Stockholm
Only spent one night here however taking the 6.20am bus to Stockholm meant we had the best part of the day to go round the city. With the rest of our party joining us at around 7 that evening the rest of us went sightseeing. I have of course spent one night in Stockholm before however it was nice to see it again. This time I went to City Hall which gave us a wonderful view back on Old Town with the sunset making it picture perfect. We’d checked into the Hostel which was just around the corner from the Bus station, handy for an early morning start! The room was rather nice, 4 bunk beds 2 on either side of the room. Once the others had arrived we went to an all you can eat Thai buffet, (typical Swedish food I know) Once we’d stocked up on food we decided to go to the famous Ice Bar. This is owned by the same company that owns the Ice Hotel in the North of Sweden. For around £15 you get your entry and your first drink included, (all other drinks after cost around £9!) Your first enter a room where you put on your coat as the Ice Bar is about -5C. The sessions are limited to half an hour (and the staff rotates every 2 hours) Walking through the door into the bar, it felt like being back in the freezers at Sainsburys, just with better use of Ice! The room had a few ice sculptures standing around the room; a Jelly fish carved into a block of ice took the centre alongside a carving of an old diving suit. An octopus was carved into a table next to a seating area. The bar also made completely out of ice took up one side of the room. We had a choice of cocktails to choose from. The glasses were pretty cool (pardon the pun) being made out of ice also. You had to have your gloves on to hold it. I then took on the challenge of eating the glass after finishing my drink. I always eat the Ice when it comes in my other drinks why not this one. They only get melted down and re-sculptured. It is defiantly something worth doing, and it gives you an insight into the Ice Hotel up north which I hope to visit.
Prague
Getting up fairly early In the morning to make our way to the airport that Ryanair use. It’s apparently a Stockholm airport but is an 82 minute coach ride away in a town called Nyköping! Gotta love Ryanair. The airport is shared with the Swedish Coastguard. Anyway, first flight with this low cost airline, so let’s keep an open mind. It is only costing £10 anyway. One thing that was questionable; whilst stating the flight was non smoking they did offer an alternative, smokeless cigarettes, cigarettes you could smoke in places you weren’t allowed to smoke, clever I admit however the line “& if you don’t smoke maybe you can start with smokeless” was a bit of a legal concern! The landing on this Ryanair flight was interesting to say the least. I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to slow the plain down before you land and not just slam on the breaks when you touch the ground!
The architecture in Prague is quite unique it feels just like a stereotypical Eastern European city. There is a big emphasis on their communist past. You will find communist poster dotted around, especially ones advertising the communism museum (sadly we didn’t have time to visit it) No mention of the German occupation. The hostel was just around the corner from an old bell tower which towered up over the street. Opposite a 200 store shopping centre it was clash of old and new. The old town Square is a beautiful place to stand. The Cathedral towers over the square with the clock tower opposite. Every hour on the hour a crowd gathers at the clock tower to watch it chime. It’s quite like a giant Swiss clock with little figures signing the hour, followed by a guard in the clock tower who then plays a tune from his trumpet at all four sides of the viewing platform of the tower. You can get horse and cart rides from the old town centre which just adds to the character of the old square in the background. Prague is called the most atheist city yet it has plenty of churches. It is true in Prague beer is cheaper than water! Around £1 a pint with a bottle of water costing £2. One thing to note is the great customer service you receive in Prague! They say a smile costs nothing yet apparently that’s too expensive for some people in Prague! I should point out, English is spoken here especially in the tourist zones, with regards to eating out you can ask for a menu in English to save you working out what on earth it is you are ordering. For our first meal in Prague we went to a traditional Czech restaurant. I ordered a Goulash with a side order of dumplings (all you can eat!) Popular Czech dishes will include beef, pork & chicken. Another favourite is fried cheese.
The tourist attractions are within walking distance. The fees associated with the attractions are around £1 each, so great value. One thing I recommend as a must visit is the Castle grounds. Up at the top of a hill with an amazing view over the city is the Royal Palace. The castle itself surrounds the centre piece of the site which is a huge cathedral towering over the palace and the city. This is a wonderful piece of architecture. The front has similarities with Notre Dame.
The food stands around the tourist areas are of good quality selling things such as belly pork which was heavenly (but can be pricey). If you make it 30 Czech Crown to the pound you have a good margin of era, it’s on average about 27.4 to the pound but 30 is easier to work out. It is cheap in Prague however if you go to the shopping centre with well known stores such as Topshop, M&S etc (The Aussies wanted to go!) you will find the exchange rates a bit odd as the big stores will put their prices on the tags in many currencies. In M&S in particular the price in Swedish Krona is almost double the value when converted to Euros. So be careful.
The Old Charles Bridge is well worth a walk over, pedestrians only so you can take your time and stop at the stands selling jewellery, paintings or even get a portrait/characture done, there are plenty of them! There are plenty of tourist shops around with the majority of them selling Czech glass, ranging from affordable to expensive (as you’d expect) finding a Czech flag was quite hard but got it and it now hangs in my room along with the others I have gained.
For a night out I would recommend one of the bar crawls (plenty of them). For around £10 you can have an all you can drink pre party followed by a few bars. The pre party was in the basement of a converted church. (Interesting, see how many sins you can commit in a church!) The unlimited drinks were limited to Beer, nasty wine and watered down shots. So good thing it was all you can drink because the drinks in the bars afterwards were around £3. O not to self never have cider in Prague unless it is the Swedish one. It was really bitter, just like the wine.
Note the Czech Rep doesn’t have a smoking ban, when you are used to this in Britain and other European countries it can take a bit of getting used to again, in restaurants it can be coped with however smoking in clubs at night caused me a few breathing problems, I have no idea how the asthmatics among our party coped! Be prepared for your clothes to sting of cigarettes when you get home, so pack extra clothes is my advice.
Berlin
Our time is up in Prague and we now move on to Berlin, a city we were all excited to go & see due to its history. Having only been to Germany once for 24 hours in the north of the country I wasn’t sure what to expect. We got the train from Prague Central and were on our way. It was around a 4 hour trip. You could tell when you entered Germany because the accents on the signs suddenly changed, and then you had a changeover of train guards from Czech to German. We arrived in Berlin to a wave of confusion about how we should get to the hostel. We decided that instead of faffing about with the underground we would just get a taxi. Just under 10 Euro a bargain compared to Sweden. Although the Euro £ exchange rate wasn’t in our favour as it was about 87p to the Euro, compared to the days when it was about 70p it turns out we had two different addresses for the hostel due to a mix up with the name. Our Hostel was just around the corner from the TV tower which I fell in love with, (the tallest building in the EU, surly upsetting the French!) and also just about a 5 min walk from the Main cathedral in Berlin (Berliner Dom)
Our first night was a fairly quiet one, One of our party went off to watch a play in German by a play write who she had studied before whilst we all went off to find something to eat. We ended up in an Asian restaurant! The Aussies & Canadian were excited by the fact you can drink in the streets here. A novelty that didn’t fade over time. This was clearly man time with conversation over dinner and beyond of a masculine nature! Berlin I have to say is quite, well strange is a way of saying it, maybe different is probably more applicable. Prostitutes walk around touting for business, and there are a lot of them. Bless though Christian I have to say came up with a quote that will stick with me for a while, “Was that a Prostitute? I’ve never seen one before” O dear! After moving on from them we ended up walking down an ally (As you do in an unknown city at night!) to find open fires and drinking in a square behind some buildings, quite tense I have to say, but the others seemed to be enjoying themselves. Something I would not do normally, chat to prostitutes and go down an ally!!!! Anyway Jo saved my life and texted to say her play had finished, so I was a happy boy.
The next day we returned to more normal things of sightseeing. We started off at the Berliner Dom which is quite a grand church; the restoration of it was only finished in 1993 after it was destroyed during the final days of the War. They did a good job it looks as if it was undamaged and had stood tall throughout history, about £2.50 to enter, but worth it. Especially for the views you can get from the roof. It is very grand inside, we’d stumbled on the beginning of a service, which of course we didn’t stay for! We went on the hike to the top to get the views. After that we ended up in the well I’m sure it’s not called this but basement. Where German royalty is buried alongside one unknown. The coffins had their crowns placed on top of them.
We continued our walk towards the Brandenburg Gate. Now a game we have played throughout our trip was to spot the embassies. Russia has the grandest one in Berlin I have to say however the embassies are on the ‘Eastern side’ of Berlin. The Brandenburg gate is quite something, creating quite a buzz. You have for the tourists people dressed up in the old military uniforms of the soviets and the East Berliner and on the other side the American and West Berliner, and where the hell would you be without Star War’s very own Darth Vader at a historical sight such as this!
We then moved onto the Reichstag, fun quote from the guide book “Why is the Reichstag called the Reichstag? It is not! It is called the Bundestag” Fancy being told off by a leaflet! Also the leaflet states “The Bundestag is not built on a foundation of sand” They really struggled for things to write about this place! No mention of it being burnt down. In fact you will find a lack of history between 1933-45 here. They focus strongly on the oppression under the Berlin wall! It is a long wait at the Parliament building and you only get to go to the dome on the top to get an audio guided tour of the view of Berlin. No Signe of Chancellor Merkel sadly.
That night we went out on a bar crawl, £11 again with one free drink and free shots at the bars. Pretty good night has to be said. Anyway next day woke up at 12, all tired from the night before with still a fair few things to see.
We made our way towards Checkpoint Charlie, on our way we walked past a motorcade parked up at the University, one car had the coat of arms for Germany on a flag attached to the front. I asked a Police officer who was there. He said that the President of Germany was inside the building. So we waited around for 5 minutes and sure enough the President of Germany came out. Being a more figure head position I had no idea which of the men walking out of the building was the President. All I knew was that Merkel had trouble getting him elected. I soon worked out who was the President, and he said Gudentag to me, so I replied. We reached Checkpoint Charlie which being American was next to a McDonalds! We visited the Berlin Wall Museum which though interesting was filled with information, it will take the best part of the day to read it all. It is filled with stories of escape from East Berlin to the West. What is also interesting is they had files with the names of people who were killed or died trying to escape from the East. There were at least 8 files filled with names. We then went on in search of the remains of the Berlin Wall that was still standing. It stands next to the grounds where the Gestapo building stood, which is now an open air museum. Tired as we were we made our way to the Jewish museum. Set up as a reminder of the Holocaust. The garden set as a memorial was quite interesting. It was pillars set in a slanted ground. The Holocaust tower was a room that high ceiling with one slit in it for daylight, however when we went it was dark so no light entered the room, it was quite moving. The section on the Holocaust was very interesting. It had memos from the Gestapo & SS with regards to the ‘Jewish solution’ as the Nazis called it. It showed footage from The Hague with relation to the War trials. Letters from the camps. I have to say the rest of the Museum wasn’t interesting at all, in my opinion.
