Prague Diary and Review (Prague)

Member Name: Briz_Hatchings

Product:	Prague
Date:	17/02/01 (634 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful city, cheap if you hit the right places

Disadvantages: Tourist side of things rather disorganised and very easy to get ripped off 

DIARY

Monday 29th March 1999 - Lift Off!

So at some ungodly hour (before 7am is all I'll say) we dragged ourselves out of bed and into a taxi. Once heading towards Heathrow we realised two things. One, we'd left KL legend Dharmua Tharu's video camera in the flat and two, we didn't have enough money to pay for the cab when we got there. The camera wasn't a problem; it proved hassle enough to drag a normal camera around the place so maybe this was a disguised blessing. I doubt we would have got more than thirty minutes footage anyway. A Barclays machine in Westminster came up trumps for the cash so all we had to worry about now was getting Tauf through passport control.
We caught a British Midland flight out there. With memories of Asian airlines we decided to fly economy. Pretty much your standard British airline really, in one word, crap. Foul food, sever lack of talent amongst female cabin crew and a perverse habit of sealing the bar one and a half-hours before landing.
Once in Prague we learnt something that we would find uniform throughout the place. Anywhere that said 'information' wouldn't prove to be helpful in any way. Public transport however proved more than satisfactory along with dirt-cheap. We never actually got our tickets checked anyway and a mate of mine who has been busted without a ticket said the fine worked out at about 43p.
Like the 'information' saga anywhere that claimed to provide 'accommodation' proved even more unhelpful. To our rescue came Earnie, a Czech geezer Tauf immediately christened Con Gulio. Obviously well travelled and in the accommodation business Earnie sorted us out with a Japanese style room in a nice area with ensuite facilities. The price was so negligible I can't remember off hand what it cost. He also provided us with a brief history lesson and some handy hints. I think it would be safe to say from this point on we were fairly sorted. <
br><br>A bit of time to settle into our new room and then we hit Prague. A spot of lunch in the main square where we decided to take Earnie's advice and head up to Prague castle. Truly magnificent and for some reason people seemed nicer north of the river especially the man who sold Tauf a bottle of coke who still to this day believes he is Japanese. Thanks also to the guard who managed to smile for our photo, these guys obviously aren't as disciplined as the boys outside Buckingham Palace are. From the castle you can see right down over the centre of Prague. This inspired us to walk down the hill and stand on a couple of nice bridges. In the process I almost got run over by some fit bird in an Audi. Lets just say that the Charles Bridge doesn't have that Mission Impossible feel about it. We were also unable to locate the aquarium restaurant that Tom Cruise blows up with chewing gum.
So with a feel for Prague we headed back to our place. No drinking, that comes tomorrow.

Tuesday 30th March 1999 - Get Psyched

We meant to get up at around nine but we were later to discover that ten thirty would have been a more realistic estimate. It was at this point that we discovered that the hot water tank in our place was not that large and if two people were to take a shower in the space of an hour both would have to be quick. We decided to get lunch in the shopping area near our place rather than heading off into the centre of Prague where lunch the previous day had been a little disappointing. We discovered here that there is a large contrast between the centre of Prague and the outskirts in terms of pricing. Language proved a little difficulty but this was more due to us trying to order food off the drinks waitress! Heading into the centre of Prague we hunted down a boat trip. By now the amount of dyed hair in the place was getting to us as we were sold a trip by some woman (debatably up for some) whose hair was that red colour English
public school girls were dying their hair 5 years ago.
The boat trip was by my standards ok. The problem was that commentary was in three different languages and so it was hard to latch on to the English bit. I didn't really object to this anyway, I didn't go to Prague on a history trip. What was out of order was the waiter. People on the left-hand side of the boat were offered alcohol. For some reason our side of the boat didn't get this service. This was the second time on the trip that we were denied the opportunity of getting wasted. After the boat trip we were taken on a quick very informative tour of the Jewish sector of Prague and the old town. We then witnessed the astrological clock, a clock where lots of people dance around on the hour. Finally we browsed the markets and went to this big metronome thing on the top of the hill before heading back to get ready for a night on the tiles. Buying dinner at the local supermarket one couldn't resist quick 'yea capitalism' at the checkout. The abundance of bottled water in the supermarket also suggested something about the quality of the tap water. This was also the first time a proper trip to the supermarket has cost me less than two quid.
Not knowing much about local nightlife we hit a place called 'The Zombie Bar' that we'd seen the day before. It was here that Tauf suggested we tried Absinthe, we did this and then stumbled out into the streets of Prague charged as you like. After a bite to eat in Macdonald's where under the influence of Absinthe I walked into the woman's toilets we moved on to an Irish bar, not much life but a bit more than the previous bar. All the staff in the place were as far as I remember Irish, Australian or British so they all spoke English. We also met a lone guy called Jeff (ex-oxford, genuine smoothy) who we decided to hit a recommended club with.
The club, 'Lavka' apparently charged no entry fee but there was one of 5
0 Czech whatevers taken by some dodgy git standing in the entrance. Just your genuine cheesy club really. Jeff bought us both a beer and proceeded to try and pull every bird in sight. As we'd been warned in the Irish Bar the Italian chicks would have nothing to do with the English guys so after losing out on those Jeff found two English birds one of whom was respectably fit. At about half past two (a bit early maybe) we decided to call it a night and got a cab back to our place. Jeff had disappeared debatably for a threesome with his two English birds but we haven't confirmed this yet.

Wednesday 31st March 1999 - Somewhat Lackluster

The last day and although we were half an hour late in getting out of our room this didn't seem to matter. We dropped our bags off at the station and bought every shop there out of Absinthe. One woman tried to change me a twenty Koruna note, I gave it back to her and told her to get real. Tourists 1 - Bastard Shop Keepers 1 (Tauf was changed a 20 Koruna note which was subsequently denied every time he tried to spend it, hence how I knew.)
We headed back into Prague and after another Absinthe purchase sat down in a cafe and wrote our postcards. The Czech postal system took a little warming but we figured it out in the end and soon enough we were eating lunch in a restaurant between the old town and the new town. The meal was spoiled by a stropy American sitting on the table next to us but all the same I'd say they'd done well in this place. It got my mark of approval now if only I could remember its name. After a bit more shopping; Tauf bought a bag. We headed to the station where our train to Vienna was waiting. By English standards this train rocked. Plenty of space and by now my desire to beat the living shit out of every backpacker I saw had numbed somewhat so the geezer opposite us didn't get any shit.

REVIEW

I didn't really know what to expect from Prague and w
e hadn't really planned to do much there apart from see the city, which, with only three days there, was fair enough. The number of backpackers apparent in the airport seemed to disappear as we entered onto the hugely efficient and extremely cheap public transport system. This may have been partially due to the fact that central Prague isn't actually that cheap. However find the right bar or hotel a bit further out and the only way you'll end up with no money is by getting so drunk it falls out of your pocket.
On the subject of nightlife what we sampled seemed to lack that frustrating pretentiousness one is so often faced with in London these days and if your willing to pay what can only be described as fair prices then central Prague isn't lacking in bars and clubs. I did however get this feeling that the whole scene was a bit like Kings union on a Saturday night; everyone's having a good time but no one knows quite what's going on. Sightseeing in Prague is probably its best aspect. A visit to Prague castle is a must and a guided tour will probably take you around a lot of things the centre.
Having Earnie as our unofficial travel guide left us no need for travel guides that may provide some useful information on the large network of night trams that seemed to operate. Bear in mind taxis area a rip off compared, especially to two young drunken tourists outside club Lavka at three in the morning. We also didn't do anything cultural in Prague so I can't give my verdict on some of the more mature aspects of the city.
For accommodation we did incredably well with ours and for the money you save as long as you know a good public transport route from where you stay to where you want to go then staying outside the centre is a good choice.
For clubs and bars the best thing to do is hit an Irish bar on your first night and get chatting to the bar staff who should speak fluent English and be very clued up about the scene. Al
l in all three days isn't enough but stay three weeks and you could get seriously addicted to the place. For me it was nice to see the place but I'd give it a couple of years before I went again.

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