From Prussia to Bohemia

It's pretty hard to find someplace in Prague not inundated with tourists, without English-language menus and extra assistance for the poor lost non-Czech-speaking masses. The Charles Bridge is one solid mass of camera-toting visitors filing along as if at an open-coffin funeral augmented by the carnival atmosphere of souvenir hawkers, street musicians, and the general hubub of humanity. The main squares seem to acquire flocks of tourists blindly following a pink umbrella or a large sunflower or a plastic toy on a stick, learning about a history which they will promptly forget and didn't really care about to start with. But this, my friend, is Europe in the summer. It seems like every capital and much of France is actually one giant tourist park. But we skipped all that, we avoided lines and tourist attractions and "doing" Prague like most tourists do, instead wandering the streets, searching for interesting hidden nooks and beautiful places--and we were largely successful.

This is not to disparage Prague. I absolutely love Prague, I love its flair and style, its cleaned-up bits and its run-down bits, art noveau, neo baroque, classical and baroque all mixed together, its stylish cafes, parks, quirky stores and comfy pubs. The people have all been friendly and helpful and accommodating of the fact we don't speak Czech, and while not at bargain basement prices, drinks and things are cheaper than Germany and everything else is comparable (without paying capitol-city prices).



In the castle district of Prague there is a greenbelt stretching the length of the shore hosting masses of travelers and students sleeping or picnicking, dogs and their walkers, and pretty much everyone else. A creek running parallel to the river makes the place actually a small island, driving water wheels and hiding the cute little cafe where our Czech couchsurfing contact brought us after a hike up to the metronome and the world fair building.

Last night we opted out of the pub crawl organized by the hostel and went out in search of a pub on our own, somehow managing to find a lively and homey pub frequented mostly by locals where we, understanding nothing on the menu, attempted to sample Czech beer and were in the end quite successful. In addition to pilsner they also have a rich dark lager and a 'cut' beer, half lager and half pils, and a Belgian wheat at half the price of Belgium served in what appeared to be a giant-sized water glass (it takes two hands to drink from). We also sampled orange spice cappuccinos, the best iced chocolate probably ever, some kind of sesame croquant ice cream and Lebanese food at a restaurant highly recommended by some (new) friends.

This is the first time I'd stayed in a hostel for a while, and it is one of the nicer ones I have been in. Everything is new and shiny and the internet is free (though breakfast is expensive and not included), and the hostel does a good job of organizing social activities. Traveling by oneself presents no problem as you can easily meet other travelers, but to be honest, I don't come to Prague just to meet Brits and Americans, so I would probably prefer the Couchsurfing method in the future.

Today we are off to Brno!