Hello Poland!

Salzburg was pretty cool and one of my favorite places so far. After the ice cave, the next day we wandered the town and toured through the castle. It is pretty much an intact fortress and we discussed the amazing differences between the English castles - which were built explicitly with defense in mind and seemed very dark, dank, nasty places to live - and these central European castles that are fortified against attack, but still seem to be bright and comfortable to live in. The refinement of the continental Europeans make the English seem barbaric (imagine that while conditions in Braveheart were going on, composers were vying for court positions in Vienna).

Next was on to Prague. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a little town for our first meal in the Czech Republic, but didn't stay any longer than that becuase we had a long drive ahead. Next we stopped to check out the "Original Budweiser" Budvar Brewery. It seemed to be just as big an operation as the Miller plant we toured in Wisconsin.

After Austria, Prague at first came across as very communist-era run down. But upon closer inspection we decided that Prague was a very nice city with some fantastic detail in the architecture, but just dirty. The buildings were dirty, the streets dirty, the people not as nicely dressed. There seemed to be a lack of pride. During the first day while touring the sites, we kept seeing a lot of Scots in kilts. When we reached the city center there were a hundred or so sitting around the main fountain. We casually walked by listening for someone with a lighter accent that we would be able to understand and then asked what was going on. Turns out, Czech Republic was hosting Scotland in a soccer game that night. Well, that sealed the deal for Jason and we spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out how to get tickets. The stadium had about the same number of seats as PGE Park, but centered around the entire field like a normal stadium. Our cheap seats (~$10) ended up being in the 2nd row midfield. We looked right out over the field, but it was partially blocked by the fence and I guess that is why it was considered a bad seat. There were tons of Scots and they cheered and chanted the entire game. The Czechs were not nearly as organized, but I also think there were a lot of people mixed in like us (I heard lots of English speakers). The Czechs ended up winning 3-1 and it was a really good game - lots of fun!! We headed back to the hostel and I dragged Jason into a local pub nearby our place. Definitely a hangout for only the locals, but every beer we have tried has been fantastic and this place was no exception. Beer is also cheap - the local brews are about $1-1.50 for a half liter. Beat that!

We finally managed to hook up with Kevin and Drew the 2nd night, they had been sick as dogs for the last few days with some virus. So we took it easy and walked around a bit and had a couple of drinks and called it a night.

From Prague we have made our way to Poland (bye bye navigation system!) and are in Krakow for a few days. Time to get ready for the day - we are going to some salt mines today. Later!