Prague

[Dymetrie]

So then, this week I had a fantastic 3 day trip to Prague with my brother, Simon. 4 star hotel right next to Karlův Most (Charles Bridge), decent flights to ensure we get the most out of the trip, and my walking boots.

Day One

Tuesday morning we were up at 6ish to leave the house for 7 so we could get to the airport in time (getting driven to Stanstead from Leytonstone rocks ) for our 9.15 flight. Check in a-ok, pick up some Czech cash (as we had no time to change money before and did it in the airport we were working on 35Kč/£1, which isn’t great but works), pass through security (remember to take off your jumper when going through metal detectors if it has a massive metal zip on it ) and get onto the newest plane I’ve ever seen. It had GPS and was clean!

An uneventful (other than the funky screens showing us where we were) 2 hour flight later we arrive at Prague airport. Straight through customs, only got shoulder bags with stuff in so no need to wait for luggage, and we both dive outside for a smoke.

IT IS NUGGING COLD AND WINDY!

But nicotine is good

We grabbed a cab into town and get dropped off on the west side of Karlův Most and as we’re an hour early for check in at the hotel we have a wander around. A nice stroll up Mostecká spotting a few bars (,5l 25Kč!) then back down and across Karlův Most to head over and find Tesco before we check in.

Tesco in Prague is more like Debenhams, virtually no food visible on the ground floor, but it had what we needed, toiletries and wine! Simon grabbed the toiletries and I grabbed 2 bottles of wine (a white and a red) which cost me 100Kč (less than £3) which later get hidden in my bag before we checked in to the hotel.

This was Simon’s choice of lighters :/



After Tesco we have a bit more of a walk around and head into Staroměstské (The old town square), where we finally give up and sit down for a beer. A beer which costs us 90Kč for 400ml! Simon chose the wrong bar Then we head down to the hotel to check in. We stayed at U Zlatého Stromu, which was excellent, decent twin room which was very plush and had a minibar fridge which I stashed the bottle of white wine in

After a bit of a relax in the hotel we headed back out. First stop The Museum of Medieval Torture (do not click if you are a big girl!), which was pretty gruesome, but also rather funky. It was almost like an art gallery but with ebil stuff rather than pictures or sculptures. It really makes you realise how nasty people can be.

Suitably grossed out we headed over Karlův Most to the bar we saw before. Yay for cheap good beer (Pilsner Urquell was our drink of choice for the entire stay), even though the barmaids were sullen (something we got used to, virtually no one smiled at us the whole time we were there ) and I got a phone call from Camden’s telephone engineer asking me to let him in to my office, he was somewhat put out when I told him I was over 1000 miles away in a different country .

After several beers we headed back to Staré Mĕsto (the district our hotel was in) and looked for a restaurant to get some scran. We’d spotted one earlier which boasted jazz and had a very reasonably priced menu of traditional Czech food. Unfortunately when we went in and sat down we realised it was incredibly surreal. Pretty dark, forced grins from the staff and 20s music playing. Not to be put off we ordered our food (pork, rabbit and duck with stewed cabbage and dumplings) and tucked in. The food was good and the final price was 750Kč (just over £20) and included a generous tip (for not killing us and serving us to the next customers ).

We then headed back to the Hotel where we drank the wine we bought, played cards (Ben rummy, it was fun) and watched the Arsenal/Prague match (including sending my father a text saying we were watching the Arsenal/Prague match, in Prague ).