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While the German trains are cleaner and the French trains faster, the Czech trains have the best eye candy of all - which is handy, because Czech trains are not what I'd call dirty or slow, but the bar has been set pretty high. In all seriousness, the view on the trip from Berlin to Prague (or Praha) is simply incredible. It was enough to make me want to get off the train right there and then. That is not the best state of mind for touring Prague.
In retrospect, I am glad that I did Prague. I got to cook my own food at the hostel, I saw some wonderful buildings and great art (I went to the Mucha museum, very worthwhile but very expensive for what it is) and the town can be very nice once you forget about eating at any of the tourist restaurants and deal with the endless crowds.
And crowds there are a-plenty, especially over a weekend in July - it seems that everyone and their mum wanted to go see Prague and drink cheap beer. Joke's on them, because cheap beer is actually hard to find in Prague - and everyone will try to sell you Budweiser too. But there is much to see and learn here - Prague was one of the centers of European politics before the WW1 clusterf***, a gateway between Eastern and Western Europe.
The sad part is, much of that culture and influence was strangled by the Soviets, and now the rest has been hacked up and sold to tourists as one of the major parts of the economy. Yes, Bohemia was a center of power. Yes, Mucha did some of his best work here. Yes, the beer is good. But you have too look for all of that, beyond a huge spectrum of convenience stores, fake antiques, touristy dreck and surly kebab vendors.
That will take about a day, I'm afraid.
After that?
The Czech take on the cathedral, is to make a very elaborate interior and a rather subdued exterior. So a small basilica can be entirely covered in elaborate paintings of the saints on the interior - and you can literally stumble across a small basilica every few blocks. There is a mix of influences for architecture, as a number of dynasties ruled from Prague and there were waves of immigration from various parts of Europe. It's also one of the best preserved cities - the place was liberated from the Nazis shortly BEFORE the red army showed up, so the city remained relatively intact through WW2 and the soviet era. And a big part of Czech culture seems to be hanging out in the park, reading, so there's plenty of green space about.
It is a very Prague thing to go to a sklep - a cellar, basically - to drink, smoke, listen to music or all three; I found a place called the Blues Sklep that had Czech beer at reasonable places, and a good blues band (such is our culture that they were doing covers of ZZ Top :/). Of course, I stank of tobacco smoke by the time I left, but it was a great time.
The long tour of the castle could take a couple of days; there is so much to see. The castle itself is a bit of a letdown, but the long ticket also gets you into the cathedral, two art galleries and a history museum set up on the castle grounds. It could be two days if you wanted it; I missed the second because the weather has been so good here, that I wanted to explore.
Ultimately, though, my final thoughts on the matter are that the coffee is s*** and that you have to work hard to find yourself something authentically Prague about the whole experience.
Perhaps it was a mistake to come to Prague immediately after Berlin; that city I found to be so authentic despite the tourism that it's a bad comparison to make. I have enjoyed my time here, but I don't think I'll come back. I'm off to Bavaria, to a little town called Sonthofen; I'm going to hang around in there, Munich and the alps to do some hiking and live a little outdoorsy for a while.
If anyone does want to do Prague again, here's a short list of tips; otherwise, same bat time, same bat channel.
· Give yourself a day to evaluate the place. Take a deep breath and try to look beyond the crowd.
· Start early in the day. If you want to see the astronomical clock, the best time is at 9 AM.
· Plan around weekends, or try to visit in the winter; it's a completely different place.
· Take the train in from Berlin, not Munich.
· Avoid taxis. The metro system is simple and cheap. The taxis will overcharge like mad. Seriously. It's the difference between a dollar for the subway or thirty for the taxi.
· In evaluating a bar, if they have a Budweiser sign, don't bother. If they offer Bud as a Czech beer, leave. Kunzy or Gambrinus are both nice.
· Don't bother with the convenience stores; you will pay four times the actual value of everything. Go to a supermarket instead.
· If you want to eat, head to the area near the Soviet tower or north and west of the castle, or east of old town -basically, head out of the tourist trap. Prices drop and quality (and variety! there are vegetarian restaurants and sushi bars!) increase dramatically.
· Don't stay at Advantage Hostel. It's cheap and convenient, but the rooms are not great, the kitchen is too small and the staff sometimes steals food.
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