Prague - July 1st-2nd
If Munich reminded me of Epcot's international areas (which it did a bit), Prague resembled them even more, but mostly because of the unbelievable profusion of tourists and tourism-related business. I couldn't pick out more than a handful or two of authentic Czech experiences that the typical tourist would have in this city. BUT...what a beautiful city it is, and what a great time you can have there!
Our Prague experience didn't start out so great, though. After our crack-of-dawn flight from Munich, we were tired, in need of currency exchange (the Czech Republic doesn't use the Euro; rather, its currency is the Crown, one of which equals about $.04-$.05), and didn't have a clue where our pension (small, simple hotel) was located. Thankfully, the Prague airport caters somewhat well to tourists, and we quickly found an ATM and the best route to our small, simple hotel.
Prague has a decent public transportation system; the only fault I found was that it wasn't so tourist-friendly, in that it could have been cleaner and had more foreign-language information (yes, this is coming from the same person who just complained that the city was too touristy). For Kč20 each, we took the airport bus to the end of the line, which put us directly on the subway, and with one transfer, we were at our destination. This is where the problems begin.
The transit map we received at the airport showed a tourist information office just next to where we got off the subway. After walking around for an hour, all I had found was a small tourist "information" business - a for-profit place that tries to get you on certain tours; not the city's office. Finally we found some map kiosks on the sidewalk and were able to find the location of our pension's street (on the map, anyway). From there, it took us another long while to actually find this street on the ground, and then to locate the building itself. Since we arrived so early, the desk staff was not sure whether the room was ready, so she told us to come back soon. We marched, or rather dragged ourselves, off and popped into a small internet café.
Lo and behold, our room was ready when we got back to the hotel a half-hour later, and we checked in, dumped our bags, and hit the sidewalks. Wow, Prague has a great urban form and some beautiful architecture! With no plan in mind except to see the city, we roamed around for several hours before heading back toward our hotel for lunch at a nearby pizzeria. On our way around town, we saw an outside wedding that at first seemed to match our perceptions of what would be "typically Czech". Upon noticing that the happy couple had procured a Hummer H2 for their big day, we assumed that they were just a couple of jerks, and hoped they weren't American (we'd like our country to be better represented, maybe with folks being chauffeured by a hybrid or even a bicycle taxi).
The pizza was very good, and the beer, I think a Krusoviče, was phenomenal (especially for the equivalent of about eighty cents). The only interesting part of our lunch experience was the care and precision with which first one person, and then several more, chalked the nearby strip club's daily sign. It took them (the number of people rose and fell) about twenty minutes to draw in two small flags and write that their establishment would be televising the England-Portugal quarter-final match. During this time, a rather large group of what appeared to be Japanese tourists stopped and admired the handiwork, many requesting pictures with the artists.
After lunch, we decided to go check out the famous Charles Bridge over the Vltava River. If you've never seen a picture of this bridge, I'd be extremely surprised, but it's amazing. There are 30 statues from the eighteenth century along the bridge, all of which are impressive in their design and craftsmanship, and only two or three of which have been recently cleaned. Fortunately, the grimy ones look much better than the others, and add a more authentic feel to the bridge. The thing about Karlův Most is that there are so many people on it that not only can you barely cross it; you can't help but wonder if the bridge was engineered for this kind of load. Throwing aside thoughts of falling into the foreboding waters below, you walk across and are awed by the city's personality. We crossed from our hotel's Nové Mĕsto ("New" Town - actually founded in 1348) neighborhood into the Mála Strana, or Little Quarter.
Looking across the river, you notice the powerful Prague Castle and the Basilica of St. George, and upon crossing the bridge, see that nearly everyone headed in your direction also seek these two sights. Instead of spending most of our time and money at the castle, we decided to walk through the free public parts, watch plenty of tourists mess with the royal guards (one of whom noticeably raised his eyebrows and made other gestures when people did things that amused him), and move on. Lonely Planet pointed us in the right direction, and we visited the indescribably, magnificently, awesomely beautiful St. Nicholas Church.
I've seen a lot of churches, especially living in Europe, and I can really get tired of the old routine of high ceilings, ornate pulpits, huge organs, and such, but this place puts all of that aside. The arches leading up the ceiling, and the fresco itself, are meant to give the impression not only of being out-of-doors, but of watching heaven. The pastel colors of the granite walls, arches, columns, and details range from mint green to pink, and the angles and curves of the structures themselves are astounding. Then there are the milky-white marble statues, the golden cherubs and trim of the columns, and warm oranges, reds, and yellows that accent the arches. This church is worth checking out, especially for Kč30 each.
By the time we had examined the church sufficiently, we were exhausted from the combination of virtually no sleep the previous night and a full day of sightseeing, so we decided to go take a nap and then get dinner. Sleeping more than we intended, the sun was just starting to set when we found one of the restaurants that happycow.com users had recommended, Clear Head. The atmosphere was great - the ceiling was set up like you were eating under the stars, the lights were low, and the table surfaces were illuminated from below. Our food was very good as well. We shared sautéed vegetables and a quesadilla, and each drank a special mix of apple and carrot juices with ginger. We missed out on the advertised discounts for being a holy person or enlightened one.
Now it was time to go find a bar and watch Brazil advance to the semi-finals by handing the French side their heads. After a close game full of blunders by both teams, and several more extraordinary, cheap beers, France ended up the winner, and was set to meet up with Portugal in a few days. The streets were packed with blue shirts and plenty of "Allez les Bleus" again, and the city was in a very lively mood. We felt that perhaps our naps had been enough to fortify us against exhaustion for long enough to find a club (which is not such a difficult task in Prague), and moved toward our hotel and further on to the center of activity. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Having hit the pavement for just a half-hour, maybe slightly more, we decided to tromp back to our hotel and sleep off our lack of motivation.
The next morning, Sunday, was beautiful: cool enough not to be too warm, warm enough not to be too cool, so what to do but walk around? First on our list was the Astronomical Clock ("astronomical" in the planetary sense; it was not a particularly gigantic clock). Since we missed the hourly "show" that the clock puts on, we were a bit in the dark about what it actually does and how it actually works. As far as we can tell, it's a pretty neat clock nonetheless. Next up was the Jewish quarter, characterized by some more great architecture, really walkable streets with what seemed to be lots of cool shops (although most are closed Sundays), and a few synagogues. There was a rather large group of Spaniards touristing away outside of the Spanish Synagogue, where there stands an interesting statue that has something (though I can't remember what) to do with Kafka, a Prague native.
Walking back toward the Charles Bridge, we got some great views of the Palace and some other things across the river. Much to our surprise and delight, there was an international parade, small in size and limited to the nearby public square, we thought. Nope, wrong again. This parade seemed to be endless, and we kept walking on against its flow, and saw countries from all over Eastern and Central Europe plus some other (mostly English-speaking) areas represented. Garb included everything from traditional looking dresses to really funny short shorts and tight shirts on some schoolchildren, walking to typical parade marches from several bands.
Back across the Charles, we took a great picture of one of the statues that looks like "The Buddy Jesus" from Dogma (a great movie to rent if you haven't seen it) and moved on to Kampa Park, which was written up in the Lonely Planet. Actually situated on an island, Kampa is a nice break from the city, i.e., the swarms of tourists, and has some interesting sculptures along its paths and trails. Lunchtime again, and this time we tried to eat at one of the vegetarian restaurants from our list, but it was closed, so we returned to our old buddies next to the strip club for some pizza.
Having already checked out of Pension Tara, we grabbed our bags from the tiny reception area, which by that time was literally full of luggage, and asked the best way to get to the main train station. The woman replied, "which one?" to which we answered, "huh?" Apparently, Prague has two main stations, and while I was looking for our train ticket in my bag, I mentioned that while I couldn't remember the name, I did retain that it started with H. This was not helpful since both stations start with H, but our ticket thankfully noted the correct station and off we walked to the metro. After a brief transfer onto a train that was packed with parade people still dressed traditionally, we arrived at the station with enough time to grab a beer, a pin for Meredith, and a patch for me, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that we had indeed visited the Czech Republic (never mind our passport stamps).
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