that damn lion is so cool

up early and off to hauptbahnhof to train-it to prague. bye bye berlin.

on the train, we met some german museum curators (brandon was savvy enough to pick up the words "bauhaus" and "le corbusier"). very friendly people and one of them went to college at brandeis in boston. small world! train ride was gorgeous; it seemed like a movie, winding through valleys alongside mountains and rivers.

got to prague and first thing we did was withdraw 6000 from the atm. yeah, that's how we roll (with czech crowns). as we were purchasing subway tokens, a helpful gent ever-so-kindly came to show us what to do. he was smelly, drunk and took some of our money (i can't remember...i think it was like $5.) nice.

found our sweet hostel (2nd only to the circus!), wandered the movie-set streets, awestruck and falling in love. had some authentic czech food at café slavia. also had radler beer. ick. sweet and banana or bubble gum and just ick. needing some real beer, we found this local bar called velryba (the whale). cheap beer, unpretentious people, great vibe. "we should move here!"

prague is awesome because everything's new. the rest of europe is different, but the same. in your life, you've heard some french. you've heard some german + italian + spanish, even if you don't remotely speak it fluently. in the czech republic, the currency, the language, the alphabet, the architecture—it's all different. it really feels like a fresh experience in every way. without a doubt, our favorite city on this trip.