A Little Rain Won't Stop Us

 Our first day out on the town and we are greeted by a light drizzle.  

No worry about public transportation because we bought a 500CZK ($27.34)travel pass that gets us onto buses, trams, and subways for five days.  Oddly, you only stamp it the first time and then you carry it just-in-case a transit cop asks to see it.  

Why is Renee so happy, we found a temporary artisan vendor setup in one of the cities squares that served cheap eats.  The lack of an open container law also permitted us to drink while we ate in the rain.  

One beverage was burcak for 40CZK ($2.18) each.  This young, fermented wine was very sweet and tasted more like a juice than an alcoholic drink.  

 Next to the drink hut was a sausage and kebab grill that served fresh made food for 50 CZK ($2.74) a piece.

 In case you thought we were missing some starch in our diet, there was also a "mixed jacket potato" stand that charged per the 100 grams.  Both dishes were in the 92CZK range ($5.03).  The first one highlighted cheese, while the second one highlighted sauerkraut.

 To finish off the good eats, a pretzel stand won our affection.  For 40CZK an original pretzel with rye was a quick snack.

This old clock tower chimes on the hour and would be annoying except for the fact that it's really old and has its original mechanical figurines that move.  The blue windows open about the second dial and have saint statues rotate around the openings.  Also, metal skeletons dance and ring bells near the lower dial.  

This is from the outside of the world's largest crystal chandelier at the Church of Saint Nicholas.  We went inside, but it wasn't worthy of a picture from there.  Free and near the clock tower, so you can kill time while waiting for the top of the hour.  

Nothing like an old building to remind you that you are in an old city.  

One of several torture museums in town.  Our friend were not impressed by their visit to one of them, so we decided to stay our visit.  

We are staying with friends and they have a perfect place in the middle of town, located next to everything.  It has been rainy, but we are still going out.  After dropping our bags off, we went to a local restaurant, Restaurant Konvikt, and had great food.  

First, a bread and cheese plate was brought out and featured a spreadable  herb-mixed cheese with rye bread.  Great, and it primed us for the mains.  

Next, we ordered our own where Brian ate a chicken cutlet breaded and friend and Sophie had beef and vegetables plate

Renee and I split a cabbage and cream soup with bread and a beef and bacon dish with sour cream.  Everything was delicious.  

Throw in nine beers of Pilsner Urquell and the total for the entire meal was 1200 CZK ($65.61) with a modest tip. 

Helsinki isn't Stinky

 Flying from Thailand on our way home, we had a 30-odd hour layover in Helsinki and it turned out to be rather nice.  

Our 88 EUR ($118) a night apartment 

Helsinki is fairly expensive even by European standards, but the people were pleasant and the city was clean and beautiful.  We had no problem getting by with English and everyone we met was happy to speak to us about the city or answer questions.  The easiest rout to the apartment was by taking the Yellow Taxi from the airport for 26 EUR ($35).  We found out place on Hostelbookers, and even though it wasn't the cheapest option, it was the best value compared to a dorm bed for a few euros less.

 

The city was beautiful and easy tow walk around.  It has a great tram/bus/subway system, but we opted to not use it an just hoof it.  

 The main perk in picking an apartment was the included kitchen that we quickly filled.  We made a great salmon and hollandaise sauce dish with vegetables for Renee's birthday.  

I Hope We Can Handle This

Coming too soon. . .