Fairytale cities - Prague and Cesky Krumlov

From our first eastern city of Berlin we headed into the Czech Republic to Prague and Cesky Krumlov. We were excited about going to these places for a couple of reasons - the photos we had seen looked fantastic and we were staying in hotel rooms, as the exchange rate for the Czech Crown is quite good compared to the aussie dollar. Hey, we had to have a break from hostel rooms at some point!

After the brief introduction our Busabout guide gave us when arriving in Prague, we knew it had a rich history. Like our Busabout guide said, I thought some of the older people in Prague looked quite sad and worn down - due to years of first being under Nazi rule and secondly enduring decades of communism. As we soon discovered, Prague has developed into a new world city and is now flooded with tourists.

The highlight of our trip in Prague had to be a three-hour private segway tour we did to see all of the viewpoints. After seeing segway tours in other European cities, we were itching to join one. As the Prague tour was rated number one on TripAdvisor, we decided to give it a shot. For those of you who have never seen a segway, have a look at the photos below. They are basically a two-wheel vehicle with an intricate balancing system inside (yep, that's the extent of my technical knowledge). There's no accelerator or brake, you simply control the movement with leaning your body. It was a warm sunny day and we enjoyed the hours zooming around the heights of Prague, looking down over the city and seeing, in my opinion, the most spectacular city views in Europe. The photos I've posted here don't really do justice to just how picturesque these viewpoints were. We also took some time out to have a beer, and watched  in amazement as our segway guide carried three beers and managed to operate his segway with no hands (no pictures sadly).

Releasing our inner nerd on the segway tour

This picture doesn't really do justice to how beautiful this lookout was

Looking over Prague

If when you think of Europe you imagine castles, old bridges, historic medieval archways and buildings from centuries gone by, then that is Prague in a nutshell. We enjoyed walking along the historic Charles Bridge, dating back to 1357, and visiting Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in the world, with buildings dating back to the 10th century. Walking around the city at night was even more beautiful, as we saw the old buildings and castle lit up in the distance.

Charles Bridge with Prague Castle in the distant background

The gothic cathedral in the middle of the Prague Castle complex

While in Prague we also took a boat tour along the Vltava River, and visited the Eiffel Tower. No, I'm not confusing this post with Paris, as I'm happy to say that I have now climbed the Eiffel Tower - Prague's version that is. Built shortly after the real Eiffel Tower, it sits on top of one of Prague's highest points and has spectacular 365 degree views at the top.

Prague river cruising

Eiffel tower...Prague style

We also enjoyed some amazing food in Prague, upon the recommendations of our tour guides. A highlight was the river boat permanently moored alongside a bridge which has been converted into an Italian restaurant. For just AU$20 each, we feasted on pasta and dessert, as well as wine and beer - and enjoyed the level of impeccable service you'd only expect in a five star restaurant. 

After spending about an hour and half wandering around a bus station and finally managing to buy tickets from someone who spoke English, we were excited to jump on a Czech bus service to Cesky Krumlov. After hearing great recommendations from friends, we were so excited to get to Cesky and enjoy what we hoped would be a highlight of our Eurotrip - a river rafting pub crawl for around AU$15. Sadly, due to bad weather (and other people not having the will and determination of aussies), all other prospective participants pulled out of the pub crawl on the day, so we couldn't go. After much deliberation, we headed into town and hired rafts to make our own way down the river on a three to four hour paddle to the next town. What ensued was one of the low points of our whole trip for me. We spent about two hours paddling by ourselves through driving rain, thunder and lightning, praying the end of our journey was just around the next bend. By the end of the trip we were cold, shivering and completely over it - to cap it off I fell into the river as we were trying to pull our raft out, and watched as my thongs went floating away. What was even more regretful about this was that I had to pay AU$20 for the only pair of new thongs I could find in Prague - although they are Rip Curl ones I believe they are leftover ones that customers in other countries like America or Australia didn't want, because they are pretty bad! One thing we did enjoy about our trip to Cesky was the cool group of Aussie and kiwi couples we met and had meals with a couple of times. We hope to catch up with them again somewhere during our travels.

Hanging by the Vltava River in Cesky Krumlov

Halfway through our four hour paddling journey, where we had to stop to empty rainwater out of our raft. I'm completely saturated here but looked worse at the end of the trip.

I had to put this photo up of Dan as he looked pretty funny 

We said goodbye to the Czech Republic and set off on our next busabout adventure to Vienna in Austria....the subject of my next blog!