Old Town Square, Pints, and Mad Caddies
Trip Start
Apr 12, 2006
1
72
115
Trip End
Ongoing
Prague,
Czech Republic
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Arose today in the glorious Czech sun, albeit fairly late, and whipped up a mammoth fried breakfast of bacon and eggs with all the trimmings. Thankfully, as Vitamin B had once again been distributed amongst the ranks, we all pulled up quite painlessly considering the potency of the deep green Absinth we each downed last night. Though there was no sign of Trish, Phil, Pam and myself hit the streets and moseyed on down to the core of town to Czech out the sights.
I'd seen pictures before, brief snippets and snapshots of the locations, but walking alongside the magical Vltava river, lined with gorgeously ornate buildings, with the majestic Prague castle bearing down over the Charles Bridge in the foreground, i tells ya, it was a sensational vision, and it fulfilled everything that i had come to expect of the place. Strolling along towards the main square, i noticed on a street pole that one of my favourite old ska bands the 'Mad Caddies' were playing in Prague tonight, which was sensational timing, and hesitantly planned with the others to head down to the show later tonight.
I mentioned before that Prague is one of the only prominent European cities that was left untouched by the war, with little to no serious damage done to it's pristine, majestic architecture. The Nazis managed to blow up a portion of one of its churches, but im pretty sure that was it. Through the cobblestoned streets and labrinthine laneways of the old quarter, it's all to easy to throw your imagination right back through time, envisaging yourself walking through Prague of the Communist era, or the Nazi occupancy, or the many amazing decades of flux that preceded these eras. The place just drips with history and offers a visual smorgasbord for the eye, simultaneously mysterious, imposing, elgegant and breathtaking. Through the maze of laneways encircling the main square, we joined the massive pools of tourists and ventured inwards to where the action was.
As luck would have it, we'd arrived in the main town square in the thick of a massive local crowd, with a fairly fraudulent rock band on a large musical rig, and two enormous big screen TV's that were about to screen the Czech Republic versus Italy World Cup match. The main square was remarkable. Encircled by some of the most amazing architecture and gothic church towers, the vibe of the place is difficult to put in words. With sun bearing down through wafting white clouds and the bluest of skies, Pam, Phil and I got stuck into some 1 buck pints of the local brew and joined the locals for the soccer match, in the awe inspiring heart of Prague. Got talking to a cool lady by the name of Julia and her six year old son Michael, two Czechs based in Florida who live in Prague for a good three months each year. Michael was perhaps the coolest, most switched on little dude i'd ever met, as we cheered on the local team together, played swordfights, rocked out to the live band, and generally just had ball, allowing me to be a kid again and act like a buffoon. As if i needed an excuse. He even got me with the old 'whats that on your shirt' trick, forcing me to look down, then flicking his index finger up my nostril. I was taken aback as to how intelligent this little guy was, a trend i'd seen in a lot of today's youth (boy do i sound like and old man). But seriously, if Michael is anything to go by, then these super intelligent adults of tomorrow will hopefully be well equipped to fix all the things that we stuffed up.
Anyway, as it were, a casual strut to the check out the local sights once again turned into the three of us copping another skinful of Pilsener. We called it an arvo at around six, headed back up to Miss Sophies, and thankfully Trish had arrived home. We killed time around the hostel until roughly 10ish, before jumping on the Prague Metro to some other random station, and hailing a cab through a fairly desolate and seedy area of Prague, before arriving at an equally nondescript and shady looking venue called 'Abaton'. Not unlike the alternative Melbourne clubs a la 'Switch' and 'Goo', we rocked up at the most perfect time possible, two songs in to the Mad Caddies set, and thus avoiding the door fee. Though not packed, the gig was pumping, and it was great to see this band that i once enjoyed so much in my ska lovin heyday in a city so far away from home. The Czechs rocked out hard and went right off for the Caddies, though their ability to 'skank' left a lot to be desired, witnessing some of the most flagrantly uncoordinated movements i'd ever seen executed by humans.
Got talking to members of the band after the show, hung out backstage with them, and eventually went out on the town with them to a considerably shady lounge bar called the 'Take Tiki Bar', Prague's one and only 'authentic' Tiki Bar. Though 'Take' means something else in Polynesian, i call into question its authenticity, and the bar should possibly consider changing its name to the 'Tacky' Tiki Bar instead. We got talking to the eccentric proprietor, Harry, who accompanied us through the quiet former Eastern Bloc streets to a nearby food merchant, before hanging out at the Tiki, drinking cocktails and listening to what sounded like one of those 'classic lounge' compilation CDs - Sam Butera, Dean Martin and the like. It was a pleasant evening, if not a totally random one, and the other three were considerably impressed at my choice of entertainment for the evening, and the ensuing rock perks in hanging out with a touring band.
Cabbed back to less shady ground at around 3 in the morning, and once again crashed in our luxury apartment.
