So you guys get 2 Europe posts today. Since, as I've said before, I'm way behind and need to finish this up! Day 3 we left Munich and made our way over to Prague. It's not too long of a drive, a little under 4 hours. (If you discount getting lost and circling downtown Prague about 3 times before making it to your final destination). But onto the food.
Before we headed out for Prague, we had to meet the last member of our party, Sam, at the Munich airport (where we were also picingk up our rental car.) We were waiting for Sam to be the savior of our party. Having studied abroad in Germany for a year, he was the only one who could understand the language and more importantly, order food for us. It didn't matter that we were heading off to Prague, the general consensus was that Sam would figure it out.
And while waiting for Sam to arrive, what else was there to do but visit the biergarten at the Munich airpot. That's right, there is a biergarten at the Munich airport, the Airbrau. And it's not too bad either. Here's a shot of the outdoor seating area.
We decided to have a few beers and lunch while waiting for Sam. And luckily they had menus in English. The men ordered their typical sausages and I ordered a salad. Yes, I was still wary of ordering food in Germany. And to be honest, there really weren't that many choices for me beyond the salad section. But it was a hot day and I welcomed eating my salad with grilled turkey, which turned out to be pretty good.I had discovered that Germans don't really go for plain salads. They really like to put lots of stuff on it to make it a meal.
But onto Prague. So after finally packing up our minivan, we headed off to the Czech Republic. It was pretty easy getting to the center of the city, they main obstacle was actually getting to our hostel. We learned several important things on our visit to Prague. First, Czech is a damn hard language to learn. I mean, it's even near impossible to read, let alone pronounce. You eventually just give up and start try to match up the letter in the word to the map you've got in your hand. Which doesn't make it that easy to navigate. Second, when traveling to a foreign country, learn your street signs. Red signs with a white horizontal strip through the middle mean no entry. While blue signs with red crosses means no parking. Third, Prague is undergoing a lot of construction. And there are a lot of pedestrian areas closed off to traffic and one way streets. We made it within blocks of our hostel several times, but everytime we tried to get closer we ended up on a one way street headed out of the city center. We circled the city about 3 times and it took us nearly an hour to get to our place. We eventually gave up, parked and walked to the hostel.Needless to say, by the time we reached our final destination (oh, and after getting caught in a massive 30 minute downpour that soaked us and our luggage), we were ready for a nice warm dinner. Using the trusty guidebook, we ended up at a pretty touristy restaurant, but it had lots of character. Ok, I don't remember the name of the place, but it was located in the basement of a very pretty concert hall in downtown Prague. And it was essentially a massive beer hall, but with nicely painted walls and decorations. And a live band.
Of course, we all started off ordering beers, which were Pilsner Urquels. Kinda different from Germany where each brewhouse had its own beers. I preferred the German beers.
So the fun thing about being in a super touristy restaurant is the availability of helpful menus. Here are the boys checking out their menus.
You'll notice that it has pics! And notice on the left of the menu the variety of languages that they offer.
I ended up ordering a dish with chicken (finally, I was able to find a restaurant that served chicken). The boys all ordered an assortment of meat, none of which I photographed.
It took a while for the food to come out. And by the time it did, I had to run off and meet Jayna. So i ate my food as quickly as possible. Which was of course not remarkable considering the touristy atmosphere. It was just chicken breast with overcooked carrots. I think I was just happy to have something warm to eat.So off I went to find Jayna! My first contact with a girl in 3 days. And I was relieved and happy to see my friend. It'd only been a couple of weeks since she'd left to Boston, but I still missed her. So we all settled into an outdoor bar in the heart of Prague. Right next to one of the most touristy sites, the clocktower. I had read in my guidebook that when you stick to the most touristy areas, there's a tendency for people to rip you off. And this, without a doubt, was true of the bar we visited that night. We only ordered drinks, but I was disappointed when I ordered a Radler and ended up with Radler in a can! (you can see the can next to Jayna in the pic below). And I ended up paying nearly $10 for that drink. (cover charge, whatever whatever).
Still, it was nice to sit outside with my friends while they smoked cigars. So let me finish with this pic of Jayna smoking a cigar that Rudy had gotten from the Dominican Republic.
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