Prague, Czech Republic
Visiting countries is a bit like food. Sometimes you want the full meal - like my two months in Sweden, other times you're happy with a spoonful - such as the Czech Republic. I'd not planned to go there, but having heard a lot of good things about Prague, and fancying a bit more diversity I nipped out of Germany into Eastern Europe.
Monday started at 5.30am with a hike to the station, and onto a bus for my first taste of the German autobahn. Surprisingly despite the lack of any speed limit in places, I didn't see any extreme driving. Disappointing! The journey was a bit dull to be honest; lots of flat nondescript land, but arriving in Prague at lunchtime it was quite the opposite.
It was mostly spared any bombing in WWII, and still retains a really wide variety of beautiful and varied old buildings, with a bit of a hybrid of West and East European styles. This does mean thousands of tourists however! I spent the afternoon wandering for miles around the old town in the sun, past jazz clubs and antique shops, taking in a small design exhibition, and stopping to look at a very warped-looking building, like a Salvador Dali painting (below).
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| Frank Gehry designed Dancing House |
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Yesterday, seeing it was free, I thought it was worth a look in the Czech military museum and surprised myself by being their first visitor of the day: rare. Learnt a bit more about the wars, and how Czechaslovakia (as it was) has been occupied by both the Germans and later Russians, and therefore had a pretty rough time of it until 1989.
A hire bike was then tracked down for a bit of exploring - around some more of the old town, the castle and a huge, ugly and crumbling Soviet-era stadium amongst other things. A nice day, and to top it off it was that sunny and warm I was in shorts and t-shirt. In late October!
Most people I know who have been to Prague have done so on a stag do - my experience has been about as far from that as you can get - it's been a bit quiet in the social front. I can see why it's so popular though - apart from being beautiful, I've gone from paying around£17 a night to £7, a beer in a pub is just over £1 and food etc is the same, though it doesn't really feel that poor.
To finish my flying visit, today consisted of a trip to the technical museum - a bit like the one in Munich I visited, except with a crappier name. There were good exhibits anyway, including the oldest Audi in existence and some weird old bicycles. A few Skodas as well, since this is their home. After, I had time for a bit of a walkabout, then caught the bus I'm on now... to Poland!
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| Old Town Square Prague |
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| Thumbs up to another hire bike |
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