Exploring Prague, Czech Republic

Once we took care of our London housing needs, we booked travel to Central Europe.  With a few bucket place destinations in mind we booked flights (to Prague and back from Budapest) and booked a few hostels in advance.  14 days of backpacking awaited us.  The rest of the trip was a Tableau Rasa, our blank canvas.

A view of Old Town and Charles Bridge.

Why Prague?

We choose Prague for its beautiful architecture, trendy culture, and tremendous value.  Prague is now a poorly kept secret as an up-and-coming place to visit.  It is quite popular with celebrities and backpackers alike.  The tourism boom has made it full of tourist infrastructure (tours, hotels, transportation) to accommodate the massive hordes of travelers.  While it is not quite as cheap as it used to be, it is still a great bargain relative to western Europe.

Hostel Life

We stayed close to Old Town (main tourist area) at the Advantage Hostel.  The hostel provided a good location from which to walk to many of the attractions.  We also got involved in a number of free activities they offered: cooking night, sangria night, BBQ, walking tours.  It was a great way to socialize with fellow travelers.  We met a couple memorable guys from Australia, Ireland and Scotland.

Exploring Old Town

Prague has an amazingly well preserved Old Town that is remarkable in terms of architectural diversity, size, and density.  In the center of the Old Town is the Town Square.  The Town Square has interesting monuments and historically signicficant buildings.  One of the most popular attractions is the astronomical clock.  It is an incredibly complex contraption that tracks the time, sun, and moon phases through completely mechanical mechanisms.  A few urban legends exist around the clock.  One is that the original builder became distraught with the government and tried to break it.  He died in trying to do so.  It took them around a hundred years to get it operational again.

The Astronomical Clock on the Town Hall

Another more recent legend is that they added elements (like a trumpeter) to the show because many tourists were underwhelmed by the clock experience.  We were not amazed but we appreciated it none the less.

Also in the square was a large and beautiful sculpture of Jan Hus.  He was an outspoken Catholic priest who tried to reform the Church.  He was a key predecessor to other protestants such as Martin Luther.  His followers schism-ed from the Church after his death, leading to three Crusades.  Hus's impact on Prague and the Czech Republic is quite profound.

The Charles Bridge is another popular attraction.  It is both gorgeous and practical as it connects the Lesser Town with the Old Town.  The bridge dates back almost 700 years.  It has on it over 30 Baroque style statues depicting key figures in Christianity and Czech history.  As you cross the bridge on a summer's day you will encounter many tourists, artists selling their artwork and street performers.  The artwork was quite nice and almost too tempting to pass up.

A shot of the Charles Bridge and the Old Town side.

The main attraction on the other side of the bridge is the Prague Castle.  It is the largest Castle complex in Europe and contains a cathedral, a basilica, the presidential offices, small town shops and the former palaces of past Kings and Queens.  The Castle is upon a tall hill that overlooks the city.  This provides many opportunities for great photography.

View of the castle from the Bridge.

View from the Castle looking back at the Old Town.

We took a free walking tour to the Prague Castle.  Our guide was an eccentric local who brought his dog around from the trip.  Our guide also drank no less than 3 large beers and he stopped to talk to almost every local street performer (making our trip a long and memorable one).  His knowledge of the architecture and area was impressive and greatly enhanced our understanding of Prague.

Sneak shot of our Prague Walking tour Guide

The Cathedral was the most impressive part of the Castle complex.  The exterior exhibited a diversity of architectural styles as it was build over the span of 400+ years in fits and spurts.  It's in extremely good condition.  Inside is the resting spot of famous Czech Kings.  The ornamentation, artwork and stained glass windows were impressively detailed and beautiful.

The Cathedral at Prague Castle.  The Gothic Arches were magnificent. 

A sample of the stain glass windows of the Cathedral

Our exploration of the Castle took the better part of a day given it's scope and detail.  Definitely worth a trip if the weather is nice as the views are gorgeous and the exterior detail is something to be appreciated.

Paddle Boating - Better than expected

Megan convinced Jeff to try Paddle Boating on the Valta River.  It turned out to be a fantastic time.  The views were great of Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, the Old Town and a couple islands in the river.  We enjoyed a few local beers and some local snacks while just enjoying the weather.  It was certainly a fun/silly tourist thing to do.

Czech Food and Beer

Throughout our Central/Eastern Europe trip we wanted to sample the authentic local food and beer.  The Czech food we found was extremely filling and hearty.  Beef Goulash was a popular favorite.  We also had a really good rack of ribs.  In general the tastes were simple with only light seasonings.  The Pilsner style beer owes its origins to the Czech Republic.  We had plenty of those as really reasonable rates.  We both definitely loved the Czech Beer.

Sooo much food and beer.

If you don't like Czech food it's ok.  Don't let that deter you from traveling to Prague.  Prague had a wide selection of restaurants serving quality foods from other cultures: greek, italian, and asian.

KGB Museum - a must see for fans of the strange

Through TripAdvisor we found a few attractions that were off the beaten path.  The first was the KGB Museum.  It's not as much a Museum as it is one man's temple to Stalinism/Soviet Militarism.  You cannot enter the museum until it's host lets you in.  He speak with a Russian accent so strong its comical (think Boris and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle).  Whenever he feels like starting the tour he starts the tour.  First up was photo opportunities.  We took these two gems and many others.  It was intimidating as he repeatedly mentioned how the rifles were so light; simultaneously Megan and I struggled to keep them steady for the photos.

His retelling of Soviet history was unique in its entertainment value as well as it's portrayal of Joseph Stalin as a hero.  The owner iterated that Stalin was still the most popular man in Russia.  During the course of the tour the owner would demonstrate how secret knifes, guns and pens would be used.  It was the least safe we have felt in a while.  But fortunately we came through the tour intact with a greater appreciation of the efficiency and leathality of the KGB.  We also go to see some of Lenin's personal belongings.  As a history buff Jeff loved it and as a connoisseur of bizarre experiences Megan also loved it.

Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror

Another Tripadvisor gem was the National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror.  During World War II, Czechoslovakia was occupied by Nazi Germany.  Reinhard Heydrich was one of the key Nazi administrators.  He was one of the most brutal and twisted Nazi Leaders.  The Czech resistance with support of the British government devised a plot to assassinate Heydrich.  They launched paratroopers into the country.  The paratroopers then spent months working with the underground movement to set up their operations.  The assassination was carried out in May 1942 and despite the gun jamming, circumstances worked in the Allies favor and the attempt was successful.  The assassins were far from safe though and they had to hid in a Church in Prague.  The Nazi retaliation was swift and many Czech resistance fighters and their families were killed.  After a lengthy search, the assassins were found in the Church and a lenghty shoot out commenced.  The Czech resistance fighters were forced into the crypt where they ended their lives.  The museum is in the Church and you can enter the crypt where the final moments were.  It's a very well done museum and the crypt was incredibly moving.

Nightlife in Prague

One of our last nights in Prague we explored the nightlife.  We started at one of Prague's traditional beer halls U Fleku.  What we encountered was a legitimate tourist trap.  We were guided to a small room full of tourists and an accordion player.  As soon as we arrived they gave us pints of beer without us ordering.  This was a suspicous sign.  Then came the standoff.

Our waiter came around with shots and gave us two.  We politely declined by saying we were just drinking beer.  Our waiter then insisted we have them because "it was Czech tradition".  Again we politely decined saying we were not interested.  At this point the waiter's tone became hostile and he demanded that we drink these shots. He hovered over our table starring at us.  We stared right back and again refused to take the shots.  For about two minutes this back and forth continued until finally he went away.  It was an incredibly awkward and bizarre experience. We highly recommend everyone avoid U Fleku.

Later that night we went to Karlovy Lanes in the Old Town.  This is Prague's most famous club.  It has five floors and an ice bar.  Each floor had a it's own music and vibe.  For example there was a techno floor that had a sunken dance floor with a Laser show.  There was also a hip hop floor with a dancer (practically a stripper) on a raised clear platform above the crowd.  Our favorite floor was the oldies floor which played a delightful mix of music and had an awesome disco floor that providing limitless entertainment.  We had a great time with our friends Mark and Ryan.

 Megan handing with Ryan and Mark (friends from our hostel)

The Disco Floor!

This club concept gave me an idea for a movie.  In the action genre there is an archetype for a movie where an action hero must ascend a many-storied building defeating bad guys on his way up (see Raid and Bruce Lee's Game of Death - where he battles Kareem Abdul Jabeer!).  What if they combined this format with the dance genre?  Our protoganist is an accomplished dancer who has to dance his way to the top (battling different dancers of different genres on each floor) to win the love of his life?  Well this idea was definitely better in my head, but I think it could be at least as successful as some of the other wacko concepts that come out.