I have finally completed the craziest 4 days of my tour. To give you an idea, today is Sunday, and I just arrived in Rome (or Roma to the locals) this evening. On Wednesday I was on BusAbout (my major method of transport) from Berlin to Prague; it's a relatively short trip and we arrived early in Prague at about 2pm. Wednesday was the only day I had in Prague, so I caught the bus from Prague to Vienna on Thursday morning at 8am. I spent the day Friday touring Vienna and hopped on an overnight train to Venice (Venezia) at 9pm. I arrived in Venice at 8:30 the next morning - Saturday, for those of you keeping track - and took the bus from Venice to Rome today (Sunday). In case you weren't counting, that's 3 cities in 4 days.
Prague is a very walkable city, and not very huge, so I got to most of the major sites in about 6 hours. The hostel in which I was staying was in the equivalent of the outskirts of Prague or perhaps the "suburbs." I took the tram into the city and went to the Prague Castle. I only got there about 2 hours before it closed, so I only had time for the short tour, which nonetheless let me visit all the most sought after places. From there, I walked down the hill to the Charles Bridge (a solely pedestrian and highly touristy bridge) that crosses into Old Town Prague. One of the main attractions there is the Astronomical clock; on the hour, Apostles parade through windows and several figures become animated (including a skeleton that rings a bell). As predicted by my Lonely Planet, the guy behind me said "That's all?" when it was finished.
Vienna is also known for it's palaces. The Schonbrunn Palace was the summer residence of the Hapsburgs and is still maintained and furnished in the way that it was when they lived there. The architecture of the winter palace is still around, but it now houses several different things including the Spanish Riding School and museums. The best way to see the center of the city - and thus what I did - is to take a tram and/or walk around the Ring road to see all of the typical Viennese architecture, including the Hapsburg's winter palace. I also swung by the Sigmund Freud museum - I had to...I am studying Psychology after all - which is housed in his former apartment and offices.
Finally, I spent yesterday wandering and getting lost in Venice. Maps are not very useful in Venice; they help you identify where you are and where you have been, but aren't good at figuring out where you're going. I followed the, generally, quite good signage to Piazza San Marco (that square with all the pidgeons I'm sure you've seen in pictures). Occasionally the signs would disappear, and you'd have to head off in approximately the right direction and hope you picked right. After walking the city and taking lots of pictures that look like postcards, I headed back to my hostel and happily passed out after four days of non-stop travel.
Fun, yes...exhausting, absolutely. I'm looking forward to having a few days "settled" in Rome, but more on that in a few days.
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