Саинт Петерсбург (Saint Petersburg)

If Tom Cruise ever taught me anything, it’s that “sometimes you just gotta say ‘what the fuck’”.

My time in Estonia had given me a brief look into the eastern European culture and in particular the times of Soviet reign. This, coupled with meeting Ben, had swayed my decision about Russia and even though my tour was cancelled I decided to head there anyway – I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity that I might never have again. So upon leaving Estonia, I headed back to Helsinki for a few more days to rest up, sort out some visa issues, and most importantly board the train to St. Petersburg.

My train from Helsinki was at 7:30am and I was staying half an hour from the main train station so I decided to take the 6:05am bus in. Unfortunately it was some sort of public holiday and all the timetables were different, the bus never came, I started mildly stressing, but luckily a woman who was late to work helped me navigate several busses which deposited me at the central train station with about ten minutes to spare. Then off I was.

The change was not so subtle. Looking out the window, I noticed that all the signs surrounding the train line had changed from the latin to cyrillic alphabet. Next, a message came over the intercom system saying that the train was now entering the ‘border control zone’. I wasn’t too sure what that meant would happen untill about 10 guards jumped on the train and removed everyone’s passports from them. This worried me slightly as I didn’t want to lose my passport while staying in Russia on a visa which was gained from an invitation which was no longer valid. I didn’t even know the last name of the girl I was staying with so wrote the defunct tour’s name on the immigration forms and hoped for the best.

Half an hour passed with nothing, and then finally… I WAS IN! I had legally arrived in Russia!

The train arrived at Finland Station in St. Petersburg at two o’clock. I wasn’t to meet my CouchSurfing host, Ira, until seven, so after figuring out how the metro system worked in a place with very little English writing and speakers, I dumped my bags in the locker room at Vosstaniya Station (where I would meet Ira later on) and went for a wander. I headed down the main street, Nevskiy Prospekt, and what I saw was wonder. The buildings were amazing; colourful, magestic and grand. The writing everywhere was different, the cars were different, the people were different, it was all very much more different from anything I had ever seen, even Tallinn. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the central city area, checking out the amazing buildings, churches, the seaside, oh and it was freezing!

At around seven I met Ira and we headed back to her apartment. This is when I began to understand what people mean when they say that the binary of wealth distribution in this country is expansive. Everything about the innercity was beautiful, and almost everything about the outskirts was the opposite. Ira was living about half an hour out of the central city by metro, the area was bland, dirty, the people seemed like they were barely making it through the day and the soviet architected apartment blocks stretched out as far as the eye could see in every direction. In this country you either have money or you don’t, there is no middle ground. The poor people can’t afford the good stuff, but they can afford to indulge. In one supermarket I saw half a litre of vodka for $6.50NZD and a pack of cigarettes for around $1.10.

Ira had, that night, invited a bunch of her friends around to her flat for some drinks. So I spent the night drinking with Ira, Vlad, Pascha, Sascha, Stas, Nadya and a few more people who’s names I can’t rememeber. It was cool, their english wasn’t the best, but they were heaps of fun to party with and so it happened, the more they drank, the better their English got. My Russian on the other hand failed to improve in anyway.

Russian Beer

The next three days (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) were Russian public holidays so Ira had some time to spend showing me around the sights. I had told Ira that I was interested in searching out some old Soviet Lomo cameras as I heard the authentic products could be picked up very cheap if you knew where to go. So off we went to a local flea market. This place was very intense. It sold everything that most people don’t need. Old computer parts, hats, badges, cell phones, memory cards, power tools, rusty bolts, old clothes, and happily, the camera. I was able to pick one up from a more ‘reputable’ camera dealer for 100 rubles which is around $6.5NZD. Pretty good find I must say. We spent a little while rummaging around the markets and then headed into town to meet up with Ira’s friends again. We ended up at a ludicriously expensive shisha bar where for some reason they gave us a pipe with no water. It was horrible! After this was pretty late so we all decided to call it a night, but not after I was invited to a poker night the following evening.

On the Monday Ira decided that she might show me some of the sights of the city. So after eating a breakfast of blini (russian stuffed pancakes), we set out into the centre of town. First stop was the local huge cathedral, St. Isaac’s. This building was huge, so big in fact that you had to cross a road and half a small park to even include the entire building in a photo.

St. Isaacs Cathedral

Next we headed over to the famous statue of the Bronze Horseman.

The Bronze Horseman

Afterwards we walked over to Spit of Vasilyevskiy Island to have a look around. Here we saw a russian wedding with the bride and groom throwing glasses of champagne over their shoulders into the sea, only both missed, one smashing on the ground, the other hitting a statue behind the groom’s head, projecting broken glass towards the bride! She fell to the ground covered in blood as a huge shared severed her jugular. To be honest, she was fine. Next we walked back towards the Winter Palace or Hermitage.

Winter Palace on the Sea

Past the Winter Palace was the Palace Square.

Palace Square

And just through the arches was a man with a monkey!

Monkey!

After checking out these main sights, Ira wanted to show me an interesting apartment block which contained a huge amount of crazy mosaics everywhere. Almost all of the walls were covered and the public sitting areas were made completely of mosaiced concrete.

Mosaic Apartments

Soon it was dark and time to head to Nadya’s place for the poker game which I didn’t do very well in at all. A nice Russian pork dinner was cooked by Nadya and then it was time to head home for sleep.

The following day, Pascha, Ira and I went to Pushkin which is a huge park south of the city. Inside this park is an enormous palace which was built for Catherine the Great. Unfortunately it was off-season so we could not go inside and none of the fountains were working, but it was still amazing to see.

Catherine the Great's Palace

In the summer this park splits into two parts. The part which the palace is inside becomes a tolled park, so you have to pay to hang out in there. The other part is free and increasingly more desheveled. Even though it was winter you could easily tell the difference between the two parts, the free part muddy and dirty and unkempt while the paid part was tidy and manicured.

Inside the free part we also found some interesting ruins.

Ruins at Pushkin

That night we decided to haev a quiet one and Ira and I watched an interesting Terry Gilliam film starring Robin Williams as a crazy homeless man.

The next day was Wednesday, my last day and time to head back to work for Ira. I decided to check out the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Peter and Paul Fortress

This place is an island in the middle of the harbour which is shaped in a star-like manner. It was built in the 18thC and up until the 1917 was used as a political prison. Even Dostoyevsky was housed here. The fortess even contains a beach were some crazy guy was swimming in Speedos. The water can’t have been more than 1 or 2 degrees! Inside the fortress was the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Peter and Paul Cathedral

From the fortress I walked past some sort of military weapons museum full of tanks and rocket launchers and more, and towards a frigate which I was advised to look at. On the way I walked past a pretty cool pirate-type ship as well. I walked on and on, the mission to get to another bridge to pass back onto the main land. Evening slowly fell with a beautiful sunset, my last day was almost over.

Saint Petersburg Sunset

That night it was time to leave. I was on the 1:20am night train to Moscow which I boarded after a few language barriers about passports and the like. The cabin was small and old, the train wobbled around a lot, but soon I fell asleep and woke up in Moscow.

P.S: Some how I forgot to mention the Saviour on the Blood church, but this place was amazing! We saw this after the monkey.

Saviour on the Blood

Stockholm!

I arrived back in Stockholm at around 4pm on a Tuesday. My next Couchsurfing host was Karl. He was busy working on a student radio show that evening so I made my way to his place using the instructions which he had given me. I always worry a little bit about using the local public transport systems, but as usual, this one was indcredibley easy.

I took the metro four or five stops and then met a bus. I asked the driver if he went to where Karl lives and how much the ticket was. He replied, “one thousand.” I said, “how about I give you two.” He laughed and then asked, “American? Canadian?” “New Zealand” I replied, and he told me to get on the bus and that he’d take me there.

I arrived at Karls apartment building, entered the door code and headed up to his place, found the key and let myself in. Nort knowing what to do, I looked through Karl’s bookshelf and spent the night reading a book until Karl arrived home.

Karl arrived home at around 9:30, and straight away we got along. He was a friendly guy with what I thoughht was an American accent. I later found out that he was purely Swedish but had lived in California for a year when he was 17-18. He didn’t seem to realise, but I think that the accent atoning his english was influenced from this experience – and network TV! That night we chatted about all sorts of things ’till late including Whatipu’s tunnel of wind (some of you will know of this amazing place on Auckland’s West Coast).

The first proper day I spent in Stockholm was beautiful, sunny autumn day, so I decided that I would just start walking and see where I ended up. So I headed across the bridge from Liljeholmen to Åsön. The view was amazing;

Bridge from Liljeholmen

I saw from the bridge a nice looking park which ran along the seaside, so I decided to head into there. The autumn trees were looking amazing, but the first thing which I noticed were these crazy little houses set into the hillside. I thought they might be something like a retirement village, but after inquirement it turns  out that they are summer houses which you can hire out from the government as a place to garden and hang out in when the weather is warm. A great idea for the thousands of people who live in apartments in the inner city.

Summer Houses

I continued my walk along the seaside for another hour or so and then headed into the city. I found a  cool shop called The T-Shirt Shop where I bought an urban guide to Stockholm which was to guide me to the best of the shops and other places in Stockholm for the next few days. I even found an awesome statue of Thor beating down upon a sea serpent.

Thor!

The rest of the afternoon I continued my walk around the city and in the evening headed back to Karl’s where we had dinner and hung out for the evening, him telling me crazy stories and showing me videos of mixed martial arts legend Bas Routen. Hilarious!

The following day I decided to check out the Old Town. Almost everywhere has some form of “old town” and this was no exception. Cobbled streets, ancient buildings, and hundreds of ridiculously expensive tourist shops. The palace was also on the island where the old town was located, a huge building complete with guards and everything!

Palace

Next on the list was the Swedish Parliment and a crazy round church, walking-a-tonne, and another evening of hanging out with Karl.

Swedish Parliment

The next day I decided to check out a few more parts of the city. The town hall which had this cool leave covered wall hiding an amazing lion statue.

Hidden Lion

Next I went to check out the Moderna Museet, but ended up not having enough time to go inside. Outside, however, were some very cool sculptures consisting of child-like giant lumps coupled with strange steam-punk style machines. Very strange but very cool.

Modern Sculpture

That evening things got more exciting. There were a number of options for the evening, but we had to choose one. At 7 we headed out to one of Karl’s friend’s place, Lena. Her and her friend Mary (I think, sorry!) had cooked dinner for us, a Swedish specialty, reindeer. The dinner was amazing and after a large helping and some crazy chat, we were ready to head out. Lena was running a club night at one of Stockholm’s clubs, but before we attended that, Karl and I headed to another club to see a gig by Californian experimental band Xiu Xiu. Later after the gig we headed to Lena’s club night, met her and Mary and had a few drinks, then headed off home.

The time in Stockholm was excellent, things just keep getting better! The next day, ‘though, it was time to leave. An overnight ferry was booked for Helsinki, and at 6pm, after only making the boarding with 5 minutes to spare I was off with the sunset behind me.

Stockholm Sunset

Farming and Hippies: Gothenburg

Arriving off of the train from Copenhagen, the sun was shining in Gothenburg and the afternoon was hot. I waited for Martin to collect me from the train station. Soon he turned up with his girlfriend Lisa, they were to be my fourth CouchSurfing hosts.

I was visiting Gothenburg City, but this time I wasn’t staying in the city – Martin lived on a farm about half an hour out of the city.  We boarded the closest train. I had no Swedish money and couldn’t afford the ticket but not to worry Matrtin told me, foreigners never get in trouble for not having a ticket because there is nowhere for the authorities to send the fine. And anyway, we might not even get checked.

We got checked.

I played my part like a historic shakespearian actor, denying Martin and Lisa as people I knew, acting confused as to where I was going (I really didn’t know the stop name), and generally just causing such a fuss that the woman  - who most probably though I was some idiot from New Zealand –  gave up and told me that “next time” I would need a ticket. Okay! After the train ride, we took a short bus trip which carried us out of suburbia and into the wilderness, forests and farmland of Sweden. From the bus, it was ten minutes of walking, in some of the most beautiful landscape that I had seen so far in my travels, and we had arrived at what Martin called “The Commune”. I was about to live the hippy dream!

Gothenburg Commune

First things first, I needed to check out the nature of the farm and it’s surroundings; I decided to check out the farm’s lake. Now this was beautiful. Martin had originally said that we could go swimming there, and as beautiful as it was, it looked freezing! I doubted I’d be taking a dip. I spent about an hour or so walking around before returning to the house, nay, commune. There I met another of the members, Thomas. This guy was crazy, he had a computer-science masters, worked for Volvo as an electrical engineer, and spent the rest of his time being a vegan, reading an assortment of books on psychedelics, and listening to crazy 60s and 70s music.

The Farm Lake

The next thing I knew, I was part of an intricate sheep hurding operation to retrieve a small number of wayward sheep to had managed to remove a part of their paddocks fence and wander off into the dense forest. Running back and forth with a crook in hand, we slowly managed to get all the sheep back home, Thomas fixed the fence and we headed back inside.

Sheepy!

That night we just chilled out, listened to crazy music, talked crazy talk and slept a crazy sleep.

The following day I decided that I would leave the farm for a life in the city. Just one day of life in the city. I headed into Gothenburg city, found the tourist information centre, gained a map, planned my walking, and set off into the jungle. Lisa had given me a list of place to visit, mainly interesting shopping streets. I first visted an area of the city called Haga, this is the oldest district of Gothenburg and was complete with colourful buildings, cobbled streets, and interesting shops.

Retro Shop

The next place I checked out was not on my list. I had seen it from Haga, a large round tower up on the top of a hill which I figured would be a pretty cool view over the city. It turned out to be one of the oldest defense forts for the city which had, in the last one hundred years, been turned into the city’s military museum.

The Fort

The view was not too bad either!

View from fort

After leaving the fort, I checked out yet another European church. Yes they are all old, but in all honesty, they are all merging into one – except for the epic cathedrals of course. So I soon moved on, making my way to what Lisa had written on the list as “Big Park”. And it certainly was a big park. I am thinking that in New Zealand we would barely even call it a park, it was more like a forest with paths, and bang smack in the middle of it was a free zoo. Although it wasn’t really a zoo, more like a farm with viewing spots. I did, though, encounter this big guy:

Moosery!

He was snuffling at me in all his hungered glory. The zoo also contained sheep, goats, ducks, ponies, and peacocks. I walked around this park for quite a while, making the most of the beautiful sunny day which may have been one of my last and then headed back to the train station to meet up with Martin and head back to the farm.

The next few days I spent hanging around the farm:

• Eating awesome vegan food and organic stype apple cake
• Exploring the forest with it’s many varieties of mushrooms
• Walking around the local rural roads in search of the unknown
• Listening to crazy music

One evening we watched Wall.E which I thouroughly enjoyed. Another night we watched a documentary called Koyaanisqatsi. This film was an absolutely amazing look at nature versus the built environment with an exceptional soundtrack soundtrack by acclaimed composer Phillip Glass.

The other intersting thing about Martin was his interest in conspiracy theories, particullarly those of a certain man called David Icke. This guy is crazy, and you, my friends, will be watching one of his lectures with me upon my return. His content is so crazy that I can not believe that anyone actually goes along with what he is saying.  Check out his website!

So yes, for a few days I just hung around the farm. On the final day, just before I had to leave, Martin pulls out a  big bag of wild Swedish mushrooms which Lisa’s father has picked from the forest and proceed to make me a very tasty open-top mushroom sandwhich for breakfast. Yum!

Mushroom Breakfast

And after that, it was off to the train, and onward to Oslo!

Scandinavia Initiation: Copenhagen

After a 15 hour overnight train ride, I made it from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. I was sleeping in a little cabin on a very wobbly train. The cabin looked a little like this:

Sleeping Train

On the train I met Bob. Well, I really met him at the information desk at Amsterdam Station. I was there trying to find out which platform my train was going from as I didn’t really believe what I had been told earlier by someone else. He was doing the same thing, except he was clad in leather. Bob was also a Canadian art-director. We got onto the train, talked about all manner of things, but by far the most interesting was the fact that he was travelling around with an 8mm video camera and another oldschool 120 film camera. We’ll come back to Bob.

The other interesting character I met on the train, his name is unknown to me. He arrived in my cabin around midnight during our stop at Cologne and was the first person on this trip who has accurately guessed that I’m from New Zealand and not Australia. We got talking after having to deal with an unruley and obtrusive suitcase belonging to a travelling Jamacian who just sat there in his Timberlands eating piles of junkfood for the entire journey. The talk was definitely interesting, he was a Baroque harpsicord player who travelled once a month from Copenhagen to Cologne for lessons. We talked for around 2 hours, and I think the most intersting thing he told me was how the train system works. The night trains which travel through Germany all stop at Hanover at around 2am. At hanover, depending where the passengers are going (and they are separated by carraiges), the trains start this crazy system of swapping carriages before heading to their final destination. This is why I was initally confused. The sign for my train said Copenhagen, Cologne, Prague, Warsaw and a couple more!

After 15 hours in the wobbely train, we arrived at Copenhagen central in the rain. Although we were in different hostels, Bob and I decided to meet at the station the following day for a wander around. So we parted ways, him walking into town and me taking another train out to the damned airport! Why did I choose the Airport Hostel Copenhagen? Because it was cheap. After a 25 minute walk to the hostel from the airport, a cold shower, and a 25 minute walk back, I had returned to the train going back into the city.

(I can see this becoming far, far, too long. I might have to speed things up a bit!)

I hit the town. I saw the world’s largest carousel.

World's Largest Carousel

Then I witnessed some Mexican buskers, one of which was playing the panpipes while holding their DVD and CDs and constantly glancing over to me (and I suppose everyone else):

Mexican Buskers

Next I walked into the shopping street where I proceeded to lose a small-yet-annoying amount of money to a street gambler. Those of you who know me know that I am not one for the gambling. Don’t ask me why I did it. I only went in for a wee look at what all the fuss was about, then next thing I knew I had my wallet open and a group of Danish men crowding around it, counting how much money I had, and then I had nothing left. That was one lesson learnt the hard way.

I left that scene swiftly and went for a wander around the city. I saw important buildings, pedestrian roads, crazy churches, canals and interesting modern architecture. And statues, oh the statues. Of all the cities I have been in, Copenhagen would be the city of statues. They are absolutely everywhere. I spent a few hours wandering around, but after a restless nights sleep, I became pretty tired pretty fast, but this was ok as I was about to return to my hostel – and a huge party! Just what I needed.

The party went on, the music was terrible, and the bass reverberated throughout the entire house. I finally managed to go to sleep around 3am. This was not all an annoyance ‘though. I met some cool people from Germany, Sweden, Syria, Poland and many more places. But sleeping was a must, the next day was to be a big adventure.

I met up with Bob at the central train station at 12 o’clock and off we set for an extensive wander around the city. Our first stop was the (once) freetown of Christiania. Christiania is an old military base which was taken up by squatters in the late ’70s. For years it was occupied by free-spirits, hippies, yoga afficinados and people of similar ilk. Rules had been set, hash-trade was legal but there was no tolerace of gun, hard drugs or stolen property. This all ended in 2004 when the government raided the freetown, forcing the hash-trade to go underground and change the life in Christiania forever. It is said that within a few years that the community many not even exist, with plans for developments such as a golf course to be undertaken.

Entrance To Christiania

Turkish food was scoffed on the way back into town, and we decided to visit some of the more historical sites of the city. Half of our walk was us looking at the same things that both of us had seen the previous day. We walked down towards the river and found a street full of different coloured buildings:

Colourful!

Further walking saw us finding the statue of the Little Mermaid. We both knew about this statue but neither of us had originally thought we would see it – this happened by mistake as we were headed towards the Freidericksburg Fort, a star shaped inland island complete with bridges, cannons, buildings which was originally self-sustaining. Oh and the first proper windmill which I had seen!

The Little Mermaid

Freidericksburg Fort Windmill

We had been walking for hours and had covered most of the inner city, so after the fort there was only one placce left to visit for the day, the Royal Gardens.  As we were walking there, we spotted one of the coolest bike stores I’ve ever seen. This place made its own bikes, including the frames, and let the buy choose all the options, colours, etc. How grand!

Bike-tastic!

Then it was on to the Royal Gardens, public gardens which are locked at night and house a large number of crazy sculptures. And afterward, for me, almost an hour more walking + a train ride to get back to the hostel.  Luckily for me that night there was no party. Most of the hostel had cleared out and there was only 5 of us left – two german girls, another NZer and I, and a girl from Malta – who just chilled out and watched some well deserved films.

St. Bob and the Dragon

The following day, Ricky, the other NZer, had left. The girl from Malta was moving into an apartment with a Chinese boy, and the German girls  and I decided to have one last look around town before we all left the hostel. They were intent of buy presents for their entire extended family + friends, even though their holiday was only 4 days. So, after much, much, shopping, we decided to check out the Round Tower. I had some documentation but I’ve now lost it so could not tell you what the use of this tower was, but now if you like, you can ascend the never-ending circular ramp all the way to the top and involve yourself in a spectacular view of the city.

View from Round Tower

There was one last stop before we departed for the afternoon, that was the Almond Man. I had seen these around, and they smelt so good that I had to have some – pronto! I’m not exactly sure what these are, but they are Almonds that are coated in some kind of caramelized, crunchy and sweet coating. They tasted amazing, expsecially the hot ones, but after a while you actaully felt very ill. All three of us decided that we weren’t feeling too good after this, unfortunate cconsidering the magnitude of the taste!

Almond Man

“Goodbye,” I said to the German girls, and headed back to the airport to pick up my bags, where I then headed right back on to the train, bound for town. I had slept two nights in the hostel, but I was here for four – the next two were my third CouchSurfing experience. Mee and Mathias were both Business School students (Mathias also produces synth music for advertising, TV and film) who lived together in a pretty massive three bedroom apartment in Freidericksberg. For two more nights I stayed with them. The only full day I was at their place, I actaully only left the house to get something to eat, the rest of the time I spent planning the next stage of my trip and trying to begin to organise how I was getting to the north of Norway.

The following day at 11:32am I was off on another train, leaving overcast Copenhagen for sunny Gothenburg!

Prague and all it’s wonderous tourists

Our first night in Prague was the last night we would be camping, well, that Willy and I would be anyway. It was proving more of a nuisence than anything else – most of the campgrounds were far from the city centres and the lack of facilities was becoming frustrating.

We stayed in a camp ground which had almost nothing. The showers were button operated which you had to press evvery 5 seconds to keep the water running, there was no laundry and the only computer which had the internet was taken over by the local cab driver, a huge man who spent all day playing starcraft waiting for someone from the bar who wanted to be taken home. Unfortunately for him I doubt that anyone would really want to go to that bar unless they were staying at the campground.

The morning after, Willy and I packed up our gear and said goodbye to the camping experience with Ollie and Xanthe. We headed into Prague town and after a confusing start to the public transport system and an encounter with a hotel receptionist who seemed like she was on speed whislt giving us directions, we found our hostel. For this leg of the trip we had booked a two bed room which was nice, although the beds were even less comfortable than staying in the tent. But oh well, sleeping wasn’t really the reason for this trip.

After we were all set up, we headed into town by tram. The first thing you notice about Prague is that it is completely overrun by tourists. You can barely even see any of the sights and attractions which you have come to see through the washes of people. I have never been anywhere like this in my life, absolutely out of control. Lunch was had and we headed towards the sights. The good thing abour Prague is that everything is pretty much in walking distance so we found the Astronomical Clock with ease. This is pretty awesome, it not only shows the time, but also moon phases, solstices, constelations, and even tells you what you should be doing on ach day of the year regarding crop havesting and such activities.

Prague's Astronomical Clock

Next we walked towards the river and headed over Charles Bridge. This was like a sea of tourists, buskers, portrait artists and other gypsys selling all sorts of goods. There is no way you can even take a photo of this bridge unless you move to a much further away location (which we did).

Charles Bridge

We followed the river side for a while and came across an incredibly steep street which for some reason we decided it would be a good idea to walk up. This was not a bad plan in the scheme of things, as at the top was the entrance to Prague Castle, and was was possibley the most disappointing castle of my trip so far. Again there were so many tourists it was out of control and it just didn’t really seem all that regal. It could have been easily built in the last 100 years. But inside it was not all bad, there was a pretty amazing Romanesque church called Basilica of St George. We went inside briefly but decided that we would return tomorrow to take decent photos and have a better look around

St. Vitus Cathedral

Other than this, the view over Prague was pretty amazing from up on the hill.

View from Prague Castle

We spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering around the alleys and streets of the Old Town. That evening we met up with one of Willy’s old friends, Brendon, who had moved to Europe about 2 years earlier and Prague around a year ago. He took us out to dinner and both Willy and I had a pretty nice chicken spaghetti. Afterwards he took us to a street with a couple of bars and we spent the night hanging out at one which upon secondary inspection was incredibly seedy – there was even a group of drug dealers hanging out by the toilets totally known by the bar staff. After a few beers here we left and headed back to the hostel.

The following day our route of the sights was pretty similar. We saw the clock and castle again in the morning, we saw even more tourists than the day before and decided against going back into the Basilica of St George as the line was huge but we did see the changing of the guards which was very cool. We met Brendon again, this time for lunch. I had was turned out to be a ‘very Czech’ meal of potatoe, ham and onion dumpings on cabbage. After lunch we decided to head up to what can only be described as a giant metronome, situated on the hills next to the castle. We ascended the 200 or so steps and ended up in a place that obviously not many tourists make it to, it was all in pretty bad condition! Thankfully there was also a beer garden next to the metronome so we headed there and had a beer in the heat of the day.

Giant Metronome

That night we encountered something very interesting: the guy who wanders around trying to get people to visit the largest strip club in Prague. His speil went something like this:

“Hey guys, you like sexy girls? Come to our cabaret show! We have over 50 girls; African girls, Indian girls, Russian girls… girls from Slovakia, Czech Republic, everywhere. We have live sex shows, lesbisex shows, snake shows and even midgets if you like that. Maybe you like the big girls, 200 pounds plus, we have those too if you are into that. You can even have private dance, lap dance, table dance, dance in our limosine. And at the end of the night we can take you back to your hotel for free and if you like you can take any of the girls home with you. If you like your night and want to come back tomorrow, we can give you a number and we will pick you up from your hotel too.”

We politely declined and for the rest of the night checked out a few other bars and joked about how ridiculous that strip club was.

The next day we met up with Ollie and Xanthe again for our final car ride from Prague to Berlin!