prague.

from london, bryn & india flew to prague. india watched a couple say goodbye to each other, kiss each other's cheeks for about an hour outside of the security gate before their four am. she was happy to not be leaving bryn like that.

prague could only be described as magical. there was something so romantic, so magical, about the place. it cannot be explained. their friend from home had tried; emma had lived there for a semester in college. and india's mom did too, as she had visited for the first time in the summer of 2009. but bryn & india didn't understand how cool of a place it really was until they arrived there themselves.

india had found an incredible deal for a hotel room. so cheap that the two opted for that over a hostel. the catch: it was on a boat. (A BOTEL!) on the hotel albatros almost every room on the ship was empty. bryn & india's was sweet and small and had a big window that slid all the way down and looked out over the river. they threw bread and stale potato chips at the swans who would come flap their wings and wag their tails right in front of their botel window. the women at the front desk were friendly and let them drink beers in the lobby where the the sole television sat. they watched winter olympic sports after all of the bars had closed down.

our home, botel albatros, on the vltava river.

bryn feeds swans out the botel window.

prague was filled with castles. and churches that looked like castles. india felt like she was playing beauty and the beast. (though not with a beast, obviously.)

their first night in eastern europe, bryn & india walked to the main square in the old town of prague, about a ten minute walk from where their botel was. they bought hot spiced wine for 20 czech koruna, or about one dollar, and kicked around snow and watched the old clock chime. since they realized, hey, we can drink outside, this is tight, the two went to a grocery store and bought czech bottled beer for about 5 czech koruna, or 25 cents, and sat in the cold and got giddy about being in eastern europe. this is it! this is it!

downtown prague at night.

their days were leisurely. bryn & india would wake up when they woke up and take their time bundling up for the snow. they ate breakfast in little coffeeshops, bakeshop prague. one morning, they walked across the charles bridge where bryn went crazy with his new camera. they walked up to prague castle, watched the changing of the guards, freaked out over the view that showed them the world. all the spiral peeks of cathedrals swirled for them alone. they were a connect-the-dots of prague. another morning, they visited the ancient jewish cemetery and museum, saw dramatically simplistic synagogs and learned the traditions of a jewish burial. another morning, they went to a district across the river and visited the contemporary arts centre. it was beautiful and bizarre and huge and filled with great things. they debated modern art and decided, perhaps, the pieces were best shared in silence.

the view! the view! the view!

the best breakfast in prague is at okie dokie.

during the evenings, bryn & india would walk in circles throughout the cobblestone alleys. they paid a lot of attention to the lonely planet guide that their dear friend emma had circled her favorite things in. after they had explored emma's notables, they started to just wander, and ended up finding some cozy places on their own. pizza and a bottle of wine for ten bucks in a place where they cheered on the czech rupublic's hockey team with winter olympic fanatics... a middle eastern place where they smoked flavored hookah and drank mint tea. they found some really wonderful small bars that would serve them cheap drinks for hours. they could sit and talk and write and read and drink and think.

smoking hookah in the old square.

we are not tourists.

then india's immune system failed her again, and a disgusting case of the sniffles came in. coughcoughcough. constantly. predicated apologies for the folks who will be sharing her hostel room in berlin...

also, we hate each other.