Prague was a whirlwind. We arrived after an adventure on the trains. We got up at 4am to catch the only nonstop train from Salzburg to Prague. We have so far managed to avoid transfers and wanted to keep it that way. About an hour and a half outside of Prague the conductor poked his head in and prattled off something in German, then the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and people started piling off. We left the train and found a small shed and five shuttle buses. Assuming that everyone else was trying to get to Prague we got on the shuttles, which took us to another station, where we followed the crowd to another train, and still managed to get into Prague on time.

Prague has been beautiful. We are staying at a friend of a friend’s beautiful apartment about 25 minutes (by foot) from the old city. We decided to explore the city by foot, and, having not eaten since the night previous ducked into a dark restaurant thinking that it looked authentic. We ended up eating mexican for lunch.

We walked down to the Old City and discovered a Dali exhibition called Prints, Statues, and Ceramics. It was pretty intense. Dali is a genius.

We spent the next day walking around the city. Prague is an intensely beautiful city. Even the average buildings are beautifully decorated.

Heidi and I went to a delicious restaurant called Sivorsky Dum, I think. I ordered the hunter’s platter and the beer sampler. It was quite delightful to eat hare, turkey, and venison washed down with 8 different kinds of beer (sampler sized).

This morning we left quite early. Our flight was at 950, but we had a fair bit of public transit to do; so we left at 7am. We had our first near crisis when the bus to the airport’s doors closed when Heidi was already on board, and I was not. It was fine though, I arrived fifteen minutes later and check-in, passport control, and security were all a breeze.

In London we split up, Heidi to go meet the wonderful man who is hosting us. I haven’t met him as he had to leave, but he has graciously given us the use of his apartment. I managed to meet a good friend of my family’s in the two hours we overlapped in London. It was great seeing a dear friend and chatting about both life and the trip so far with someone I trust, face to face.

The rest of today was just getting settled in and watching an episode or two of friends while doing so. I’m on a decent air mattress and ready to sleep, hopefully tomorrow’s update will be a little more exciting.

Bonus: Prague Dusk