Prague
by Leyna O'Neill
I spent last weekend in the beautiful city of Prague where I got to visit my good friend Matt who’s studying abroad there. I didn’t have low expectations for Prague, but it was so much better than I thought it would be. It’s such an old city, so everything that you see has been there FOREVER. We got in on a Thursday night after a tedious check-in at Charles de Gaulle, converted our euros to Czech Crowns (we were rich!), and checked into the Kolej (Matt’s University dorms where we stayed).
This was the first time I had ever really been to a country where I knew absolutely nothing about the language, which was pretty intimidating. Czech is just so unlike English or any of the romance languages, there was really no way to communicate with people unless they spoke English which they did more often than not, thankfully.
I quickly learned how to say the most important word in the Czech language however, “pivo” which means beer. That is what you do in Prague, drink beer. Pilsner is huge there, since it’s from the Czech Republic, and I was pretty impressed. It was a nice change of pace, since France is all about the wine and champagne. The best thing about it was the price. We usually paid under thirty crowns which is around one U.S. dollar for a pint…not too shabby considering a beer in Paris will probably run you at least five euros. Anyway, my point is that beer is very important in Prague. We went to a really cool place one night called The Pub where they combine drinking and competition. You and your friends, a.k.a your team, are seated at a table with your very own tap. There’s a screen on top of the tap to show you how much everyone seated at your table has had and you are pitted against everyone in the pub, and everyone in every other one of these chains in the Czech Republic.
I was a natural
Needless to say, we were number one in the Czech Republic shortly after our arrival. We were there for awhile, but once we reached the top slot, we never fell. And of course we had to go out on top like true champions. The Pub was just one of many cool places that we went to. We ended up spending a lot of time just hanging out in cafes and restaurants, it was a lot of fun. I can’t remember all of the places but I’ll mention The Globe (amazing spinach burger, worth the trip), Radost (DELICIOUS vegetarian restaurant/club where a Rihanna video was shot), Usudu, Paris Praha (?), Bohemia bagel, and more!
I guess I didn’t really have any authentic Czech food, but that was really only because it’s mostly meat. However, in Old Town Center there were stands set up everyday selling everything you could possibly want. We spent a lot of time there. The most impressive thing was the “trdlo”, which was basically a strip of dough wrapped around a steaming hot pole to be cooked, then covered in some sort of heavenly almond/cinnamon glaze. It was divine.
I will pay you good money if you can tell me how that's actually pronounced.
Old Town Center had tons of treats like potato pancakes, honey roasted nuts, chocolate covered fruit on skewers, and meaty foods for the carnivores out there. A lot of the stands sold souvenirs too, it basically felt like a huge Renaissance fair. We even got to see a blacksmith in action, pretty cool. There was also a petting zoo filled with donkeys, goats, and lambs. I spent a considerable amount of time there because unlike the French, the Czech not only let you pet their animals, they love it! There was one Husky in particular that I fell in love with and who fell in love with me. His owners let me play with him, which was fun, but I thought it was a little strange when they started taking pictures of me playing with their dog, but I didn’t really care that much, I was just happy to be playing with a puppy!
Astrological clock
In Old Town Center there was also a huge astrological clock which was a major tourist site, and rightly so. It was huge and really interesting. Pretty much all of Prague is a major tourist site, and there were tourists everywhere. Apparently it’s the number one destination in the world. Most of the tourists are Italian which I just found really funny because the Italians are the epitome of tourists. They take pictures of EVERYTHING 500 times, and they just walk around not really knowing where they’re going, buying in to every little tourist trap. Not that I didn’t do the same thing.
Most people were around the Charles Bridge though. It was pretty neat, although half of it was under construction. There are a ton of statues lining the edges, and vendors on the bridge itself selling everything from jewelry to portraits of Harry Potter. It got kind of chaotic on the bridge though because of how many people were there, so if we wanted to get into town without walking we would just take some form of public transportation whether it was metro, bus, or tramvaj. I have to say I was impressed with the public transportation. It was really efficient and clean, and even though it runs on a kind of honor system, I think most people do pay, I know we did.
Probably my favorite thing we saw in Prague was the John Lennon wall. I’m not really sure of the historical significance, but I was impressed. It’s really randomly placed in the city, just kind of behind a few buildings, in front of a parking lot. The entire wall is covered in graffiti, most having something to do with John Lennon or the Beatles and a message of peace and love. It was really intense. People just keep adding their own messages and images, I’m not sure how long they’ve been doing it but there certainly are many layers. I really could have spent all day examining it, there’s just so much to look at.
There were also a number of odd monuments/buildings that weren’t really historic, but cool nonetheless. For instance there was a monument made entirely out of keys which spelled out something in Czech, and I can’t remember the meaning behind it…something about revolution perhaps? There was the tower with the statues of babies crawling up it which I thought was really weird at first and then I remembered the gigantic baby head statues in front of the MFA, which are probably a lot stranger. Then there was the “dancing house” which was really cool. Again, I’m not sure of it’s function or meaning, but it was cool to see.
Dancing House
Then there was the castle, which I don’t actually have any pictures of, for some reason. We did go in the Cathedral though, which I do have pictures of. It was really beautiful and thanks to my Paris Through its Architecture and Medieval Art classes I actually knew what I was looking at. I could identify all of the Gothic characteristics which just made it such a better experience. The stained glass was really pretty, but it looked really fake; the colors were just a little too vibrant (it had nothing on Parisian cathedrals).
Interestingly enough, we saw a Capoeira battle in the vicinity of the Cathedral which was really intense. People were flying all over the place.
Overall, my impression of Prague is a fantastic one. There are some cities that I’ve been to that I feel like I saw everything I needed to see and I don’t really need to go back, Prague is not one of those cities. I definitely think there are many hidden gems that I have yet to see, and I would definitely want to go back at some point.
Sidenote: We saw “I Love You Philip Morris” starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor and it was one of the best movies I’ve seen in awhile, I highly recommend it, though I warn you there are some explicit scenes.
Czech ya later!
