First full Prague Day

I actually wrote the next several posts on the train from Prague to Berlin, but just getting a chance to update now...

We've been doing a lot of running around lately, so we decided to sleep in a bit today and relax.  At least we were able to make it in time for breakfast at the hotel (which ends at 11am).  Because we were running a bit late and had plans to meet up with Fregly and Christina for lunch, we decided to eat a light breakfast.  Well, all that and also because we also couldn't remember if breakfast was included for us with the stay at the hotel.  It turned out that is was, but the light meal was still nice.

After breakfast we tried to formalize our plans (meeting location, time, etc) and as soon as we got on the phone, my minutes on the prepaid sim from Germany expired!  We really needed to push back the meeting time slight, but weren't able to get that out in time.  So now we're running late and can't get a hold of them to tell them... I know what you're thinking....  Why didn't we just use the hotel phone to call them back?  Well, we tried that and couldn't get the hotel phone to properly call  Fregly's phone/pre-paid sim (although we were able to call Gabrielle with no problems.  So we were thinkign we were handling the whole international calling stuff correctly).  We also tried calling their hotel to get in touch, but the line was busy.  So we decided to venture out and hope they were still waiting or that we could find another prepaid sim store along the way.

We didn't have any issues finding the arranged meet up spot, but there was no Fregly or Christina.  I certainly couldn't blame them.. we were about a 1/2 hour late.  We checked around the intersection to see if they were at a cafe waiting, but no luck there either.  So we backtracked to a sign we noticed for a Vodaphone store.  I figured time to get a new sim and give em a call.  However, on our way backtracking to the store sign, someone grabbed my map out of my back pocket.  Guess who?  Fregly!  There were running late too!  So we headed out to the phone store together and found the kid at the store to be quite helpful.  We were soon on our way and I had another new European phone number that is supposed to roam.  Hopefully this will get us through Prague and our last leg in Berlin without any more sim purchases.

We continued on to check out Fregly and Christina's hotel and to also ask their conceirge about a boat tour we were interested in.  She was very helpfull and got us all squared away which left us time for a quick lunch before getting on the bus to the river and dock. 

The boat tour was fairly quick (about an hour of boat time on the water), but the views of the city were really nice from the water.  We also had a complementary strudel and coffee on the boat too (both decent).  After that porton was done, we walked back with our guide to Old Town Square.  Along the way, she showed us some of the old Jewish sinaguges and communitities and was fairly informative.  Overall though, she didn't really seem that into giving us the tour and wasn't very responsive to our questions.  The sights still made it well worth it though, especially the Ferrari we saw parked along the way! :) 

We made it back into the square just in time for the hourly display from the astronomical clock.  I have to say, it was pretty cool considering how old it is.  It's fairly on par with what you'd see from the Glockenspeil in Munch.  There are some figurins that move around appearing to walk in front of their windows.  On the outside of the clock, there are other frigurines that move around and look like the're ringing the bell (my favorite of these was the skeleton figure).  From there we hung out in the square and quenched our thirst a bit before going into a couple art musuems for Mugan and Dali.  Definitely a different experience than the Van Gogh in Amsterdam, but was worth quick store and a handful of crowns.

It was starting to get a little later and time to make our way to a beer hall called U Flecku (based on a friend's recommendation from work).  This was great!  We had sooo much fun here.  They have great food, great dark Czech beer (there own brew called Fleck), and a great shot (at least it seemed great at the time!).  Very fun and so far probably 2nd only to the tent experience in the Hippodrom at Oktoberfest.  If your beer ever falls within an inch of being empty, they immeadiately come by and bring you a new one.  Fantastic!  They just keep track of everything for you via tic marks on a peice of paper, which you reconcile at the end of the night. 

Our next stop was back to the American bar near our hotel (we thought it would be cool to catch some of the Bears game while out here).  The walk should have been easy since U Flecku is realivitely near us, but for some reason we went around in a few circles :)  Fregly grabbed a cab for us and it turned back into the short trip it should have been.  Unforatunately, the game wasn't on!  It wasn't being broadcast on the satalite package the owner had.  Oh well.  We grabbed a couple more drinks here and Kirstyn and I called it a night.  From what I hear Fregly and Christina closed the bar down :)