I went to Eastern Europe at the end of September, to meet with a long time net.friend (net.twin even!) of mine, who happened to be in the area. The weather was amazing, and it was a very relaxing break :) Photos are now up!
Early rise at 8am, and have a nice breakfast of cereal + fruit juice, with some bread and jam just to make sure!
I checked out of hostel, armed with a map and directions to the National Museum, where I was to meet Rhiannon and Josef. As I got within sight of the museum, I got a text from Rhiannon to say they missed connection and will be an hour late. Recommendation was to see Karlüv Most.
I found my way there via a souvenir tunnel/arcade where I bought some postcards (remembering I had to get one to post to Wilma!).
I wandered across Charles Bridge (Karlüv Most) and up steps to Prague Castle, where I got a stamp for postcard and 1l of water (These clear blue skies and 27 degree temperatures make a Scotman wilt!), then Rhiannon + Josef made it to the bridge and texted me to tell me of their arival.
I made my way to the bridge, and met them (after wandering past in a heat stricken daze).
We headed to a Staropramen grill/bar to plan the rest of the day and have Staropramen (I went for a dark Staropramen since I can get the light one at home).
We headed out to Hradcanska for a lunch of Pilsner-Urquell and Chicken schnitzel. (Kurecí steak, hranolky, obloha)
We consulted the map, and found tram routes on it. Tram 20 was the needed one for our destination, and Rhiannon and I worked out direction to get to the vernacular rail to top of hill.
Rhiannon and Josef chillaxed at the bottom of the tower while i took photos from top. On the way back down I counted there was 312 steps in total, as it had been a conversation point earlier.
We walked down the hill via a strange art exhibition, the price haggled down in Czeck by Josef (yay!)
We then went on to National theatre, on a hunt for a post box but could not find one.
As the day was getting on (time flies so fast when you're not at work!), we headed to the National museum where we enjoyed a mulled wine, with a band nearby playing Czeck national anthem.
This took all the spare time away, so we rushed to train station, chose the wrong side of the road to travel, and ended up dodging traffic to get to the entrance to the train station.
We said our farewells, (such a short time to be meeting with my twinnie, but it was awesome, she is as amazing as I knew she would be! Arooo!!), and I headed to the platform to board.
The train was 4 trains joined together so finding right carriage was tough! Fortunately, another tourist had managed to corner a bewildered train conducter, so I seized the chance to ask her [the conducter] where I should be going.
The train journey was, well, another train journey ... they are all the same eventually if you have enough of them, but some points of note were that I saw a freight train filled with a hazardous material, 30 1863 in Decin
At 2020h we made it to Schöna (the border), and by 2025h we were at Bad Schandau.
The train made it on time to Dresden Hauptbahnhof, and I caught the 2100h to Neustadt. Incidentally, this is the same service as I got when I arrived on the 25th :)
I went straight to Wilma's flat from there, and was worried I was lost for a while, but somehow, despite being mostly sober, I got there with no detours!
Leipzig is tomorrow, but I have decided that I needed a pit stop, so opted to spend a day in Dresden and head to Leipzig in the evening, as I figured I wanted to get the benefit of being in Dresden for as long as possible!