Who goes to Prague in the winter?

el 5 de enero de 2009

Seriously though, what kind of crappy tourist decides going to Prague and Vienna in the dead of fucking winter. Ridiculous. Remined me to punch my travel agent... which might be Chris Frap. I'll punch Rob instead. He won't mind.

PRAGUE

I rendezvoused with the crew (Rob, Frap, Justin, Shawn Drew, and Dillon) at the hostel around 7ish or so on the 30th. They had been there since the afternoon and had seen some of the town. We met up with one of the hostel workers and started the nightly organized pub crawl at about 9pm. We hit 3 bars. The first one was awesome, but we met some guy from Hawaii who was a total wanker. The conversation went sort of like this: I'm from Hawaii. Oh, you're from the US? Man, stupid americans. Leave my island alone! We all dropped a wtf and wrote the guys off. It's not like he was a native. He's about 30, whiter than me, and talks like someone from the continental 48. We avoided him the rest of the trip. The bars were okay and we got back drunk enough to pass out quickly. The next day was New Years. We woke up, got a bit of food, walked around, napped, and then began pregaming in preperation for the night to come. We got ourselves good and drunk and found a nice cheap Italian restaurant for some pizza adventures. And what an adventure. It was about an hour and a half before the first of the 6 pizzas came out. Explanation as to why: the whole staff was drunk. Explanation as to why we didn't really care: we were drunk. It worked out in the end. We were told fireworks would be happening down by the river, and so there we headed. We got there and drunken citizens had already begun the show. Rob got hit with several shots that either tipped over or he just ran in to. About par for the course for him. So when midnight hit, we popped some Champange and watched the fireworks. It was a truly amazing show. They were going off on either side of the bridge, over by the castle, and in one or two other places... all of which were in our view. It was great. The rest of the night was drunken adventures that not need leave Prague. The next day we recovered, spent some time walking around the city. We left early the next morning.

All in all, it was good time. Good to see Rob again and especially good to see Chris. Definitly great to have a link from back home to visit. Fireworks were amazing and good times were had.

VIENNA

So we left Prague on the 4th, 'we' being Frap, Dillon, Justin and I. My notes say the following:

Vienna/saw the sights. Gorgeous city. Belvedere was gorgeous. Failure to find Montezuma's head dress. Moved back to Mexico in 2004. Wombar was really fun. Tim from Singapore. George and (Emily?) from Canada. Fusball and pool.

Some explanation: The first night we found this epicly big palace (Belvedere Palace) with an amazing view of the city from atop the hill right next to it. We had little light left after arriving late evening so mounted the hill and then retreated back towards the hostel for dinner. We spent the next day in the city walking around. It was sunny, thank God, and so it felt a little warmer. Prague and Vienna were both f'ing freezing though. Stupid winter traveling. Whatever. Anyways, that night we spent at the Wombar (hostel name "Wombat", thus hostel bar name "Wombar"). It was actually a pretty good bar complete with pool table and table soccer, so we got a good buzz as it was Chris/Dillon's last night and chatted the night away with some of the friends we had made from the hostel. Good times.

Overall, f'ing cold. But I liked Vienna a bit more than Prague. There was cooler stuff to see. Oh! The head dress thing. Yea, so I got all excited about this exhibit in the Anthropology Museum about Montezuma's head dress, hoping there would be a whole South/Latin American exhibit. Well after going to the museum, reading about Tibet and Sri Lanka, and asking a man in the musuem next door, we finally acertained information about the head dress's whereabouts... which would be Mexico. Where it has been for 4 years. Stupid outdated information.

ITALY... well, Venice.

So yesterday Justin and I left Chris and Dillon at the airport and hopped our 1 hour flight from Vienna to Venice. We got there late at night, so checked into the hostel, ate, and went to bed. Today we were up real early, grabbed some pastry and a cappucino, and headed out. It was cold. Again. Who goes to Italy in the winter? Seriously. So the day was a blur and my feet hurt. As you all may or may not know, the city is floating. Meaning that the "roads" are just canals and waterways. Which means the city is epicly gorgeous. The streets are all really tight (to conserve space I guess?) but pretty fun to walk through. So the cold and the lack of atmosphere due to said cold kind of ruined the city for me I think. As much fun as I had, after about 5 or 6 hours of walking around the streets start to look the same. I had the Venice experience I think, which truly is just getting lost in the streets, so I am content. Also, I didn't get to ride a gondola, which I'd like to do. I'm very excited to start exploring Florence tomorrow... which is where I am right now!

Overall, Venice was great, but I'm glad it was only a day trip. I might like to go back again some day in the summer, but for now I'm content.

So there you are! And here I am, in Florence. I spend tomorrow day and night here with Justin, then we take the train early on Wednesday to Rome. We'll have all of Wednesday and Thursday in Rome before both flying out early Friday; Justing to Germany and I back to Spain. The 2 days won't be enough, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to returning for a weekend trip in the Spring/Summer.

So I hope that the New Year found you with hope for new beginnings. I am looking forward to 2009, actually. I will be starting a new job, I will be having more adventures in Spain and Europe, and I will be returning home to friends and family that I miss dearly. For now, I'll take it one day at a time... and this coming day happens to be in Florence. Shibby!!!!

Un saludo,
Andrew
Firenze, Italia