Adventures In Prague
2nd – 8th August 2010
Feeling a bit better we took to the streets of Prague. Noooooo! It was a complete let down. The weather was awful, chucked it down so all sight seeing was out of the question. We did walk through the old come new town, I say this due to the sparkling newly paved streets and perfect rendered buildings! It was all very nice and but swarming in tourists. This I do not enjoy and yes, I keep forgetting its peak season, but hell, some tourists are so dam annoying…
After getting soaked we took a quick dash over the bridge and resided in a pub upstairs for a few hours! The drink being cheaper than a bottle of water, I do admit, I partook in a few vinos and of course a Czech beer.
Peering out onto the street and the rain getting lighter we headed back into town and walked around to see what we could see. And all I could see was SHOPs! High street shops, nasty tacky souvenir shops, Debenhams, frigging Marks and Spenser with mini food hall (yes, ok I admit to seeking cheddar) but they had none. Anyway, after having my fill of not only tourists but tourist tat we took to the outskirts of town to get a more realistic feel of Prague.
Overall Prague was NICE. We strangely bumped into our Australian travelling friends that are doing the same type of route as us and they had hidden in the cinema for a whole day, just to get away from all the hype. “Over rated” is what Elise our Australian friend described Prague. Sadly I have to agree. It appears to be a beautiful city but the stag nights, Irish bar signs everywhere, tourist tat seems to have out done the probably once elegant city. Maybe when its out of season its brilliant, but still Budapest wins the day hands down, no tourist madness going on there even in peak season!
After a mediocre day in Prague we headed home and ended up by a nice camp fire at the camp/hostel. We spoke to a heap of really lovely lovely people all heading to different countries, which cheered us up no end. It’s always nice to meet new people and have a good old yak.
Heading out of Prague and over the border into Austria I was a sad knowing that was our last Eastern European country of the trip. Now we are heading back, back to the west side!
The hills are alive with the sound of…..
Austria is everything you would imagine it to be. Stunning mountain ranges, alpine forests, emerald green lakes, lush meadows and hills as far as the eye can see. The country is absolutely pristine. Everyone’s home is neat, tidy and carefully maintained with flowers handing from wooden balconies in the typical alpine style home. This country certainly does look after its environment and you can understand why.
Heading south and struggling at times to find anywhere to stop for the night we settled on a small spot outside a national park. Looking out the window there are deer running in and out of the small wood across the field. Later that evening I actually witness deer chasing each other round and round the field and actually prancing!
Later on that week we head to National Park Kalkalpen. Mark, after visiting the information office and seeing the bear and lynx spotter is convinced that we will meet a bear! I am convinced that I will be running the other way extremely fast if I even get a hint of a bear. We take a nice near vertical walk up into the hills.
Sadly the weekend walking activities are squashed by fantastic downpour that lasted till Sunday morning. This I feel, is not so much fun, and so I begin to suffer from the 25º temperature limit. My body will not function under 25º and so I quickly retreat to under the duvet until conditions improve.
