We're in the Czech Republic now, which I have to keep reminding myself not to call Czechoslovakia. The revolution that lead to separation of the two nations was called the velvet revolution, which is a good name for a revolution.

We spent a few days in Prague. My first impression was that it was a city where all the adults disappeared 15 years ago and the kids were left to figure out how to make it work themselves. Its fairly run down, in some places you can touch the walls and the limestone crumbles beneath your fingertips. But there dusting it of, restoring it and in ten years will be a bustling European metropolis.

Didn't do a lot in Prague. We had a coffee at this cubist cafe, but didn't visit the museum of cubism. Went to the castle and wandered around, but didn't go inside. Saw a museum which had a tractor exhibit, but didn't enter. We're getting pretty weary of museums and what not. It seems that every city has a torture museum, a wax museum and a Salvador Dali exhibit. And a busker playing Oasis covers.

Bought a book of Kafka stories, as when your in Prague you should be reading Kafka. It's called 'The Basic Kafka' and its one of those books that's just dense small text, when a story finishes, the next one starts below it. I like its style. I finished 'The Metamorphosis', which was good. I'll read some more of the smaller passages later. I've also finished Asimov's 'The Naked Sun', which was pretty good also.

I'm haunting any English language bookshops I can find to try to dig up a copy of 'Green Mars'. I finished 'Red Mars'  which was awesome and I bought a copy of 'Blue Mars' in a secondhand bookshop in Amsterdam, it's teasing me sitting there in my suitcase unable to be read until I find a copy of 'Green Mars'. And of course its a big book, adding extra weight to my suitcase .

We're in Cesky Krumlov now, its a small town that we're staying extra time in to relax. All this travelling (5 countries in less that two weeks) has started to be a drag, so we're being dead lazy here. We're in this great guesthouse, so we're pretty much just lazing about reading and eating. The foods been good here, and cheap. I keep saying beer is cheap everywhere I go, but a half litre of beer for a buck fifty is awesome. Good beer too, although not as good as in Belgium.

So we're here until Sunday and then onto Vienna. I'm feeling a bit more energised after two days here already and looking forward to getting back into the travelling rhythm. Still a few more weeks in continental Europe, then off to the UK, Iceland (which I'm super pumped for) and Scandinavia.