Day 159: Lesser Town

Once again I found myself at Café Pavlač in the morning (where I find myself again, one day later, typing this post), working on my Spanish and blog posts, starting the day off nice and slowly. I went back to the hostel briefly to make myself lunch before taking the bus to the Franz Kafka Museum. (This time I actually bought a ticket, because I happened to have coins in my pocket and, of all places, there is a ticket machine directly outside of the hostel entrance).

The museum was alright. It did all it's necessary requisites -- walk you through the life of Kakfa, his private conflicts, his friends, influences, romances -- but it was so unusually crowded for a museum that you constantly felt rushed and in the way of everyone else.

The amount of tourism in Prague is astounding. It's particularly evident on Charles Bridge, which has hundreds of people walking over it at all times of the day. The bridge itself has some historical significance, but is not particularly aesthetically pleasing. A renovation of the bridge in 2008-2010 was carried out so poorly that it caused UNESCO's World Heritage Committee to adopt a decision that "the restoration of Charles Bridge was carried out without adequate conservation advice on materials and techniques". Furthermore, all the statues along the bridge are merely replicas of the original, leading me to believe the bridge itself is more facsimile than original. For some reason, tourists absolutely love it.

From the museum I bought a lunch of bananas, chocolate milk, and Skittles from a convenience store and walked to the base of a park to partake in my feast.

The park itself sits on the eastern face of a steep hill, so I climbed up it, hoping for some good views.

Although you might be tempted to think that atop a hill on the opposite side of old town is where all the locals hide, you would be wrong. The top of the hill is once again infested with tourists, though there is a slight respite from the crowds while climbing the hill because most don't bother with all that physical activity and take the funicular rail line to the top instead. 

While on my way down from the hill I stole some WiFi from a nearby beer garden and connected with Tash and Kade to get some burgers back on the eastern side of the Vltava River. A 40-minute tram ride, an ATM hunt, and kilometer walk later I was eating a tasty burger with fries and a Pilsner at The Tavern.

The food was delicious, but (surprise, surprise) there were some noisy tourist groups at the place and we had to move tables twice to get some relative peace. It was the coldest day of the week, and the wind combined with sub 20 degree temperatures made eating outdoors a bit unpleasant.

After dinner we went back to Tash and Kades homestead, Brix Hostel, and they ordered drinks. I had been a bit budget conscious lately, and didn't feel like ordering anymore alcohol for the day. We played some ping-pong, but for a Saturday night the bar located in the hostel was absolutely dead. Tash and Kade decided to go to bed around 10pm and I went back to my own hostel, finished my bananas, and turned in for the night at midnight after a hot shower.