PTM // Contiki: Day 17 - Vienna to Prague

This morning we had breakfast at 7:15 so Ryan and I headed down and for a good hotel, I expected a pretty good breakfast. Of course it was hardly edible. There was bacon and eggs but the bacon was burnt to a crisp and the scrambled eggs were in a pan soaking wet. There’s nothing worse than soaking wet scrambled eggs. It was like they had been sitting in a bucket of water before they were plopped in to the pan. It was disghusting. I had an orange and a piece of some sort of cake. Another bad breakfast… I should be used to this by now.

After breakfast we loaded the coach and headed into Vienna to take a walking tour that our tour manager had planned to give us. We walked around to some of the most famous sights in Vienna and after we finished we had a few hours free time to roam the city. There really is only one main strip that is worth walking down in the old town of Vienna. Bruno, Juliana, Ryan, Johnny, and I spent a couple hours walking up and down the strip stopping into some stores along the way. Before heading back to the bus we sat down and grabbed some lunch at this Pizza/Pasta restaurant. We all had pasta and it was really good. A deal at that, It was 23 Euro for 3 of us to eat and that included food and drinks. The meal was great and I was really happy with the price.

After lunch we headed back to the coach and headed straight for Prague. We stopped once on the way at a gas station and I took up a Coke, a Kitkat, and an Ice Cream bar to the counter and then realized that they don’t accept Euro in Prague. Damnit! The total price for those three items? 64 Czech Korun! I tried paying with credit card but they had a 200 Korun minimum. I ended up throwing my items in with a bunch of girls and paid them back afterwards. After getting my snacks I headed to the exchange office next door to the gas station and exchanged 30 Euro into Korun. I got 657.00 Korun for 30 Euro. You feel rich until you realize the Czech Korun is worth absolutely nothing. Haha. The conversion rate was 1 Euro = 21.9 Korun. A bottle of diet coke was 26.00 Korun. Kit Kat was 17.00 Korun. Pretty interesting huh?

We boarded the bus and after a few more hours of driving due to traffic we finally arrived in Prague at our hotel (Hotel Ibis). I love the Ibis hotels. They are a modern hotel chain, like Holiday Inn, Best Western, etc yet they are much nicer. They are modern, and the rooms are very nice. I really recommend the Ibis hotels, in any city that you visit. The Ibis in Paris was great too! Only slight issue with this Ibis here in Prague is that it’s about a 40-45 minute walk into the new town of Prague. If you’re a fast walker, it will take you about 30.

We chceked into our hotel and again were rushed for time because we needed to be down at our included dinner in 30 minutes. Ryan and I both took quick showers, got dressed and headed down to dinner. Dinner wasn’t too impressive tonight. Some dry steak, and rice that tasted like it hadn’t been cooked. Very dry! I wasn’t satisfied with it at all.

After dinner we headed to a place called the Beer Factory, a popular nightclub/bar here in Prague. The local beer here in Prague is the Pilsner Urquell. It’s dirt cheap too. You can get a pint of Pilsner Urquell for 47 Kroun, which is a little under 2 Euro’s, or $3.00. Believe me, that is VERY CHEAP for beer here in Europe. I’ll also remind you that I’m here in Eastern Europe where prices are much cheaper than most countries in Western Europe. Hmm, I think I like Eastern Europe!

After the Beer Factory Bruno, Juliana and I walked back to the hotel to have an early nights sleep. Tomorrow we’re doing a walking tour through Prague and we’ll be visiting the Prague Castle, the largest castle in Europe!