::A Geek in Korea::

This morning, the plan changed a little bit. I wanted to see AS Roma play a game of football (soccer), but we didn’t have tickets, and couldn’t secure good information as to how to get to the Olympic Stadium where they were playing. Instead, we headed out with some women we bumped into in another minbak a few cities back and went to the Trastevere Market Street.

We aren’t big shoppers on vacations. Frankly, it’s a bit of a waste of time, as you don’t really know local prices, and you can’t return anything you have a problem with. Still, this was a gigantic outdoor market that the entire city of Rome goes to, so it can’t be that bad. If the locals show up en masse, it can’t be THAT bad, and THIS was the day to go.

We arrived by bus, and the place was absolutely hopping. It was outdoors with tents along the street. We started walking, and the first place was filled with piles of really nice Italian shirts. Five Euro. People were scavenging through it like a Korean housewife looking for cheap cabbage. I pulled out two great shirts for ten Euro. We hadn’t walked 20 meters and we had a bag of stuff.

The street was PACKED, and there was lots of opportunities to get pick pocketed. That place was crawling with pick pockets and thieves, but we had our bags locked up, in front, and our heads screwed on straight. We didn’t end up robbed blind, thank goodness. I picked up a belt for another five Euro, a sweater for five more, and my wife got two authentic, leather bags for 90 Euro. The price were crazy, mind boggling low. Impossibly low. Sure, there were a few stalls selling some crap, and lots of bad wallets too, but damn, CHECK IT OUT.

Our shopping itch well scratched, we headed back to the room to drop off our wares. We ended up collapsing for an hour to rest. We just ran out of steam for an hour. We then headed over to a local pizzeria for some pasta. Meh. I’ve had better pasta in Korea. That’s not an impressive feat either.

We hit the Pantheon right as it was about to close. We ran into some people we knew from a tour, but they told us to head inside. The artist Raphael is buried in the Pantheon. The dome was impressive, considering the technology of the time. The swell around his grave a picture was completely and totally NOT worth the effort. It’s an inscribed rock, get a grip people.

Trevi Fountain is really cool and romantic. My wife had been there a few nights ago. When she went, a man proposed to his girlfriend. There was a big cheer from the crowd when she accepted. Then, the rose seller ran over to congratulate her, patting them both on the back. He handed the man all the roses he had in his hand. The man grabbed them all and gave them all to his new fiance. Then the rose man asked for his cash. The man was stuck. Who’s going to take roses away from the fiance to give back to the man who wants his cash? OF course he paid for them all.

We didn’t see anything nearly as cool. All we saw were people with telescoping scoops that would walk around the fountain, leaning in, and taking all the coins people threw into the water. There isn’t a law, but there should be. From there, we saw some stupid tourist taking pictures in the middle of the street almost get smacked by cars rounding a corner. They did this MULTIPLE TIMES. I hope they have good travel insurance if that’s how they go around the city from day to day.

Tomorrow is the Colloseum.

Today was Vatican Tour day. We were surrendering whatever amount it would take to get through a tour to see the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, as well as St. Peter’s Basillica. We woke up at 7 am, ate breakfast, and hauled tail to get to the tour meeting place before they left. It was a Korean tour, so I was free to attend, but I didn’t get any headphones to listen. I had a book, and planned to get an audioguide, so the guide himself was redundant for me anyway. I knew what was going on.

We got on the “dangerous” Rome subway. The stories I heard before I actually WENT on the thing made it sound like there were thieves and pick pockets at a 10 to 1 ratio to actual subway riders. We didn’t see any. Just be smart with your bags people.

We literally RAN to get in line as far up as possible before the place opened. It curved around two or three blocks. We waited out in the sun for around two hours before even getting into the Vatican itself. We even got to eat some ice cream when I ran out across the street to grab some for the wait. The line wasn’t really all that bad considering the wait. The annoying people in the Florence Uffizi made THAT line way worse. Soon enough, we were through security, and into the Vatican proper.

The tour guide told me I had to run to get this audioguide while he was telling people where to go. I deposited my passport, got the map, and was told to return to this spot later and return the audioguide to get my passport back at this same location. THIS WAS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT. The guide told us he would tell me the time to tell me when to go return my audioguide. All I had to do between that time and the rest of the tour was to just hang around and be ignorned by him. He would do these really lame jokes in Korean, and force people to give him a high five. Everyone EXCEPT me, and a Japanese guy who was doing the same “hang around the tour thing” I was with his friend. He and I got completely ignored by the guy. He would do things where he would go down the lines, slapping hands, then get to me, pass me over, then keep going. What the hell?

Anyway, we did the Vatican Art gallery. I saw Raphael’s “Transfiguration”. That I found pretty kick ass. “Madonna and Child” paintings were like the “Baby on Board” of the Renaissance in my opinion. So many to count.

Eventually we worked our way outside of the museum, and got to a courtyard. Then we had to sit through some more lame jokes while the guy explianed about the Sistine Chapel. Then, in a near non-stop march, we were squirted through halls filled with art we had no time to see, then shat out into the Chapel itself. Your first reaction, to look up and gape, is immediately proven wrong, as there are steps, and more people, and men yelling “Move down!”. From there, you are supposed to look up in awe. 90% of the people didn’t see the TINY signs saying “NO PICTURES”, so, of course, EVERYONE was taking pictures, with flash, all the time. Way to destroy art, ignore rules, AND make the thing a cheap, hollow experience guys.

The people trying to restore order in the Sistine Chapel were the most ineffective people I’ve EVER seen. Their entire job was clapping every few minutes and yelling, “NO PHOTO! NO PICTURE! PLEASE!” The people taking pictures outnumbered them 200 to one, and they didn’t actually DO anything to the people taking pictures except politely requesting, again, not to do it. To be honest, it wasn’t all I was expecting. I’ve seen better stuff in churches in this trip already. (Frescos in the church I visited in Florence yesterday were better.)

I didn’t take any pictures. I follow the rules on tours. I don’t do anything to break the rules while on vacation. I am a law abiding citizen and a very good traveler. Let me tell you how I ended up in the Vatican Police Station anyway. After the Sistine Chapel tour ended, there was, somewhere, a miniscule, poorly signed, incredibly badly placed way of getting back to the beginning of the museum to return your passport. I was waiting for my tour guide to point it out for me, because I didn’t see it anywhere. He didn’t tell me anything, so I thought I could get back to it from St. Peter’s Bascilica.

We went onto the tour of St. Peter’s Bascilica. Now THAT is a big freaking church. The Pieta was gorgeous. The Chinese tourists we saw had some TERRIBLE manners, using St. Peter’s statue and lucky toe as their personal picture studio. Of everyone we’ve run into on tours, the Chinese have definately had the least consideration for everyone else anywhere we see them.

After the tour ended, we went up to the guide. “Hey, were do we drop off this audioguide?”

“Mama Mia! I got to tell you to return that earlier. The museum is closed. You can’t give that back now. Go ask someone in information. Goodbye!”

You’ve GOT to be kidding me. A tour guide ditching someone when they can’t get a passport. Fucker.

We went chasing down people for information. One guy pointed us towards a police man at the exit. Another pointed us in the exact opposite direction. Another pointed us at the Swiss Guard. These guards were keeping people from walking around the non-tourist parts of the Vatican.

A little inside information about the Swiss Guard. Some of them are complete dicks. At least, the people WE encountered on guard at first were. When we were getting information some Australians needed to get their passports too. They had less excuse than I did, but said they didn’t see the signs either. I told you it was poorly signed! Anyway, we had to wait until 6 PM, when the passports were moved from the museum to the police station. 90 minutes. No, you can’t wait in the police station for the passports. You had to wait with everyone else. Also, you can’t sit on the steps. Stand up. Leaning on buildings will just leave you covered in bird shit. They weren’t guarding us or anything, but there really wasn’t anywhere we could go and return back to the place we needed to be without having to go through a line again.

We had to wait 90 minutes. The tour guide was LONG gone, otherwise there would have been a murder that WOULD have landed me in the Vatican jail for sure. As the guards changed on their shift, they got more friendly. While the first set of guards would deny anyone a picture, force people to stand up immediately, and be stiff around anyone. The later guards seemed like actual people. The later guards also let tired people rest for a few minutes before moving on, and posed with children. We stood the entire time time though, just to show them we weren’t going anywhere.

At 6:00 PM sharp, we showed up for our passports. We got waved on to a gate with a police officer. The police officer told us to meet the next police officer, who would escort us in. We met him as the Australians arrived to go with us. We thought we couldn’t have been the only ones to make the mistake. He said it was a common mistake. As we went in, we saw some robed men that got salutes from the police. We also saw the Vatican Gas Station. It was kind of neat, like a weird private tour. We got escorted up to the second floor of the Police office, and they passed us our passports. They had made copies. I saw a picture of my passport photo and whatnot. I have a file at the Vatican! Beware!

Anyway, after we got out of the police station, we left the Vatican and headed back to the hostel. We saw some other people walking in that forgot to turn in their audioguides too going the opposite way.

In discussing our day at the dinner table, knew our guide sucked compaired to EVERYONE else’s much more than before. Turns out that there are multiple tour guides using the same meeting points at close to the same time. We got on one of the crappy tours people at the hostel didn’t know about, and got the least professional guide anyone had heard of when we explained our problems over dinner. My wife was positively FUMING about it, but everyone else had a good laugh.

Word of advice: A good audio guide and book is better than a crappy tour guide any day. Also, getting held in the Vatican against your will sort of sucks.

We got one last look at Florence as we headed towards the train station in the morning. It was during the morning rush hour, so most of the glances around were, “Am I about to be hit by a car, motorcycle, bus, or autobike?”

Not to play up any stereotypes, but EVERY SINGLE TRAIN going into Roma Termina was at LEAST 10 minutes late. Everyone one of them. When we were in Prague, or Vienna, they would get on the intercom and apologize at every stop. Not so in Italy it seems. We’re just happy to get here.

We ended up in the Big Mama hostel (minbak) which is a freaking PALACE compared to the stuff we had to tolerate in Venice. We’ve got a clean rooms, funtioning toilets NOT inside the shower stall, and a great, easy to find location. Venice this is not. We came here planning to move somewhere else despite it coming highly recommended. Instead, we’re taking the couple room tomorrow for the next three nights. It’s so nice, and SO clean, and the food, (breakfast and dinner) are free. I just had a literal feast of Samgaetang with 20 other people for free. I don’t mind Korean food in Italy if it’s drool worthy. I’ll just enjoy my Italian lunches even more. For the price ( nearly 1/4th the price of the cheapest recommended place in guide books in English), it’s an absolute steal.

Today, we went to the National Museum of Rome. This is supposed to be the best place in the world to see Roman art. Nearly everything was a copy of something from Greece according to the descriptions I heard. At least they stole well. I saw “The Discus Thrower” (Discobolus) and “Thermae Boxer“. Did you know Greek and Roman boxers ONLY hit each other’s heads? Nothing below the neck? What a wonderful sport THAT must have been to watch.

From there, we went to the Baths of Diocletian. Some punk, named Michelangeo, went and built a church over it. Man, what a jerk. What did he ever amount to? Oh right… According to the guide book I was reading, all the floors of the original baths were MUCH lower than the church we walked around in today. The conspiracy theorist in me says this is all an elaborate cover up to keep some pimped out baths for the Pope hidden in Rome.

Finally, we went to Santa Maria della Vittoria, which houses “St. Teresa in Ecstasy“. You’d have to be DEAD to look at that sculture in person and not feel something. The light shines down through the roof, golden, and the entire scene looks…perfect. The church surrounding it isn’t bad either, but damn. St. Teresa is really emotive.

Tomorrow is probably going to be one of the more interesting days on the trip. A Korean tour of the Vatican. Yeah, I don’t know how that’s going to work out either. I’m charging my Cowon D2, and keeping an open mind. That is, unless I am on some sort of “Do not enter” list of the Vatican for having a website and nickname with the word “devil” in it.

Things were looking up considerably from my last post. While I still think Venice is a massive maze, our trip to Florence wasn’t very difficult at all. We made it to the train station, switched trains, waiting for our train to arrive. We took one of the trains heading for Rome, but hopped off a station that connected us with Florence.

The reason we came here was to see the Uffizi Art Gallery. Several masterpieces are available for viewing, if you can stand the lines. We arrived an hour before the door opened, and there was a two hour wait. NO, we didn’t book in advance. I’ve waited in longer lines for roller coasters, so it’s not that big of a deal. We got stuck in front of some Wisconsin natives that spelled out every negative American overseas stereotype possible. Very loud and annoying. The accent also drove me up the wall. Don’t even get me started on when they started talking about “warping reality to fit their desires“.

The gallery was pretty strict about entrance. We had to pass through metal detectors. I failed SO hard. I had a pocket knife my father gave me in London to keep with me till I saw him again, where ever that ends up being. My wife also had to store her bag. Also, NO LIQUIDS or BOTTLES allowed. Every person in line with a water bottle tensed up, but all they wanted was for you to keep them in the bag, or check them at the front of the gallery.

We got an audioguide. They required a personal form of identification. I gave them my Korean Alien Registation card. It’s got my visa status, a picture, and my name. It’s a PHOTO ID. It’s not like a “Federal Breast Inspector” card or something. The lady was all attitude about it, “Passport or a Driver’s license”, which is totally not what the sign said. Who steals audioguides anyway? I handed over my documents, and got ready for the trip around the museum.

The audio guide was basically a highlights of the room sort of deal. “Look at this painting situated at this location from the entrance or exit”. They did this for all the paintings EXCEPT, for the MOST famous paintings in the entire museum. The narrator actually said, “These are SO famous, you don’t need to be told where they are, obviously, so I’ll go on at length describing them now. There is no rewind. Hope you listen careful, or you’ll have to listen to this room over from the start.”

Thanks.

I did happen to know ONE of these paintings, Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus“, but I didn’t figure out which one was “Spring” until the description was over entirely. In my defense, I never took any art courses in anything later than the Gothic period. Also, there were like 50 paintings in the room. Some of the descriptions of the rooms lasted for as long as the actual information about the art itself. The museum was beautiful, but that’s not really what I wanted to hear on the tour.

We ate out at a restaurant that had the unique distinction of being refined looking, but not classy enough to wipe off bird shit from tables before people sat down. INDOORS. We ordered a cheese, fruit, and honey platter for a warm up. The Swiss was delicious, the other cheese was like getting punched in the face with a rotten sock. No amount of honey, grapes, or whatever could cover up this tremendous flavor.

I went a little crazy and ordered gnocchi but this came with a pesto (?) sauce that was pungent and green. I didn’t bring my guide book to have the food translations available. We got lasagna too, which my wife liked very much. I was extremely jealous.

I took a side trip to Santa Maria del Fiore which is simply a huge church. I went up on the dome, which gave a panoramic view of the entire city. Prague was more beautiful, but the church didn’t let you take as nice of pictures due to the small windows. However, being on top of the dome, and seeing the whole city was really very nice. It was a lot of work, 468 steps in total. My poor wife told me she was going back to the minbak to rest, but instead did laundry by hand till I got back.

This is really, really not my style of sight seeing. I prefer Cambodia, where you can walk through a forgotten temple for an hour and never see another person.

We’re going try to book reservations for Rome for tomorrow. It might be impossible. We’re trapped in the THICK part of the Tourist season I guess. Walking around it’s nearly impossible to see ANYTHING from 12 to 5 PM. EVERYWHERE is choking with people. We’ll give Rome a go, if we can, and if we don’t like it, we’ll head off somewhere else in hopes of avoiding the crowds.

We took the night train to Venice. I got very little sleep, again, and by the end of the ride, I was very sick. We found the Gondola Minbak, another cheap Korean place to stay the night.

We tried to give sightseeing a go, but after a long boat ride in the baking sun, I was completely zapped of energy. My wife and I ended up splitting up in different directions. She went to see some of the sights with Korean ladies from the minbak, while I went back to sleep. I slept pretty much the entire afternoon and evening. We ate together, then I went back to sleep. I woke up feeling a little better, but now my wife is a tad sick. Ugh.

We walked around the ENTIRE freaking city. I’m quite sure this is actually a GIANT tourist trap built into a maze designed to suck people’s money. The buildings are crumbling into the sea, and it’s a pain in the ass just to try to get from point A to point b. I had a hard time enjoying my walk because I had to keep checking the map CONSTANTLY to keep from getting lost.  Utterly impractical. Even the boats that taxi you around the city aren’t much help. You can turn corner and find a dead end, or a canal anywhere. While that might be charming at first, the lack of signs and the stress of just trying to GET SOMEWHERE is really annoying.

This is the first city on the trip that didn’t really live up to my expectations.

We spent the day on an exhausting hike around Vienna. We got lost a few times, fell asleep in a park and got asked to move on like a couple of bums, and saw a neat museum. We’re in the process of packing up the bags and heading towards the train station for an overnight to Venice. Internet not included on the journey I’m afraid.

Vienna was a wonderful city. Wish us luck in Italy, where every single story I hear is, “So and so got pickpocketed there.”

I’ve got my fingers crossed we won’t have the same experience.

Today we got a late start. We got a free Korean breakfast with our stay. Rice and Kimchi for breakfast. It might not be ideal, but it beats bread and toast, again. We set off for the Schonbrunn Palace, which simply redefined HUGE FREAKING PALACE. This was only their “SUMMER” palace. It’s crazy large.

We went on the tour, which entitled us to some audio headsets, as well as a few sights around the grounds. The hedge maze was a lot of fun. I got completely lost. My wife beat me to the center. We also saw a romantic garden (snooze worthy), and a lookout point, (far too much work just getting there for the view). My parents would have LOVED to see this place.

It took us five hours to see everything. Once we finished, we headed to Kunsthistorisches Museum. The art by Peter Paul Rubens was SO realistic that things looked as if they were about to step out of the painting. It was really amazing to stare at something you swore was popping out of the painting, only to walk to the side and see that, no, it was really flat. The building was also large, like all the other museums and official buildings in the city. They build big, or they don’t build at all.

From there, we ate at an upscale restaurant. I had some traditional beef schnitzel which I realize is now just some sort of fried cutlet. It was very good. My wife had some goulash, but it wasn’t what we expected. We ordered it with what we thought was noodles, but it came with a bread. I had some more original Czech Budweiser, which is really good.

Tomorrow it’s off to more museums, as well as trying to see some other sights, walking our legs off, then collapsing on a train for an overnight trip to Venice, Italy. We’re trying to hook up a connection to another Korean place to save some cash.

I’ve got about 500 pictures taken so far. It’s getting a little excessive. We’ve got another memory card plus some change to fill up too. It’s going to be scary when I eventually sit down to try to organize it all.

Our checkout for the Prague hostel was a ridiculous 9 am. What are you supposed to do after hitting all the big stuff in Prague but to move on? We left a LOT earlier than we had planned, simply because we couldn’t be bothered to go to the train station to stow our bags and wait all day for the sleeper train. We decided while we were there to just move on to Vienna anyway.

We went to a place recommended in a Korean travel book. They knew EXACTLY what we wanted to do. The ride to the border was on our cash, but we started the Eurorail pass at the border to Austria. That way we didn’t have to withdraw any more Czech cash. Ticket and Reservation in hand, we made our way to the departure train station a few subway stops away. We spent the money we had left on a lunch we’d take with us on the train, then converted the rest. We only ended up with about 50 cents US of wasted change. Not too shabby actually.

On the train, we tried to sort out a plan. Two nights in Vienna, three days. We were looking at paying for a hotel or hostel somewhere in town, paying an outrageous fee, then settling in for a stroll around town broke. Tomorrow is Sunday, and the banks are closed. We needed to get money to make a reservation for our NEXT stop on a sleeper for Monday night. We went and got the thing arranged and then headed over to a noodle shop with a big sign saying “Busan” in Korean.

There was a Korean lady minding the store, and three young Korean ladies spread out over a map trying to find directions. Where to go? What was cheap? What does she recommend? Two of the ladies were traveling together and looked fresh out of college, and the other was a little older, around my wife’s age. We started looking for a “Minbak“. In Korean, Minbak is basically a “room for rent”. Dirt cheap Korean accomidation in Austria? Rock on! We even got some ramyeon noodles at the store for a snack. My wife has been craving them since Prague, and she doesn’t even like ramyeon. She said she’s just tired of bread and sandwiches. I’ll be there in about a week, possibly sooner.

My wife and I, along with the woman who turned out to be my wife’s age, shared a few other things in common with us. She had ALSO arrived in London from a horrible Cathay Pacific flight. She had ALSO met family in London. She had ALSO flown Easyjet (although from another airport) to Prague. She ALSO was harrassed by the ticket agents at Easyjet about a visa for Koreans, as well as having a hard time at immigration. She saw the same stuff, and was planning on going to Venice in a few days too! Doppleganger tour! Freaky.

We all went to find a subway that would lead us to a tram, that would then lead us to a Hello Kitty store. We’d be staying in their basement. The noodle shop lady had called ahead, and we had made arrangements to hold the rooms. They were slightly worried that a foreigner wouldn’t like the accomidations. We used that to our advantage later. We set off. The lady at the noodle shop made it sound like we’d be walking a minute to the subway. It was a little farther than expected, so the ladies sent me off as a scout. I found the place and went back to get them to the station. After seeking help from a helpful Kebab man, we took the subway to the tram location. Then, with no problems whatsoever, I got them to Kitty World.

The woman we went to the minbak with decided to stay in a dormitory style room, while we got a suite. My wife, the ruthless haggler took over. While I was MORE than fine with the accomidation for the price and kick ass location, she had me wait in the bedroom. She went out to the owner and said that since the price was more expensive that a dormitory, and that since it was off season, we’d probably go there instead. She got her to cut the price of our stay by an amazing 10 Euro.

The ladies and I then went to the Saturday Outdoor Crapfest Antique Market. We arrived as it was closing, but even if it was still going on, the stuff that remained was literally just garbage piled on the street. We walked through basically paranoid about pickpockets. We then found the excellent fruit, vegetable, and meat market next door. We sat down for a kebab plater as big as a lamb. We got served a bellyache worthy amount of meat. We paid twice what we paid for our biggest meal in Prague, and this was basically only a step up from street food. It’s not a cheap town, and tomorrow the supermarkets are closed. WTF? No one shops for food on Sunday?Anyway, now completely stuffed, we’ve settled down for the evening. Internet service is still free. Yay!

It’s weird to be allowed into this sort of secret world of support between Korean people in other countries. Koreans travel together. They are masters of the bus tour, following the guides, and being tight knit travelers. Now, through my wife, I’m included in the festivities. We’re traveling around the town with this woman, and because of Korean usage of titles between strangers, we don’t even know her name. I’m supposed to call her “Older Sister” if I address her directly. She can’t speak English. I can still follow conversations and everything else I usually do. It’s just weird to make travel plans and be escorted into a secret sort of basement of luxury with people that share only a language in common. The people of the minbak are letting us use their kitchen, computer, the works. It’s great.

Since the last update:We did indeed go to more theater shows later in the evening. I went with my father to SPAMalot, the Monty Python based music. It was pretty funny. My mom, who has absolutely NO comedy bone, insisted on going to Grease with my wife. We dropped the ladies off for their show, and as we walked through the West End, my dad proclaimed, “Two men walking around in this neighborhood? We’ll have women hanging off each arm in no time.” We ended up seeing a show in Soho. The only people hanging off each other were the men making out on the street. Oh well.

After the show, we went to pick them up at their theater to walk home and talk about the show. I explained the Monty Python humor to my wife, “Do you find people getting hit in the face with a fish as funny?”

“Real fish?”

“No, but in concept.”

“No, not really.”

“It’s good you went to see Grease then.”

She didn’t like the show, because she didn’t think of High School students as people who should drive around and talk about sex. She can be such a prude at times.

After the show, we came back and slept. Most of us. My poor mom couldn’t. She was kicking my father’s bunk as he snored. We ate breakfast together, then said our goodbyes. We had to catch a tube to the airport. They were going off on their own adventure with a boat and a series of locks and bridges.

The flight from London to Prague was better in EVERY single aspect than our flight into London. Easyjet is a no-frills sort of airline, with gambling scratch offs for entertainment, in flight food has to be purchased, and there is nothing else to do but wait for the plane to land.

We got into Prague, purchased a Metro pass for 72 hours and got into the city NO incidents. The man checking for illegal passengers on the subway didn’t even stop us this time, when I actually HAD the card showing I paid, unlike my last time in Prague. Anyway, we ended up at a cheap hostel around the block from the train station. It’s big, old and VERY scary looking on the inside. It has the “featured in a slasher movie” feel to it. This is just the thing to encourage people to sleep I guess. The bathrooms aren’t segregated by sex very well, so we have to go in together as a team, lest one of us disappears to the almost CERTAIN psycho killer that is running around. It’s just the kind of place this appears to be. I’m surpised I didn’t have nightmares.

We woke up early this morning. Too early actually. Nothing was open in the city. We picked up some stuff for a later dinner, and got down to sightseeing.  We went to the famous clock again. The Charles Bridge was VERY crowded. The Prague Castle held our attention most of the day. St. Vitus’ steps are still a killer. I got to see a really famous church my brother and I had missed last time. LARGEST FRESCO EVER.I have pictures, several hundred actually. It was pretty good to be back in this city, but it loses it’s “Wow” factor this time. It’s been there, done that territory now. At least it’s REALLY cheap, and has GOOD BEER. These things STILL put it up on my list as a must visit. My wife liked a lot of the stuff we saw for free, but she agreed some of the pay attractions weren’t as packed as London was with interesting stuff to see.

We basically did all of Prague in a DAY. We didn’t do it all, but we basically knocked out everything you’d get from a tour or the highlights on Google Earth. It’s a bit scary. We’re knocking out the sites in a record. It’s because I’ve been to this city and I knew where things were in relationship to each other, distances, times, and whatnot. I’m sure the rest of the trip will be much more daunting when we actually go somewhere completely new in a different language. It all gets expensive from here on out too.

Tomorrow we are moving to Austria in the afternoon. Vienna is ANOTHER hold over from my last vacation, but I didn’t get to explore that city at all. My brother and I gave it a half hearted attempt before we had to get on different trains, and it wasn’t that open at the time we were trying to see the sites. I hope to actually explore a few places and find a cheap place to stay. This probably is impossible. I’d also settle for some clean shirts, and or socks.

I’m currently in a free PC room. When I sat down, I was chatting with two Korean ladies waiting in queue for the SLOW computers that the hostel offered. They nearly jumped out of their skin when I said,”Hello” to them in Korean. It’s easy to get trapped in a little bubble thinking no one understands what you are saying. I know my wife and I do it ALL the time when we want to talk about something we see without alerting others.

My parents bought tickets for Mamma Mia! for my wife as her birthday present. I’m not exactly an ABBA fan like my wife is, so I wasn’t gung-ho about the show, but it would the first time in a legitimate theater for me, so how could I decline? I’m all about the culture on vacation. Plus, it was their treat, and the seats were excellent.

We had problems getting to Leister Square. The subway had delays, which forced us to take three transfers to get around the problem. We ended up at the theater with a few minutes to spare. The place was packed. Really packed. Fire and we all were going to die packed. Oh well, on with the show!

I was surpised that the plot of the musical was actually very nice. It acted as a frame for all the songs, but it was pretty funny anyway. It seemed like the songs FIT the musical, and not that they were crammed into a story that didn’t need them. The actors were very funny too, and had lots of energy through the entire show. The post intermission set up for the final act was a bit of a drag, but that was because I didn’t know most of those songs.

My wife said that since she had been listening to ABBA’s greatest hits for a long time, she knew what all the songs were about and didn’t have any problem following the plot. Yay! She was enraptured by the entire experience. She left the theater positively glowing. It was really wonderful for her. Dream come true.

We got back to the hostel. We played some card and dice games. My father and I made some mixed drinks with various spirits around the room. By midnight we were all ready to sleep off the night. My wife and I slept well enough that my father’s chainsaw like snoring didn’t even wake us up once.

Our plan for catching some live sports seems to be off today. We’re currently thinking of a backup plan. British museum and SPAMalot/Lion King perhaps?