Our last night in Prague was a good one, although I feel as though I didn't get the Prague experience I'd been hoping for.
Once back at the hotel, our group met downstairs to make plans for the evening. The Texans were going to a special folk dance/dinner thing with Czech dancing and music, but none of us were too stoked on the idea of paying 50 euros for the meal (particularly the vegetarians) so eight of us decided to do our own thing.
I had wanted to visit the Jewish quarter and cemetery but the Germany versus England match was on in less than an hour, so I opted to go see that. Jesse decided to accompany, while Sara, Lynn and Elia went out shopping and visited the church of Infant Jesus of Prague.
We had been given confusing directions to Wenceslas Square and ended up going entirely the wrong way (all the while looking for a horse statue). I asked a local who refused to help and finally a nice Irish (I think?) fellow gave us perfect directions.
There weren't any street cafes with the game showing, so we decided to go to the first place where we could hear the game playing, Beer Factory. Despite its kind of silly name, the place was awesome, and we definitely picked the right one. We parked ourselves at a table in front of one of the many screens in the place, I poured myself a beer, and scoped out the scene. The majority of the room was filled with Germany fans, but there was a fair amount of England love going on too. We had missed the first 15 minutes of the game, but luckily we hadn't missed any action, as all the scoring went down after we arrived. And what a game! Germany has definitely stepped up in the past week and totally embarrassed the UK and shut down England's game with ease.
After the game was won and the celebrating had begun (although much less crazy than in Berlin), we met up with the ladies and stopped for mojitos and snacks at a classy little joint, Como Restaurant. We enjoyed the sunshine and drinks and conversation until Renate, Jim and Florian found us. So we paid our bill and then began walking the streets, looking for a place to eat dinner.
The restaurant we decided upon looked good but ended up being pretty eh, as was the majority of my experience with food in the Czech Republic. After dinner ended, we decided to go for some American comforts, and made a beeline for Ben and Jerry's, which tasted like home...
We enjoyed our ice cream on a leisurely walk home, and then ended up going to bed relatively early. In the end, I feel as though I was gypped of the Prague experience, but I guess now I know better for if/when I do return to the city.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Kutná Hora excursion.
After far too little sleep in a way too hot hotel room, we woke up early to head out to Kutna Hora to visit the bone church. We had been told it was a church constructed entirely of bones from dead bodies exhumed from the cemetery, so it sounded like a pretty awesomely creepy place.
The trip took approximately an hour by bus, and while Anita got our tickets, we waited around outside. The church isn't in the central part of town, but rather more on the outskirts, so there wasn't much around aside from a couple convenience stores and a crystal shop.
We got our tickets and went into the Ossuary which was part awesome and part disappointing. I had expected a church made of bones, but it was just a church decorated with lots of bones. While many of the designs were cool (bone chandelier), most of it was a bit kitschy for my taste, and not as spooky as I'd thought it would be.
After spending about five or 10 minutes in the church, I'd seen everything, so we went across the street for some ice cream and sat in the sun until everyone was done. Then we headed to the downtown area, first to the St. Barbara Church (which was, admittedly, kind of boring) and then just walking around the cute but deserted downtown. While we were searching for a place to eat, I ended up making a couple kitty friends: my first and only in Europe.
We settled on a Tex-Mex esque place which was an extremely awesome and unique find, and had their version of enchiladas and quesadillas (different, but still relatively delicious, and cheap). That was followed up by mojito ice cream, and then a walk back to the bus to head back into Prague and decide on our plans for our last night there.
The trip took approximately an hour by bus, and while Anita got our tickets, we waited around outside. The church isn't in the central part of town, but rather more on the outskirts, so there wasn't much around aside from a couple convenience stores and a crystal shop.
 |
| From europe v3 |
We got our tickets and went into the Ossuary which was part awesome and part disappointing. I had expected a church made of bones, but it was just a church decorated with lots of bones. While many of the designs were cool (bone chandelier), most of it was a bit kitschy for my taste, and not as spooky as I'd thought it would be.
 |
| From europe v3 |
 |
| From europe v3 |
After spending about five or 10 minutes in the church, I'd seen everything, so we went across the street for some ice cream and sat in the sun until everyone was done. Then we headed to the downtown area, first to the St. Barbara Church (which was, admittedly, kind of boring) and then just walking around the cute but deserted downtown. While we were searching for a place to eat, I ended up making a couple kitty friends: my first and only in Europe.
 |
| From europe (other pictures) |
We settled on a Tex-Mex esque place which was an extremely awesome and unique find, and had their version of enchiladas and quesadillas (different, but still relatively delicious, and cheap). That was followed up by mojito ice cream, and then a walk back to the bus to head back into Prague and decide on our plans for our last night there.
 |
| From europe (other pictures) |
Finding common ground with Prague.
We woke the following morning with a little (but not a lot) more optimism about Prague, and headed out for a walking tour of the city. We rode to the Prague Castle and walked around the former royal palace and its surroundings, including St. Vitus Cathedral, which is not the most impressive cathedral I've been to, but definitely a unique one.
We decided to take a 15-minute break at a nearby gift shop so people could take pictures and buy postcards and such, and this is when we encountered our first potential thieves, posing as a family of four tourists and attempting to steal from a couple of the girls in our group. Sneaky, and definitely a better tactic than the "you speak English?" gypsies that frequent Checkpoint Charlie and Notre Dame.
We continued on, walking past the St. Wenceslas Vineyard which offered beautiful views of the city, and down toward the Charles Bridge where we stopped to touch the various places on the bridge which supposedly offer good luck, and then headed to the other side of the city.
From here, we wound our way through the streets and beautiful buildings, until we ended up in Old Town, about five minutes before the hour, in time for some kind of fanfare, which turned out to be a dinky clock show and a trumpet player who comes out at the top of the tower and plays a super hokey song. In other words, relatively anti-climactic.
At this point, we had the rest of the day to ourselves (it was just after noon) so a handful of us sat down to lunch at a restaurant on the square. We had the option of going to the communist museum but Elia and I opted out (her because she wasn't interested, me because I'd rather have been drinking Pilsner). This is where we first experienced the "Prague Way" - in other words, getting charged for everything (even a side of ketchup or hot sauce) and the in-your-face boldness of servers who unabashedly demand tips and even remark when they feel their tip is "not enough". WTF. I was definitely turned off to this part of the culture.
We had some hours to kill, so we met up with Jesse and an indecisive Tanya, who was advised not to go off alone due to 1) pickpockets and such, and 2) her Berlin stunt of disappearing earlier in the week. She didn't want to go back to the hotel just yet, so she stuck with us and wanted to look in a gazillion different souvenir shops. Finally, we suggested she get something to eat, so we all sat down at a cafe and had some beers while she ate a late lunch. Afterward, we had a little bit more time to walk around and take things in before meeting up with Alyssa, Amy, Lynn and Sara to go to a concert.
The seven of us made our way to the Church of St. Salvator to buy tickets for a chamber ensemble performance that evening, then grabbed a quick drink before heading into the church. It was an hour-long set of works by Pachelbel, Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi and other famous works and we had fantastic seats right by the quintet.
When the concert ended, we started walking back toward Old Town and found a mediterranean restaurant, where we decided to get dinner together. The food was some of the best we had in the Czech Republic, and the music playing inside was all English pop and dance hits, so we took a moment to have a Lady Gaga dance party...
The dinner was leisurely, but toward the end, I realized that the World Cup game (USA versus Ghana) was about to begin, so Jesse and I cut out early to go back to the square and watch, while the others went shopping. The game was great, except for that final goal which bummed me out, but I'm still proud of the U.S. team for making it that far.
Once it ended, the seven of us asked our server the best place to get a taxi. He asked if we'd ever taken a taxi in Prague and when we said no, he warned us, saying "you'll get stolen". I admit I was slightly freaked out, until I realized he meant that we wouldn't get kidnapped, but rather ripped-off, unless we were smart. He quoted a price of 100 crowns (the equivalent of 4 euros) per person and suggested nothing more than that.
At first, the taxis refused to take all seven of us, but when we agreed to pay 600 crowns to the driver, he agreed, insisting that Elia get down in the back so the police didn't stop him for having too many people. Although I would think the police would be more likely to stop him for driving like a crazy! I don't think I've ever feared for my life that much while in a car, but his crazy driving was pretty on par for the rest of the drivers in Prague, and he got us to our hotel in less than 10 minutes (which would have been about a 40-minute walk).
Elia went to bed at this point, so I took a shower and then went down to the lobby to use the Internet and catch up on all the drama happening with the groups. Finally, just after midnight, I went to bed as well, as we had to be up early to head out to Kutná Hora.
 |
| From europe v3 |
 |
| From europe v3 |
We decided to take a 15-minute break at a nearby gift shop so people could take pictures and buy postcards and such, and this is when we encountered our first potential thieves, posing as a family of four tourists and attempting to steal from a couple of the girls in our group. Sneaky, and definitely a better tactic than the "you speak English?" gypsies that frequent Checkpoint Charlie and Notre Dame.
We continued on, walking past the St. Wenceslas Vineyard which offered beautiful views of the city, and down toward the Charles Bridge where we stopped to touch the various places on the bridge which supposedly offer good luck, and then headed to the other side of the city.
 |
| From europe v3 |
 |
| From europe v3 |
 |
| From europe v3 |
 |
| From europe v3 |
From here, we wound our way through the streets and beautiful buildings, until we ended up in Old Town, about five minutes before the hour, in time for some kind of fanfare, which turned out to be a dinky clock show and a trumpet player who comes out at the top of the tower and plays a super hokey song. In other words, relatively anti-climactic.
At this point, we had the rest of the day to ourselves (it was just after noon) so a handful of us sat down to lunch at a restaurant on the square. We had the option of going to the communist museum but Elia and I opted out (her because she wasn't interested, me because I'd rather have been drinking Pilsner). This is where we first experienced the "Prague Way" - in other words, getting charged for everything (even a side of ketchup or hot sauce) and the in-your-face boldness of servers who unabashedly demand tips and even remark when they feel their tip is "not enough". WTF. I was definitely turned off to this part of the culture.
We had some hours to kill, so we met up with Jesse and an indecisive Tanya, who was advised not to go off alone due to 1) pickpockets and such, and 2) her Berlin stunt of disappearing earlier in the week. She didn't want to go back to the hotel just yet, so she stuck with us and wanted to look in a gazillion different souvenir shops. Finally, we suggested she get something to eat, so we all sat down at a cafe and had some beers while she ate a late lunch. Afterward, we had a little bit more time to walk around and take things in before meeting up with Alyssa, Amy, Lynn and Sara to go to a concert.
 |
| From europe v3 |
 |
| From europe v3 |
 |
| From europe v3 |
 |
| From europe v3 |
The seven of us made our way to the Church of St. Salvator to buy tickets for a chamber ensemble performance that evening, then grabbed a quick drink before heading into the church. It was an hour-long set of works by Pachelbel, Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi and other famous works and we had fantastic seats right by the quintet.
 |
| From europe v3 |
When the concert ended, we started walking back toward Old Town and found a mediterranean restaurant, where we decided to get dinner together. The food was some of the best we had in the Czech Republic, and the music playing inside was all English pop and dance hits, so we took a moment to have a Lady Gaga dance party...
 |
| From europe v3 |
The dinner was leisurely, but toward the end, I realized that the World Cup game (USA versus Ghana) was about to begin, so Jesse and I cut out early to go back to the square and watch, while the others went shopping. The game was great, except for that final goal which bummed me out, but I'm still proud of the U.S. team for making it that far.
Once it ended, the seven of us asked our server the best place to get a taxi. He asked if we'd ever taken a taxi in Prague and when we said no, he warned us, saying "you'll get stolen". I admit I was slightly freaked out, until I realized he meant that we wouldn't get kidnapped, but rather ripped-off, unless we were smart. He quoted a price of 100 crowns (the equivalent of 4 euros) per person and suggested nothing more than that.
At first, the taxis refused to take all seven of us, but when we agreed to pay 600 crowns to the driver, he agreed, insisting that Elia get down in the back so the police didn't stop him for having too many people. Although I would think the police would be more likely to stop him for driving like a crazy! I don't think I've ever feared for my life that much while in a car, but his crazy driving was pretty on par for the rest of the drivers in Prague, and he got us to our hotel in less than 10 minutes (which would have been about a 40-minute walk).
Elia went to bed at this point, so I took a shower and then went down to the lobby to use the Internet and catch up on all the drama happening with the groups. Finally, just after midnight, I went to bed as well, as we had to be up early to head out to Kutná Hora.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
