Praha ... at last!

Praha (Prague) Czech Republic
January 13-16, 2006

Do bree den! Prague has been on my list of “places to be” for the past 10 years, so I was most excited to finally squeeze in a visit. Prague was nothing like I expected it to be. I had envisioned a medieval looking city with lots of narrow streets lined with stone buildings. I’m not really sure where that vision came from, but I was pleasantly surprised with the maze of tidy streets, large open areas with hot dog vendors, fresh air and lovely buildings all washed in PASTEL colours! There was definitely a feeling of spaciousness and an abundance of personal space…. ahhhh room to wave my appendages around without fear of taking strangers out (which I often do). I have to say on further reflection that part of this free and open experience probably has a lot to do with the effect living in London has had on me! Equally I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that it was freezing out and the smart citizens of Prague were probably sitting at home in comfort!! Prague is a very walkable city (everything seems just down the street and around the corner) and it’s also a great place to wander. Steve and I had at least one destination in mind at the beginning of each day, but always seemed to get distracted, then hungry …then lost, then we weren’t hungry, but saw something we wanted to eat anyway, then we would bump into something else we were interested in and so on … the days never seemed to go quite as planned. We stayed in Stare Mesto (Old Town), which is a great location with everything close by. Prague is also covered in cobblestone sidewalks and streets, which is quite nice looking, but after days of walking my feet did start to feel like they were curling at the edges!!

A word on the food – Czech cuisine would definitely fall in the comfy/hearty food category and as Tee warned us … not many vegetables! I thoroughly enjoyed the dumplings, especially the sweet ones stuffed with fruit and managed to have at least one serving each and every day!! They are huge on meat and especially frankfurters/sausages which are generally served as an option for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Managed at least one serving, sometimes two, of those daily as well!! Enjoyed the cabbage too. Steve and I had a fantastic meal at the Café Flambee www.flambee.cz, check it out if you head to Prague. It shares a kitchen, but not the prices of Restaurant Flambee, one of the most chic chic restaurants in Prague, apparently where all the big wigs hang out. At one point on our trip I ordered ½ a duck at a bar … big mistake, it was and looked like ½ of a really BIG duck and I just couldn’t stomach it, also had that really gamey smell (sorry vegemites for any bad images). Two thumbs up for Czech beers Pilsner and Budvar, pretty yummy! Budvar is not the same as Budweiser in the US (Budweiser just 'borrowed' the name).

Highlights of the trip included…

Several trips across the busy Charles Bridge – complete with vendors, lots of statues and a great view of Prague Castle. The bridge supposedly has egg in the concrete to make it stronger!?

Sipping coffee and eating those yumola sweet dumplings at the art deco café at the Municipal House, complete with sax and piano player. Also discovered the work of Czech born artist Alphons Mucha there. This led to a trip to the small Mucha museum. Mucha he has some fantastic art deco stuff, I especially like his graphic prints, which you may recognise? www.mucha.cz

A trip to the Jewish Quarter- Josefov were we visited the Pinkas Synagogue which has the names of 77,297 Jews written on the walls - all names of people who were taken to concentration camps and never returned. We also walked through the Jewish cemetery. The Jewish cemetery is old crumbly and over 300 years old and definitely has a beauty of its own. It has 12,000 headstones, but it is estimated that 100,000 people are buried there.

Watching the Magic Flute at the Opera house in German with Czech subtitles was also an experience. The voices were amazing!! and Steve and I quite enjoyed it (we barely slept) despite the fact that we had no idea what was going on. We made a story up at intermission and checked it out on the internet after the show … yeah mostly wrong!

St. Vitus’ Cathedral at Prague Castle is also worth a mention as it was beautiful and I particularly liked the stained glass windows there, one completed by Mucha. Somehow we missed the castle?? Was there one??

We also squeezed in a day trip to snow dusted Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), a gem of a town 2 hours from Prague. Karlovy Vary also happens to be a Spa town and is filled with several mineral water stops, where steaming drinking water flows from small taps … supposed to have medicinal benefits and aid digestion (probably required after all the meat and dumplings). Tasted pretty metallic in a healthy way, I guess?? Karlovy Vary is very picturesque and filled with slim pastel coloured buildings, all lined and stacked up along the Tepla (river?canal? not sure) with a hilly backdrop. We took a walk through the hills and are were treated to some great views of Karlow Vary. I have to return one day for a few days and book myself into one of those spas…





Czech customer service is pretty similar to London service … pretty non-existant! However, the few Czech people we did engage with were very nice and super kind. The museum guy told us Canada was paradise! A word of warning for future travellers, some restaurants, cheap and chic have the nasty habit of adding things to your final bill. Holly warned us of this and we read about it in our travel book. Yep, first place we went to for coffee the waiter added two cappuccinos! Nervy man. Oh well, once you get used to it you are not even surprised.

Overall a wonderful city to visit … would love to go back in the summer, although I can imagine it is very busy place then. Na shledanou!

View from bus to Karlovy Vary ... brrrrr it's cold out there!