Praha

I took part of last week off and went to Prague (Praha) for the weekend (Thursday night - Sunday). I have a couple of friends in Prague (2 from Australia and 1 from UNCRFC). So it looked like a good time to see a few sights and catch up with a few people. I landed late Thursday and jumped on some public transport (bus - metro) and found my hotel. Thank you GTUS for making us stay in all those Hiltons for work!

As it was fairly late when I got in, I wondered around for an hour or so and then crashed. A few things: Czech uses kroner and 1 Kr = about £35, but the money changes vary quite dramatically so I used my debit and credit cards (no FX or bank fees!) so the charges didn't eat me up; there is still somewhat of a distinct Cold War type feeling. Not sure what it is but sometimes I definately felt like I was in the middle of an 80s movie about the Cold War... (Spies like us or Back in the USSR). It was crazy cold, like highs of 32F. Also, I have never seen so many people wearing fur coats, hats or whatever. There seemed mainly like tourists, either Russian or another central/eastern european country. Souvenirs - I didn't really buy anything but the tourist tat consists mainly of - wooden toys and handicrafts, fur (fake mainly I think), art glass, crystal, amber, garnets and marionettes?!?!

Firday my friends had to work so I walked all over the city for six or so hours, took a nap and met them out for a quick beer or two. One things first, you have to understand that Prague is known as the stag (bachelor) party capital of Europe for Brittish. Mostly the following reasons: cheapish/shortish flights (less than 2hrs, less than 150 return), cheap beer (I found some that were 25Kr, most I paid was still only 59Kr - both less than £2), accomodation and food are both relatively cheap, the sex industry is prominent, safe and legal. So you put all these together and you get a heck of a party destination for loads of people.

But Prague is also very rich in culture and history. During my wanders on over my stay (which was what I did a lot of), I saw all of the main sights. Prague Castle, Old Town Square and Hall, Wenceslas Square, Charles Bridge, St Vitus's Cathedral, the Astrological Clock, State Opera House, and loads of cool statues and architecture. There are loads of things to say about each of them but you can wikipedia it or read a book, just like I did. Otherwise it would take days to write it all here.

Saturday we went out and did a bit of a local pub crawl. Nothing crazy but it was fun. Unfortunately when I went to go home, I got a bit lost. Ended up walking in the middle of the night halfway across the city to get home. Oh well, it looked cool in the night with a light dusting of snow.

The snow should have been a clue... When I got back to London, the snow was pretty bad. I actually got one of the last trains back into the city from Gatwick. However it wasn't to anywhere near my flat. Lets see I landed at 11:15, got to a station in town near 1:30 am (should have taken about 20 or 30 minutes) and started walking. The snow was so bad that there were no buses running, too late for the Tube and barely any cabs. So I walked. I ended up walking for a bit over an hour and finally found an off duty private cab that would take me home. Got in about 3am. The city looked cool in the snow but I was in no mood to take pictures. There was about 6-8 inches of snow on the ground and more falling. Oh well, made it home, saw the lst 54 seconds of the Super Bowl and then went to sleep. Thankfully I couldn't get to work in the morning since the trains weren't running well. At least Praha was cool!