Well, I’m finally back (okay, I admit it, I arrived on Thursday afternoon, but only now I gathered energy to post this here) from my vacations in Prague, Czech Republic. And let me tell you, that from all cities I visited, this one was probably the one I think was the most beautiful. I know that I said before that London was my favourite city in the world, but there’s a good reason why I said that. While London is a city for you to live, Prague is a city for you to visit. But well, on with the show, because I know you all want to know what happened there.
Day 1:
At 9 o’clock we were already at the airport ready to make our check-in, before entering the plane. We departed at 12 o’clock (but not before I was able to buy a few chocolates to eat on board… What did you expect? I’m crazy for chocolate!), and I might say that the flight was very pleasant, and there was not a single problem. We landed in Prague at 15 o’clock, right on schedule. The airport was quite sophisticated and it was easy for us to move around without getting lost. Since my mother had the brilliant idea of reserving a taxi to take us to the hotel, we did not have to worry about transportation. When we exited the terminal, they were already waiting for us. The guide did not speak English fluently, but he spoke the elementary which was fine with us, since we had a lot of time to practice our English. Half an hour later, we were in front of our hotel, the Top Hotel Praha, a four-star hotel in Chodov. The place was very nice, with an art-deco style. The reception and the main entrance were very beautiful, and although at first I thought that my mother had picked a bad hotel, I was happy to see that my assumptions were wrong for once. It had a Zen garden, a Bowling alley, a great bar which was open 24 hours a day, a indoor swimming pool, a Tennis court, and a casino. All in all, it was one of those places that we all dream of, while sleeping. After putting our stuff in the rooms, we went exploring, since it was only 17 o’clock. After getting a few information about the public transportations, we went to the Centrum Chodov (Centrum is Shopping Center in Czech, for those of you who don’t know the language) to grab the subway. My first impressions about the transportations were positive, because it is very well organized, and unlike Lisbon, where you need to get a different ticket for the bus, and a different one for the train, and so on, there you only need a ticket for everything. Our first stop, the National Museum and the Wenclaus Square. I might had that the square is named like that after the protector of the city, St. Wenclaus. An imposing building like the museum, on a beautiful square like the Wenclaus Square, makes you wonder if you are on another dimension or on another country. (Oh, I almost forgot about this point: One of the few things I disliked about the city itself is the fact of being so dirty, and I’m not talking about the trash on the ground, I’m talking about some of the buildings that were covered with soot, mainly from the air pollution. They really need to clean them in the near future). Anyway, going down the Wenclaus Square, soon we found ourselves; we see buildings with all sorts of styles, like the beautiful Grand Hotel Europa, and lots of buildings with Renascence paintings on their fronts. Then, after walking quite a bit, we finally see why the city of Prague is nicknamed “The City of the 100 Domes” and “The City of the 100 Clock Towers”. In front of us there was a huge clock tower, which is famous for the sound of its bells. We decide to go up, because it was almost 6 o’clock, so we could hear the bells. It was tough to climb until the top, but it was worth. When the clock stroke 6, we heard the bells stroking a beautiful melody, which could be heard all over the city. Almost at the same time, the rest of the clock towers that were located in the city, also stoke 6, and the only thing you could hear was the stroke of bells. The view from up there was also breath taking. Going down, we continued our way through the streets, looking for other things to see, and soon we see the Powder Tower, one of the most important marks of the city, which was in the old days, one of the thirteen gates of the city, and right next to it, the Obecní Dum, which is a magnificent building that houses an outstanding theatre, an art gallery, three restaurants and a tea room. The outside is very beautiful, as well as the inside, making it look like a beautiful crown engaged with jewels. No wonder this is one of the most important attractions of the city, and why people chose to go there watching a play, or celebrate a special occasion. We continued our walk, and soon we are in front of the Palladium, one of the many shopping centres in Prague. My mother and my aunt could not resist to enter in it and to check it out. Half an hour later, we were back outside. And that’s when we see that in front of the Palladium was the Hotel Melantrich, one of the hotels I had insisted for us to be checked in. The building itself was quite impressive, and although it needs a paint job you can see that it’s quite beautiful. After passing right in front of one of the many fraternities of the University of Prague, we find ourselves looking for a place to grab some chow. Without thinking twice, we decide to go back to the Obecní Dum. Inside, we chose one of the restaurants, and I might say that we were very well served, and the place was one of the most restaurants where I had dinner so far. At the end of the meal, the waiter brought us five icy glasses with a strange liqueur, which looked like apple and cinnamon liqueur. Needless to say that we enjoyed it, my brother being the exception, because it was quite bitter. After finishing eating, we decided to grab the subway back to the hotel, to get a well deserved night of sleep.
Day 2:
After a great night of sleep, and a huge breakfast (One of the things I praised the hotel was the variety of food they offered the guests on breakfast. They had everything, from cereals and yogurt, to bacon and eggs, from fine pastry to orange and apple juice, and I could go on like this the rest of the day), we entered in the bus that took us to the Centrum Chodov and we grabbed the subway to the centre. One of the funniest things that happened to me during the whole trip happened right in the subway, because we were supposed to get all on the train, but the doors closed earlier than we thought, and I went alone to the next station, where I waited for the rest of the group, so we could all go together. After that minor incident, we all went in to the Wenclaus Square, and from there, we walked until we reached the Old City Square where you can see the Astronomical Clock, and churches, each and every one of them more beautiful then the other. The most important of them all are the St. Nicolas Church, St. Mary of Tyn’s Church and St. Gall’s Church. Following that route, we found one of the first places where I wanted to enter, the Hotel Rott, not only because of the beautiful drawings on its front wall, but because of the fact that it is there where the Hard Rock Café is located (visiting the Hard Rock Café it’s one of my vices, while visiting other countries), and I must say that I’m quite amazed with it. The collection of guitars they had inside from the Aerosmith and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers was amazing, and it’s nice to see that the Hard Rock chose a great place like that to get settled in. After taking a few more shots to it, we made our way to the St. Nicolas Cathedral, and from there, to the Charles Bridge, the most notorious and most famous bridge in Prague and in Czech Republic. There are a total of 30 statues in it, but some of them are not the original ones (some of them have fallen to the river because of accidents, or because of the river rising during winter). After passing it, we see ourselves on the other side of the river. After a small pit stop at the famous La Scuderia Café, which is where the guys who own a Ferrari, or a Maserati, or any luxurious car usually hangs out (it’s also the place for any person who loves Ferrari to visit, because the place is owned by Ferrari and anyone who’s member of the Ferrari Official Club has a discount on every collector’s item that is for sell there). It’s also the place where they serve the best peanut butter and cream pie in Prague. After that, we decide to visit the St. Joseph’s Church, and then we make our way to the top, where Prague’s Castle is located. At first sight, I guarantee you that it’s a one of kind monument. The entrance is rather small, but when you enter, you see that it’s bigger than you could have ever imagined. We all decided to visit St. Vito’s Church, the Old Royal Palace, the Basilica of St. George and its gallery, the Golden Lane and finally, we also visited the Royal Gardens. The view from up there is gorgeous, I mean, it’s something that you can only imagine in you wildest dreams, because you can view the entire city from up there, and never get tired of looking at it. On our way down, we see some strange looking building and decide to check it out. In reality, it was a wall build in an attempt to recreate a cave, which was located on the Sternberg Palace’s garden. After finding out what it was, we head back to the Old Town, so we could go to the Black Light Theatre (my aunt really wanted to watch to a play and well we decided to go with her). The name of the play is “Aspects of Alice” and it is based on Lewis Carroll book, Alice in Wonderland (lucky for me, because I love anything that has to do with Alice in Wonderland). Only my mother, my brother and I went with my aunt to see the play, because my father is not a very big fan of the theatre. I loved the play, and I even bought the CD with the music from the play, because I loved it. The play combined all sorts of things regarding Alice, but also, things from the city of Prague. It was like seeing a play, a movie and magic show, all at the same time. After it ended, we all went to eat. This time, we decided that we would go for pizza. My brother ate so much that he started to feel bad from his stomach, but that’s what you get when you eat four slices of pepperoni pizza and you drink up an entire bottle of coke. The rest of the night, I spend it in the hotel lobby reading the latest book I bought.
Day 3:
Waking up in the morning, and after finish eating my breakfast, we made our now usual routine to the centre of the city. But before we could start our visit to other places, my mother insisted that she wanted to know the train schedules for Kutná Hora, a little town just 100 kilometres from Prague, because she wanted to visit it the next day. That taken care off, we started to walk to the Wensclau Square, which was really near from where we were. On our way there we get a good look at the National Opera. And when we get to the Wensclau Square, the first thing we did was to get a decent cup of coffee, and what better place to get one that the Starbucks? We Portuguese tend to be quite bossy when it comes to coffee, because we just can not drink anything that looks like coffee but tastes like mop water. I don’t know if we’re the only ones, but whatever. Two expressos, one of them double for my aunt, and the regular one for my mother, while I bought a Vanilla Frappucino for myself. While drinking the coffee, we decided that we would not follow a particular route. Walking through the streets, we soon find ourselves surrounded by all kinds of shops, including an antique shop, which was full of old cameras and microscopes. We continued to walk, and after a while, we find ourselves in front of a Church where a wedding was taking place. Being there we wished the bride and the groom a happy day and a wonderful honey moon. Stopping for lunch in a nearby garden, we then decide to continue walking, until we reached what looked like an old fortress. We then found out that it was actually the Vyšehrad Castle, from the late 10th century, located on top of a hill, right next to the Vltava River. Inside its grounds are also the Basilica of St Peter and St Paul and the Vyšehrad cemetery, where Czech composer Antonín Dvořák is interred, as well as other important Czechs. While my my parents, my brother and my aunt went to get buy themselves an ice-cream, I decided to check out the cemetery. Only I wished I could have photographed it at night, because it would look a lot creepier and gothic, but still… After I finished photographing everything I wanted to photographed, I went to join the rest of the group and to buy also an ice-cream. Since the Basilica was closed, we decided it was time for us to get back to the centre of the city. With my brother guiding us this time, we all went down through a way that probably not even the people who live in Prague know about. Up and down we went, and after almost thirty minutes not knowing if we were going in the right direction. After that, we caught a tram and went to see the National Theatre, called Lanterna Magika, or if you prefer, the “Magical Lantern”. After that, we caught another tram and went to see the “Dancing House”, a modern building which seems to have been inspired in Gaudi’s work. The building itself is closed to the public, but not the top floor which is a restaurant. The only way to go up there is by entering in a bar located on the first floor, and use their elevator which goes directly to the top floor. The price to go upstairs is quite cheap, a drink. We all asked for a drink so we could go to the top floor and check out the view. My brother asked for a coke wit ice, while I asked for a beer. I usually do not drink beer, but I wanted to see if there beer was better than the Portuguese beer. The result, Sagres and Super Bock are much better than Pillsner Urquell. After finishing our drinks, we went up there and checked out the view. Once again, the view is superb from up there. In fact, Prague is much more beautiful seen from the top, than from the bottom. Then again, are not all the cities like that? Our next stop was the Loreto… Yeah, we were unstoppable that day. Although the interior was closed, we were able to see the outside, which is also very beautiful. Going up a few streets, we entered the Strahov Monastery. There wasn’t much to see there, with the exception of a baroque church. After that, my father and my aunt decided to rest a little bit, but I on the other hand, had other plans. The Observation Tower which is a 60 metres duplicate of the Eiffel Tower was just a few minutes from there, on top of Mount Petrin and I wanted to go there, because it was the highest place on the city. I managed to persuade my brother and my mother to come with me. The way up there is rather exhausting, but it’s worth it. Since my mother was too tired to go up (yeah, the elevator was not working), me and my brother went up to the very top of the tower, where the view is marvellous. If the view of the city from the top of the Castle and from the Dancing House was beautiful, than this one was amazing. I admit that going up the tower was tough, but coming down was easy, and it gave us time to relax a little. That little trip done, it was time to go back to the Strahov Monastery, where the rest of the group was waiting for the three of us. After getting back together, we took the tram back to Malostranská, and from there, the subway back to Mústek to have dinner. The option was easy, since my mother wanted to eat Italian food. One pizza for each one of us (my brother and I), and a plate of spaghetti with garlic and spice sauce for my parents and my aunt. After that, we all went back to the hotel, and although no one suspected, my brother and I went into the corridor, where there were some vending machines and we bought ourselves a few sodas and a giant pack of fries, so we could watch Jackass on MTV, and then, Transformers.
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Here are my selected movies for this here, my friend:
After: Life – (When you are in the limbo, between life and death, what would you believe in?)
Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll – (Marilyn Manson directs, produces and represents, in this movie that will give us a different view of Alice in Wonderland)
Angels and Demons – (Professor Robert Langdon will have to stop the Illuminatti from blowing up the Vatican, while the Conclave begins his decision on who will be the next Pope) - A really great movie. It's not The DaVinci Code, but it's still a ver god movie. Tom Hanks has proven that he's still one of the greatest actors that ever existed!
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – (Changes are in the air, and Hogwarts is about to become a war field, between the armies of Professor Dumbledore and of Lord Voldemort) - an amazing adaptation, and although there are certain sequences in the film that do not exist in the book, it still captures our attention and we can identify where the story is going to. Wonderful special effects, and an awesome acting from Jim Broadbent as Professor horace Slughorn, and from the rest of the cast too.
The Pink Panther 2 – (The Pink Panther diamond has disappeared again, and Inspector Jacques Closeau is back on the case) - Closeau has done it again! Not only he solved the mystery, but he also manages to make us laugh with all those hilarious pranks of his. A definite must for those who love Steve Martin's films.
Dragonball: Evolution – (Goku and Bulma have to find the seven Dragonballs, and to do that, they have to destroy Piccolo) –Not exactly what you could call a masterpiece… From all movies in this list, I think that this one is the only one which really disappointed me, so far. The only cool thing about it was the fact the way they characterized Bulma was actually cooler than I expected.
Fame (remake) – (Everyone wants fame, but to do that, they need to work hard and pay in sweat, to achieve it.)
Friday the 13th (remake) – (Jason Vorhees is back, and Camp Crystal is going to be his playground.) - A nice come back from Jason, who still knows how to rip someone apart, limb by limb. Lot of blood and screams, just like the way I like it!
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder – (The end of Planet Express as we know it might be close, but will Fry, Bender, Leela and Amy be able to stop fate itself?) –The movie is awesome. Not only we see Fry and Leela kissing, but finally, Amy and Kiff are back together and Kiff was able to stand up against Brannigan. I'm already waiting for the new season of this series, which will premiere in 2010!
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – (With the Cobra rising, it’s up to the G.I. Joe team to stop them)
Solomon Kane – (Kane is after a devilish demon and he must stop him, to end a pursuit that started a long time ago)
Monsters vs. Aliens – (Monsters and Aliens are very different characters, but what happens when two worlds clash with each other?) –Reese Witherspoon and Hugh Laurie, along with the rest of the cast made a wonderful work in this movie! Ginormica is so cute, even when she’s mad or sad. I hope they make a sequel!
Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian – (The museum is about ot receive a few more art pieces, and it’s Larry’s job, to secure them. But will he be able to protect them against the wrath of a pharaoh and of Al Capone’s gang?) - A spectacular museum, with a spectacular cast. I really loved to see the old characters coming back, and meetig the new ones. A funny movie indeed!
The Princess and the Frog – (A fairy tale that combines jazz, voodoo and magic that happens in New Orleans in the 1920’s)
REC 2 – (Things were never the same in Barcelona after the viral incident, but how did everything started?)
Scooby-Doo: The Beginning – (What happens when four individuals and a dog, which don’t have anything in common, team up to solve a mystery?)
Sherlock Holmes – (Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, along with Inspector Lestrade team up, in order to stop a satanic lord that threatens the Empire and the English Crown)
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li – (The battle for survival has begun a long time ago, and General M. Bison is responsible for it.) –Not exactly the best Street Fighter movie that I’ve seen, but at least Michael Clark Duncan does a pretty good job as Balrog. Other than that, I think the movie was, unfortunately, a failure.
Terminator Salvation – (John Connor could not stop Judgement Day, but he might be able to stop Skynet from taking over the world with the help of T-101 and a few more allies) - A disappointment... Bale should stick with parts that do not include him being the savior of mankind or the avior of a city. Without the "Governator", the Terminator movies are nothing. I kick this one back to the scrap yard!
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – (Megatron wants Starscream’s head, and it’s up to the Autobots and Sam to stop him, before Earth becomes a war zone) – A stupendous sequel of the original movie. Really liked the way they portraided Arcee, the Fallen and of course, Soundwave. Frank Welker amazed us by using a voice similar to the one he used to voice the character in the original cartoon series, but with a tone that reminds us of another character he also voiced, Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. Two thumbs up for this one!
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – (The battle for supremacy between two distinct races, vampires and werewolves is about to begin) –A love between two species is something that can only end up badly, but the movie is amazing! Loved the entire movie.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine – (When the Weapon X program was created, no one could ever imagine that they would be creating the perfect killing machine… Codename: Wolverine) –Very good indeed! I really loved the action scenes. The way they made the characters shine is absolutely gorgeous. Loved Gambit and Emma Frost. A definite must for those who love action movies and/or comic book heroes movies, my friends.
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My Amazing Friends Who Are Helping Me With My Comic Book:
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My Friends and Watchers:
People who I watch and who are great artists:
The clubs where I am:
Devious Journal
Amazed
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Cheerful
Exhilarated
Tired
ios de Setembro, não esperem grandes updates. Mas não se preocupem, eu se tiver tempo e paciência meterei um capítulo ou dois. Oh, e ficam já a saber, vou de viagem para Praga, na República Checa, portanto, podem esperar algumas fotos e um relatório pormenorizado da viagem. Desejem-me sorte, pessoal, e não se preocupem que eu trago-vos uma ou duas recordações da viagem. 
