks for the advice Steph! It was definitely worth waiting up for.
Well thank goodness we crammed everything into one day, because we didn't get to sleep until 7:30am on Sunday and we woke up at 2pm, just in time to get dressed and head to the airport. We will be repaying the favour to Filip, Jan and Tomas in two weeks because they are coming to Amsterdam and are going to stay with us! It'll be nice because it will force us to be tourists while they're here and show them around the city.
Overall Prague was even better than we had planned or imagined. We are in the midst of booking more weekend trips, so if you have any suggestions please let us know!
Some fun facts before you go:
1) Prague is the beer drinking capital of the world (on a per capita basis).
2) Pilsner was created in the Czech Republic.
2) It was the first (unofficial) country that Hitler invaded in World War 2.
3) Hitler loved Prague and wanted to retire there one day, so he put a lot of money into preserving the buildings. That is why it is still in such good shape today when compared with other European cities.
4) Defenestrations of Prague involving the Hussites and the Catholics were called such because defenestration literally means to throw things (or people) out of windows, which is what the Hussites did with the Catholics on two separate occasions.
5) Franz Kafka (famous Jewish author) was born in Prague.
Who knew you would actually learn something from this blog.
First a few catch-up items, which you may see more often than not thanks to my fantastic memory.
1) We found an amazing church out here last Sunday called C3 and we met some girls who invited us to their flat for lunch. We are going to try and meet up with them every Sunday after church, which we love because they are all Dutch, so we'll get a good taste of how the locals live. They have been so great to hang out with.
2) We met three girls from Germany that we went for dinner with to this really cute Mexican restaurant on Thursday. After our dinner we went on a hunt to find Cafe Winkel, home of the "best apple pie" in Amsterdam. Lets just say that there is no false advertising here.
Now for Prague! Our flight left on Friday night and we were greeted at the airport by Filip and Jan, our couch surfing hosts (if you don't know what couch surfing is, check it out). They were SO nice and we were pleasantly surprised to find out they drove a bmw suv. As we pulled onto the freeway Filip turned on his music, and what you ask, came on? Eminem. Yes, I felt like I was back at home driving with Mark or Jason. It was so nice to be back in a car after so much time on trains, metros, buses and bikes. They took us to his flat which was in a really nice building, and had two sleeping bags all set up for us on this huge couch. It was SO nice! It was about 9pm and we hadn't eaten, so we grabbed the tram into town a bit and went to this hidden gem for dinner. Their friend Thomas joined us, who was also a great time. Filip and Tomas's English wasn't as good as Jan's so making conversation was a bit of an adventure. We headed back to their place after dinner, watched an episode of Friends, and called it a night.
The next day we gave them a list of everything we wanted to see, and it looked something like this:
1) The Charles Bridge
2) Petrin Hill
3) Prague Castle
4) Prague Old Town Square
5) Astronomical Clock
6) Wenceslas Square
7) Municipal house
8) St Vitus Cathedral
9) Old Jewish Quarter
10) The National Museum
11) The National Theatre
I am happy to say that they found us a FREE (we love the F word) walking tour that covered all of these spots and more. The guys not only told us about the tour, but came on it with us! The tour was fantastic because it gave us a history of all of these sights and let us appreciate Prague so much more. Filip and Tomas even learned a thing or two! I have pictures on Facebook of everything we saw, so check out my page if you can. We started our day of sightseeing at around 10am and didn't finish everything until about 7:30pm. It was a LOT of walking (which Filip pointed out every so often by falling onto the ground), but it was a beautiful day so we didn't mind. After everything the guys took us to this restaurant right on the water that had these amazing beach volleyball courts surrounding it and a stage where a Czech band played and there was a big break dancing show. There were hundreds of people just hanging out, many of which had just ran in the Prague marathon that day through the city. It was such a nice way to end to our day!
After dinner we headed back to Filip's flat and crashed. Our plan was initially to go to this 5 story club and watch the sunrise on the Charles Bridge (advice from Steph), but we decided we were way too tired once we sat down on our bed. Thankfully though Tomas had jumped in the shower already and was really keen on going into town, so we forced ourselves to get ready after lying around for awhile, and headed back into town around 1:30am. Yes, we left the house at 1:30am for a night out. Europe clearly never sleeps. We got to the 5 story club which was indeed an experience. We checked out all of the floors, each plays a different genre of music, and settled on the fifth because there were seven guys who were really good dancers having a little dance off. Filip knew some of them because he himself was an amazing dancer, so we sat and watched for awhile. I couldn't believe how good they were! After we had our fill of inspiration, we headed to the first floor which was playing radio hits, and danced ourselves. It was HOT. We were sweating within seconds, but having so much fun! Tomas and Filip were actually really good dancers, something you rarely see at home (sorry guys). Around 3:30am we needed some fresh air, so we decided to go for a walk over the Charles bridge. It was so nice at night and we met this guy Thomas from Belgium who said we can stay at his place when we go there and that he'd make us waffles! True Belgium waffles, can't wait!
We headed back into the club for another hour of dancing until 5am when they started kicking people out. We headed back to the bridge and killed an hour until the sun started coming up and Sel took some really amazing pictures (also on facebook). Thanks for the advice Steph! It was definitely worth waiting up for.
Well thank goodness we crammed everything into one day, because we didn't get to sleep until 7:30am on Sunday and we woke up at 2pm, just in time to get dressed and head to the airport. We will be repaying the favour to Filip, Jan and Tomas in two weeks because they are coming to Amsterdam and are going to stay with us! It'll be nice because it will force us to be tourists while they're here and show them around the city.
Overall Prague was even better than we had planned or imagined. We are in the midst of booking more weekend trips, so if you have any suggestions please let us know!
Some fun facts before you go:
1) Prague is the beer drinking capital of the world (on a per capita basis).
2) Pilsner was created in the Czech Republic.
2) It was the first (unofficial) country that Hitler invaded in World War 2.
3) Hitler loved Prague and wanted to retire there one day, so he put a lot of money into preserving the buildings. That is why it is still in such good shape today when compared with other European cities.
4) Defenestrations of Prague involving the Hussites and the Catholics were called such because defenestration literally means to throw things (or people) out of windows, which is what the Hussites did with the Catholics on two separate occasions.
5) Franz Kafka (famous Jewish author) was born in Prague.
Who knew you would actually learn something from this blog.
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