Praha

We arrived in Prague late one night and fell victim to two cabbies who charged us 35 U.S. for a 10 minute ride. The next morning we decided to save some money and go bipedal. Behind Elon and Tony is Prague Castle. Seriously, that's what it's called.
Prague is split by the Vlatava River with the palace gardens, castle and the Kinskeho Zharada park on the West. Our hostel and the Old Town and Wenceslas Squares were on the East.
Old Town Square
Covered with 30 statues and crawling with bridge vendors, Charles Bridge has stood since the 15th century.

Only at Charles Bridge can you get a poorly-drawn caricature of yourself standing next to a crucified Christ.

Vlatava River from Charles Bridge.

It's interesting to see the modern Bohemian perspective on their communist past. That bear gives me the willies.

Prague had some great, cheap beer. It was a good change of pace from the Bacchanal that was Italy. Just kidding, that all ended in Austria.
There was a great bar right down the block from our hostel where we caught two EuroCup matches. On our last night, Alex's chair collapsed. We all found it hilarious, the bartender did not. I have titled this picture "A pint in the Green Dragon."
Big meal in the only sit-down restaurant we tried in Prague. We liked it so much the first time, we never went anywhere else. Once converted, our dinner cost about 70 U.S. Don't ask how to pronounce any of the words on the receipt.

Drip-stone wall at Wallenstein Palace. Most of the formations are made to look like stalactites, but faces and animals are sculpted in amongst them. Tony is illustrating this with his cane.
Devil.
Cat.
Bearded face.

This was the first statue we came across with water shooting from the nipples. What we found in the castle gardens really put this one in perspective.Hercules battling Cerberus. From a distance, it looks like self-mutilation in the making.

Peace, love and harmony at the palace gardens. The gardens offered a beautiful variety of flowers and things to frame them against.

Enlarge this one. I have so many questions. What is he doing to that dog? Why is there water shooting from its mouth? Lastly, is the man so calm because he does this all the time?
Prague Castle. The front is covered in scaffolding, beautiful nonetheless.
The main tower is framed in the center. The clock's numbers and hand are made of gold. The gate beneath it is also gilded.

The castle dates back to the 9th century, but was rebuilt in Gothic style during the 14th century. The outside buttressing and dual spires are covered in gargoyles.
Mosaic of angels raising the dead on Judgment Day. It was very, very hot in Prague that day.

Our last day in Prague was spent exploring Kinskeho Zharada park on the West bank. Tony was very excited.
Memorial to victims of communism. As the stairs ascend, the man deteriorates until only a tiny scrap of metal remains.
Pretty heavy stuff.

This picture haunts my dreams. In olden times, a troll may have lived in this cave.

We checked this place out on Hostelworld.com. Bumhuddle hostel. Very happy we skipped this one.

Prague Castle from Kinskeho Zharada park. We could have taken a paved path back down the mountain. Instead, we made our own path. "Stay strong little roots!"
In front of the Franz Kafka museum. This whole town needs therapy.

Vienna

We tried to catch some Z's on the train, but something happened along the way. ...
The Austrian Alps as seen from our train. We watched mountains roll past us for 3/4 of our 7 hour train ride. Many of the peaks were still covered in snow.
Some random Austrian town we blew by at 70 mph. B-E-A-utiful.
Statue of Neptune outside an art museum on the way to Hofburg Palace.

One of many entrances to Palace Hofburg. A good deal of the complex was destroyed by Churchill and the Allies because of Vienna's pro-Nazi sentiments. Still, it's an amazing place to see and a brilliant juxtaposition to Italian architecture and sculpture. The statues depict Hercules in four different feats.
In this shot Hercules is battling Cerberus, the three-headed hound of Hades, and he has the beast by the tail. In the statue to the left, Hercules has freed Prometheus of his bonds and a dead vulture lies at his feet.
Fountains outside the palace depict a battle between the Olympian gods and the Titans.

Rathausplatz, an enormous and very old square in Vienna. I have no idea what the significance of the building is, but such is the price you pay when you wander a city on your own.
Statues on the outside of the building's main tower. The entire exterior is decorated in a similar fashion.
Continuing with our amazing, unplanned timing, we showed up in Vienna during the Euro 2008 soccer cup, which Austira and Switzerland are hosting. A huge portion of the old city was blocked off and large TVs, speakers, food and beer stands were set up within these designated "fan zones."
We came across this mock pitch of the actual 2008 playing fields. Above the lights are 16 cameras used to track every player's movements. They record top speed, overall distance covered, place of possession on the field - enough stats to make the NFL stat nerds jealous. Aside from being a modern marvel of sports technology, this pitch was also our trip's greatest folly.
While looking at the pitch, the British fellow wearing white talked Spencer, Alex, Elon, Tony and a very drunk German man named Otto into playing. He promised we would be matched up against other Joes off the street. He lied.


The boys taking the pitch. They lent them boots and jerseys, but no shorts. For the next ten minutes these were the last smiles seen on their faces.

Otto. He spoke no English, and we spoke no German. But, it didn't really matter. When we tallied up the stats on the cameras, Otto ran about 30 meters more than Tony. Tony played keeper. We didn't realize how drunk he was until he got on the field. Aside from wondering how drunk he was, we also questioned if he had ever seen soccer played before.

Tony Time, making a big save. Enlarge the picture and focus on his face. You will not be dissapointed.
Getting ugly at the half, 9-0.

Easily the greatest action shot I have ever taken. Time was ticking down, the boys still had a goose egg on the score board, and I think Spence just couldn't take any more.
The scoreboard tells it all. Had the boys not had Otto, I feel confident they could have cut the score by a good 3-5 goals. Also, in their defense, the other team was stacked full of guys working at the pitch. The man Spence kicked in the groin was ranked #4 out of all the people who have played.

This is a real sign for a real Asian eatery. We were floored when we saw it. Never again do I want to hear about how America needs to be more politically correct. Hilarious.





This is pretty representative of how the entire game went, minus the time when Tony asked the striker to "go easy" on him.