So I'm back home. From the lack of blog-posts you should probably have figured out that I had a pretty good time since I couldn't bother blogging at all during my two weeks of vacation. That and the fact that I do on principle refuse to pay 20 Euros a day for internet when I should be out doing stuff.
I'm getting bugged left and right about updates, so here's your quick recap of my vacation! While long, try to keep in mind this is about a week condensed into a blogpost :)
I'll be perfectly honest: For most of my trip I stayed around Prague 1 with a few honest exceptions. This was where most of the shopping, clubs, cafés and pubs seemed to be. And with the messy streets of Prague being as messy as they were, it seemed like a safe base to work from when exploring the city.
Skimming trough Lonely planet Prague I came across some clubs I would like to check out. First one on the list was Roxy, not too far from my hotel. Getting there I learned the first thing about going out in Prague: Going out before midnight is an exercise in loneliness. The place was virtually empty.
Still the (rather talented) DJ was playing and playing for quite a varied audience. Besides me, some other locals and a the staff there, people evidently bring dogs to clubs in Prague and I have the pictures to back it up.
In general, if cats is the fashionate thing to throw around on the internet these days, dogs have to be the what they like in Prague. They were everywhere, with no leash. No idea how they manage to discipline dogs like that, but it was kinda cute :)
After hanging around for a while, I decided it was time to check out some of the other clubs. On the way there, I walk past a place with a big sign "The official Prague pub crawl". For getting to know the city and getting to know people this sounded much better, although definitely not very civilized.
Since noone speaking English manage to pronounce Jostein properly, I just told em "Justin" was OK. To everyone's confusion and amusement there was an actual Justin at the table as well. I was quickly renicked to "J2". Also met some guys, Rob and Tom from the Bristol-area in the UK which just had to laugh when I told them I had learned English from watching Sky-channel and DJ Cat Show as a kid.
All in all we got dragged around various OK clubs and various tourist-trap places worth remembering and avoiding.
In the end of the evening, heading home from the Charles Bridge area, I had an "interesting" encounter. I'm honestly not sure what I met there but definitely slightly confusing. Basically what seemed to be a prostitute offered her services to me, and I was pretty much not interested. When I declined her offer, she started somewhat carefully to fool around with my balls and asked again. No really.
So I once again told her that I was not interested and this is where things took an unexpected turn. With one arm, she "firmed" her grip down there while with the other arm, she went for my pockets.
Naturally as a gentlemen and trained in karate I handled the situation fine, but I'm still wondering if it was a pickpocket posing as a prostitute or a prostitute with a backup job as a pickpocket. I will probably never know.
The following day I didn't really have any concrete plans and just walked around somewhat aimlessly. Plan was to end up at the west-side of town where the castle and all that was. Getting totally disoriented, I ended up going north and came to Letná park, just up on the hills outside city centre.
This was a very nice park, a very nice spot and all in all a very nice walk, had it not been for one thing. It was killer hot, I was dead thirsty and the park only seemed to have park-stuff. Not a single kiosk or booth which sold anything to drink anywhere.
Finally I found the east end of the park, and here there were cafés and beer-gardens all over. First one I found had a good view, not to mention a pint of the most excellent Staropramen beer for around 1 euro. Let's just say I got kinda stuck here and leave out any gritty details :P
The best thing about this break was probably talking to some local clubsters which were also hanging out there after a rough night the night before: I got a few solid tips about good clubs not covered in any guide-books I had. A very nice park I went to almost every morning just to chill out.
After deciding I had enough beer for a day not even past 4 o'clock, I got over to the castle and got myself a castle dinner while enjoying the parks on the way. Czeckish Gulash, served in a bread. Served with a knife, fork and a spoon. I'm not quite sure how it was supposed to be eaten, if the bread was supposed to be novelty, to be eaten or how it was supposed to make anything simpler.
Anyway: The goulash was good. Never having had it before, I quickly decided that this was something I liked.
As for the castle itself, I have a few pictures, but littered with lots of small towers way to small for any human to fit into, it definitely seemed to be more form than function. However it definitely looked impressive and made our castle back in Norway look like a joke.
One of the few things you notice about Prague and which I was most definitely getting aware of at this point was how everything seemed dead cheap, but the bill always got a little bigger than you expected.
The reason is that the Czeck are kinda cheap and everything, absolutely everything, are extras. A couvert with bread for your dinner? Extra. Ketchup with your fries? Extra. I'm not kidding.
While I was in Prague I also got to experience the wicked dynamic nature of the weather down there. It can go from blazing, killer hot to rain that soaks you trough and trough in 30 seconds in no time. Good thing there are lots of extravagant doorways, passages and other stuff you can quickly hide under when you notice the rain starting to fall!
On one of the hotter days I noticed a car driving around actually spraying the asphalt with water. Don't think I've ever seen anything like that anywhere else. This was ofcourse to much joy and delight for kids everywhere, starting to run after the car showering the streets, hoping to get a slight shower themselves. I'm not going to lie: So did I :D
On a day when the timing seemed to fit and I was close to Old town square before U Zlateho Tygra (The Golden Tiger, beer hall, Bill Clinton etc) had opened, I decided to head down here to see what the fuzz was all about. The place opened 3 o'clock, but when I got there around 10 minutes early there was still a line of people already waiting outside. This place was definitely popular.
One of the nice things about these traditional Czeck beer halls is that you don't order beer, it is simply implied that you want more, more, more. So instead of ordering, you actually have to signal that you have had enough for now.
These places also seems to be major social venues for the locals. I observed a table of locals who ordered a bucket of gulash. No individual portions, but a bucket and they served themselves.
On one of my more adventurous days, I headed far east into the city to try to find Bunkr Parukárka, a former nuclear bunker 15 meters underground now converted into a club. Unfortunately it was only open when there was gigs and events going on so there was nothing for me to see there that day. However it was in the middle of the Parukárka park which did provide reasonable options for travellers coming a long way.
Here you could order a beer, but you had to pay a 2 euro deposit for your glass. The reason for this was that most people didn't really fancy staying at the bar itself but wanted to venture into the park where they could be kinda by themselves.
I met a few people from the UK which didn't quite get the system and they thought they had just ordered the most expensive beer in Prague before I told them how it worked. I still say they owe me a beer or five.
On one of my final days in Prague I checked out one of the suggestions offered to me by the clubbers in the park: Club Cross. Some quick internet detective work, showed that this was as far north as you could get in Prague before hitting city limits. Took some work getting there, but definitely a place work visiting. This place was unique.
This was probably one of the coolest clubs I've ever seen. The entire (two floor) exterior was made of metal frames, metal constructions and just looked industrial, retro and mind-bending at the same time. As for the concert that night, it was Defragmentation and Ramallah underground, Palestinian, electronic hardcore. Definitely fresh.
What made the concert maybe even better was the concert arena in the lower floors. Walls covered with circuit boards from tapes, PCs and seemingly whatever they could find for grabs. They were lit by green and blue LEDs, and the green and blue sections were separated by black, metallic frames.Very subtle but it still gave it a very machinistic, Star trek Borg-esque feeling. Very, very, very funky.
Before leaving Prague I had to exploit the fact that things were cheap down here and went to one of the finer restaurants in town: Kampa Park. Just on the west-side of Charles bridge and the river dividing the city, with a full view to the east-side and Prague 1.
The parasols here, unlike most places in the city, wasn't covered with beer labels. It was representing Moët & Chamdon Champagne. They also stocked Voss water. This was definitely a classy place.
The view was excellent, the service was excellent, the food was excellent, the dessert was excellent and the only thing not truly excellent was the wine, since I had to go with a "house" wine. After all, ordering a full bottle of wine can be a tad much if you are there all on your own. Definitely going back here again if I ever visit Prague again.
Last day was a day-trip out to Plzen to see the Pilsner Urquell brewery and then I was off for Budapest.