3 and a half minutes of Prague

A  travel video of Prague, Czech Republic, January 2014

Berlin

Berlin at night

 

Vegetarian curry wurst

Transit is pretty boring, trains are best but bus is still best but bus is still better than plane (wifi!). Mostly I read, listen to music, watch movies try to connect to wifi and sometimes edit photos or write blog entries. It was night arriving into Germany so there wasn't much to look at and the police came in when we crossed the boarder to check passports.

Arriving at the station some kind person offered me a lift to the place i was staying, it was really out of his way and he sure paid a lot in taxi fare so i was super grateful. It's nice to be reminded that there are good people out there. My host was nice too and we went for a city walk after i arrived. It was a nice area and he pointed out where the Berlin wall was, supermarket etc.

The next morning i walked to the wall, there is some really beautiful art painted on it. There is a lot of street art in Berlin and i enjoyed just walking around the city and taking a few photos. Curry wurst is a popular fast food here and while i am open to trying new foods i was really excited to find vegetarian curry wurst (second picture). It's basically a vegetarian sausage with some curry sauce on it - nothing too extraordinary but a nice snack. Later i went into the main part of the city and saw the world clock and did some window shopping. On my way back i took some night shots of the city near the river (first picture).

My second day i had planned to visit some museums, it was a nice way to spend a cold day and Berlin has many interesting museums. One thing i find fascinating is the evolution of what is considered beautiful. It's a shame really, what constitutes beauty these days is actually not very natural. Oh well. After some shopping and playing with new makeup i went out for a drink at a local bar.

Prague round 2

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The second day of my Prague experience was also quite enjoyable, i walked up to castle hill where i saw the guards change and enjoyed the view (first pic). Slowly i walked down the famous bridge noticing all the local people were rubbing certain parts of the statues for whatever reason. not wanting to miss out on this luck i too rubbed the feet or other parts as if i knew what was going on. After this i walked around the city, looked at shops, saw some people shooting what looked to be a Sherlock Holms movie, saw many buskers including some people playing with giant bubbles, people dressed as American Indians  and many playing music. It was a nice day with lots of walking involved.

On my final day in Prague I met with someone from Couch Surfing who was also visiting the city. We couldn't find each other at first so I enjoyed McDonald's free wifi while i had a coffee. Eventually we met and decided to go to the Medieval torture museum. You know that feeling you get on the bottom of your feet when you're watching a movie and something violent and painful happens? Well that was basically the experience i had the whole time visiting this tourist-trap. It was an interesting look at the idiocy of people back then, I wont go into details of these devices but safe to say i am certainly glad i was born in this era. Next we decided to go to Petrin tower which involves walking up a large hill and then climbing a further 300 steps. But the view was nice - being able to see the whole city, river, "castle" and parks and we enjoyed some more hot wine and trdelnik (traditional pastry - second pic) on returning to the city. In the evening my host, myself and two other couch surfers went for a drink. Their story was a cute one, a couple - the girl Japanese and the boy French but since the girl spoke neither English nor French and the boy didn't know Japanese they communicated in Korean as that was the country they met. After a few drinks i yammered on for a good while in Japanese (poorly i'm sure) and we head back to the apartment. 

Arrival in Prague

It's always hard to say goodbye and leaving Serbia at 6am was no different. Strahinja and I rushed to the station only to be told by ticket inspectors that my ticket had not been validated (it had) and I had to pay a fine of 1,000 Dinars ($13 AUD ). Feeling a bit annoyed we travelled on to the train station. For some reason we could not find a direct train or bus to Prague so ended up having to go back to Budapest, and then buy another ticket. This meant 14hrs or so on a train (yay).

Finally arriving in Prague i met my host at the train station and we went back to his house where i was able to try a traditional Czech potato soup he had made earlier. We chatted, had a drink and went to bed. The next day i started my investigations of Prague, a very beautiful city but quite touristic - with souvenir shops and money exchange at every corner (but nobody to change my Dinar into Euro!). I saw the famous Astronomical clock (first picture) in the town square, drank some hot mulled wine (second picture), bought some post cards, admired the local crafts at the Christmas stalls and took many photos. In the evening i got a city view from up the tower and then walked by the river to admire the bridges that were lit up.

How to make a Serbian crêpe

With Nutella, Plasma (cookie crumbs) and kikiriki (peanuts). It was so big I only ate around half of it. Delicious though...

My time in Serbia

My time in Serbia started with a train ride from Budapest. While uneventful it was my first experience going to a new country via train which was kinda fun. I was greeted by an old friend whom i met in Japan on my exchange time in 2011-2012. (This blog will feature several people i met during that time.) I was fortunate enough to be able to stay with my friend who showed me around Belgrade and introduced me to many new foods including Kajmak (similar to clotted cream which we put on toast), Ajvar (paprika spread), Alva (a sweet nutty desert), Cevapcici (described on the menu as "meat fingers") and several sweets including the second photo above and a previous video i posted with a huge crepe.

I visited several things in Belgrade including the Belgrade fortress (first photo), Military museum, an interesting cafe where i drank "Gypsy coffee" and bar where i was exposed to Serbian music. The most unique experience i had in Serbia was probably the Orthodox Christmas eve celebrations, if you happen to be curious check out the video i posted earlier with the bonfire.

I am really quite slow with updating this blog and for that i apologize, i'm too busy having an awesome time! If you want to see more of my adventure click on one of the above links to my other frequently used social networking sites (deviantart, flickr, tumblr, youtube etc).

Hope everyone in Australia is enjoying the summer - i'm rather cold :p

Another Serbian video

Another video i made -  a typical Serbian Christmas eve celebration - In Serbia they use the Orthodox calender which means Christmas eve in 2014 was on 7 January. As it says in the description:
"On Christmas eve in Serbia, many go to the church where branches from an Oak tree are placed. The more embers that rise into the air the more money you will have that year. The bells tolled at the stroke of midnight."