Prague: Day 1

With no sleep and a 4 hour 40 minute train to catch, we hailed a cab to the station and began our journey to Prague. Pretty sure we slept just about the entire time. Just another day in the life of a backpacker! When we finally arrived, we needed to get some Czech currency (Crowns, of which about 20 equate to one US dollar) and then walked about 20 minutes to our hostel. Though it was a little rainy, our first impression of the city was a good one--and we wouldn't be disappointed by the time we had to say our farewells.

As a pleasant surprise, our hostel turned out to be more like a hotel. The restaurant-bar was terrific and even had a stage for small performances, and the room had a great bathroom included (rather than down the hall, like many other hostels we've stayed at so far). We met up with some English friends we had made right before leaving Berlin--at what we fondly referred to as the "lobby party"--and began our evening at the aforementioned hostel restaurant-bar.

We all went out on a fantastic pub crawl that night, which took us to three great bars and the biggest club in central Europe, Karlovy Láznē. From the B-52 shots at the first pub to the very end it was a great first night in Prague and the beginning of many more good times with the fellas from England.

Walking back from the club, I snapped some photos along the river and knew that this three day visit was going to be one of the best yet. The city is beautiful by day, rain or shine, but even more so after the sun sets. All those old buildings and cobblestone streets just put you at ease when they're glowing with that soft yellow light of the street lamps and Prague Castle rising up in the darkness across the river.