A Bohemian Birthday

  We took an early morning bus to the Bohemian city of Prague on my birthday.
  After eating Mamalinka (the delicious Armenian  honeynut cake) all night, I wasn't too fussed about spoilng
 myself any more.  The bus ride took us through the beautiful countrysides of colourful fields, glazed over
 with a gray fog, diffusing the horizon with the sky.  Further from Slovakia, and closer to Germany, this
 lanscape changes to undulating hills, layering various colours and textures, of deep greens reds and blowns,
 blotchy and blues and grays.
  We arrive in Prague with directions to a hostel! Rather than our usual phone number of a supposed, soon-
to-be friend.  We havent stayed in one since Jordan, keep in mind, so althought couchsurfing is awesome
  I just couldn't wait to have my own space to not entertain anyone.  To catch up on my blog, my painting,
wash my bloody clothes and replenish my spirit.
  We drop off our bags, grab a key, and leave toute suite, like puppys released from their leads, to explore
 the regal city.  Prague!! It's Regal indeed.
  We meandered down the streets, aligned with really tall building of various pastle shades - pinks and blues
and pretty attic windows.  Stone borders doors and windows, and randomly you'll find some
stunning gargoyle or Art Nouveau design trimming your average little street building.
  We found the new city centre by sun set, where the huge building's light flicket themselves on.
The tourists gather like mosquitos around the lights of the shops - books, saloons, botiques, bars,
casinos casinos casinos - the new city screams money.
  As we walk to the old city, we discover that we can now quiz eachother about countries. How to say
thankoyou, to swear, to say 'cheers' or 'health' etc in at least 12 different countries.
We can also play guess who, concerning different people we've met along the road.  I guessed three
by the time David guessed one. :)
  The old city of Prague stands tall and proud by the sparkling river.  It knows its beautiful.
We danced down Charles bridge to the jazz of the buskers, and picked up delicious indian curry for dinner.

  Back at the hostel, we shared our bottle of wine with two German/french students with whom we shared
our dorm.  Did I say I wanted alone time? I didn't make any effort to get it.
  Our plans for the night were going to a kareoke event we'd read about online, and they agreed to come
with us, along with two travellers; a Polish girl and Australian man.
  It was fun.  But I made the mistake of thinking I had to do a song since it was my birthday and my
first kareoke event.  David was chivalarous enough to jin me on stage, so I got to embarrassed us both.
  I was thankful to find my bed.

20th November
 I few days earlier David and I had sent off an 'urgent' couchsurfing request, meaning anyone could
read it and offer us a bed.  This is because Prague, and the Czech Republic in general is really
hard to find willing hosts.  People are reserved and need a lot of space; understandably.  But we'd
receieved one lvely reply from a girl called Elena, who was in fact German, had travelled to Australia,
loved Melbourners (lived in Brunswick) and wanted to get to know the city with us as she hadn't done
much travelling around herself.
  We were grateful for her reply, but were so comfortable in our cheap cheap hostel which was offering
a freeee dinner that night....
  But first things first, we ate free hostel breakfast (woo) and sat up drinking nescafe with other tourists.
I've discovered this new theme of conversation, based on travel experiences.  It's awesome, the conversation
is passed around like this 'I know, this one time in Amsterdam...' 'tell me about it!! Once I was in
this little villiage in Denizli and the same thing happened...'.  It's really fun.  Two other cool Aussies
 were going to Kutna Hora - a villiage just an hour away from Prague which features a church fully decorated
with bones.  I'd read about it and was desperate to visit.  So David and I tagged along!
  The villiage in spread across pokey little mountains and streams, with little arched bridges and cutesy
little homes.  First we went to the Church of Bones.  It had been a burial place origionaly, and the monks
in the 12th century had decided to use their bones, in utter respect to the dead, to make something beautiful.
  In the centre of the ittle church is a huge chandelier, made out of bones.  It was interesting to see
so many skulls beside each other - particularly as each one held a unique expression.  Some appeared to be
more sensitive than others, some more sympathetic, and others more mathematic and business-like.  Curiously,
the skulls were generally left without a bottom jaw.  In its place was, what I imagine to be, the forearm.
It's as though when theyre dead they loose ability to express themselves.  We're held back by ourselves, our
own forearms, and thus death is a part of us, inevitable with our life, and this church really celebrated this.
It was pretty, and you'd be surprized how many curly or wavy bones our bodies have !!
  After the church we popped by the first cathedral in eastern Europe.  The gothic style ribs seemed to drip
like honey down the building, the whole thing being a lit up yellow.
  The last stop was a gothic church, past a medieval old city at the tip of the cliff overlooking a creek.
It was blossoming with gargoyles, sprouting out of every stretch of stone imaginable.  You felt safe beside
it, that's for sure, though not all the gargoygles were as viscious as others, they certainly held unique
individuality.

  We just made the last train, and decided that we'd meet up with our new host Elena, but with a day bag,
leaving our luggage with the hostel.
  Elena was lovely.  She took us to an expensive restaurant (we shared a basic pizza) and then to a
bar where we met some of her friends, who, too, are German erasmus students.  They all use maps to orient
themselves around the city, and told me all about Erasmus.  It seems that such students can easily
detatch themselves from the rest of the world, as the erasmus network organizes all aspects of their life.
  We stayed a Elena's for two nights, and spent the day wandering the old city.  We saw Salvador Dali and
mucha exhibitions, which were awesome; full of excitement. Went to a french film festival.  Visited another
gothic cathedral, and a few churches.... I made an awesome curry.  Prague is particularly beautifull at night.
And one of Elena's friends said that we could stay with their friends in Dresden (south of Berlin, Germany)
a city which everyone cliams is so beautifull.  Since my friend Gianna couldn't host us until the

22nd, Dresden suddenly became our next stop!