Interrailing: Prague

City 6/12: Prague. After edgy Berlin I was very excited to go to Prague and dress in pretty clothes and still fit in. I’d seen pictures of friends in Prague but really, I didn’t know a thing about the Czech Republic other than the fact it used to be called Czechoslovakia. So these last few days have been a bit strange as there has been a lot to learn and the language is crazy!

Sadly, my dream of arriving in a pretty city was ruined on day one. We got ripped off by a taxi driver who charged us 500ck instead of around 250ck that the reception at our hostel said it should have been. And then on arrival at our hostel we realised that we were about to spend 3 nights in the worst hostel yet. We’ve been pretty lucky as I booked all the hostels in advance so that we wouldn’t have to share with strangers and I got it all very cheap but Hostel Marabou has ruined outer good streak. The room smelt like 30 year old cigarettes, I splatted at least 3 Mosquitos (not including the one that was already splatted on the wall) and Fiona’s top bunk of our bunk bed was so shaky that I felt my bed underneath move if she moved even the slighted bit. Also, in our hottest city yet, we had no aircon. After living in Spain without aircon and temperatures creeping up to 40 degrees, I wasn’t too fussed but the other girls didn’t sleep very well. We had arrived fairly late so went out for a small dinner (as we were hungover from our last night in Berlin) and then got an earlyish night.

On the second day, my faith was restored in Prague as we went for another free walking tour. This one was Sandemans New Europe (same company as Berlin) and once again, the guide was great! We started off in the old town square which is the very centre of Prage and absolutely beautiful. It’s filled with restaurants, street performers and people just generally meeting and having a good time!

Towards the right you can see the Church of the Lady Tyn. If you look carefully enough, you can tell that one spire is bigger than the other. They are named Adam and Eve and Adam Tower is wider than Eve Tower to represent the man looking after the woman.

The Czech Republic has over 1000 churches but is actually in the top 4 most atheist countries. A lot of old churches have now been reformed as theatres, hotels etc.

We then moved into the new town (although still pretty old as it was founded in 1348) and into Wenceslas Square. It’s a pretty big square, well rectangle. It’s 750m long which makes it the Czech Republics biggest square. At the end of the square is the Prague National Museum. Sadly, it has been shut for 4 years for refurbishment and plans to reopen in 2017.

After a short break, we went to see Prague’s number one tourist attraction. The best thing Prague has to offer. We were on tenterhooks waiting to see the absolutely amazing, stunning, life changing, giant… clock.

Okay, it was kinda cool to watch but I can understand why it’s been voted the 3rd most overrated tourist attraction in the world. Luckily for us, our tour happened to arrive at the clock at five minutes to the hour so we saw the… err… grand spectacle.

Every hour during the day, the bells chime and if you look in the two blue windows, religious figures appear (models, not real people) and then the golden chicken you can just about see at the top of the picture lets out a little cluck. AND THATS IT!! The small square (just off The Old Town square) is filled with people with their cameras ready to take a video not knowing the disappointment to come.

I’ve probably now made it out to be a really awful thing. This clock is the worlds oldest astrological clock built in 1410 and if you spend 10€ on a book then you may be able to work out how to tell the time on it (although there are 8 normal clocks placed around it for the common person). You can also (without paying for a book) see where the sun and the moon are at any point although it does not work on leap years. It it worth seeing it to say that you’ve seen it but just don’t get your hopes up that this is going to be the best thing you’ve ever seen!

We then made our way through Prague’s most expensive shopping street. Although Prague is great for shopping due to the fact that there are loads and loads of shops, compared to the surrounding countries, things are around 20% more expensive so there was definitely no dilly-dallying down this road!

We then arrived in the Jewish Quarter which brought the mood of the tour down quite a bit. The Jewish people really haven’t had a great history in Europe and in Prague they, by law, had to live in the same area. In this area there is the old new synagogue which is the oldest in Europe (built in 1270). In this synagogue was where the legend of Gollum oroginates. He was a big mud man that used to look after the Jews but then got too powerful so they killed him and supposedly buried him in the attic of this synagogue. Now he’s appeared in The Big Bang, The Simpsons, X Files and more!

We then took the mood down a bit lower as we arrived at the cemetery. Along with all having to live in the same area, all the Jews had to be buried in the same cemetery. As you can guess, it filled up. So they put a layer of mud over the graves and started again. As you can guess, it filled up again so they put more mud over! Now there are up to 12 layers in this cemetery!

Just incase we weren’t all sad enough, our tour guide told us that you can visit the synagogue that’s the other side of the cemetery that is filled with paintings that were done by children whilst being held in a nearby concentration camp. Apparently it’s best before 1pm but after being in Berlin we decided we’d had enough of World War 2 for a while!

The mood then picked up as the tour came to an end. We finished off in a square infront of the symphony house that apparently has the best acoustics in the world with a view of the part I was looking forward to most, the castle! We didn’t see it as that’s on another walking tour that you have to pay for.

The man also gave us loads of history (which I’m not going to bore you with) and clever tips about money and where to eat. If you go to Prague, I would highly recommend getting all your money beforehand and don’t trust anyone. If you take money out at a cashpoint and someone says they can break your 1000ck note into 2x 500ck notes, use your common sense and say no thanks! A lot of fake notes are given to tourists so have a look at what the money looks like before you go!

In the evening we tried to go to one of the restaurants we were recommended but we left it too late and the kitchen was shut. We eventually found somewhere and Ammun and I ate beef goulash which we were told is something you need to try in the Czech Republic. Although the food was good (and reminded me of my mums yummy cooking), the service was horrendous. Also known as “Czech service”. They made everything seem like a massive effort and then the cheeky buggars added a service charge! (Mine actually had chips with it even though I asked for rice)

We stayed out after that and went for a drink in a bar. I paid for the round which was 1020ck and it made my heart sink a little bit seeing such a big number on the credit card machine! But when I worked it out, it added up to only £28 for 4 double vodka and mixers!! We then headed across the road to Central Europes biggest nightclub, Karlozny Lazne (spelling unknown). It has 5 floors, all with a different type of music as well as loads of weird rooms to discover including an oxygen bar. It also has an ice bar! I’ve been wanting to go to one for ages so I was very happy! We paid 150ck (about £4.20) for half an hour there and a cocktail served in an ice cup! All was going great unil Shelly’s melted and she lost nearly half her drink on the floor!

We danced for a little while in all of the rooms and although they were all decorated differently and played different music, they all had one thing in common. They were FULL of men, most of which were absolute creeps/on stag parties! No, men of Prague, pulling me backwards by my bag strap very hard is not going to make me fancy you. The plus side of this was that I never ever had to queue for the toilet! May sound like a petty thing but when have you ever seen a girls loo, especially in a night club, with absolutely no queue!? Amazing.

As we hadn’t got to bed until half five, we had a lazy morning in the hostel. None of us had got super drunk so we didn’t have a hangover (which was grey considering how hot and sunny it was!). I put on a pretty skirt and we headed for the castle!

On our way we went to the The Charles Bridge that goes from the old town to the castle. It has 16 arches and is lined with 30 baroque statues of religious figures so it’s very pretty.

Although it may not look it from a distance, Prague Castle is the biggest castle in the world with a massive 18 acres. The castle grounds includes all the houses and shops and churches around it and all the little windy streets are so nice to walk down when it’s sunny!

We wanted an early dinner on this day and we went back to the old town square again to go to the restaurant that our tour guide recommended. It’s called Restaurance Mincovna and the food there is AMAZING!! I feel like I should have tried the traditional Czech dish svikcova (roast beef in a creamy sauce) but I loved my goulash so much the night before that I had it again (this time with dumplings instead of chips). I think it is probably the best thing I’ve eaten on this whole trip!! Also, despite the infamous “Czech service” this restaurant was great service even byEnglish standards! To top it all off, for my main, a side of vegetables, a glass of wine, water and a small tip it was a massive £9!!!

After dinner we went to Glow Mini Golf. It was almost completely in the dark with uv lights everywhere which lit up the course, the balls and the clubs. It also lit up my white skirt and my white bra through my top – oops! Obviously I was the winner because I’m just the best ever (okay, there were 7 points between all 4 of us so I didn’t win by much). It was really fun to do something different instead of sight seeing, eating and drinking!

On our last day we finally got to check out of our smelly hostel and we went for a little bit more sight seeing. We first went to the dancing house that was built in 1996. It was originally called Ginger and Fred as it looks like a man dancing with a woman although it was very controversial at first because it doesn’t fit with the surroundings, it is now accepted and the restaurant at the top is still called Ginger and Fred.

We then went to find some statues by David Cerny. They are all over the city centre so we couldn’t see many but this one is called Piss. It’s two men and their hips move side to side and their male parts move up and down to spell out words from Czech literature.

There are a few more and all of them have something weird about them (like babies climbing up the telephone tower and you can look up their butts or something)!

Prague has been nice and I’m glad we had good weather for our trip to the castle! Next stop: Vienna!

Annalise x

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