Dog Days Are Over

First up, my soundtrack to Europe is this foxy young red headed lady here:

FLORENCE!!!

I can't stop listening to Florence and the Machine. I listened to her a lot in Australia. But now can't stop. It may be due to the inadequate selection of music I managed to put on my MP3 player before leaving, though I don't think so. I would give at least two of my limbs for her to be touring over here right now. Also...

When I get back I intend to get a rabbit and call it 'The Machine'. I have a feeling rabbits make better pets than guinea pigs anyway. Not to rag on Pig or anything.

SO! Overseas stuff. I had no idea Prague was rad. No one warned me. We struggled to find the Metro from our stop off point and then lunged into the city. My, oh my, if Canberra had public transport like every single city we've been to over here I would never drive anywhere. Ever. The trains rarely take longer than a five minute wait and the maps are so easy to read. It may be because I'm a small town spazz, but I couldn't even get the hang of Sydney trains when I used to visit. Dogs are also allowed to ride on the trains over here, which I think is very considerate. Dog's gotta get around too! In Vienna when you go to purchase a ticket after selecting English as the language it comes up with a little button that says 'OK, I buy the ticket.' It makes me giggle every time. Adorable. There are also trams and buses and taxi's in just about every city. In Prague they tell you to be careful not to take certain taxi's though because they'll rip you off big time. Though to be honest, I don't see why you'd need anything else when you have the glorious metro's and tube's.

Prague is a mix of gorgeous architecture, gorgeous views and sex shops. It's easy enough to ignore the last part though; If you want to that is. This time we had the cutest little hostel. It was clearly just a two story apartment in a five story building that had been converted into a hostel of sorts. There were probably no more than ten of us staying there the whole time and the receptionist only came when she had to check someone in. The owner was a crazy but endearing Czech lady who we only met once. It honestly felt like staying in a house. When you stay in big hostels you feel obliged to always wear shoes when you're walking around and sitting in common areas is an odd and sterile experience. In thís place the kitchen was about five metres from our little room and it felt so nice to be able to pad out and make a cup of tea and sit reading a book. Charming.

Prague also has a whole lot of British stuff. They had a Tesco's and everything. We went into it and the first thing I did was hustle to the biscuit isle. I immediately got really excited when I saw the words 'Jaffa Cakes' but was soon shocked to find that they were cherry, strawberry and peach flavoured. 'What the hell?!' I thought. 'What is this?! Cherry Jaffa's?!?!' Don't panic though. While we were in France and down to our last few Jaffa Cakes we noticed a brand of biscuits called 'Pimms' (not to be confused with the mysterious drink) that looked a whole lot like Jaffa Cakes. We were suspicious then and didn't buy any. They had them in Prague though, and after the bitter disappointment of the other three flavours I was willing to try anything. Now, there were a few differences that us Jaffa Cakes connoisseurs could notice (flakier chocolate, squishier orange) but they were ostensibly the same thing. Panic over. And yes, I am aware that Jaffa Cakes aren't very interesting, but you'd understand if you tried them. There isn't really that much to write about Prague... Ah... they have really nice muesli over here and really cheap yoghurt... You'd think what with all the cows in Australia we might have cheap yoghurt too.

Amazing cheap vegetarian food that would go down a treat in any city, gorgeous walks by the river, a huge metronome on a hill that's supposed to represent change (yeah, I don't get it either. They probably should have thought it through more...) a massive castle, Pilsner, disappointing clocks, horses with beanies, annoying tour guides and cool statues. Nice vibes altogether really.

I'm going to leave it here to save from boring you all and to escape the twelve year old screaming German girls who've descended on the computers. I swear I'll actually have something to write about when I get to my Vienna blog.

Bron xoxoxoxox <3