Prague - a tale of excess

Prague nearly did me in. Well, to be frank, an excess of beer and a heavy dose of stupidity nearly did me in. When we last left you, we were about to head off for a beer tour of the city. Of course, with a bit of time to kill, we cleverly decided a few warm up brews were necessary. Coincidently ending up in the same bar at which we'd swilled tequila and Bloody Maries the night prior, we got stuck into the steins and were already ticking over when we met the tour group at the Wenceslas Square statue. The tour took us to five pubs, of which I only really remember three. We had a meal at one, tried some scary schapps-like stuff at another, and my night effectively ended with a couple of shots of absynthe, reputedly 70% alcohol.

Needless to say, the next day I was poorly but we still had to see the sites. We made it to the Astronomical Clock for the great anti climax of it chiming, we crossed the Charles Bridge, which was beautiful despite teeming with tourists, and took a big walk around the Prague Castle. We rounded out the day with a traditional Czech lunch and some shopping for warmer clothes, then went out for dinner at a very pleasant pub-restaurant. Here we tried hot apple punch which, unfortunately, was loaded with rum and smelled like diesel with a splash of apple juice. We also discovered that there's a drink called 'grog' but were disappointed to learn that it is simply rum with hot water. Yuck.

Our train journey to Munchen was uneventful apart from a pile of drunken, lederhosen-wearing Germans piling into the first class cabin with us half an hour from our destination. Despite it being the end of the day, they put Australian drinking records to shame - a few girls passed around a few bottles between them and surely would have knocked over two bottles in that short journey.

Last night we had the mixed pleasure of our first beer garden experience, mixed because despite the food and beer being really good, the 8,000 or so seats in the beer garden itself were deserted due to inclement weather. Nevertheless, the meat-meat-meat spectacular I had was good, and, apart from a deceptively-named dunkel weiss bier (not a fan of wheat beer), the beer was cracking. The service was also good; the waiter had a good laugh at us struggling to read the all-Deutsch menu and eventually took pity, saying "why didn't you ask for an English menu?". Duh.

Today the weather is abject poo. On the way to writing this little diatribe we went to four venues seeking an umbrella, which we have now secured. However, the persistent rain is dampening many plans; a recommended free walking tour of Munich is looking unlikely, and beer gardens more so, especially given that I feel like my stomach has recently turned into a rusty spin dryer. Regardless we will go out again shortly and tackle the day, saving energy for the Oktoberfest (and maybe the AFL Grand Final) tomorrow.