Prague

Finally after 3 trips to Europe in my lifetime. These are the countries I've covered.

That's more travelling than I've done in South East Asia. I've only been to Singapore, Thailand and Brunei so far. Hell, I think its even more than the number of cities or towns I've visited in Malaysia. The "Malaysia, Truly Asia" campaign is not working on me.

Back to the topic. Plague Prague. Photo album here.

Top to bottom: A church, old European buildings, tourists and the Prague's main square.

Finally, my first travel to an Eastern European country. Where capitalism and tourism industry are still fresh there. That explains the swarm of tourists in Prague. Well, honestly, for me, Czech Republic is well known because I used to support the football team in Euro '04.

We took a 6 hour train ride which only costs 59 euros return ticket. We slept on the train for most of the journey, even I was supposed to study for my exam on Thursday, 1 day after returning from Prague.


Wilson brought cool sleeping accessories on board the train. Reminds me of the Demonhunter from Warcraft 3.


The astronomical clock near the town square


Prague's most famous landmark, Charles Bridge. It's about 700 years old.


Lots of tourists rushing to the front to touch the famous Saint statue on Charles bridge.


Another sign that shows how many tourists Prague has.


Another landmark is humonguous. The Prague castle. It's like a little town inside for tourist. Awesome.


"The castle is right there on the hills."


Then we visited the Communism Museum. Traces of communism in Eastern Europe are nothing but history and all being kept in museums.


Off goes Communism, comes the jazz bars in Prague. At a cheap price for the drinks and entertainment as well. Czech's famous beer, Pilsner Urquell tastes good as well. Smooth, very smooth taste.

The hostel we stayed was the Boathouse. Although it only takes 20 minutes tram ride from the city center, it was hard to believe for a place like this to have a "Hostelworld.com certified" hostel in this vicinity. But, it was 1 of the best hostels I've ever stayed in Europe. Clean. Family-runned hostel. Breakfast included. Cheap dinners in the hostel. Great common area to chill and talk to other tourists, who were all Americans, whom we met and brought to another jazz bar on the other night.

No photos with them, as my batteries were being charged. We talked to an interesting chap from Texas, Lucas who's like a walking IMDB(International Movie Database). Even the other Americans were stunned by his movie knowledge. We asked him what's his favourite movie of all time. His answer was, "Batman Begins".

I just realised I still haven't chose my favourite movie of all time.

Prague is quite a cool city. Great nightlife. But, I realised there's not much sights or landmarks there. Going to Prague once is enough, but still fulfilling.

Gotta thank Wilson for being my full-time navigator in Prague. Navigating Prague is not easy as the road names in Czech language sounds strange.

Filler post

Sorry for not updating for more than a week. Just came back from Prague on tuesday night and been studying for todays test. So, this entry is just a filler-post to keep readers entertained.

Question: What can ensure peace in the Middle East?
Palestinian and Israeli enjoying Shisha together.

No wonder Amsterdam is so peaceful and friendly amid the racial variations. (From Mario's viewpoint, sadly I didn't get the experience the "peaceful lifestyle" in Amsterdam yet)


That is Kalil, from Palestine. Who says Muslims can't enjoy in Beerland/Porkland like Germany.


Left: Behzad from Iran. Behind: Wajdie from Israel. He's my house representative. Something like block head in hall. But their beards are no match for my beard. =)

German names

Ever wondered how Surnames/Family Names were derived? Notice that some english names could be related to one's ancestor's profession. Such examples like, Smith(Blacksmith?), Porter, Shakespear (Spearman?), Archer (like Johnny Archer), Miller, and Shepherd.

Same goes for Germans here, at a larger extent i think, like Bauer(farmer), Schmidt (Smith),...

or some famous Germans...


Schumacher, maybe shoe maker?


Claudia Schiffer ( could be mariner, or someone who deals with ships)


Bastian Schweinsteiger (Pig stepper, hey, its still a profession)

and This is what I found quite a while ago in Salzburg. (Lower center)

Should be an obvious translation for those who don't know german.

woot. woot.. its raining at night.

Finally, something to cool down Munich and her people after experiencing 2 back-to-back days of 35 degrees celsius. The weather's been crazy lately.

Last week, it was colder than when I first came in spring April, due to the constant rain.

Really cold, about 12 degrees during summer is something that we need to question Al Gore's movie.

During our BBQ, it was really cold with the wind slashing our thin flesh with the chill.

Even with the help of the happy pyromaniac with a full bottle of flammable liquid in her hand, Jieming had to borrow my red jacket.

Suddenly, this weekend when summer decided to show up. So, many rushed into the nude tanning area in the gardens to sunbath until it became a non-nude area, due to the massive crowd. So, some people, according to their blogs, were dissapointed. But it was still a good day to jog. =D

Although summer here is alright compared to Malaysia and Singapore, rooms are not conviniently equiped with fans and aircon. So, some rain and wind should help a lot for us here.

So when comes the heat, off goes the shirt.

Oh, an answer to Chin Joo's question and something I haven't noted in my blog: My flight back to KL is on 4th August. So, I'll reach KL on 5th August.

And to my NUS and hall friends, I'll reach Sg on 10th August. A lot of catching up to do definitely....

%*((#$!! The rain just stopped right before I finished this post.