Prauge

On continuing on my way south, I entered the Czech Republic and headed to Prague, one of the great capitals of Europe. It was about an 85 mile ride from Dresden to Prague, and crossed two mountain ranges that had me in my lowest gears, and my heart up into my ears; maybe 1200 ft each. These were matched with some steep and twisting descents on roads that were paved, but seem to be warn out or not really built well to begin with. In one area, the road was so rutted out that my petal hit the ground on the down stroke. Traffic was generally light, but there were few bike paths and a strange absence of traffic signals. I was following Google's walking directions that put me in some strange areas, back ally ways and unpaved walking paths; staircases where the bike had to be unloaded and brought up separately. I ran across a wild boar, a children's foam party, street juggler (performing under a red light), and a rail bike along the way (see pictures).

Aside from the infrastructure, it was one of the only places that didn't feel like America. There were crappy hubcap stands that sold beach ware and birdhouses near the border, depopulated and uncared for buildings that didn't quite say third world, but a pretty stark contrast from Germany. One city I went through had some really sad looking soviet style concrete apartment buildings, vacant streets on what was sunny Saturday afternoon... made me feel like I was back in Albany again. Otherwise the rolling mountain roads were quite scenic and I've uploaded pictures.

Although I was feeling pretty tired and could have stopped for the day, I did not know the language, or did I have any local currency (they are not on the Euro). Some of the rural hotels looked a bit... run down so I forged the rest of the way to Prague by my GPS, with my phone leading me to local hostels, where I picked the second one I found.

I've spent the past day and a half in the city, and all and all it is a really great place. There is no language barrier in the city, and multiple languages are printed everywhere for the huge amount of tourists that come here (about 60% of business, I've heard). There is lots of history and architecture, parks and museums, and I spent most of the first day seeing the sights. But Prague seems to be something of a European playground. There are lots of bars and smoke shops, and somewhat carefree mood as beer gardens, huka bars, and cannabis are legal. Prague seems to attract Europe’s party goers, and bros' from all over converge. I haven’t seen any competitive drinking, but I hear that one of the beer gardens sells beers by lots of 10 to keep things simple. In many places, beer is cheaper then water or bottled soft drinks.

On the less crazy side, large crowds gather in the old city square to watch the local sports teams, while the historic buildings are decoratively illuminated at night. A good mix of stores fill out he commercial district. The city has a bit of a hangover every morning, I where breakfast doesn’t start till 8:30 (6:00 am in Germany), there is also more graffiti, beggars, locked gates, and barred windows then I saw in before. Nonetheless, the wide range of history, good sights, as well as food and drink make Prague a pretty fun place. Also helping is the currency conversion which makes things quite affordable. The Hostel works out to be about $12 a night, compared to the $90 I was paying in Copenhagen. A good, sit down Italian dinner with half letter of beer may be 222ck, or about $11, which is less then the Olive Garden.

Due to the walkability of the city, low prices, and tons of fun things to do, I decided to stay two full days. I plan on retuning to southern Germany tomorrow, which may be a two or three day trip. More to come.