Czech Republic

Day 18 - Monday, May 30
When we left for Europe we planned to go to Salzburg, Austria, not Prague.  However, we had not made reservations and had run into several travelers who recommended going to Prague.  Thus, we changed our plans...another reason not to make reservations.  Prague has been one of the most successful cities to emerge from Communism and is becoming a very popular tourist destination.  One of the prime reasons we changed our itinerary was the promise of everything being cheap - and it was!  A full course meal for under four dollars is delightful after cities like Munich and Brussels.  Thus, one of the main activities in the Czech Republic is shopping...and we did just that.
 

Day 19 We stayed several miles away from the city center and thus took the high speed metro into town every day.  In the more touristy section of town we stopped in a cafe that we knew nothing about for a quick bite to eat.  We sat down at first not realizing our surroundings.  We saw a portrait of Stalin and then concentrated on where to sit down.  Then we noticed Castro glaring down at us along with Lenin and Brezhnev.  We called it the Communist Cafe and it was the worst food of our entire trip, but we got a pretty neat picture out of it.

Day 20
Because everybody else just walked onto Prague's metro without paying, we did the same.  The metro stop near our hotel was away from the tourists and thus nobody ever checked tickets.  However, the metro stops in the center of the city were patrolled by police who checked tickets.  If you didn't buy a ticket you had to pay a fine.  Being accustomed to just walking onto the metro without paying, Ali and I got busted by the police.  A normal metro ticket is about 30 cents; the fine was about eight dollars (expensive for Prague).  Ali got caught on our very last metro ride from the city center to the train station.  Holly and Heather somehow eluded the police - for some reason they checked my ticket just about every time I walked on to the metro.