August 14-15 Forchtenstein and Prague

August 14 Friday

Exhaustion and colder weather afford me another night of better sleep last night. Fortunately far as things go today also seems to be a much less intense day than the long day of hiking yesterday, for today the only thing we had to do was make our way to Forchtenstein castle, fortress of the Esterhazy

Forchtenstein castle was orginnally constructed some time in the 15th century by the local lords before they fell into debt and ownership was sold to the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs would lease the castle to various lords for a time but ownership was eventually awarded to Nicholas Esterhazy in the early 16th century. Nikolaus would spend part of his life working on castle restorations and further restoring the defenses before the castle would eventually pass on to his son Prince Paul I Esterhazy. Sometime after Paul's life the fortress would take on the role of becoming an armorery and vault for booty from foreign campaigns, many items of each collection which are still held within the museum. I think my favorite parts of the collection were the bearskin caps taken from Prussian troops and the many breastplasts of the cuirissar regiment still bearing the evidence of their test shots. The tour today did not go on nearly as long as expected but it did allow for us to return to vienna by the early afternoon. I've taken the time allowed today to catch up on a little journalling, to do some laundry, but most importantly to prepare for our trip to prague tomorrow.

August 15 Saturday

Sleep last night was relatively uneventful, adjusting to the Vienna temperatures at night was easier than on the first nights of rest as it has not shot back up to the highs of the first week here. The travel today was relatively uneventful too, beyond a long delay in Braclava. Starting our day early we took the metro to Hauptbanhof for our very healthy McDonald's breakfast and for a group rendevous before setting off on the first leg of our trip (roughly 1 1/2 hours by train) to the Czech town of Braclava. After the aformentioned delay in the Czech countryside we had our four hour leg to Prague. With my view of the countryside being fully a view of a support column within the train I instead spent my time catching up on some more much needed sleep.

Above Prague Main Station

Arriving in Prague in the early evening our first priority was dropping off our things at the hostel, though the route to the hostel allowed us an oppurtunity to walk along the currently in repair Wenceslaus square. Setting out from the hostel for the evening we took the oppurtunity to sample local cuisine and beer at a nearby brewery before we had an even walk through the old city of Prague. Capping off our short day in Prague my roomate and I made our way to a quite literaly hole in the wall of a cafe called (A)Void Cafe located on the river.