Anyone been to Prague....

[Fionn]

Prague ... hmmm.

I’ve only been once, about a decade ago. The band I was in were playing at the Prague festival. I thought that it was the most beautiful city I’d ever seen. Too hot in the summer though. It’s random and intense. Weird stuff happens there. 

Scotland happened to be playing the Czech Republic at football when we were there, and we ended up playing a bunch of impromptu evening gigs for the Tartan Army in this big sweaty dump called ‘The Shamrock’ (avoid). Almost went blind drinking home-distilled moonshine with Slovakian farmers who were in the same digs as us, in town to see Anthrax. I befriended a herbally-inclined sound guy after a festival gig which led to being at a gigantic rave on the outskirts of the city where everyone was dressed entirely in white from head to toe (I’m not a raver). I got hit upon by an Irish transvestite. 

Some useful advice though ... Beware hot-looking Romany women who pretend to be all over you whilst going through your pockets. 

Great place! 😀

Edited November 16, 2018 by Fionn

[BassTractor]

In Havelska, there's an Italian restaurant called Corto Maltese, and when we were there, the walls were covered with artwork from the Corto Maltese albums by Hugo Pratt.

Not for everyone, I'm sure, but as a Hugo Pratt fan, I loved it. We ate there several times.

BTW the Corto Maltese hotel is probably best avoided. Cheap though.

Edit: the hotel is now updated, I find, and gets good feedback on tripadvisor and the like. In that case, I think it's well situated for starting walks. Also the restaurant seems updated 🙂, and the Muriels (😁) removed. 😢

 

The tourist shops also sell remakes of the famous and ultra-cool (post-)WW1 Communist Army pointy woollen winter hats called Budenovka, Budyonovka, Bogatyrka or Frunzenka in a great filt version. IMS, this hat is featured in "Corto Maltese in Siberia".

Again, not for everyone, but I loved it.

Edited November 16, 2018 by BassTractor

[NancyJohnson]

I went a long, long time ago, some time before it became the fashionable and rowdy stag weekender destination of choice.  From memory, it was hideously cheap to get completely off your face that we actually came back with money.

 

[PawelG]

I’ve been to Prague several times, all the things mentioned above are great. Charles Bridge is worth waking up super early for - if you go just before sunrise is gorgeous... and even then, there’s people, but not nearly as many as let’s say an hour later. The castle is cool, but there’s a lot to see. I like to just walk around Prague in the morning, the city is really cool and has a nice atmosphere... until you encounter some Czech people. I find them unbelievably rude. They do not care. 8 out of 10 experiences from pubs/restaurants/shops etc are really bad. I’ve been to various places in Czech and from what I’ve been told - even Czech people don’t like Czech people from Prague. Maybe it’s the capital city thing but my god they are rude. So, don’t be bothered if somebody is really unpleasant .

I once got asked to leave the pub because I didn’t order enough!

Anyway, I didn’t see anyone mentioning Petrin tower. If you go there at sunset and the weather is good - the view from there is incredible. Nice to walk up there through the park. It’s on the hill, where Strahov Stadium is.

Here’s a photo taken at Charles Bridge last Easter at sunrise.

Enjoy your stay!

[BassTractor]

1 hour ago, PawelG said:

until you encounter some Czech people. I find them unbelievably rude. They do not care. 8 out of 10 experiences from pubs/restaurants/shops etc are really bad. I’ve been to various places in Czech and from what I’ve been told - even Czech people don’t like Czech people from Prague. Maybe it’s the capital city thing but my god they are rude. So, don’t be bothered if somebody is really unpleasant .

 

I did want to write something about that, but was searching for words. Thanks for posting something that has to be mentioned.

IME it was 50% of the people, and when I asked several of the friendly ones about it, they unanimously said that the rudeness is a city thing as well as a remnant from their communist past. I can't possibly evaluate this, but did seem to notice certain patterns so one could guess beforehand whether a person would be rude or friendly from the way they appeared visually.

Several times, Czech people would warn us about other Czech people, like the waiter in a famous beer cellar warning us about the guy behind the beer counter. Prague is the only place I ever experienced something like that. BTW, the beer counter guy was indeed one of the most fanatically unfriendly people I've encountered in 62 years.

Indeed, as Pawel says: don't be bothered if somebody is really unpleasant.

[bassfan]

6 minutes ago, BassTractor said:

 

I did want to write something about that, but was searching for words. Thanks for posting something that has to be mentioned.

IME it was 50% of the people, and when I asked several of the friendly ones about it, they unanimously said that the rudeness is a city thing as well as a remnant from their communist past. I can't possibly evaluate this, but did seem to notice certain patterns so one could guess beforehand whether a person would be rude or friendly from the way they appeared visually.

Several times, Czech people would warn us about other Czech people, like the waiter in a famous beer cellar warning us about the guy behind the beer counter. Prague is the only place I ever experienced something like that. BTW, the beer counter guy was indeed one of the most fanatically unfriendly people I've encountered in 62 years.

Indeed, as Pawel says: don't be bothered if somebody is really unpleasant.

That won’t bother me too much, we are only there a couple of days. I’m sure they are on a par with the good folks of Budapest.

We sat in a coffee shop, ordered 2 pieces of cake, a coffee and a hot chocolate. The waiter huffed and puffed and told me it wasn’t cold enough ( mid December ) for hot chocolate so would I order something else. The irony is I never would not normally order that... just fancied it. When it arrived (20 mins later) I was tempted to leave it, but I ate it, I say ate because it was literally 2 melted bars of chocolate you could stand the spoon up! 😂