Prague Day 1:

Morning flight arrival.

At the airport (after luggage pick up) there is a Tourist Information (where you can find out train schedules etc.- we checked the schedule for Kutna Hora) and a bus ticket counter- we purchased bus tickets (300 czk roundtrip) for the next morning to Karlovy Vary.

Leave bags at hotel storage. Take tram (very convenient and frequent transportation; purchase tickets at convenience stores, metro or certain hotels and self- stamp the tickets upon entering the tram).

Visit the Old Town Square. The Old Town Square was beautifully lit up with a huge Xmas tree, Xmas decorations such as a huge angel and full of stalls full of goodies to buy or eat (till 1/1). The square also features a twin tower church that is reminiscent of Disneyworld Palace.  At the square we saw the Astrological Clock strike 2pm (the figurines jiggled about, the clock chimed and a hooded man waved from the top).



The astrological clock is ancient, from 1492 and is colorful with many figurines. There were Free Walking Tours (guides with colorful shirts and big umbrellas working for tips) you could join, for 2-3 hr tours, which left from under the astrological clock after the clock chimed.

Also check out the New Town- Wenceslas Square (15 minutes walk). While we were visiting it was also packed with stalls (till 7/1).

Different goodies to try at the stalls: Mead, mulled wine, cherry punch, gingerbread, pirochi with nutella.

At night (7pm- 830pm, there is also a later tour) there is a Ghost Walk and Underground Tour. The Ghost Walk is a walk around town. The guide  relates  various horror stories and legends pertaining to certain buildings. The more intriguing portion is the Underground Tour, which takes you to Prague’s underground of the old city from the 12^th century, areas investigated on Britain’s "Most Haunted Live" due to legends of paranormal occurrences. One tours through the rooms, and cellars up to 2 floors beneath the levels of Prague’s streets.

Prague Day 2:

Day trip to Karlovy Vary: Take the bus from Florenc Bus station (main bus station) to Karlovy Vary a.k.a Carlsbad. This town was featured in James Bond's Casino Royale and is famous for its 12 springs of curative mineral waters. Famous for its pink porcelain, “lazenske oplatky” = spa waffles (nice), and Becherovka (famous Czech drink with a secret recipe). It is also a very beautiful picturesque town.

We left Florenc at 930am, arrived in Karlovy Vary at 1145am and took the 4pm bus back to Prague, arriving 615pm. We had time to visit the springs incl. the main fountain Vridlo- Sprudel, at 12 meters high; walk through the old and modern Colonades; have lunch at "Karla IV" a restaurant overlooking the town- delicious garlic soup and roasted potatoes; visit porcelain (Karlovy Vary is famous for its pink porcelain) stores and of course snack on some spa waffles.

Evening in Prague: For evening plans, head down the bustling Karlova street to the Fantastik Theatre (Black Theatre) for the Alice in Wonderland show.  The show takes place on a totally black stage. Some of the actors wear all black and are not seen, but move objects around the stage. The main performers such as Alice do surreal acts such as flying through the air and twisting around. The performance is also very colorful. It is all mime with no dialogue, only music to accompany the aerial acrobatics. Highly enjoyable show!

The theatre is minutes away from Charles Bridge which is beautiful at night.

Prague Day 3:

Visit the Old Jewish Quarter. View the Jewish Cemetery, and the Alt Neu (Golem) Synagogue, over 700 years old and the oldest working synagogue in the world.

 Have a lovely cozy lunch at Golem Restaurant (typical Czech meal of soup, goulash and dumplings).

We had pre-ordered opera tickets for the night and picked them up at Bohemia Tickets office (Na Pri Kope 16) near the Powder Gate.

At Celetna 10, there is the Chocolate Museum (and around the corner the Torture Museum and shop). At the chocolate museum we read about the making of chocolate and hot chocolate (e.g. in general, chocolate is made from chocolate butter, while hot chocolate is made from chocolate powder), watched  videos and saw a demonstration of the making of chocolate. Yummy chocolate for purchase.

Walk to Charles Bridge and along the riverside to Cafe Slavia, Prague's most famous cafe. I had Latte Slaviato- latte with honey.

Evening at the opera: We saw Die Fledermaus, my favorite opera so far (the English translation is "the Bat". Highly recommended!

As it was New Year's eve the ticket included a luscious buffet and unlimited alcohol. The opera ended a few minutes to midnight and we were served champagne at our seats for the New Year countdown (accompanied by an opera singing toast). Thereafter we watched the fireworks at Wenceslas Square.

Prague Day 4:

Day trip to Kutna Hora: Take the train from the main train station Hlavni Nadrazi to Kutna Hora. We took the 10:05am train (approx 1 hr, 308 czk roundtrip). Note that there are two stops at Kutna Hora to choose from. One stop is the main train station which is near the Ossuary. The other stop is near the town.

We opted to get off at the town and walked to the Italian Court where we visited the Kutna Hora Torture Museum. The torture museum features various instruments for torture and punishment used primarily against witchcraft.

From there we passed by St. James Church of the way to lunch at Dacicky Tavern, a traditional old Czech Tavern.



After garlic soup, potatoes, beans and croquettes filled with jam, and a rose potion called “Elixir” (delicious!), we continued walking past the Gask gallery to the St. Barbara’s Cathedral. Close by, we took the bus to the main train station, from which we walked to the Ossuary (15 minutes walk).

The Ossuary (Bone Church) is a church decorated with skulls and bones of approx. 40,000 people! Extremely eerie, but magnificent.

We caught the 5pm train back to Prague.

Evening in Prague:

Absinthe Bar (Jilska street, Franz Kafka Square).

Tried the “King of Spirits” 70% alcohol drink, and the “Slippery Nipple”- absinthe with Baileys. Bought some absinthe chocolates too.

Prague Day 5:

Prague Castle. Spend a few hours at one of the largest castles in the world. Changing of the guards on the hour.

At the Old Count’s Chamber of the castle visit the world’s 2^nd largest Toy Museum (two stories with seven exhibitions). During our the 50 Years Barbie Exhibition was on display, with hundreds of Barbie’s on display.

We popped to lunch at the Grand Hotel Cafe opposite the Astrological clock where we watched the clock strike noon from the first floor. Adjacent to the clock the 'Czech 2011 Press Photography Contest' exhibition was on display, which we checked out. Drank some hot cherry punch to warm up and then we set off for the Mucha Museum (Panska 7).

The Mucha Museum features Mucha’s work (Mucha- 1860-1939) one of the most celebrated artists of the Art Nouveau period.

We also visited the Comic Museum and Batallion bar (28 Rijna street, ten minutes walk from the Mucha Museum, just off Wenceslas Square). The bar decorated with lit up comics is on the ground floor and the museum is on the 1^st floor. Unique.

Flight back home.

Additional Activities:

Bobsled (we wanted to try it, but it was closed that day).

Don Giovanni National Marionette Theatre.

Visit the famous Spejbl & Hurvinek Puppets (Dajvicka 38 street, Prague 6).

For the finale of my 17 country, 5.5 months journey, I chose to "chillax" in Zanzibar. My brother and I chose to stay at Kendwa Rocks, a bungalow resort on the island (population is mostly 20s and 30s, and it is known for its huge Saturday party when over a thousand people come from all over the island to party).

Zanzibar has beautiful beaches. The service on the island has still a lot to learn from Thailand and other Caribbean/Mexican tourist vacation venues. We ate at numerous restaurants on Kendwa Beach but there are none I can recommend. But as the first expression I was told in Africa goes "T.I.A' (or "T.I.F.A") i.e. This Is Africa.

To pass the time, in addition to lazing around on the beach, my brother and I did the Padi Scuba Diving course (theory, skills and 2 dives). We dove at Mnemba Atoll - roughly a 1.45 hr boat trip from Kendwa Rocks. The sea was rough that day and we didn't manage to sight any dolphins, but we got to see the coral walls and tons of amazing fish. There were quite a few unique fish, such as lion fish, trumpet fish and scorpion fish. We even got to see a scorpion fish eat another small fish which is quite rare to see.



Just a word of caution: Be prepared to see money changing hands to "oil the wheels" . Along the roads there are numerous checkpoints and our taxi driver just High 5'd money into the hands of policemen checking his insurance. At the airport security, there was a power cut so the Xray machine wasn't working. Instead, Airport Security were doing manual checks on hand luggage. The security guard checking my brother's bag found a wooden giraffe (oh no). He claimed it was dangerous (?) and we were asked to pay a tip and then "everything would be ok" (!). It was quite funny as they were selling the same giraffe in the duty free.

I embarked with my brother on a 7 day/6 night "Serengeti Trail" Tanzanian safari with the tour company "Intrepid" (with a driver, cook and guide). We were a group of nineteen travellers (British, Irish, NZ, Japanese and Australian) aged 19 to 70s. We travelled in a truck converted into bus (our suitcases went in lockers at the back of the truck (bring your own lock) and day bags went above our head). We enjoyed activities such as biking through a local village, a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti (this was optional and was at an additional expense) and spectacular game drives (viewed the Big 5- elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard) and three cheetahs (which are hard to spot)! A list of animals viewed during this safari will be listed at the end of this entry by location.

We departed Nairobi in Kenya and travelled West across the Great Rift Valley (see previous entry for more details about Kenya and Nairobi). We had a picnic lunch at the town of Narok and continued to Kisii where we stayed at simple accomodation. This stop was just to break up the journey to Lake Victoria.

Before crossing the border into Tanzania, we stopped at a soapstone carving cooperative and watched the craftsmen at work. We crossed the border into Tanzania at Sirai, Kenya/ Isebania, Tanzania (paid $50 for a 90 day visa which we could reuse again for Zanzibar,Tanzania after returning to Kenya),crossed the Mara river and headed to Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa. We arrived around 2:30pm and my brother and I opted to hire a bicycle and go on a 2.5hr guided bike tour around the village of Musoma. This was one of my highlights in Tanzania. We biked to the pier and around the village, saw the market, heard a church choir, and we had scores of kids running happily behind us trying to high-5 us, shouting out "Muzungo" (white man) as we rode. Locals were not happy when people in the group took pictures and were shouting at our african guide that we should pay for the privilege of taking their photo- not such a comfortable feeling. There was the option of upgrading the accomodation to a hotel room (which we took - it was basic but lovely) or camping.

Today we drove to Serengeti National Park and then crossed the Park for several hours until we arrived at our campsite- which was unfenced and unguarded amidst the lions and other animals (at lunchtime we had a buffalo metres from our camp and at night we had hyenas in the camp). Our main warning: at night if you go out to pee, use your torch and look for the glaring return of eyes!

The second highlight in my trip was flying in a hot air balloon at sunrise over the Serengeti. It was magical, especially flying above a family of lions and cubs and a ton of hippos basking in the river. We also saw a giraffe and tons of gazelle from the balloon. The balloon went quite low, at points touching tree tops or high shrubs.

Friends of mine had taken the balloon ride over the Masai Mara in Kenya and one girl on the tour had taken a balloon ride over both. Masai Mara v Serengeti Balloon ride: Apparently, the balloon ride in the Masai Mara rides much higher than the balloon ride in the Serengeti and the main view is the thousands (of millions) of wilderbeast followed by Zebra and gazelle migrating. In the Serengeti you ride much lower and therefore can see the likes of lions and other animals from close. Both seem to be unique experiences, but I opted for the Serengeti and am happy I did so.

After an hour balloon ride, upon landing (we tipped over and landed on the side and disembarked just as we had boarded on the side- fun ), we had a 5-star breakfast out in the wild, which included fresh juice, fruit, eggs, potatoes, beans, bacon and sausage. We also had endless glasses of champagne (yes, at 8am).

My brother and I were picked up at around ten from the Serengeti Information Center, where we had been dropped off after the balloon ride. We were taken back to camp, where everyone could doze off for a few hours before we set off on our afternoon game drive.

"Lion King" stone at Serengeti National Park

We embarked on a morning safari. Around lunchtime we headed to Ngorongoro Crater and stopped at the Olduvai Gorge, where some of the world's oldest humanoid skeletons were discovered. 



We also stopped at a touristy Masai village. Unlike the village I previously visited at the Masai Mara in Kenya, the experience in Tanzania felt fake, as if it were set up especially for tourists and I do not recommend it. Intrepid tours warned us about this but we still wanted to check it out. See previous entry on Kenya for a discussion of the Kenyan Masai village.



We camped at the rim of the crater (again an unfenced campsite, we had zebras visit us at night ). Supposedly it can get quite cold at night, but we were lucky. Actually, my whole experience in Tanzania at night was much warmer than Kenya at night.



Day 6 Ngorongoro Crater to Meserani, Camp Meserani:

We drove down in 4WD vehicles (6 persons in a vehicle) and spent the morning on a game drive on the crater floor. This was my third highlight in Tanzania. The crater is a closed eco-system with approx 30,000 resident animals.

After the safari, we drove to our final camp at Messerani, stopping on route for a break at the village of Mto Wa Mbu. Our camp at Messerani had a snake and alligator park, which was fun to check out after a delicious barbecue dinner.

Today we spent approx 9 hrs driving back to Nairobi. We made a stop at the town of Arusha before crossing the border into Kenya at the Namanga, Tanzania/Namanga, Kenya crossing. Some of the group disembarked at Arusha, but we had decided to end the tour with the group in Nairobi and head to Zanzibar from Nairobi, though you might want to consider flying to Zanzibar from Arusha instead.

- Although the Great Migration (of the wildebeast, with the zebras and gazelle following nearby) had reached Kenya at this point (see previous Kenyan entry), between the two countries, I enjoyed my experience in Tanzania more. In Tanzania we saw more feline animals, the cheetah three times (which we hadn't viewed in Kenya, experienced camping in unfenced bush (the camping sites in Kenya had all been fenced) and the beauty of the crater.

- Other suggestions: Bring toilet paper, consider altitude pills (we slept above 2000m at the crater), bring combination locks (for tent/luggage), spare batteries (limited charging), binoculars, women- sports bras (bumpy roads).

During the drive from the entrance of Serengeti to our campsite we viewed the following animals: a group of elephants drinking water, lionesses and cubs, waterbuck, zebras (also zebras crossing the road infront of us), vultures, topi antelope, buffalo, wilderbeast, Masai giraffes and baby giraffes, gazelle, impala, baboons and velvet monkeys.

We embarked on an afternoon game drive as well and saw the following animals: lions- incl. lions trying to hunt zebra, a leopard in a tree, zebra, mongoose, dick dick, hartebeast, jackal, rabbits, gazelle and tree hyrax (at the information centre).

We embarked on a morning safari and took in the following animals: two cheetahs, a lioness carrying a gazelle kill and calling her cubs to join her, followed by a cub eating the gazelle kill, warthogs and a baby warthog, tons of hippos and baby hippos, a spotted eagle, zebras, gazelle, buffalo and baby buffalo.

We got to see a black rhino, a cheetah chasing a gazelle (but the gazelle with great agility got away), warthogs, hartbeast, hippos, baboons and baby baboons, falcons, elephants, velvet monkeys, line of wilderbeest crossing the road in front of us, buffalo, zebras and gazelle.