Today I went to Prague castle with Sean from the hostel. We got the tram up the hill and it was chockas. I haven't been diligent with buying tickets on public transport but I'm glad I did this time. A nondescript man came up and quietly said something to me in Czech and showed me a medal. Many many people have done the same thing in Prague but they're selling drugs, so I thought this guy was selling me the medal. I just said no thanks which really confused him!
The castle was not very castle-ly. It's an enormous complex with a massive cathedral and many other buildings atop a big hill. It was like a town unto itself. Not so much the huge wall and defensive fortifications that you'd expect from the biggest castle in the world. It was a huge tourist attraction though.
It cost about 15 euros and was packed. I mean rammed. Shoulder to shoulder in the cathedral. There were some saints and royals buried in there. The stained glass was very impressive. Sean got a great photo of the different colours coming through the stained glass onto a statue of Jesus.
The highlight for me was the room where they got stuff done. It was called the diet room I think. The king had 90 people that would vote on various things, including a new monarch. The room was really small but felt like it was an important place. Next door were the land rolls, which are records of all the legal decisions that had been made. Their used to be thousands of ledgers but most were destroyed in a fire.
We also visited what I think was called the golden street. It is just a little street within the castle. They had an exhibition on armour and weapons. There were some crazy weapons. Swords that had guns attached and crossbows that had guns attached and guns that had guns attached.
Overall I think I could have saved the 15 euros and just had a look around outside the buildings. I walked back through a nice park on a hill overlooking the old town and that was for more pleasant than being herded through jammed buildings.
I managed to extend my stay for an extra night. The hostel was going to charge me 20 euros so I went on hostelworld and it was only 4 euros. I asked her why it was so much and she said it's because the room that is 4 euros is booked out. So I clicked book and showed her and she got really cross. She'd just made a reservation for me and I'd gone and made another one. Technically I'd have to pay for the 20 euros extension as it was too late to cancel but the fact she lied to me meant she cancelled it for me.
I wrote all this yesterday but didn't publish it for some reason. Last night I stayed up till about 4 playing cards against humanity with some people at the hostel. For those that don't know it is a little like a card game version of balderdash. So today I did very little. Specifically, I did nothing.
I ran out of money yesterday, so thank you to the people who donated to the go fund me. Because that's now the only money I have! I'm not sure whether to carry on trying to get to Russia or call it a day. The bad idea would be to carry on with no money, and that's the name of the blog. If anyone wants to donate:
https://www.gofundme.com/rk3brs7s
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