Dobrý den z Prahy

hoho, me and ola with the astronomy clock in old square

i love it when i step on a plane and don't recognize any of the signs. its only happened 3 times: amsterdam, athens, and now prague.  i head off to the pretty city  on friday with hoho and ola, where we stayed at 15 tynska in a 2 bedroom apartment right behind the old town square and near st. nicholas. we landed quite late but as is the custom, we dropped our stuff off and head out to see what we could find. and as we closed the door to the building where our flat was, some guy walked up to me and i had no idea what he said. i said 'english?' and so he asked me in english where karrol street was...and i laughed. sorry, i said, i have been here 5 minutes! it was funny...in italy i never get mistaken for an italian, but apparently i look like a czech woman.

as it turns out, prague shuts down quite early, unless of course you want to go clubbing.  but after a full day of work and flight to the city, all we wanted was food. we meandered for a bit checking out some of the obvious landmarks in the square like the astronomy clock, and eventually made our way to wenceslas square where we found some kielbasa stands open. it was a no brainer for me. slather it with some mustard and ketchup and badda bing - supper!

digging into kielbasa

we wandered a bit more and ended up at bar and books, the swanky bar next to our flat. it was uber expensive for a drink but beggars can't be choosers so we jumped in, had a cocktail (i had the lychee and cucumber julep). and slowly we made our way back to our apartment. i say slowly because it was 4 stories up and there was no elevator. it  made for a bit of effort before getting to bed.

the next day we were up bright and early to begin our trek around town. we thought to check out the jewish cemetary and synagogues but we realized it was saturday and duh...they're closed. we walked  back to the old town square and found that there were stalls being set up for a food festival (yay for us) and we had the first of many Trdelník. think of some nice soft sweet dough baked over coals and then doused in cinnamon sugar. mmmmmm. we then head over to the river to make our way across charles bridge where many of the aritsts were setting up to sell their paintings and photos of prague to sell to the tourists. we got there fairly early and enjoyed an uninhibited journey across the bridge.

on the charles bridge with cathedral in background

we thought we'd have a coffee and by the time we came out the crowd on the bridge was ridiculously huge.
we walked up the steps to the castle and entered...not quite sure what we'd find. we read the travel books but it seems our expectations of what is a palace isn't the same as what is actually a palace in prague. for a while, we thought we missed something. it seems england has spoiled us with their windsors, when in fact what we were looking for was more along the lines of monaco. :) but stunning of course was the main attraction: st. vitus' cathedral. it was fricking huge. not as big as some i've seen but the gothic style was most impressive. as were the gargoyles. i'm used to seeing various animal and gargoyle shapes but there were tons of human ones here. it was crazy but very cool!

gargoyles of st. vitus' cathedral

we then thought 'time for lunch!' and we head down the street to a recommendation called
u černého vola and we walked in and promptly realized that a - we were the only non czech people there (a good sign) but b- the haze in there was so bad that not only could we not find a seat through the haze (there weren't any empty tables anyway), but in the 3 minutes i was standing in there, i inhaled the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes in second hand smoke. cool place but i think had we eaten there i'd of puked. we attempted to get into Klášterní pivovar Strahov but the pub was full and we ended up next door (the pub  name remains a mystery) where we drank the home brew (our choices were dark or wheat - we went wheat) and i ate goulash with bread dumplings. mmmmmmmm

my goulash

we decided to check out the local trams and tube system (some of it 'for free') to get back into the central part of town. this is also the time it started to rain :( so we thought to head in for a coffee...but instead we went to wenceslas square and inevitably found the choco cafe. it was so yum - i had the coko s chilli (aka, a cup of hot chocolate - literally melted chocolate, and a side of dried chillies to spice it up). let's just say a few of the spoonfuls made me sweat a bit and i warmed up fast. i stopped adding chili so the last bites would be easier on the tummy. we walked around more and shopped a bit, and ola was able to buy her krtecek fridge magnet. i must admit, he was cute and i bought a wooden one to sit on my desk. you can watch a video of him here if you have the time. 


we made our way to kolkovna for a drink, well, i ended up having water to help with a raging headache. i think i was a touch dehydrated! the drinks looked good and the few people eating seemed to be enjoying the fare but we were saving up for what we knew would be a big dinner, courtesy of u sadlu. let's just say we were not disappointed. i still wasn't quite ready for alcohol post headache but i did enjoy my potato pancakes with grilled veg while ola and hoho shared a platter for two that had every possible grilled meat on it (think duck, chicken, bacon, ribs) along with potato pancakes, dumplings (bread and potato), cabbages which were very good, among other things. the restaurant is a series of 'caves' and we sat in the Rytířský sál.
i think if i lived there it'd be easy to make this a regular spot.

our server gave us a few ideas of where to go for drinks so we walked by the roxy and thought...not our style. we then went to another pub (can't remember the name but it means goat, so kozel something) for some becherovka with tonic - but to be fair, we drank becherovka on its own most of the time. we then made our way to a club that in in a church...although they claim its the only place in europe that you can listen to live music in an old church. but um...perhaps they haven't heard of soul in aberdeen?

so we called at a night at 1 am (being a tourist and a clubber is too difficult, you get tired easy).

the next morning we decided to head back to the jewish cemetary and the synagogues, but before hand we had breakfast at the franz kafka cafe. it was tough to find breakfast at 11 am so we had to settle for lunch items that could pass for breakfast if you had a little imagination.

old jewish cemetary

we then head over to the old jewish cemetary and what a site that was. established in the first half of the 15th century, it is one of the important surviving monuments in prague. the oldest tombstone dates back to 1439 (avigdor karra) and burials took place there until 1787. there are around 12, 000 tombstones in this small space but the number of persons buried there is much greater. the cemetary was enlargened in the past a number of times and eventually earth was brought in to add further layers. they think the cemetary contains several layers superimposed on top of eachother, and potentially 10 - 12 persons deep. there are some prominent burials here like rabbi low (associated with the legend robot Golem) and mordechai maisel, the mayer of jewish town who died in 1601. it was a beautiful thing to see....not as a tourist attraction, but as a witness to its history. its hard to explain it, but i was moved.

we also stopped briefly at the ceremonial hall and then made our way to the spanish synagogue that hosts an exhibition that is the history of the jews in bohemia and moravia from emancipation to the present. after yet another coffee (at nostress - looks like a decent eatery) we decided to do some shopping, where i picked up a few things like batik easter eggs and a starbucks mug with prague on it. :)

we had time for a quick late lunch/early dinner before making our way to the airport (where i did more shopping including the nesting dolls), and we went to another recommendation called u flecku brewery and restaurant. this was a great experience indeed!

firstly you sit down wherever there's space, and a server comes round with trays of beer - only one beer to choose from, the house brew. its dark and sweet and quite yum. ola had the garlic soup and greek salad, hoho had the goulash, and i ended up with one last kielbasa because its so delish. i was way to full by the end of it which was too bad because i had my eye on the streusel.

ola and hoho modeling our flat

so culinary it was very filling (both drinks and food). the city was absolutely gorgeous, and the company was lovely. a great memory to have of hoho and ola when i'm back in canadia!

click here to see all the pics!