Turkmenistan

Lorelei on the wall at Merv

Turkmenistan was an extremely interesting country to visit. I knew almost nothing about the country beforehand. It's famous for how closed off and secretive it is- our guidebook called it "the North Korea of Central Asia" and warned about frequent police stops and bugged rooms. Our short trip there was a series of surprises and adventures, starting with crossing the border. We had to drag our suitcases about a mile through "no man's land" between the two border stations.

Once we made it through the border crossing, we met our tour guide, Ena. We all really liked her.  She was young and sweet, and having gone to school in the USA for a year she spoke English well and was more Westernized. 

At Nissa being follwed by the camera crew

The two historic highlights were Merv and Nissa. Merv had several sites, but my favorite was the massive mud fort, which basically looked like a crater. We got to climb up the remains of the old walls and enjoy the dramatic scenery.  Nissa was a more complex and rich location near the capital city of Ashgabat which we had a very detailed tour of the different semi-constructed rooms. We were also being followed by a camera crew who wanted to interview us for a tourism channel, but we refused since we weren't sure what they would use it for. 

Overlooking the city at night

Ashgabat itself was fascinating. A fairly new city, it's filled with massive buildings, monuments, fountains and hundreds of lights. The buildings are all required by law to be faced in white marble and are very spread out along wide roads. The whole place felt oddly abandoned as we didn't see many people out on the streets. The city is entirely for the glorification of the government, and the cult of personality that surrounds the President is widely felt.

However, outside the modern and wealthy looking city, the rest of the country is still fairly impoverished, despite the fact they get many resources such as gas, water, flour, salt, etc. free. 

Gas crater at night

One of my favorite experiences of the whole trip was the night we spent at the gas fire crater in the desert of Turkmenistan. The result of a natural gas drill accident, the crater is basically a big pit with flames coming out. We had two nice drivers who set up camp for us and made us a delicious dinner and breakfast. It was a wonderful evening sitting out by the giant "campfire" in the middle of the desert. 

Day 6: Tuesday, August 13, Bukhara – Mary (Turkmenistan)- Ashgabat

•  Leave Bukhara to drive to Farab. Leave shopping items with Bek to take to Tashkent
• Cross border. Long walk across no man’s land. Very interesting experience!
• Meet guide Ena Shamuratova 
• Drive to Mary (300km) through Karakum desert
• Explore Merv –oldest heritage city. Great Kyz Kala (girls) and Little Kyz Kala (boys), Mausoleum of 2 Askhabs, Giaur Kala (fabulous mud fort, climb up onto it for great views), Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar. Stopped by herd of camels.
• Late night flight to Ashgabat
• Ashgabat –incredible white marble city –we couldn’t get over the feeling that we had stepped in to a deserted white “Emerald” city of Oz.

Day 7: Wednesday, August 14, Ashgabat- Derveze Gas Crater

• Drive to Nisa. (Asked to do a TV interview with Tourist Channel. Initially said yes but decided it was a bad idea as not sure how it would be used. Camera crew still showed up and not happy to hear us say no. Tried to persuade us but Ena told them no)  Ruined capital of Parthians: fortress, citadel, temples and tombs (III BC). Very atmospheric. One of the hottest days.
•  Niyazov’s (1st president) Mausoleum 
• Blue Mosque with 3rd largest carpet –new and very grand.
• Take 2 jeeps and drive 280 km across Karakum desert.
• Derveze Gas Crater

Day 8: Thursday, August 15, Derveze Gas Crater-Ashgabat

•  Campfire cooked breakfast –excellent
•  Revisit crater
• Leave crater. This night in the desert was one of the the top highlights of the trip.
• Visit clay and water crater and stop to look at gypsum covered plants in desert (took back sample to show to my geology teacher)
• Stop before Ashgabat for car wash (fined if have dirty car in the city) and snacks
•  Sightseeing tour of Ashgabat –Park dedicated to Turkmen horses (10 horse statue),
• Park of Independency –fountains and statues
• National History Museum
• Gulistan/Russian Bazaar
• Night tour –drive around Ashgabat ending at Wedding Palace. The city has completely amazed us and the country is absolutely fascinating with the cult of Turkmenbashi (Felt deserted. Full of traditions. Free water, electricity, petrol, flour, salt for all and $200 per month for kids under 3 years!)

Day 9: Friday, August 16, Ashgabat-Dashoguz –Kalas (Uzbekistan)

• Early morning flight to Dashogus
• Drive to Konye-Urgench: explore Turabeg Khanym Complex, Sayid Ahmed Mausoleum, Gutlug Timur Minaret, Sultan Tekesh Mausoleum, Kyrk Molla (Forty Mullahs Hill), Il-Arslan Mausoleum. Meant to be 2nd most important place to go on Hajj after Mecca. Busy with genuine pilgrims but not as spectacular as some of the other monuments and rather dusty and unkempt.

Uzbekistan

Preface to Central Asia posts: I did a bad job writing while on this trip. I'll post my general impressions and highlights, and then more specific details in bullet points. The bullet points are taken from the itinerary my mom put together which I've adapted for my use. 


TASHKENT

Day 1: Thursday, Augusts 8, 2013 Tashkent, Uzbekistan

I arrived in Tashkent, Uzbekistan with all of my family except Selina from  London via Istanbul. Selina met up with us there coming in from Singapore. We were there at the very end of Ramadan and Eid, so the city seemed strangely deserted. According to Bek, our tour guide who we all came to love for his humor and laid back attitude, it was just because everyone was at home with their family for the holiday.

Converted Madrassah

My first impression was of a pretty modern city that was empty of people and super spread out.

Unlike cities in the US where you have packed blocks where all the buildings are right next to each other, Tashkent buildings were very spread out. I never really felt like I was actually downtown, more just in a sprawling suburb with big buildings. This may be due to the fact that Tashkent doesn't have much ancient history and was mostly expanded during the Soviet Union so it doesn't feel like a city that has grown organically. 

We came back to Tashkent later and visited the big bazaar on a non-holiday day and it gave me an entirely different view of the city. The hustle and bustle of huge crowds of locals shopping made the city seem more alive than during our first visit. We also saw more of the populated areas, rather than the government buildings and historic monuments of our first trip.

Memorial to deaths under Stalin

As I said, Tashkent doesn't have too much history. Highlights for me were the massive bazaar in its huge building, the surprisingly beautiful art nouveau subway stations, and the oldest Koran in the world.

What we did:

•  Tashkent Institute of Textile and Light Industry for a seminar and meeting with faculty.
• Applied and Decorative Art Museum- lovely building
• Khast Iman Complex with Barak Khan Medreseh and Mui Muvorak (oldest Koran).
• Looked at the metro to see cool Art Deco decorations. Rode the metro to the Independence Square to see the WWI Memorial with Young Mother + Eternal Flame
• Memorial to deaths under Stalin
• Timor Statue in Park
•  Walk to Uzbekistan Hotel for dinner at restaurant on top floor with view of city

SAMARKAND

Day 2: Friday, August 9, Tashkent to Samarkand

Samarkand was one of the few names I was familiar with from before the trip. It sounds exotic and exciting, and I was curious to see what the city would be like. Samarkand is situated on a river and used to be the capital of the ancient empire of Timur, the man the West refers to as Tamerlane. Because of this, Samarkand is rich in history and monuments. Unfortunately, a lot of the ancient buildings in Central Asia were destroyed by the Mongols and those that survived faced damaged from Alexander the Great, Czar Russia, earthquakes and WWII bombs. 

I also found it unfortunate that of the remaining monuments, many had been completely reconstructed. This gave a fake feel to the buildings as they appeared too modern and perfect, without the ancient atmosphere that I love. In general Samarkand felt pretty modern as well. I had expected something that felt more chaotically Asian or exotically Arabian, but the everyday buildings weren't very interesting.

Mausoleum of Timur

Also, I found that many of the mosques, mausoleums and madrasahs were very similar with their layouts and decorations of blue and turquoise style so after seeing many they began to stand out less individually. However, Samarkand did have some very important monuments to see though and a lot to learn about. 

One of my favorites was the Mausoleum of Timur because that's where Bek gave us the history of Timur and his empire. For a man that conquered a huge amount of land, I was surprised that I had never properly learned about him. We also brushed up on some history of Alexander the Great. Other favorites include visiting a traditional paper mill and seeing the process of turning mulberry bark to paper, going to a wine tasting (who knew Uzbek dessert wine was so good?) and learning about ancient scientist at Ugul Bek's observatory. As always, I also loved the market. Markets tend to be one of my favorite places because I enjoy the liveliness of local crowds. Unfortunately the main square in Samarkand, one of the most landmark spots, was closed off along with Daniel's tomb. Despite those disappointments, I enjoyed learning a lot of history in Samarkand. 

Water wheel

We also learned a lot about Uzbekistan thanks to Bek, guide books, Internet and observation. Uzbekistan has the most cultural/historic sites in Central Asia so they get more tourists and are very protective of that, leading to some not warm feelings with neighboring countries. Uzbekistan is practically a police state, with 4% of the population being policemen and an oppressive and closed government. Although the population is almost all Muslim, it is a secular country and it is constantly fighting against fundamentalism for fear of facing problems like the ones in Afghanistan. We didn't see an burkas or big beards and our guide said that religious groups are closely watched. Overall the country felt a lot less Islamic than I thought it would.

What we did:

• Drive to Samarkand (300km) -2750 years old.
• Stop for lunch at Jizzax for samsas
• Mausoleum of Timur (XIV Century)

Day 3: Saturday, August 10, Samarkand

• Ulugbek Observatory and museum (XV)
• Konigul Mulberry Paper Factory –interesting, felt very Japanese. Relaxed with tea and snacks in garden afterwards.
• Shahi Zinda Ensemble –ancient necropolis (dramatic but rather too overly renovated) + new cemetery 
• Lunch at a local family’s house: Muborak House
• Registan Square (closed for upcoming Independence Day celebrations –no access. Shame!!)
• Visit local artist Sharipov Toir. Several hours visit and talk
•  Filatov wine museum and factory with wine tasting –fun!

Day 4: Sunday, August 11, Samarkand- Bukhara

• Bibi Khanum Complex (wife of Temur)
• Food and Vegetable Bazaar (buy lots of dried fruit and nuts as snacks for car drives etc. )

BUKHARA

Many of the cities we were in used to be part of the Great Silk Road, but Bukhara in particular was famed for its silk carpets. Bukhara perhaps most closely fit my vision of what I thought desert cities would look like. The old part of Bukhara consisted of sand colored, flat roofed stone buildings and a big square with a decorative pool and trees. The square would fill up in the evenings with small children playing and old men sitting by the water drinking tea. One of my favorite things was just sitting in the square, as it was the most kind of busy, cafe scene that we has come across. 

There are hundreds of monuments in Bukhara, but we ended up having limited time to see them. Lorelei had an issue with her leg that was possibly a dangerous blood clot from the plane ride so she and my parents went to see a doctor while Chantal, Selina and I shopped and relaxed in the square. After the doctor said that it was probably a clot, but a non-life threading one we took up our touring again. 

My favorite things from Bukhara were the tall, intricate minaret from pre-Genghis Khan, the giant Arc fortress, and the carpet store. The carpet shop included a lesson on how carpets are made and the different types of carpets. The lesson was given by a young woman who was really engaging and funny and made the whole process memorable. We also saw a gorgeous small mausoleum that was decorated not by tiles but by intricate patterns made by the way the bricks were used.

What we did:

• Drive to Bukhara through Malikchul Desert and Zerafshan river (300km). Stop by ancient Karavan Serai Gate  (XI) and well
• Stopped in Gijduvan at 2 ceramics Centers. 
• Sitorai Moni Hossa –summer residence of Bukhara Emirs –beautiful! Looks very Russian.

Day 5: Monday, August 12,  Bukhara

• Lorelei and my parents went to see a doctor, worried about Lorelei's pain in her leg. They said it should go away by itself.
• Chantal, Selina and I spent the morning by the pool in the main plaza and then shopped a little.
• 1pm Lunch at Magistral for the national Plov dish (we paid) (Bek was unaware that we were meant to have lunch with Zulya’s parents and we only found this out when Zulya called in later to check on Lorelei. A shame as that would have been a very special occasion)
•  Ismail Samai (IX)
• Chashma-Ayub (XII-XVI)
• Bolo Hovus Mosque (lovely wood pillars)
• Huge Fortress-Ark Iman Agzam
• Poi-Kalon Complex with minaret (XII), Mosque Kalon and Miri Arab Medreseh (XVI)
• Bukhara Silk Carpets Factory: explanation by Sabina + view workshop
• Fashion Show + Dinner at Nadir Divan Begi Madreseh
• Jewish Quarter and Synagogue (400 years old) + Mayoki Attari Mosque
• Back to Silk Carpet shop and bought rugs

Cooking in Castle Cary

I attended the Food of Course cooking school for 3.5 weeks held near Castle Cary in Somerset, England. It's a four week course (I had to leave early for our family trip) held in the farm house of Louise and Roger Hutton. Normally there are 6 students taught by Lou, but this time there were only four of us. 

I shared a room with Kathryn, a 21 year old English girl who is doing history of art at Manchester and lives near Castle Cary. Kathryn has plenty of cooking experience and was by far the most qualified. We got along really well as roomies and she always helped me out with cooking. Then there were two boys. Jordi, a 18 year old from Barcelona who just finished his first year of university, was fast and had cooking experience but was a bit of a class clown, always cracking jokes. Andrew, a 20 year old English guy who is studying marine biology at a university in Nova Scotia, had zero knowledge of a kitchen and was on the quiet side.

Making Creme brûlée

Then there was me. I only had super basic cooking experience of things like pasta and cookies, so I was pretty uncertain about how things would turn out. 

Lou was our teacher. She has been running this course for over a decade and was great. She had a giant book that she has put together of recipes and the course schedule and helpful information that we used for everything and got to keep. Lou was intimidating as she was pretty OCD about rules, etiquette, quality and cleanliness, but that was good in a teacher who was preparing us for if we ever wanted to cook professionally. She could also get frustrated, but in general she was patient, knowledgable and helpful. 

Roger is Lou's husband. At work during the day, he would join us for dinner. Full of information, he loved to talk and teach us things and made for very interesting table conversation. He would also help us clean up after dinner, and his super speed would make our lives much easier. I really liked him.

Moira is Lou's friend, an older Irish woman who helped out during the first week when Karen was gone and subbed on the day Lou had to go to a funeral. Very sweet and gentle, she works as an assistant to a caterer and was Jordi's favorite.

Karen was Lou's assistant. She came every morning to help prepare the trays with ingredients on them so we didn't have to go find and measure everything. It was really helpful to have to stuff set out for us, but Karen didn't always give the best advice. 

The course was held in Lou's house, a beautiful remodeled old farm house.

Lemon poppyseed cake I baked

I loved the house, which was cozy and surrounded by beautiful countryside and lots of cows. The kitchen was just like a normal kitchen, with an oven and an agar. Then there was an extra oven in the hallway, a laundry/wash up room that served as a mini kitchen, a nice big store room where all the ingredients were stored and prepped, and a lovely garden with herbs and vegetables. 

So those are the people and the place, now the class itself. 

The cooking class was very intensive. Here is our average day:

9 am: start class. Lou talks for a bit on a subject and maybe demos some skills. After that, we all get assigned a different dish or two and start cooking. For example, the subject might be mince meat and I made a chilli while someone else lasagna. 

2-ish: Sit down for lunch outside and eat what we had cooked. Typically Lou didn't join us, but Karen or Moira did. After lunch we cleaned up tr kitchen 

20 minute break after lunch clean up 

3-ish: start the afternoon session. Everyone helps with dinner prep, sometimes we prepared things for the next day.

5 or 5:30 ish: End dinner prep and start break 

6: the two people on dinner duty (we roared and went in different pairs) would come back to the kitchen. They would have to unload the dishwasher, set the table, sweep and mop, make a schedule for dinner and then cook. 

7:30: everyone in the dining room for wine and canapés 

7:45: sit down for starters 

8:00: serve main, then dessert. Then the students and Roger clean up 

9:30: typical time we finished clean up 

Group Photo (Jordi left early to go home)
We were doing the cooking and cleaning that 6 people normally did, but with only four of us. We were very busy and had to work hard but we covered so much that it was worthwhile. We also had some special days. One day Roger gave us a wine lesson. We also had an Indian lady come and teach us about Indian cooking one morning we also took a trip to a nearby town to go to the farmers' market and pick out fresh fish (I made calamari). 

During our little bit of free time, I would read, nap, go on jogs, watch game of thrones with Kathryn, or just relax.

On the weekends, we were free to go or stay. The first two weekends I went to Winchester. The first time Nathan came to visit and I showed him around. The second time my mom was visiting my grandparents and we took my grandmother to a Goan festival in London and enjoyed some Goan food. The third weekend I went to Kathryn's house near Cheddar and we went into Bristol on Saturday to shop and see Despicable Me 2. 

We each had to do our own dinner as a kind of final exam. This meant finding the recipes in cookbooks, pricing the ingredients to make sure we were within our budgets, getting the menu approved by Lou as following good menu rules, find the ingredients in the storeroom/ making a shopping list, then prepping and cooking the dinner all on our own. My dinner was on Tuesday night the last week so my parents, Lorelei and Chantal came. They had all arrived in England on Monday, besides my mother who had been in Winchester already. That meant I had to cook for 9 people. Luckily I had help setting up and playing. This was my menu: 

Canapés: filo pastry rolls of asparagus and prosciutto, plus spiced nuts 

My final dinner

Starter: pear and chickory salad with walnuts and Gorgonzola 

Main: roasted rack of lamb served on couscous with roasted tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant 

Dessert: homemade lemon ice cream served in brandy snap baskets with raspberries 

It was stressful to make it all but really great to see my family and get to show them what I had learned. I was a little slow getting all the courses out and didn't get to sit down much, but overall I think it was pretty successful. After dinner I packed my stuff up and drove back to Winchester with my family

.

Picturesque Paris

Day One
We arrived in Paris from Dortmund in the evening. We found our hotel, a very nice boutique hotel in the Latin Quarter called Hotel Odeon. We dropped our bags off and during this process I accidentally broke the flower head off the stem of Nathan's souvenir Dortmund flower, much to our distress. We then went for a delicious Moroccan dinner and walked around the student district. 

Day Two
On the second day we did a sort of walking tour of Paris. Since we had both been to Paris before, Nathan and I didn't really feel pressured to go into all the tourist sites and museums. After a long trip of days crammed full of touristy stuff, we decided instead to just enjoy our time in Paris.

Eiffel Tower

So we walked from our hotel to Notre Dame, the bridge with locks, through the louvre gardens, up the champ élysées, the Eiffel Tower and then stopped for lunch (we didn't go into any of those places). After lunch we walked along the river to the Musee d'Orsay, which we went into and spent time looking at the art. After that, we had wonderful Lebanese wraps for dinner then ended the evening by eating crepes and relaxing down along the Seine. 

Day Three 
Since I accidentally knocked Nathan's Dortmund flower off its stem, we decided to look for a way to preserve the flower so Nathan could keep it as a souvenir. We didn't have the time to press or dry it though, so we decided to look for resin to put the flower in. We had looked for silica gel the day before to dry the flower, but didn't find any so looking for resin was our mission for day three in Paris. 

We started off the day by going to promenade of plants, which is a tramway that was turned an elevated garden/park. It was really cool and we walked along it for a bit. Then we looked at two craft shops for resin- no luck. We took a break at the Hard Rock Cafe and enjoyed a brownie sundae. We then popped into Lacoste and found the specific green polo Nathan is always looking for but managed to lose his sunglasses in the process. Whoops. We had more luck at the next shop and found resin, even though it sounded like it was just as likely to kill the flower as preserve it. 

After dinner at a "traditional French food" restaurant back in the student area, we gave the resin a shot.

Rodin Museum

It smelled like toxic death and I felt a little like a bizarre sort of scientist. While the resin was setting we escape the noxious fumes by heading out to the busy streets filled with young people enjoying their evenings. We got ice cream then sat down at a cafe for a bit before heading back to check on the flower. It seemed to have been a successful attempt, but only time will tell whether or not the flower will rot later. It was fun to have a project for the day and go to non-tourists parts of Paris. 

Day Four 
We met up with my cousin Harry on the Champ élysées. He was in Paris visiting a friend for the weekend so we had ice cream and crepes together. It was great to see him and catch up for a bit. After we parted ways with Harry, Nathan and I went to the Rodin museum and then tried to go to Sainte-Chapelle but it was closed. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and people watching at the Luxembourg gardens which was full of people enjoying the beautiful weather. 

We then went to a nice restaurant called Pouic Pouic which was recommended by the hotel. There we had a delicious dinner to celebrate the last night of our trip. Later that evening we rushed to the Eiffel Tower in hopes of getting there once the crowds had left but before it closed. We didn't realize that the tickets and elevators closed way earlier than the actual tower closed, so we were too late to go up. I was sad, but I'd been up before and Nathan didn't have a great desire to go up. While hanging around the tower we made friends with a couple that were our age and chatted with them for a while about their trip before catching the metro back to the hotel.

Bastille day paratroopers

Day Five
Our last day of backpacking! It was also July 14th, which is Bastille Day. So we packed up in the morning, went back to visit Sainte-Chapelle with its gorgeous stained windows, then headed towards the city center. We saw the fly over and some of the military parade, but were too late to see the main events down the Champ Elysées. Massive crowds though and lots of disruption to public transport, so it took us a while to get back to our hotel area. We sat down for a last lunch in Paris, then grabbed our bags and headed to the train station. Nathan's train to Montpellier left from a different station, but he came with me to the Eurostar entrance and waved me off. It was really sad to say bye and end our trip, but it was exciting to be heading off to cooking school. 

A mean customs lady and a couple of train rides later, and I was stepping off the train in Castle Cary, Somerset, England. Time to go spend 3.5 weeks living with strangers and cooking all day! 

Conclusion:
Paris was wonderful. It's a city that's loved by people around the world because it's romantic and beautiful with delicious food, historic buildings, famous art, walkable streets and much more. It's the city of light, and although I find that it's easy for Paris to be bit of a cliche, it was still a lovely end to our backpacking trip. It was nice to just wander around and soak up the city, not to mention staying in a nice hotel was a bit of a luxury. And overall the backpacking trip was better than I had ever hoped for. I had looked forward to going backpacking ever since Selina went and to finally be able to go was amazing. Getting to travel to cities I had never been to with Nathan who was practically the perfect travel companion was incredible. My family trips are always fantastic, but the experience of traveling light and being independent without a set agenda was lots and lots of fun. The perfect way to kick off my gap year! I can't wait to go backpacking again.

Day Trip to Dortmund

We made a stop on our way from Prague to Paris to visit Dortmund, Germany. Dortmund is home to the Borussia Dortmund soccer club, Nathan's favorite team. It was his special wish to visit the city and stadium, so we got off our night train early in the morning, left our bags in the station, and enjoyed a day in Dortmund. 

Logo of flowers

We started off by going to a giant park called Westfalen. Puma had revealed the new jersey design for the soccer club by making a giant version out of flowers. After a certain date, people were allowed to take the flowers. We arrived the morning after the flowers were free for grabs, so some were gone but quite a few remained. We took photos and grabbed a souvenir yellow marigold. We then went to downtown Dortmund to have breakfast and look around a little. We didn't have time to see much, but it looked like Dortmund was a nice city with a cathedral in the center and a busy pedestrian main street. We then went to the stadium, where we first looked around the museum (or borrouseum as they call it) then went to the souvenir shop. After that we took a stadium tour. Unfortunately, the tour and museum were all in german so I didn't get much out of it, but Nathan loved it. The only bad thing was that we didn't have time to get Nathan's name printed on his new Dortmund jersey that he bought, but besides that it was a good visit. We then got on our train for Paris!

The hallowed grounds of the stadium

Partying Prague

Day one:

Lennon Wall

We arrived in Prague from Bratislava. Our hostel, Sir Toby's, was quite out of the way. At first I was disappointed to see that we were so far away from the city center in a quiet, uninteresting neighborhood, but the hostel itself turned out to be very nice and bustling. It was also close to a club that had a lot of good reviews so Nathan and I decided to check it out. Our only real "night out" of the entire trip seemed to be appropriate in Prague, a city famed for its social scene. The club turned out to be a really cool place that consisted of a whole bunch of rooms with interesting decor, the lower ones having music and more of the club scene but the rest being a restaurant. We popped into the club part and couldn't stand the electronic music so just hung out for a bit on the multileveled deck which was packed with people. We're not exactly party animals, so we headed back to the hostel after relaxing for a bit.

Day Two:

We started off by visiting the castle area, which had the palace and cathedrals. It was quite an extensive set up, but we got to see a lot of it. After taking Euro History, it was fun to see where the famed Defenestration of Prague occurred in the palace (throwing Catholics out the window and starting the Thirty Years War). We then looked at an art collection, the senate house, St. Nicholas Church, the Lennon Wall (I added my own cliched mark), the Kafka museum, Charles bridge, Charles bridge museum, and walked around the old town district. We stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe and then grabbed a sausage dinner from street vendors. 

View of the Tyn church from the clock tower

Day three:

On the third day we started off by looking at the municipal building (famous for its art nouveau) and watching the famous clock in the town square strike the hour with its moving figures. Then we went to the Jan Hus monument, St. Nicholas church (a second one- confusing, I know), toured the town hall, climbed the clock tower, visited synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, and then went to Vysehrad Park which is in a old cliff top fortress. There we snacked and napped so we could have a quick break from touring. Then we continued again, going to Wenceslas Square and the Museum of Communism. The museum was quirky and interesting; I really enjoyed it. After a delicious food stall dinner (the roasted ham is sooo good), we watched the sunset over the river and ended our evening with a drink at the famous Americky Bar in the Municipal House, apparently one of the oldest bars in Europe.

Early morning on the Charles Bridge

Day four:

Our last day in Prague. We got up super early to pack and check out then rushed to Charles Bridge so we could see the bridge nice and empty of tourists. It was really cool to see the city before it filled up with masses of foreigners. We wandered around until restaurants opened and then had breakfast, after which we popped into Tyn Church. We then spent the afternoon walking around and enjoying the city without a rush to go see things. The last thing we visited was the Veletrzni Palace, a massive modern and contemporary art museum. It was too big to see everything, but we did get to see some of it's giant collections. We then had dinner, got our bags from the hostel, and got on our night train.

Touching this statue means you'll return

Conclusion:

Prague was one of my favorite cities. It seemed to have a lot more tourists though, definitely more big tour groups. Lots of Americans too which hadn't necessarily been the case elsewhere. Prague is famous for its partying scene, which we didn't really experience on this visit, but you can definitely get the party vibe from the city- lots of young people and energy. Interesting historic sites, pretty city on a river, and an extensive yet walkable city centre/old town area made Prague a great place to visit. Definitely need to go back at some point.

Briefly in Bratislava

Our day trip to Bratislava wasn't very exciting. We got there, climbed up to look at the castle, wandered around the old town, had lunch, and then killed some time by looking at statues before getting back on our train. To be fair to Bratislava, we didn't look particularly hard for museums or hidden sights, but on a quick visit for just a few hours not much popped out. Even Ljubljana has more to look at and was prettier. The old town was fine and the castle was a castle, but the river and rest of the city wasn't particularly appealing. The Soviet built apartment buildings across the river were particularly unattractive. Sorry Bratislava, but I can't say I'd ever want to return.

Statue hunting for entertainment

Bratislava Castle