Luckily in Prague all the museums have regular working hours on Christmas Day.. So we took a walk up to the other side of the river to where the Technical Museum is located. This place would be heaven for someone like my dad.. There were exhibits all about photography, videography, timekeeping/watch making, chemistry, holograms, television, archaeology, architecture, and a huge room with 5 floors of artifacts different modes of transportation.. including cars, motorcycles, bikes, and airplanes... We walked around the museum for over 2 hours and barely scratched the surface.. We had to leave because we had dinner reservations, but could have spent all day in the place.. Wish I had known that when we went, and we could have gone in the morning rather than the afternoon! There is even a cafe and a restaurant located in the museum.
We got ready and headed to the restaurant, Kolkovna, for dinner. There was a cool website I found called pragueexperiences.com where you can pick restaurants, tours, pub crawls, etc and make reservations or pay online. Kind of a "middle man" who deals with different restaurants and tour companies so you can do your research before going out. I checked the menus and this place was reasonable and had traditional czech food. Winner! Paul had the biggest plate of different meats while I stuck to my guns and had the carp. It was delish! Again not the typical Christmas dinner..but still good. My favorite Christmas dinner is the English one, because it's mostly vegetables. And then you get a flaming pudding. Mmmm. (sorry mom, not hating on all the casseroles :) )
After dinner we ventured out to see what nightlife was like. We came to the Prague Beer Museum, which much be educational at some point in the day, but at that time was buzzing with happy people. We ended up meeting 2 South African girls and a guy from the NY area, and spent a few hours talking and hanging out with them. It was a good way to end our Czech christmas... Lots of fun. We even got to FaceTime with my whole family when we got back at 2 AM our time... We were very happy to see all of them and wish them a Merry Christmas before we went to sleep :)
We spent our last day in Prague taking pictures and walking around.. I went for my last run through the park and took in the last view from the top of the hill.. It is such a beautiful city. We bought our souviners, packed our bags, and got ready for our early departure to the airport.
Turkish Airlines is hands down the best airline I have ever used. We boarded the plane (bulkhead seats! yes!) and were given a Turkish delight by the flight attendant before take off. Then, the cabin chef (as his nametag stated) came and brought a menu with two options. Later we were served a meal which altough I did not eat much because I ate before (not knowing we would get fed and not have to pay onboard!) but Paul says it was a really good burger and the best airline food he has ever had. I will make sure to call the airline and get a "special" meal so I can feast on our flight to Mumbai! Then came tea and coffee, all on just a 2.5 hour long flight. The staff were all friendly and the service was great. That's my pitch for Turkish Airlines. If you have the chance to fly with them, do it. They have won lots of awards for their service and food.. and it shows!
If you ever go to Turkey, here is a fact I did not know. I ignorantly thought they were part of the EU, but, they are partially part of the EU. So, you need a visa. Luckily, at the airport there is a little desk where you go and pay $20 per person for a little sticker in your passport. The guy at border control probably thought we were dumb when we got up to the desk with stupid smiles on our faces and handed him the passport without the magic sticker. He laughed and pointed us to this desk... paid our money and all was good.
Our drive in to Istanbul was so different than any other drive we have had to far... The scenery of the hills, the mosques, and the Bosphorous really reinforced that we are in a very different part of the world. And the traffic. Wow.. Nuts! Kind of reminded me of Peru, with the little concern for road rules and a language of beeps.. I don't think this is a good place to rent a car... It's hard to even cross the street!
We arrived to Taksim square, where our drop off point was and where our host, Gocke, was meeting us. We waited for her and noticed there was a large poilce presence around the area... Lots of police showing the muscle with big guns and crowd control shields.. I was getting kind of worried, since Taksim was where a lot of protesting and rioting happened over the summer. Gocke came quickly and spoke with a cab driver, and informed us that a demonstration was planned for later and that we needed to hurry to her house.. She gave us the keys, the driver directions, and off we went. So THAT's why I saw tons of police around.. Phew. The demonstration that night was against the government, for corruption. Nothing bad happened, except some police shooting people with the water cannon. No violence, and we were safe. We steered clear of the area anyways!
Gocke has class that night, so we went out with her boyfriend Umut for a while.. It is so cool being able to go out with locals and see where the locals go... That was one thing I missed in Prague. It was more like a hostel there with people coming and going and doing their own thing, here, we are like friends! It's amazing.
The next day Umut took us to Taksim and showed us around.. much calmer than the night before, but, still a police presence.
We walked down the main street through Taksim, and it was unreal. There are so many people here, out and about, at all hours of the day, every day. It was crazy to walk through the street and be in awe of the sheer number of people. I guess it is preparing me for Mumbai, where it will be probably crazier! We have gotten really good at maneuvering through crowds so far in our trip (thanks to London) so the practice has helped... I still don't like huge crowds though. They give me anxiety!
We moseyed on down to the Old Town for a quick walk around, and then headed back to the apartment. It was so nice and sunny... a welcome change from what we have been used to!
We will come back this way when Steve comes to meet us, and buy some sweet stuff from the Bazaar! So much life in this city, it is so vibrant. There is so much for us to see, and I am glad we have 9 days ahead of us to explore more.. We have had some really fun nights with our hosts so far. Tomorrow night we will be staying in a nice hotel that has a gym and a sauna! My family's christmas present to us. :) We will be pampered for sure! More to come as we do more.. So far we have been to the movies, out on the town, and hung out with our newfound friends. Happy New Year's Eve eve!
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