Oh the Czech Republic (or is it Republiky?)

Ok, first a disclaimer. I failed to post my revised itinerary. I had a slight issue with my flight from Budapest to Istanbul. Turns out that I booked it one week earlier than I thought, so I had to shave off some time in Europe. Forgive me if the dates aren't perfect but this is kind of what it all ended up looking like.

Sept 10-13: Paris
Sept 13-14: Cologne
Sept 14-18: Berlin
Sept 18-22: Prague
Sept 22-24: Vienna
Sept 24-26: Salzburg
Sept 26-29: Bratislava (I know, I know, you'll find out later why this one got it over Munich)
Sept 29-Oct 04: Budapest
Oct 04-10: Istanbul and maybe some other places in Turkey
Oct 11-18: Tel Aviv
Oct 19-22: Athens
Oct 22-Dec 18: Tel Aviv and various other places in the Middle East.

Ok. Now that that's all in the open, here's Prague.

Well, got into Prague after an interesting and again beautiful train ride down south through eastern Germany and northwestern Czech Rep with two German businessmen and another world traveler from Brazil. Got to my hostel and realized that they had put me in a room with 5 19 yr old British guys who were on a one-week holiday before heading back to Oxford for the year. For about the first hour I was there, they tried to get me to start playing drinking games with them. It was 4pm. Then as they got more drunk the most frequent words out of their mouths were, "Catherine, do girls like it when guys do . . . " (you fill in the blank). Then, when they realized that I wasn't going to hang out with them, they left, and I went off to find myself some dinner before hitting the sack before midnight. My first full day in Prague was great. I wandered around a little bit on my own, but the highlight was my personalized tour from Barak's friend from Cornell. Ondrej is a local and after he so eloquently asked me to meet him at the horse's ass of a particular statue, we had a great time touring the city. We walked for 5 or 6 or 7 hours with a coffee break and dinner to nourish us along the way. I had a great time. I gather he did too, or he was just too nice to tell me to stop talking and leave him alone. We'll see if a comment pops up to prove me wrong!
After hitting all of the major sites with my local tour guide, heading out on my own just didn't have that spark the second and third days there. I retraced some of Ondrej and my steps from the night before to take some day time photos and made my way somehow to the state theatre where I managed to score tickets to two shows - Cinderella, the ballet, and Madame Butterfly for each of my last two nights in the city for less than $50. Awesome. I ended up in a great box, first balcony, just right of the center. I know most people reading this really don't care about theatre, but it was great to be able to see two shows in Europe without killing my budget.
To be honest, I don't really remember what I did during the day time during my last day in Prague. I was probably too excited to see Madame Butterfly for the 3 or 4 or 5 time. But I know it wasn't too bad whatever it was I did. It will all come back to me when I see the date stamp on my photos.
Well, then it was off to Vienna. Got to the train station just in time and managed to find a seat next to an American couple from the DC area (Wheaton). The world is too small.
Seeing as I just left Austria today, I can't possibly keep my blog too up to date with my travels, so I'll have to sign off now and see you sometime in Budapest, or worse, Turkey! Cheers