Czech Republic - Prague

Czech -

(phonetically)
Hello -  Doo Bree Den
Please - Pro-seem
Thank You - Dee - koo - yi
Seeya - Bin Spater
(all from memory later too!  *struts proudly*)

Our 1st use of a TRAM!!

  We took the tram from the station to literally a 1 minute walk from our Hostel - Found on the Famous Hostels site once again - The Czech Inn.  I worked on the blog while Candace made dinner -  barley & onion, plus a greek salad & some wine



- our room had a small kitchen, which was nice.




  We also had extra beds because the room we were in was designed for 4 people.  We simply lucked out when they sold it to us and, for no extra charge, made it a private room.  We liked the style of the room,



very modern and the view from the windows was nice as it was overlooking a hill in one direction that was taller than the building itself, while to the right you could see a long row of buildings extending into the city.

  Breakfast was legit and done buffet style.  I created the "ultimate" cereal by combining Granola, corn flakes, raisins, sunflower seeds and honey poured on top.  I look forward to recreation back in the States fo Sho.

  Time to CZECH out Prague!

  We headed out on a walk through a park meeting a dude with dogs drinking a beer from the cafe in the street behind him where we were also heading to.

  Its cool that they just let you leave the "property" to enjoy your beer in the park, still visible to the establishment...

  Now we heard Czech beer was the best in the world from a bunch of Czech people who had laid claim to this multiple times already, so I tried one of their Pilsners and it was... OK.   Prices were awesome though, it was like being in Budapest again.  Candace had a delicious Ginger Beer with Rum combination.



  Off we went on a search for the "best beer in the world", a bit skeptical I might add, after the 1st one.  Heading toward the beer hall we had a nice walk through residential Prague and also walked through a couple parks



and arrived to a super cool area with almost all locals hanging out.  This spot had a bunch of tables for several hundred people, maybe more, (only around 40 people spread out and there at the time), and huge big screen projector so the whole area could see it.  We learned that this was where the locals came to watch big and important sports games as a community, packing the place. 

  I went up and ordered a beer for less than a dollar and the Pilsner Dark I ordered was better for sure than the last beer.  It came at the recommendation of Luke, Sir Mills, through Candace's last conversation with him the night before on facebook talking about Prague.

  Some locals next to us lit up a huge joint and started smoking.  We then we noticed some other people smoking at another table, and yet again saw others smoking at tables futher away.  Apparently in Prague it is legal to smoke and you can grab some marijuana at different bars.  Though I do recall reading about how it can be interesting for foreigners to purchase it, and how the establishments are supposed to report it to police who bust the out-of-towners, give a reward to the establishment plus the merchandise back.  Though, this could, and probably was, a different city altogether.  The fact did enter my mind though and I learned through the locals that walking around with less than a few grams is legal.

  We struck up conversation with the dudes that were about our age, maybe a bit younger, at the end of the table and I ended up buying a beer for the guy who had the best english.  He was pretty excited about this and slammed half his other beer and pulled up a seat closer to us.  One of the other guys had a baby and the group was pretty busy hanging out, smoking, and drinking and playing with the baby while Candace and I  had an interesting conversation with our newfound friend.  He described in more detail this sport we were watching currently on the projector where it had a ball similar to a soccer ball yet smaller and where the players were throwing it around and scoring goals left and right using their hands.

  We also talked about places in Prague and where the best beer was.  The language barrier was there but we had fun and I struck a chord when I mentioned movies, Spiderman, Batman, and he went "OOOHHHH, I LOVE marvel!".  We talked about movies and how I was sad I couldn't watch a couple good flicks back in the states that had come out at the theater because everywhere that I had been in the last month had the movies viewed in a foreign language to me.  I interestingly found that he wasn't aware that a new Batman movie was coming out because it hadn't yet been advertized to the Czech People yet.  He got pretty excited to say the least and when I busted out my Droid, connected to their Cell network and sacrificed the data usage to show him a trailer of the Dark Knight Rises. The awe on his face made me smile.  One, because he thought the fact that I could play the trailer in the beer hall from a phone was amazing, and two, his pure excitement about the fact that there was a new Batman movie.

  I really wanted pizza because this place had pictures of it everywhere and the craving hit.  Unfortunately they don't serve it till 5pm so after a walk with our new buddies (just two dudes still left), they smoked more at a dog park and we discussed how this is only one of a few parks around where you can take your dog to run around on the grass and do its business and such.  We discussed this because we had a good chuckle looking at the only couple sitting on the grass in the whole park and had to wonder to ourselves if they knew what "kind" of park they were in and "what" they could be sitting on. 



In the pic the park is not visible and is to the right -

  After we parted ways and one dude showed me his Drivers License



we headed to grab food from the place we had planned just 5 minutes east of the hall at an awesome local restaurant, Usadu, that was located on the outer rim of a traffic circle.  This food was totally unique and awesome.  The main dish was lamb medallions with olives, spices and cheese.  It had a flavor I'd never tasted and I loved it.  Super salty.  Also Devils Toast, an extremely crispy toast (fried perhaps) with thick red sauce on it and I'm assuming some sort of finely ground meat mixed into the sauce that made it thicker.  The third dish was some Pickled Cheese that was super unique and I'd never tasted anything like before but also didn't like as much as the other two dishes =).  We also had a soup which was good too.







  We walked back home through the parks and just chilled out the rest of the day, also hanging out a bit at the Czech Inn down in their hangout area where some locals mixed with people from all over the world.

EPIC DAY

  After our breakfast buffet and my ultimate cereal once again, we got picked up around 9am by Kristina, our Electric Bike tour guide for the morning.  She was pretty cheerful and had been doing walking tours, bike tours, and other tours for about 9 years, but Today was her 1st Electric Bike tour!  So she was perhaps more excited than us as we hopped into the taxi and headed to the rental area.  While we waited for our bikes through conversation we learned that out of 20 people that took the course with her to become a guide of Prague, that upon test time only her and one other passed the test.  That 10%!  It's interesting to note, and I suppose makes sense, that such a position in a historical city could be so prominent and take only the very best of those that apply.  Cool too, because I doubt that that job even exists where I live.

  Onto the bikes we went and Candace + Kristina immediately fell in love with the electric bike motor.  I actually thought it was pretty sweet too, especially on a chill day with beautiful weather where you didn't want to work up a huge sweat when you weren't going to be heading heading home for another 12+ hours. 

  Up we went up hills that on other bike tours Kristina would have previously avoided.  We soon reached an overlook where she described how the tour was going to go step by step, laying down the context for us for the next few hours.



  As we went from site to site; seeing more views,




, singing fountains which sing when the water runs through,


and beautiful buildings,



Kristina found and told us once we had reached the 30 minute mark that the location we had just gotten to would have taken an hour and a half with normal bikes.  She then declared that and that we can therefore adjust the tour to head into the city as well because of our extra time!  YAY, because that's what I wanted in the first place.

  Arriving at the brewery across the river in the northern part of Prague, we tried one of their specialty beers and then headed around to see some amazing historic sites,



 entered a building where pictures were not allowed -



hahaha
and discussed some stories and histories of Prague.  the Czech Republic has only been independent for around 30 years and the area before that has a history of being conquered over and over again.  Those coming into power took over the country with little resistance and installed their rules and their regulations.  Communism left its mark on the people and their culture and Kristina described her frustration with it.  She also described the beginning of freedom in the country through the protests that happened three decades ago and literal Throwing out the window of the 3 figures in power during their revolution to overcome the oppression.  The figures of power had been throwing out paperwork out the window previous to their being "tossed" and this somehow caused them to survive the fall that would normally have killed anyone.  They stood up and walked away to go into hiding...

After a quick pic at another lookout point of the city -



 
  Kristina was soon talking about how these bikes would be better than a car in Prague and asked us how much we thought they were.

  Our bikes soon zoomed us downtown and across the Charles Bridge.  This bridge is the most traveled bridge in Prague and we strolled by Statues



and spiritual histories -
 

 The idea here is that you touch both of these pieces of brass, one a carving of a saint laying down, and then the other famous piece you put your hand onto at the same time and it is supposed to bring you good luck.

  Continuing on the bridge we passed under a beautifully constructed archway/structure and saw a few more cool buildings before coming to a super unique clock.  So unique is this clock that the artist was put to death after its completion, the contractor saying that he didn't want another of its type to ever be built again.  (clock on left below)



  On the way back to the bike return I was doing some jumps and dislocated my chain on the bike.  Normally not an issue as you can just put it back on, but there was a guard which made it more difficult and would have involved very dirty hands so I was inclined to instead test the power of this electrical engine.  Spinning my pedals without resistance (since the chain was not attached at all), I was having fun messing around and putting the electrical engine to the test.  It performed pretty well and I kept pace with the girls who were actually helping their engines and pedaling for real.  My battery meter was in the red though and I began to worry that I might need to readjust that chain when Candace tried to jump a curve at the wrong angle and DOWN she went, her two beautiful hands getting bloodied in breaking her fall on the concrete and dirt!

  As it happened, her chain ALSO was dislocated from the chain rings.  Being only a few minutes away we allowed our electric engines to propel us home to safety and return two bikes without chains attached and at the same time request a 1st aid kit. =)  I can only wonder what the bike rental people were thinking!

 

  Candace was OK, just having a sprain in her ring finger and some shrapnel that needed cleaning out later in her palms.  Kristina called a taxi and guided us over to the restaurant we wanted to check out called the Clear Head.  In a building older than the USA (600 years), we took pleasure in the mystical setting this vegetarian restaurant emitted.




  The food was excellent and at this point I wouldn't do justice to describe it but we enjoyed it and I had a pretty unique drink to accompany the meal, a freshly squeezed/crushed beet-apple juice drink.

 Soon, though, we were continuing on to find the "strongest beer in the world", X33, at a special brewery, U Medvidku, about 5 minutes walk to the southwest.  This place was pretty big and kindof a maze.  A bit tough to find the area that served the actual beer because you had to go past the Budweiser,  

 
which is from the same family brewery as the Budweiser in the USA, (they just branched off and, as the Czechs claim, are not as good), through some other rooms, go upstairs, into a specific room and finally reach the area where I ordered my X33 beer.  I must say it was one of the best beers I've had on the whole trip, if not the best.  What's surprising is that the flavor is coming from a beer with about 13% alcohol and the strength of the beer was almost unnoticeable.  Extremely drinkable and delicious.



After definite enjoyment and completion of my X33, we went to a place that was recommended by one of the local guys the day before in the park, U Vedvodu.  It was practically on the same street so we had to make a stop.



  The place turned out to be just OK and the claim you can see in the picture above about the Best Beer In Prague IMHO was incorrect.  Food looked good though! 

  Not far away was our next destination and we wandered over to Einstein's cafe.  Not actually named the Einstein's cafe, Cafe Louvre was a place Einstein used to visit frequently when he lived in Prague.  He would discuss theories, enjoy the ambiance, and meet with friends here.  Once we arrived I looked for the spot Einstein would have wanted if he brought his girl here.  The regular area was busy with a few tables open, so I bought a cigar and walked into the back area where 4 pool tables were covered and there was not a soul.  We made our home base at a small table for two along the side of the big room's walls.

  Ordering a bottle of wine, a nice chocolate cake slice, and prepping my cigar, we simply had a fantastic time enjoying this whole big room to ourselves.





   I looked up on wickipedia Einsteins life and read the entire history of him finding some fascinating facts around our chocolate cake.  We then proceeded to order a chess board and have a great couple games of chess while finishing our wine and imagining the legend himself sitting next to us talking about relativity.



  On the with Epic day we went as we left Cave Louvre for the Absinthe Bar recommended to us by a dude at our Hostel.  5 minutes of walking in the sprinkling rain yielded us entrance to the place.  Good absinthe, great "electro pop" music as Ed, our hangglide guide would have called it.  (just alternative music that is popular.  Rather than calling the new stuff "Alternative", which is more suited to Nirvana, Goo Goo Dolls, Oasis, Blink, and so on, he names it Electro Pop =)  Candace sketched some designs out, and I read a bit from Of Limited Loyalty, the Second Book Of The Crown Colonies.

  We soon Taxied to a Jazz club and entered into a unique place.  There was a bar serving several types of Absinthe and the area where the Jazz was playing, a small two-level room, filled with various people watching the live show.

The performance was cool, with solos by each of the 4 musicians and some cool songs overall, we were definitely glad we came and we met a Dutch couple that told us about Amsterdam where we were heading while we told them about Budapest, where they were heading to.
Back to the Czech Inn via Taxi we went to enjoy our room one final night.

In the morning, we checked out and checked back into another room in the same place.  This one, though slightly smaller, we thought was even better.  Being on the very corner room the hotel, we had the best view in the house and a cool setup as well

  It's sometimes interesting to consider that you are staying at a hostel when you have sick rooms like this.  We hung around the place a bit after breakfast and then headed to the station to grab overnight tickets to Amsterdam, this time being able to book a room with 3 beds.  We then headed for food at the same place as the other day near the beer hall, Usadu, and some new food.  Since the food here was some of the most unique, and still great, that we had had, we decided to come back for more.  Ordering this amazing beef stew thing and an awesome Lamb with cheese on it thing with dried tomatoes, we had another awesome meal.



  Soon we were on a great walk back to our Czech Inn and then into our chartered van and on our way to a Folklore Dance and Music Czech night in the country.



  The place was pretty cool, with a unique pathway you could walk along through an old-school area (unique), and a gift shop Candace enjoyed grabbing some pretty darn cool gifts at.  Enjoying the music and food, we watched the different performances and dances that went on while enjoying the company of a Czech mom and daughter at our table.  The waitresses kept bringing more drinks like beer, wine, apple juice, water and more over as I accepted them and accumulated quite the variety -

  The food was a variety of coleslaw, soup, and a huge bucket for boiled potatoes and meat that we all split as a table.  After a few more Folklore solos and them grabbing people from the crowd and making them participate in their dances, sometimes funny, we got a great laugh at the random old guys who got left with "the stick".  The "Stick" dance was a game involving 4 guys and 3.  One man would have the stick and therefore no partner, while the other 6 people danced with each other.  Once the music "stopped" all the guys who had been dancing with a girl had to switch to find a different girl while the 4th man who was the unlucky one with the stick, dropped it and quickly tried to partner up with one of the available girls to dance with before anyone else could.  The best was when someone kept the stick multiple times in a row. 



  Anyways, there were other interesting dances as well and we enjoyed ourselves until it was time to get driven back to our hostel.  Instead of going to the Czech Inn though, we requested a dropoff at the biggest Club in Prague.

  As we got dropped off right off of the Charles Bridge, we decided to take a walk along it at midnight before heading into the club.  It was nice walking along the bridge when there was no rush and no Electric bikes to think about or drive quickly around.  The night was majestic and the city along the river lit up, making Prague as beautiful at night as during the day.  We enjoyed a stroll along the riverside then headed back to the club.  Before getting to the club we walked by a store that was selling some unique items.  Namely this odd product where figures fit in figures upon fitting in figures.  Candace told me all about it as she had seen them before and her mom, Ren, used to have something like them -

  The whole 3 rows of them all fit into each other and become JUST One big one... It was fun taking one of them apart as the store owner kept asking me if I wanted to buy it over and over.  I kept saying "maybe" and as I became annoyed with her pestering, because I just wanted to check it out.  They were closing though and we had to get to the club so off we went.

  The club had a huge line by this time, instead of the zero line that it had when we had been dropped off earlier.  We were inside in 15 minutes though and proceeded to check out each of the levels, which had almost identical floor layouts, but just themed different in each level.  There were dancers, techno, hiphop areas, and the topfloor - our favorite a super cool chill area





  As expected, the floors kept getting busier and busier as time went on, starting with the entry level (1), and moving up.  After we got bored, we headed home and stopped across the street to grab a couple drinks of Friske,



a drink we had never seen or heard of before that we took up to our room, opened our windows, and enjoyed as the fresh air and excellent view that few in Prague had privilege to and let it all waft over our senses.



  In the morning we checked out, then checked in our bags into the train station and headed to downtown Prague to actually walk around and enjoy one of the few cities in Europe that survived the bombings during WWII completely bomb-free.  Hitler chose not to bomb the city.  We were glad as we just wandered around and intentionally got ourselves lost downtown starting in the Jewish Quarter, and moving through other areas looking at all the amazing buildings and architecture as we moseyed along

  Coming across a few cool restaurants, we picked out one and later went back to it once we were hungry.  Great food again!  We soon wandered to a huge plaza and a performance going on.

  Catching our overnight train, we lucked out when the third person didn't end up coming into the room during our changeover in Berlin at midnight.  The room all to ourselves for $8 euros each (eurail pass - booyah), we slept well. 

Here we come Amsterdam!
 
JJ & CJ