Czech Republic - February 2009

The expats decided to do a weekend in Prague, which was great as it was the first time we traveled together since the summer. The trip went extremely well, despite the fact that it started with us forgetting one of our own at the airport. We had a group of 13, so we implemented a buddy system right then and there and luckily avoided future drama. We stayed at the edge of the historic city center near Charles' Bridge, and each day we got to walk by weird baby art to get to it.


I forgot to mention the penguin art.

On the famous Charles' Bridge, and in the background you can see the castle. Lots of shitty music videos, including AFI's "Girls Not Grey" and I'm pretty sure something by Linkin Park were shot on this bridge.

On the flight to Prague Allan noted that "if the plane goes down we'll lose the elite of each nation". Wise words.

The ladies of the group.
A view of Prague from the hill as we climbed to the Castle.

The castle complex, and in the background the church where we saw a Classical concert.

Church interior during the concert; the acoustics were amazing.

At the end of the day we had dinner at a restaurant that was located under Charles' Bridge.
From there we hit the clubs. Kross Club was amazing; it was like being inside a machine, with many moving parts and lights and loud techno music. Plus the place was like a maze, full of doorways, stairwells and narrow hallways, so it was very easy to get lost. One room had suspended car seats and was playing the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, with the local nutcase on hand to recite it word for word. Alcohol and drug consumption were done cafeteria-style,while I managed to attract the craziest of the crazies. Luckily we had two dudes on hand to curb his enthusiasm.

I'm related to the guy in the white shirt and hat. He's my second cousin Adam and I met him for the first time on this trip. He lives in Prague and it was nice to have a guide show us where all the cool clubs are. This was the Roxy and was more mainstream than Kross CLub.

After a ridiculous night out we had to wake up early and check out of our beautiful apartment - the staircase was all marble. I doubt I'll ever actually live in an apartment like this, but it was cool to stay in one even for a weekend.

After checking out we still had some time to wander the city. The famous main square...

The church with its famous towers, one of which burned down and was rebuilt in a different size from the original (don't remember which is which though). It's cool how this church is right behind a row of houses.

And Prague's famous clock. It does a little dance every hour and people crowd around to see it. It's quite funny to watch the crowd as the show is rather underwhelming. Though considering how old and sophisticated it is, it is quite impressive.
And in the background the famous Charles Bridge with the castle overlooking the city.

On Sunday all the expats went back to Amsterdam while I met up with more relatives and went to the mountain town of Sumperk where they live.

Funnily enough, I was on this street years ago with my dad, not aware of the fact that I had relatives who lived near by. It's such a random street and I never thought I would back there visiting people I'm related to. I have a picture here from both visits.

This part of the country is famous for its high quality paper production, so we went to a paper mill. It was closed to visitors but the cleaning staff left a door open so we snuck in for a few minutes.

A castle complex in the area. Also closed but the courtyard was open, and there was a dog running around, so I had a great time.

And after a couple of days in the quite town surrounded by beautiful snow, it was time to head back to Prague and fly to Amsterdam. We passed through a train station with a very cool statue of King Wenceslas.