DAY 5: PRAGUE/BERLIN

It was our last morning in Prague. And then we were onto Berlin for the remainder of the trip. So we decided to grab breakfast and go on a boat cruise during our last few hours in Prague.

After wandering a city a bit the day before, Rudes and I had found a little place called Coffee Heaven. Turns out it's another chain of coffeehouses, but much more in the nature of Cosi (if you've ever been to one, they're all over Philly, NY and DC). So we decided to have breakfast there.

They had a case full of pastriesAnd another full of sandwiches
But I decided to be a bit simpler and just have a cappuccino and croissant. Again, the cappuccino was unremarkable and the croissant I'd had the day before was just so much better.I did like the interior, though. And most importantly, the a/c was on full blast.We then went on a mediocre boat tour. Where Sam actually fell asleep, and I zoned out, but at least they gave us beer. Oh, and ice cream. And that was it for our time in Prague. It was time to head out to Berlin. It was another 4 hour drive to Berlin, but it was much easier to navigate. So after driving by the roadside prostitutes near the border of the Czech Republic and Germany, and getting held up a bit by the German border patrol, we were able to make it into Berlin.

We were thrilled to finally arrive at our hostel. Unfortunatley, I had directed us to the wrong one. We were staying at the Hotel Transit Loft, not the Hotel Transit! But it turns out the the Hotel Transit Loft was a much cooler place anyway. Really great rooms and the best hostel we stayed in the whole trip. Plus, it was located in Prenzlauer distric. Berlin is divided into all these different neighborhoods, and this one is in the former East Berlin.

I really loved Prenzlauer district. After all the touristy-ness of Prague, I was ready for a break and this was it. Just a nice neighborhoody area, with actual Berliners. We wandered out of our hotel in search of dinner. And a nice place to watch the game. On the recommendation of the hotel staff, we walked 20 minutes to a German restaurant, only to find it was closed. But on the way, we had passed a bunch of great restaurants, with people sitting outdoors watching the soccer game. I was really happy to see the diversity of the restaurants, too. Thai, Italian, German, just a whole mix of them. Almost like being in NY. We were exhausted doing the trek back and were very hungry. So we finally settle into a little restaurant called Mathes and Lautz. There weren't many people out front, but we had a great view of the TV.

It was a good thing we had Sam with us, because we no longer had the English menus to rely on. Oh, and the waitresses spoke English. I tried to order pasta, but then I thought it'd be wiser to find out if they had anything without meat. The only suggestion was a salad with chicken on top. So I gave in and ordered that. It turned out to be pretty good, I liked the cracked black pepper that it was topped with.Meanwhile, the boys order all variety of schnitzel. (pork and veal) and it came in massive portions. It looked really good, too. Sigh, if only they had it in chicken...But tomorrow was a new day...

DAY 4: PRAGUE

I'd pretty much given up on having exceptional dining experiences for this portion of the trip. And that was fine, because we were in Europe to watch the world cup, not eat my way through Europe. So the lack on exceptional food continued during our second day in Prague. Now, I do take some of the blame for not finding great food. The problem was that we stuck to the touristy areas. Since we were only in Prague for 2 full days, it didn't leave much time for exploration. But after speaking to Jayna, who spent 5 days in Prague, she also concluded that it wasn't a city for great cuisine, but they had excellent desserts. (I am sorry I missed out on those).

However, for our breakfast that morning, I took a tip from Jayna and we went to the Ebel Coffeehouse, which is a chain of coffeehouses in Prague. They're actually really cute and homey. Not at all like a Starbucks type chain. So we all sat outdoors and ordered a simple breakfast. Here are Nick and Rudy check out their menus.I ordered a cappuccino. Which was way too foamy and pretty bitter. But I don't think Prague is known for its excellent coffee.And I got this croissant, which was delicious. Buttery and flaky, I wish I'd had 2.Meanwhile, here's Sam with their drinks. I was fascinated with the whipped cream that topped them. It was more yellow than the cream here, and definitely denser. I attributed this to the higher fat percentage of the cream. (oh, and that was Roy having a beer for breakfast)After breakfast, we set out to see some touristy sites, the Charles bridge and the Prague castle. After spending several hours, we had an unremarkable snack at a little cafe, that I deemed unworthy of pictures. I ordered tuna fish with butter on toast and it was literally canned tuna, a slice of white bread with a pat of butter on top.

I was much happier with the ice cream from this little shop. Here's the case:And my order of strawberry and chocolate ice creams (sorry for the bluriness)We spent the rest of the afternoon taking naps and wandering the city. And of course, we had to watch a soccer match that evening. We decided to be super casual and get Donner Kabobs while sitting outdoors watching the game on screens that'd be set up outside. A donner kabob is the German name, but it's often referred to by different names, shwarma, gyros, whatever. This was my first donner kabob in Europe, (a chicken one of course). And it was pretty good. Though the guy piled on the meat on top, so when i went to take my first bite, most of it fell off. (and onto the floor). Yeah, I know that's not a pretty shot, but I got it from a steetside stall and i was taking the pic with one hand.Here's a better pic of the boys watching the game.
Unfortunately it started to rain. So we ran for cover and ended up at an English Pub we'd seen earlier in the day. (And it was the perfect place to watch England win a match, I don't even remember who they were playing). An ideal way to finish off a long day.

DAY 3: MUNICH/PRAGUE

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.