Prague

Two of the people on our tour were engaged so for some reason we decided to throw them a hens night/ bucks party. This one involved challenges. On the bus ride in to Prague, the girls devised 5 challenges for the guys and vice versa, to be revealed at our group dinner that night. The amount of laughter coming from the boys end of the bus had us a bit worried so perhaps we were a bit meaner with our challenges than we normally would have been.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we dumped our bags and then caught the metro back into town for a walking tour.

After the tour it was dinner time where the challenges were revealed. They included:

For the women:

• Lie down at the clock tower on the hour when the massive crowd has gathered
• Photo proof that you have met a Tom, a Dick and a Harry
• Photo behind counter of fast food joint serving food

For the men:

• Dance on a table or bar - bonus points for female partner
• Busk enough money to buy a drink
• Get 3 phone numbers... of men.

Props to the women for completing at least one of theirs. The guys did nothing. Weak.

After dinner we continued our walking tour past the clock tower and through the Jewish quarter. Heaps of people gather to watch the clock at the turn of the hour - we did as well, but apart from a group of girls lying down in front of it, nothing really happened.

It was a bit of a disappointment.

Near the clock is a square that had a tribute set up to the hockey players who lost their lives in the recent plane crash.

Our walking tour ended up at an Absinthe Bar where we had the opportunity to experience the local spirit. Apparently ther are over 100 flavours of absinthe but I don't think any of us realised this at the time as we all ordered the same thing.

First taste was encouraging - it was very strong but kind of like licorice. However it progressivly got worse the more you drank until it seemed to be the vilest thing you had ever put in your mouth. Milly only managed a few sips of hers, but I soldiered on and eventually downed all of mine. Finally we ended up at a club called "Double Trouble" for a bit of a boogie and some normal drinks.

Next day was a free day and we were feeling surprisingly good despite the activities of the night before. Milly and I headed back into the city for a look around. Now, I'm not sure what happened but even though logically we thought we should get on a particular train, we ended up getting on one going in the opposite direction. Fortunately we hadn't travelled too far in the wrong direction before we realised our mistake and swapped back to a train heading in the right way.

We walked along the bridge which has a lot of buskers and stalls. The quality of buskers seemed to be a lot higher than back home. Most of them were smartly dressed and playing classical music - they looked like they would have been just as at home on a stage somewhere.

However, if the buskers where of a higher quality, the same can not be said for some of the fashion. I really hope mullets aren't making a come-back

We continued on into the old town, and up to the castle. And of course, we had to check out the church which had some amazing stained glass windows.

(I have pictures of the church but it's doing the whole sideways thing so I can't be bothered uploading them!)

That night we met up with the gang again for a group dinner. We went to this bar where you can pour your own beers. It's set up so that all the tables compete against each other and there's a big leader board displayed so that you can see how your table is going against the others in the bar.

Our table won! Despite the fact that Milly didn't quite get the memo about it being a beer drinking competition ;-)

Next some of the group disappeared to go to a girly show, while the rest of us headed off to a pub crawl. On the way we passed the big clock again, but this time there was actually a show. It was kind of like the Northern Lights display on North Terrace during the Adelaide Festival, except this display had sound and told a story. It was really good. I take back my earlier comment about the clock.

The pub crawl was due to start about 9 and we were already late. We didn't have far to go, however there was a slight problem - there was a marathon going on (seriously who does a marathon at night!!) and the track was right across the path of where we wanted to go. Plus there were about a million spectators so it was hard to make our way anywhere. If we went around the track we were going to miss the first couple of pubs at least.

We followed the track for a little while until we came to a section that was just marked off with tape and not an actual barrier. That's when someone came up with the bright idea to just cross the track. There were actually quite a few runners and not really any gaps, so we devised a plan - we would go on to the track and run with them, slowly merging over to the side.

Brilliant! What could possibly go wrong?

It sounded good. However once we got on to the track a couple of the girls panicked and just ran straight across causing a bit of a disturbance for the runners, and for our tour guide to frantically yell out "Run with them!! WITH THEM!!!" However we all made it across without any major incidents and still got to the first pub in time for our free shots which were absinthe and ulimited.

We hit a few pubs before ending up at some 5 story club where Milly was happy to find a floor playing Serbian music (despite advertising itself as Hip Hop), although she wasn't so happy to discover there is no free water in Prague clubs - you have to buy it. As she said herself so eloquently "Mother truckers!". I on the other hand discovered that absinthe shots and stairs aren't the best combination and ended up with some pretty gnarly bruises ;-)

Next day it was off to Germany....