Czech-n-Slovakia

Bratislava Castle

Slovakia: Sucks. To be fair, my experience in Bratislava was sucky; I hear Slovakia is actually supposed to be very beautiful and maybe worth a return visit someday. Bratislava is the capital, but its most famous site is the rather unimpressive Bratislava Castle. I walked around the old town and saw the sights, but it was really cold, windy, and rainy; I admit I was much happier watching House in my hostel :) The best part of my experience in Slovakia was getting to try Bryndzove halusky, the national dish of dumplings, bryndza (sheep cheese), and bacon:

Bryndzove Halusky & Kofola @ the 1st Slovak Pub

The dish was topped with tiny pieces of juicy bacon that would explode incredible flavor. Finally, a national dish that’s tasty! Slovakia’s version of Coca Cola though, Kofola, is very, very bad: Flat, overly sweet, and like a bad mix of rootbeer and coke. Slovakians love it though making Slovakia one of the few countries where Coca Cola is not the #1 coke product. I don’t pretend to understand.

Prague's Old Market Square w/ Tyn Cathedral in the background

View of Prague Castle and the city

Czech Republic: Prague, Praga, Praha! People love this city. I can see the ways in which the city woes tourists with its charming little streets and random oddities – David Cerny statues… locks of love…peaceful parks, etc. I can’t say I particularly liked Prague, however. It was way too touristy! The touristy sights are all concentrated together so the streets are jammed with people. You can’t power walk your way away from smokers or smelly people, you’re just stuck in the crowd breathing funk until there’s an open space to maneuver around in. Yuck! Because the city was so touristy, everything was also expensive – overpriced food, museums, and even bathrooms! Beer was fairly cheap, but they don’t even have the good Budweiser! 

Mango Hostel: In the last post, I mentioned being affected by my hostel and restaurant experiences – these were some of my main issues with Prague and why I didn’t fall in love with the city. My hostel put me in an empty dorm room without letting me choose my bed. They assigned one to me, a top bunk, and I’d asked for a bottom because my foot had been hurting me. The cost of changing beds, even if you haven’t set foot in the room, is a night’s accommodation. Bullshit! So I had one night to myself stupidly climbing up and down a tall bunk bed, and then two nights with the smelliest people I’ve encountered on my whole trip! One guy hung his stinky clothes in the bathroom so it reeked in there, and another girl smelled like she hadn’t showered in months so the room reeked too. There must have been poor ventilation in the room as well because I got the worst cold of my trip from the smelly (and continually coughing) guy.

The Food: Disappointing!!! Knedliky is the famous Czech dumpling and though I realize dumplings come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, I have never seen it in the form of sliced bread. What the hell kind of dumplings are those?! This is the famous vepro-knedlo-zelo (pečené vepřové s knedlíky a se zelím) dish – roast pork, dumplings, and sauerkraut:

Individually, each thing was bad. When it was possible to get it all on my fork, it was just okay at best. Everything put together might have been passable as a sandwich but I’d never order this must-try Czech dish again. My accompanying Gambrinus (beer) was also bad and they charged a 25% cover charge for the privilege of eating at their crappy restaurant! Hmpfh! I gave another famous dish a try – svickovana smetane (beef in cream sauce) and though I swear the menu said rice, I got my favorite dumplings again. This wasn’t so tasty either, but the service was better at least:

The best local food I had was probably the smazeny syr – a fried cheese sandwich (but overall my best meals were at a Chinese buffet and McDonalds).

Smazeny Syr

Artbanka Museum of Young Art, Entryway

The Silver Lining: I didn’t particularly enjoy most of the touristy stuff like the changing-of-the-guard at the Prague Castle or the gargoyle “dance” at the Astronomical Clock, but I loved hunting for random oddities around the city. 

Astronomical Clock

David Cerny statues and Frank Gehry's Dancing House were fun to seek out and really random…the Lennon Wall was awesome (!) and I’d never seen anything quite like the locks of love in town. 

David Cerny - Pissing Men (in front of the Kafka Museum)

David Cerny - Tower Babies

Frank Gehry - Dancing House

Locks of Love

The Lennon Wall

They also had a Sex Machine Museum and of course I went! In the lobby, they had a chair that lit up describing how sexually charged you are - I am apparently "lukewarm." :)

(Different chair from the one described above...this is an antiquated sex machine of sorts lol...)

Quite unexpectedly, while I was wandering the Old Town, a shopkeeper said to me, “Are you from California?” (One of my favorite questions I’ve gotten so far!) I said yes and asked the guy why. He was perfectly logical and said he deduced I was a Californian based on my “Chinese face, suntan, and sandals.” In Prague, I also saw a pug! I'd love to be this old lady hanging out with my pug someday: 

    

Four days after arrival, I left Prague on a bus bound for Poland. I’ve been waiting ages to get to this country where one of my favorite people is from! Up Next: Warsaw, Krakow, and Auschwitz!