Berlin to Prague, May 4

We woke up to another cool rainy day. We needed to be at the train station around noon in order to catch our train to Prague. Days like this should be more productive but they never are. The fact that you know you have to be somewhere and you can't miss it always throws a wrench in your ability to get up and get going. I guess the fear that you'll miss the train is higher than your want to do more touring. It also is tough because you don't want to pay to go into a museum if you can't give it a decent amount of time.

So we left the hotel to walk back to another area of the wall near Checkpoint Charlie. When we arrived, just before 10, the exhibition part of it was closed until 10. We decided breakfast was more important than waiting. We walked back, ate some sugary pastries - mine was way too sugary to be breakfast food - and coffees. At this time we decided to go get our bags and check out of the hotel.

We made our way towards Brandenburger Tor via the metro and walked around the area a bit. We also walked through a small section of the very large Tiergarten (the park). It turned out to be a much warmer day than before, although it still looked like it was going to rain.

Our walk took us right to the train station, right on time, huzzah.

The train takes just under 5 hours and involves no transfers, and if you stayed on it, it would take you all the way to Vienna. The train ride was rather uneventful. The train was composed of compartments with seats rather than rows of seats (like a plane). I don't really like this as much. Sure it is nice if the train isn't busy because you can have your own little space, but lately the trains have been busy and two people don't fit passing each other in those tiny corridors. We eventually found a compartment with two open seats and hunkered down.

We arrived in Prague around 5:30pm and walked to our hostel. It was clear that Prague would not be as easy to navigate as Berlin with many small flip floppy streets. The hotel my cousin had found us was more like small apartments or I guess a hotel with a kitchenette. Anyways, it was nice. We relaxed for a little bit before heading just down the street for dinner.

We went to a restaurant that had been recommended by the lady at the hotel, and it served traditional Czech food. We would quickly come to realize that finding traditional Czech food is a rather easy endeavour. We ordered beer - Pilsner Urquell - and a meal. I had Svíčková which was delicious! It is marinated beef sirloin which is covered in a thick sweetish carrot cream sauce, served with bread dumplings and topped with a lemon, cream and cranberry. It was soo good.

(This is a picture I lifted off Google Images, not my actual dish)

When we left we went to go see a bit of the city, which involved walking down the street to the river. It was quite cold so we didn't last long. Instead we headed back towards our hostel to find another bar for a few more beers. There was an IIHF game on between Czech and Finland, I think, so we also got to watch a little hockey. This time I had Gambrinus, which I liked better than the first. Just to put it into perspective, beers cost around 20-30 Czech Korunas for half a liter, which equals about $1.50CND. Crazy right?

By this time it was late and we were ready for bed, especially because we had so many great things to see the next day.