Z is for Zoning Out on the Bus

We started the day with coffee at Mariensplatz to catch the "show". The tower glockenspiel (not to be confused with the concert percussion instrument) animates twice daily, drawing hundreds to the square. The chimes ring an atonal rendition of presumably traditional German tunes, and two rows of figures on tracks spin slowly around the center column. All told, it's pretty underwhelming, but don't tell the hoards of tourists - you would have thought it was a celebrity appearance the way they crowded, gasped, took photos, and cheered.

From there we went to catch our bus to Prague. We bought our tickets online and printed evidence that we'd purchased them, but didn't have the actual tickets in hand. James being the problem solver that he is enabled international data roaming and after several stressful minutes acquired the necessary information to board the bus. Well played, though the lesson here is that while this was precisely what we needed to do to ensure our transit, it was not a cheap solution. The remainder of the travel was smooth and peaceful, allowing us to play games, jam out to music, and generally just zone out. Travel was a welcome break from excitement.

We make it to our Airbnb apartment in the late afternoon and got settled in. We're staying a little outside of the city center so we see lots of real Czech people doing real Czech things (hint, it's just like everyone else, but in Czech). That's awesome, though it means that the stores are less tourist friendly. Luckily "two beers, please" seems to be universal throughout Europe, so we managed to avoid complete starvation. 

Note: Czech knows beer. Say what you will, but James and I agree that German lager is good, but Czech lager is better. We've conducted extensive research, trust us.

We're staying beside what is called the TV Tower, which is part hotel, part radio tower, part art museum installation. Prague really embraces its quirky, edgy art styling. The artistic interpretation, as we're led to believe, is that the babies climbing the tower represent Gypsies stealing cable. They light it up at night and it looks pretty cool.