Antics of a solo traveller

or

So I went to Prague for a few nights

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything here, almost three years to be exact.  However, after a long battle with health issues, I guess I'm starting to feel better because I suddenly feel the urge to share my warblings with again.

Anyway, I headed off to Prague last week for a break.  It's a place I've been meaning to go to for a while, but never got around to it.  The flights weren't conducive to a weekend visit and in summer I prefer to lounge in the sun rather than tramp around cities.  A few weeks ago, knowing I had a week off work, I bit the bullet and booked it and so I arrived on a Sunday evening at about a quarter to five and checked in.

Astronomical Clock

Eager to explore, I headed out and my driver advised me to head to the astronomical clock as it was due to go off in two minutes.  This was ample time as I was staying Hotel Rott, just around the corner from the Old Town Square.  So my first introduction to Prague was amidst a swarm of tourists all craning to get a good camera angle to watch the apostles march by.  I tried to wander on, but there was no parting of the crowds and it took a few minutes to break free.  There is a great buzz in Prague.  Often, when I travel abroad I am struck by how quiet and dead cities are compared to Dublin.  Prague is lively all evening long.

I wandered around the Old Town Square, noting the stalls selling food and souvenirs.  Later I would discover that they seemed more expensive than the restaurants dotted around.  Prices were per 100g, so Prague ham was advertised at perhaps (I can't actually remember in detail) 80Kč (€1 = 25Kč or koruna), but a portion would come to about 500Kč, whereas you could get a main course in a restaurant for upwards of 300Kč.  I noticed a similar oddity in beer prices as well.  My driver had told me that beer ranged in price from around 40 to 100Kč, depending on where you bought it.  The pubs and restaurants around the centre sold beer from 69 to 89Kč, but in my mini-bar in the hotel it was only 60Kč!

Getting into the cultural spirit, I booked a concert, in St Nicholas' Church to listen to a brass quintet with two trumpets, a french horn, trombone and bass trombone and an organ.  Organ music isn't really my thing, but I guess it's probably a given for a church gig.  I headed back to the hotel for some food and discovered that it had a really nice restaurant called Nuance, advertised as Czech food with a modern twist.  I had my fill of goulash, dumplings and beer and back I went to hear the brass.  The concert itself was fine, unremarkable.  However the seats in the Church were something else.  We were sitting in church pews, complete with bench cushions.  After a while, the cushions heated up.  Not uniformly, you understand, but just the area you were sitting on.  It got hotter and hotter until some of us started squirming.  Honestly, I thought my arse was on fire!  It had been the same in the car from the airport, but thankfully I found the controls and turned it down a bit.

St Nicholas' Church, venue for brass quintet concert

Prague is an easy city to get around in, even for someone on a walking stick on myself.  The maps can be a bit confusing at first as many streets are narrow and winding and you need pretty good eyesight to make out the details on a map.  You can't simply rely on your sense of direction, as I often do, as the streets do not necessarily link up, however it soon makes sense.  Most of the people of Prague were really friendly although I am assuming here that those working there were Czech.  On a small number of occasions staff seemed utterly indifferent to me and gave the impression I was putting them out when I tried to purchase items from them,  It was one extreme or the other!

Another thing I noticed were the beggars.  Unlike Ireland where they are often in your face, and occasionally aggressive, particularly in the city centre, in Prague they sit back on their heels, practically prostrate with their hand together over a begging bowl, perfectly still.

People of all nations go to Prague.  As I rambled around I wondered if anyone actually lived in the city or were we all mini-break visitors.  One piece of advice often given to travellers is to go to where the locals go, but in a city of tourists, how do you sport the local?  People turn into sheep mode, they see someone in a café and assume it must be good and avoid the empty café next door, but why did the original person decide where to stop?

To amuse myself, I decided to try a little experiment.  I stopped on the street and turned to look in a shop window with a look of awe and wonder.  In no time, I had a small crowd of fellow tourists around me checking it out.  Very childish, but fun none the less!

That's probably enough for one session.  More on my Prague travels next week!