Prague has been on the to-do list for Europe since I got here. Since August we’ve been saying “must got to Prague”, and everyone who had been kept saying “you must go to Prague”, but it’s never been very cheap, the weather got colder and colder and there always seemed to be something else come up. However, finally, this weekend, we made it! And boy am I glad we waited – it wasn’t necessarily any cheaper (but not terrible expensive) but the weather was worth the wait – 19C and sunny each day (whereas we’d heard it was truly bitter in winter).
The excitement at finally getting to Prague meant we peaked a little too early though and spent the day getting to Prague regretting the “spontaneity” of a night out in Maastricht before! Regardless, we were flying out of Eindhoven (only an hour away from Maastricht) and there was time for a nap at the hostel when we got in! The guys running our hostel (Czech-speaking Americans) were really helpful and suggested a place right next door that did big, hearty, good value meals that hit the spot for a late lunch and even drew us a little map for our own personal evening walking tour. It took us uphill (a novel concept when living in Maastricht) to this great little public park, quite large, but hidden away in backstreets. We were drawn in by the noise of a large crowd watching the rival ice hockey game between Czech Republic and Slovakia (which the Czech won thankfully!) in an open air beer garden. Further on there was this perfect little spot on a sloping hill to see the sunset over the city. And nearby there was a quirky little grill restaurant, perched on a slope, in amongst the trees, much like a tree house. We continued on, promenading down the main drag in the shadow of the imposing national museum and then into the narrower, winding streets of the old town.
view over the city at sunset from the park
old town turrets
Here we came face to face with Europe’s most disappointing tourist attraction (literally, it’s been voted on!) – Prague’s astronomical clock. In this sense astronomical refers to the actual design/purpose of the clock … but really it makes it sound a whole lot better than the wind-up, wooden puppet and crowing chicken performance it gives every hour. There are other buildings of note scattered through the old town, the usual assortment of churches and turrets, and of course all the kind of touristy cafes that now line every main square in every city like this. So we ploughed on, to another restaurant recommended by the hostel guys called Lokal, as in “local”, not low calorie (in fact, anything but – Czech food must be worse for your heart than German and Dutch put together I think!). The ice hockey game was playing here as well, and true to European form, there was a dog sitting at the table next to us! so every time something exciting happened in the game the Czech men yelled, beer was spilled and the dog started yapping! Quite the atmosphere though – much like a Showdown at home I suppose. The food also did not disappoint – we had cabbage soup (very oliver twist) but it was amazingly tasty, coupled with some excellent potato salad. Fed and wandered, we decided to call it a night and hopped on one of Prague’s quite efficient trams back to the hostel.
THE astronomical clock!
Dining Lokal-style
Day 295 (Sat) Spot the tourist
Kicked off the day with a 3-hour walking tour of the city, taking in the Jewish quarter, the old town and main square, the new town (read: where all the shops and bars now are) and of course some history about the place. Our guide’s family was half Czech half Swedish and he was a little bit odd and nerdy looking but boy did he know his history stuff. Turned out to be a real entertainer too :P The tour finished by the river which runs through the city, giving the perfect opportunity for a stroll across the bridge and up (some very steep stairs) to a palace/castle on the other side. By this time it had been enough walking for one day so we hopped on the metro/tram back to the hostel for a rest (not a common feature of most of our trips away on weekends but I happened to be slowly dying of some sort of phlegm invasion and it was the 5th weekend travelling in a row so we cut ourselves a break!).
the castle/palace we walked up to
enjoying the river
old Jewish cemetery - starts at the bottom of these stalls, built up in layers over time because they were denied any other space to bury their dead
climbing the stairs to the castle/palace
With our strength regained we headed back up to the park to eat in the ‘treehouse’. It was here that the whole language difference thing became most obvious. Of course, everywhere we go speaks a different language, but most are quite good with English. That's not so much the case in the Czech Republic (not that that’s their fault, they speak more English than I do Czech). We got there in the end but we felt very awkward kind of walking in to this place, not knowing where to sit, whether to order first or wait, what was on offer etc… in fact, there wasn’t really a menu so we ate what we were given! Which turned out to be (thanks to Andra [from Canada]’s great interpreting skills) sausage on the grill or cheese on the grill… so we had both! And that’s exactly what it was … A sausage, on a plate with mustard, sauce and horseradish… or a whole wheel of soft cheese, on a plate, with bread and cranberry sauce. It was surprisingly filling but I couldn’t get over how simple it was. It seems the Czech’s love a bit of fried cheese! We also tried some beer, a larger, but for the first time in a long time I can actually say it wasn’t the best…
sunset view from the "treehouse"
(I wanted to take photos of the food at the treehouse but already felt enough like a foreigner!!)
And while I’m thinking of things that were unusual, as well as the language difference, the money situation in the Czech Republic is crazy. The smallest note they have is 100 korunas and ATMs regularly spit out 1000 koruna notes! One euro is about 20 to 25 korunas depending on the day. So you’re paying 150 koruna for a meal but really it’s only about 8 euro. Everything is actually very cheap still in Prague but the hugeness of the numbers kind of puts you off!
Day 296 (Sun) Skeleton schedule
Day trip time! It was up bright and early today for a train ride to a town about an hour away and a look at a really weird bone church! The place was quite touristy and pretty small, but if you detached from the fact that it was a Church decorated with the bones of about 40,000 dead people … it was actually quite artistic. I think the general theme is supposed to be the ‘eternity of life’ represented by the bones, but it was also very, yes I’m going to say it, … beautifully designed. It obviously would have taken a lot of medical knowledge and an artistic eye to know which bones from the body to use where to fill out a design or create the desired 3D effect. One amzing fact is that none of the bones in piles are tied togehter with anything, they're just stacked up and stay that way because of gravity! While the Church is very clean and well kept (and the bones have been disinfected and whitewashed) there were still a few cliche spider webs and spiders crawling up skeleton noses or into eye sockets! :P We stayed for about an hour, just taking in the detail of the decorations, before heading back to Prague.
bone coat of arms
"oh harro!"
In the afternoon we found a little hole in the wall café to have goulash and potatos for lunch(!) (where Andra satisfied her craving for potato pancakes!) and some better tasting beer and, later still, headed to a swish looking café for cake and drinks. It seems Prague actually has quite the social scene for young people. It’s much hipper than I expected, really into fashion but also kind of ‘underground’. It was also much more capitalistic than I expected - admittedly I still had quite an Eastern-bloc kind of image of the place in my head. But it was very modern in part, lot's of neon signs, chain eateries and name brands. It didn't exactly take away from the old-world charm of the city, was just a bit of a surprise. All in all though I think Prague would be a really cool place to live if you spoke the language!
Day 297 (Mon) The verdict
Time to say goodbye again, it was back to the airport in the morning and back to Maastricht. It had been quite the wait but Prague didn’t disappoint. A nice relaxing few days with great weather, interesting food, beautiful buildings and cool people. I would now also recommend it!
view over Prague from the castle hill
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