Winter in Prague

I have a lot to say this time!

Pierre-Antoine and I were in Prague from Tuesday to Friday! It was cold (and even snowed on us once), but if the sun was out and the wind stopped, it felt great!

We had a long travel day starting with a train at 6:10am to the airport; then we had to wait around for an afternoon flight to Prague which takes only an hour and a half by air (it really makes you think about how small Europe is). Once there, we had to take a bus to the metro--a bus we didn't pay for because we only had big 1000 CK bills from the ATM and the driver spoke no English!

The hostel was right off of the main Old Town Square, and the five minute walk from the metro to the hostel just took my breath away. All of the buildings in Prague are GORGEOUS! A mix of old and new, all decorated, many painted bright colors! Check out the photos to get a better idea.

Me on Old Town Square with a Starbucks in hand.

So that first evening, I got a Starbucks latte under the name of "Lopen" :) and we wandered around the main square and over to the famous Charles Bridge to get a view of Prague Castle. PA convinced me to eat KFC for dinner :/ It's really different in Europe: the only sides are fries and coleslaw, no biscuits, and the only chicken varieties are original and spicy. Ah, well... We capped off the night by finding a huge mall that had bars on the top floor and enjoyed a Pilsner.

The famous astronomical clock!

View to Charles Bridge and Prague Castle on the hill.

The next morning (Starbucks in hand!) we caught a free city tour from German/British Michael. He was pretty funny and took us to all the main sights in Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Quarter. Look through the photo album to get all the stories with each picture. Lunch with the tour was at Bohemian Bagel where I actually got a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel! It must have been owned by Americans because the food was just like home! Here are some building pictures to give you an idea:

Near Prague Castle.

Jewish Quarter building detail.

On a main square in New Town.

Cubist architecture. We ate at the cafe here!

The tour lasted until after 2, so our plan to go to the zoo was too late... Instead, we walked up to the Castle, which is more a palace complex than a traditional castle. We didn't pay to go in but just admired the views from up top. We then went to the hostel to take a nap and prepare for the night's fun ;)

We had a delicious Indian meal before meeting the Bar Crawl group. The first bar was actually inside an old church and only half-finished. There we had a Power Hour of free drinks and hookah... and a lot of British teenagers on a trip together that become a nuisance as the night goes on. The second bar was M1 Lounge, which was AWESOME! The interior was stellar--like from a movie--and the music was awesome. I got this Tiramisu martini that was delicious and got to dance to American music! The annoying part was that there was only one toilet and three British girls locked themselves in it for half an hour. Two French Canadian girls and I were waiting, so we got the bouncer to open the bathroom door and kick them out! You would think that British teens could hold their alcohol...

The third bar was DEJAVU, which PA thought was funny. It was ok... we sat at the bar sipping White Russians for the most part. The last stop on a bar crawl is always a club, which was also cool. Happily, the Brits didn't make it this far, so the atmosphere was a lot nicer. We danced a bit, then headed out around 2:30. It was a fun night :)

The next day we did a tour out to Kutna Hora, again with Michael! About an hour's train ride took us to this town that used to be super rich from the silver mines there--producing one third of Europe's coins in Medieval/Renaissance times. The site to see is the bone ossuary--a blind monk was given the job of organizing old bones in a chapel, making pyramids, garlands, a crest, and a chandelier of them! Again, see the pics!

Inside the bone chapel!

And since it was a tour, we also got stories on Hussite War battles, the mines, the politics. The other site was St Barbra's Cathedral, which looked positively gloomy--Kutna Hora was the coldest day with grey skies and a bit of snow. Lunch was at a Czech pub at 3pm, so we were starving! Here we tried beef in a cream/cranberry/lemon sauce with bread dumplings (slices of bread coated in flour and egg and boiled). It was pretty good, but we sat at a table of Norweigians, a Dane, a Russian, and the German/English guide, so the conversation was odd...

I guess I haven't mentioned that I had developed a cold on this trip... After Kutna Hora, I was rather miserable. I just had to be lame go to sleep that night...

Our last morning, we did a communism tour, which showed us quite a few new sites and took us to a nuclear bunker where we could dress in authentic uniforms and drink a beer! That is where these amazing photos come from:

Afterwards, we just had time to eat lunch, walk around the Jewish Quarter once more for a few extra photos, and have dessert inside a Cubist cafe before we headed to the airport. It was altogether a satisfying trip, though I wish we had one more day to see the zoo! My sole recommendation: go to Prague when it's warmer...

We got to Rennes at midnight Friday and slept at my place. Saturday and Sunday were spent in Vitré because all of PA's family was in town. Had a delicious meal at Au Vieux Vitré and lots of laughs as a 'magician' kept stealing the kids' suckers ;)

Here in Rennes, I have two days to do laundry and get rested for Brussels! I'm meeting Caitlin and Katherine for Wed-Fri just for kicks--I can't wait to get some Bruges chocolates!

Another update after Brussels, I suppose. Until then, my friends!

Mont-Saint-Michel on a Sunday in February

Sunday morning, I was picked up by Katherine and her landlords. She is at a school on the outskirts of town, so she rents a room from a family near the school. They offered to take her and a friend on a daytrip to Mont-Saint-Michel, the abbey built on an ocean rock off the coast of Normandy.

View of Mont-Saint-Michel from the parking lot.

By highway, it took us an hour to reach the site, and we parked right at the foot of it. The wind was wild, but the sun was out, and once you made it inside the walls, you could take your coat off and feel the sun warm your back. We trekked up the hill on the only street on the rock, surrounded by tourists admiring the hotels, restaurants, and gift shops that lined the way. At the very top is the abbey, but you have to pay 9 euros to get in, so we decided to just tour the ramparts and eat lunch in a garden overlook. I'm pretty sure we walked every free inch of the rock, since we even found a little cemetary. A lovely way to spend a few hours on a sunny day.

The abbey at the top.

Shrine and French flag.

Cemetary cross and the abbey church.

We left around 3, and they drove us along the coastline. We saw a lot of little Breton towns and beaches and stopped at Cancale, the Point of Grouin, and Dinard. Grey skies took over and a rainstorm followed us home. I was dropped off around 5:45. To see all the photos, click here!

At the Point of Grouin.

Grouin.

Coastline of Brittany.

I packed a bag and took the train to Vitre and Pierre-Antoine for the night. The poor baby has a stuffy nose right before our trip to Prague!

This afternoon's stressor was a letter I had to send to my landlord in Andorra saying that I'm moving out at the end of May. You have to give three months notice (which means by today!) and send the letter with an "accusé de réception" so you can track it and get a receipt back because it's a legal document! So I had to pay over 4 euros to mail a piece of paper to Andorra... Boo!

By the way, this week and the next are school holidays!!! Yes, more holidays--as the couple who took me to Mont-Saint-Michel said yesterday, "The French teach their children to do nothing from an early age. And when they have to do something, they strike to get more holidays!" LOL!

So Pierre-Antoine and I are going to Prague Tuesday-Friday! You'll get a ton of photos and updates this weekend! :)