Prague Castle and Goulash

Wednesday.

There's something strange about Prague. You sit in bars all night and you wake up in the morning feeling like you haven't been in bars all night. Take note all you Bogsville publicans.

The hotel reception wouldn't or couldn't sell us tram tickets so we wandered into a tobacconist's and bought a 24 hour pass each. I guess the hotel was getting sick of unlocking the door to let us in and wanted to restrict our movements. No chance of that with our 24 hour passes!

Prague trams seem to run as fast uphill as they do on the flat. Why? And how do they make a right or left turn over points? Does the driver have a steering wheel?

We wandered the Castle grounds with all the other tourists. Half of Britain seemed to be there with us. Mid week they are there for the culture, whereas Friday and Saturday it's the football shirt brigade and Prague wheels out the Big Macs, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Verminators.

The barman assures us that guns are carried by people who have jobs dealing with money and suggested that the hotel manager probably had one. There was an interesting sticker on a bank door that indicated that cameras, dogs and pistols were not welcome inside. I decided against taking a photograph just incase.

After the Castle we trammed to the Narodni Technicke Museum. It was there that my phone refused to send messages. Merl had the same problem. Fortunately Raul's Vodaphone worked as normal so that his txt marathon was able to continue unabated. I hate to think what a case of textus interruptus would do to him.

Back in the city centre we climbed a stairway to the Cafe Louvre where Raul discovered Goulash in a loaf, another excellent Czech variation on a theme. Merl tartared a steak and I pigged pancakes and got a caffeine hit. Best not put a knife, fork or spoon down in Prague - someone comes and takes your plate away. They seem to have a problem with people and empty anythings.

This evening we found our way to a bar where Merl assured us the ratio of females to males was about 28 to 1. ......I wonder...... I have to admit I couldn't concentrate on anything but the girl behind the bar. We stayed longer than we meant to stay.

Luckily there was a bar just round the corner that seved Goulash. Is there a huge tanker in Prague that drives round refilling basement tanks with the stuff?

Our final city centre beer was served by another highly rated waitress. Strange how beer has that effect on male eyesight. Eventually she threw us out and we made our way back to the hotel. Tonight they stayed open for us so we had a couple of beers just to keep the barman company.