Things You’ve Got to Love About Prague

Prague, I kind of like you, actually I kind of love you. Let me list the reasons why:-

The Scenery: Prague has the biggest castle in all the world, of course it’s flipping magical! It’s like walking through a fairytale infected with tourists. The buildings and cobblestone roads make it so beautiful but you do need to be prepared for the torrent of people. My favourite thing to do was to get out of the centre of town or visit attractions at odd times; either early in the morning or later at night. Plus thanks to Mick Jagger they now light up the castle just in case it wasn’t already wonderful enough.

In actual fact I think that the best place to visit is the Vyšehrad Palace. It’s a 20 minute walk out of town down the river and has some amazing views! There also isn’t as many tourists. It’s also worth walking around one of the parks. My favourite was Letna Park but Petřín is great as well (especially if you want a but workout).

The Price: Maybe it was just a nice relief after spending pounds and Euros, but I found that Prague was cheap!! You can buy a nice meal and a drink for less then $10 and public transport ain’t too bad either. For some, the biggest draw card to Prague is the beer. It quite literally is cheaper then water. I’m not up for shopping so I can’t quite comment there, but I’m sure it’s pretty good. Muesuems and attractions also seem to be cheaper. What I found though, is that instead of coming under my budget each day I just ate a lot better.

The Food: It could have been that it was so cheap. But I also think that Czech food has definite boasting rights. I recommend checking out what Taste of Prague has to say about where to go and what to eat, because they are the experts. Do you want to see what I ate, since I am that person who takes photos of their food?

Fried cheese. Yes, I know, you’re judging me. But it is a Czech speciality and I got it from a restaurant called Lokal that has a ‘communist’ theme about it. It was also delicious, but I probably shouldn’t have eaten the whole thing myself… Whoops! Approx. $10

Svíčková. When translated it is; Beef in cream sauce, but it’s so much more adventurous then that. Tender beef in a yummy sauce topped with a slice of lemon, cream and berry compote. Odd yes, but it works. It’s accompanied by bread dumplings to soak up the sauce. Approx. $13

Roast duck. I ventured slightly outside of the city to a pub filled with Czech men. So as a white Australian female you can understand that I stood out like a… Well like an Aussie female in a Czech pub. I managed to order this; roast duck stuffed with potato pancake on top of sauerkraut. And a beer, naturally. The guy sitting across from me gave me this look like ‘there’s no way she’s finishing that!’ Boy did I prove him wrong! Approx. $10

Or in English open-faced sandwiches. So fun and so delicious. There are so many choices but I chose the beetroot with goats cheese and pickled herring with wasabi mayo. Approx. $4

Breakfast at Cafe Savoy. If you know me then you know that I am a huge breakfast person! [I was president of the Mermaid Breakfast Club back on the Gold Coast] I’d even go so far as to say that Breakfast is Australia’s national dish (hey we can’t claim anything else). So I think it’s fair to say I know a few things about a good breakie. And Cafe Savoy did not let me down! First you have the ultra fancy interior, then the incredible food! You can chose between about five breakfast sets. Below is the Savoy Breakfast featuring; hot chocolate (think Max Brenner’s), assortment of fresh breads, homemade jams, croissant, boiled egg and two mini open-faced sandwiches. Approx. $12

Farmers market. This was one of my favourite outings despite the gloomy weather. Go down to the riverside at 8:00am on a Saturday morning and you’ll find food stalls, fresh produce and flea market. I went a bit crazy. There was so much to choose from and it was all so affordable. It’s such a great atmosphere and if you get there early you can feel a bit more like a local.

The Language: OK, I admit it, I had no idea what was doing in terms of language. Despite giving it a good hard try I was very unsuccessful! All I wanted to learn was how to say thank you. And even that I couldn’t manage. You see firstly its hard to catch what they say, then when you look at the word it is not pronounced the way it’s written. So being a visual learner I just couldn’t get it (or that’s what I’m telling myself anyway).

So why love a language you don’t get? That would be because it is a great mystery and we all love a mystery; Lock Ness, Bigfoot, the end of the rainbow, unicorns, where missing socks go, how anyone can tolerate coriander. There is also something liberating about having no clue what people are saying around you, especially when you know that they are talking about you.

I would very much like to report that I got myself sorted by the end of my stay… but I did not, so there was a lot of pointing and nodding.

The People: When you go to Prague you have to make it your mission to crack the Czechs. The people of the Czech Republic are a tough bunch, you get the feeling that they won’t take crap from anyone… and I kind of like that! When you learn about their history you begin to understand why they are so ‘stick it to the man’ in their ways. Czech’s even have their own currency as an example of their independent ways.
If you go to a restaurant and wait politely and somewhat awkwardly at the entrance don’t expect to be seated. I think over five different wait staff had eye contact with me and completely ignored me before I got the guts to approach someone and ask if I could be seated. I don’t think you should take it personally, but do be prepared that you probably won’t receive a warm welcome.

This is were my mission comes in. I wanted to see whether I could break them. I tried to flash a warm and genuine smile when ever I could, and see if I could get one in return. On a couple of occasions I was almost successful! Someone told me that you will always know where you stand with Czechs. Part of me is frightened by that and yet the other part respects that a lot.

Cesky Krumlov: OK, so technically this is not in Prague it’s a gem about 2 hours away, but it’s amazing and should be mentioned. I was sad that I didn’t stay there but a 1 hour crash your of the town was enough to give me a fix. It has the same magical charm of Prague but much smaller, without the crowds and it has a bear!

The history: Every country in Europe has a far richer history then baby Australia, but Czech history has some peculiar highlighs. I need to start off by saying how sad it was to hear about the past of Czech Republic they had been pushed around by the Soviets, the Nazi’s and then communism. Actually, pushing seemed to be a bit of a theme as there was more then one occasion in history were people were killed by being pushed out of a window. In fact, that’s were the word defenestration can be used. Death by defenestration, add that one to your vocabulary.
They’re history includes the likes of Mozart, the hussites and the Rolling Stones (who were responsible for lighting up Prague castle). It’s a magical place, a tough place, the place where Brit’s come for their ‘stag’ parties (unfortunately) and also slightly quirky. You’ve got to love it.