Prague Part II

Its a lazy sunday here. I got up at 11.30 then had a late lunch and it was frisbee in the park! Im seriously out of shape and most of us got really exhausted after a short game. Well but the weather was fantastic and its a good day for lawning and chilling in statpark. Anyway back to couple of weeks back in prague. Here are the photos :D

An unusual way to start the photos but this is a picture of the street food available in the Prague market square. Its a fried fritter(something like you cha gui) topped with garlic,cheese, sour cream and tomato paste. Heavenly. But its was horrendously cold so the food got cold in 2 mins? Oh well.












The next picture is some roasted pastry coated with cinnamon and sugar over the flame. Cool stuff but not that nice.




















This is Cesky Krumlov. Its a rather small and quaint town 3 hrs bus ride from Prague. It was a beautiful day but the amazing thing was that i was snowing just before we left but the weather was great here other than the cold. I think i have this thing with taking photos of sewer caps in every city i go to? Its actually quite cool. (Unlike the ones in Singapore)

It doesnt look cold here but it was freaking cold. As with almost every city/town i've been to, there is a river running through it. Stunning. Ok due to unforseen circumstances i will continue this post tmr :l I have classes tmr.

























Random skin of wild pig. haha.

Back in Graz

I'm a little tired after traveling for 10 days in Prague and Budapest, but it was a really good trip with the exception of occasional bouts of really lousy weather. I think i'm a tropical or sub tropical creature after all and i've come to dislike it when it starts snowing. I always remember some people saying " ah its so romantic to walk in the snow with your other half". Absolutely insane. Imagine wind blowing, snow in your face, with u and your partner walking hand in hand with a waterproof jacket and hood, feeling cold and miserable. How romantic is that. Thats just me rambling. In any case it was snowing more often in prague than anywhere else of the 4 days we were there it was snowing on about 3 days i reckon.

Well lets have some photos first.

This was taken on Charles Bridge in Prague which connects the old town and the new town. The bridge is lined with statues linked to Christianity/Catholism and i felt this was probably the most significant one of all of them. Its quite a waste that the sky was overcast and it was snowing a little later on but after some reflection, this mood of the photo really suits the day when the man on the cross, Jesus died for us. Its one of my favourite photos of the Prague trip!






This one was taken in the center of the old town square where the neo gothic church and astronomical clock tower stands. Well the focus of this one is the horses with another church in the backdrop. The center of the town is a big tourist hangout place with hordes of people armed with cameras snapping away and with multitudes of food and touristy stalls in bright red tents. (More pics on that later) This horse carriage ride costs quite a fair bit so u only see (rich) couples or families on them and the ride is about 45 mins around the old town. But of course pictures are free;)


Evening view of the church which looks like a castle and the astronomical clock tower. I just found out that every european city has a central clock tower or glockenspiel and at certain timings some figures emerge from the clock tower. Interesting.

















Full view of the astronomical clock tower.




















Prague Castle, absolutely stunning. This photo is a little more photoshopped because it wanted a little painted feel to the whole look :D








We paid 2 euro to go up the clock tower for fantastic views of prague! Here is the best one i suppose ;)


















Night View of the square. Good stuff. See all those people, all tourists. Amazing stuff, the most people i've seen since i left Singapore. ha.





















The cathedral next to prague castle, i really couldnt get enough shots of this. The weather here is good because we went back on another day with Chew since he arrived on the last day we were staying in Prague.


















This picture gives some perspective as to how huge the structure is. It makes me wonder how people managed to construct such an intricate structure so many years ago. Amazing.











Statue in front of the opera house.

















I wanted to blog about the whole prague trip in 1 post but i think thats impossible. I shall leave cesky krumlov ( a small town 3 hrs from prague) to the next post. :D

In Praha

Hello people.

I know i havent been blogging lately because i've been travelling so much. 2 weeks ago i was at Innsbruck over the weekend skiing(or trying to ski) and this past week is being spent in Prague and im leaving for Budapest tonight. For once this isnt going to be a picture post since im blogging from a really nice internet cafe with free internet after buying drinks. Im having this fantastic hot chocolate while escaping from the bloody snowstorm that was going on outside. Met Ah kuan last night when he came to prague at 5am in the morning and hes going with the whole bunch of us to budapest. I think we have a total of 13 people going too budapest. Woot.

Took lots of great photos here in Prague. This place is really pretty and historic albeit a tad touristy of which it looks like half the population are tourists and the remaining half are selling things to the tourists. Despite it being touristy and all its still cheaper than Austria, kinda like a thailand of europe. Heh. Nevertheless im still spending like crazy here on nothing but food and ive got to squeeze if i wanna stick to my budget of 300EURO for both budapest and prague. Got a sneaky feeling im not going to make it.

Well i'll be back on the 24th night at 11pm after which we have to bring charlene and kaykey around Graz for a couple of days then i promise to put up some photos. For now, takecare and God bless.

1500 m above

Today was an eventful day where we ventured beyond the small boundaries of the city to tackle one of the mountains a 30min drive from the city center. Schöckel, 1500m high. Damn i've never climbed that high before but im glad to say it was worth the trip for the view at the top! As always i prefer to let the pictures do the talking so here they are~

This picture of a small town was taken on the way there. Make sure u see the full images by clicking on them :) (dont worry not too big)















The monastery, taken from regional bus.










Rolling hills here, which somehow remind me of a microsoft default wallpaper. Oh well.







Finally, base of Schöckel. Doesnt look that high right.




















and so we began our 2 hr journey.


















Journey.














Nearing the summit, entitled glorious light.










Destination, 1400m. :D













Love in the snow.




















Cable car, not in operation. damn.













Finally on the way down, the sunset.

Day in the park and sacher torte cafe

This is going to be a picture post again :/






Small bunch of flowers in a grassy patch.






One of my favourite pictures taken so far in Graz. Taken at statpark but had to get really close to the tiny flowers to get this shot in.












Pity i couldnt catch the child turning around. Oh well.












Can only imagine what spring looks like when it comes.










































-Famous Sacher torte cafe-

Supposedly what Austria is famous for; decadent chocolate cake with the faint scent of orange marmalade. It met my expectations and more! The chocolate cake has a slightly crunchy layer of bittersweet chocolate with a warm moist interior of orange marmalade sponge served with a large dollop of whipped cream. Goes best with a nice cup of coffee and great company. Say no more here are the pictures. :)































Went home and took a nap to top up a great day!

On another note im down with a nasty cough that has been keeping me up these few nights. I think its the cold and dry weather thats the cause. The weather went crazy here today and it started raining relatively heavy (note it hardly ever rains here) and then now there is a storm warning for tommorow. There goes the hiking trip to the countryside tmr. Damn.

Its gonna be a lazy sunday AGAIN.