The Prague Trip

For my Prague trip I got a transportation pass which, for about $7 a day meant I could hop on and off any of the buses, trams, or metros of the Prague public transport whenever I needed.  I probably could have saved a little money by buying tickets only when I actually needed them but apparently it can sometimes be hard to find a ticket stand, so the convenience and security factor made it definitely worthwhile to have the ticket.  I also got the "Prague Card" which gives you free, or discounted, access to all kinds of museums and monuments in the city.  It can save you a lot of money, if things work out right, but it really turned out to be a complete waste of money for me.  Some of the sites were closed because it was off-season, which I knew ahead of time, but because of the state funeral for Vaclav Havel, a former Czech president and national hero, a lot of other stuff, and especially the stuff I really wanted to see, was closed.  As it is, I have a very expensive souvenir for my scrapbook.  If you want to see the stuff you can normally get into with the card, including pictures and brief descriptions of the sites, you can go to the official Prague Card website here.

When I flew into Prague, there was snow on the ground.  And it smelled like snow.  And it there was more snow predicted for the weekend.  We didn't get any snow and, on Saturday and Sunday, the temperature was about 33 degrees and it sleeted.  But the snow hopes were nice while they lasted.

It was funny how different things are, so close to the Netherlands (it was only a one hour flight).  I only saw one bike shop the whole time I was there.  I saw this, as well, which you would never see in the Netherlands, which forbids biking in a park.  Also: weirdest looking bike ever.

Also there are hills and mountains in the Czech Republic  Everything was in Czech, of course, but a lot of advertisements, television, and the occasional instruction where in German.  One funny thing I saw was that in German McDonald's they now sell some special premium sandwiches, including a chicken and Camembert sandwich.  In the advertisement, the gooshy cheese is oozing all over the sandwich.  You can see a picture of it, here.  If you go here, you can watch the commercials (which are kind of entertaining).  From what I gather, there is a fancy chef who keeps astounding the McDonald's guy with the amazing new recipes he is creating for the store.  The Camembert chicken ad is labeled "Teil 3".  The video labeled "Teil 1" advertises the "Big Rosti" which is a hamburger, chicken, bacon, cheese, and cheese sauce on one sandwich.

There were a lot of police.  It could have just been because of the Christmas Markets or it could have been because of the funeral, but there was just a huge police presence.  I alternated between figuring that at least there would be someone within call if there were problems and wondering why on earth they needed that many police.  I watched some "Alaska State Troopers" a little while ago and, from what I remember of those stories, they policed giant snow mobile events while outnumbered 1 to 1,000,000 and people hardly ever died.  I am left with the impression that, either, folks in Alaska are more honest or their criminals are less effective.  To be honest, though, Prague would be an easy city to be a pick-pocket in.  It is a ridiculously beautiful city and you find yourself walking around staring up at the buildings and the sights and forgetting to watch out for your bags.

If you go here you can look at the Google map which I put together with all of the places I wanted to see.  If you click on the name of the site, or the little blue balloon, you can usually zoom in or see the street view of the area.

To get into the city, I took a bus from the airport to the metro, and then took the metro into the city.  When I got off the metro, I couldn't figure out where I was exactly.  But, since I wasn't in a hurry, I decided to just look around and see what was going on.  I walked down a couple of streets and then turned a corner and had to stop to let two horse-drawn carriages go past.

  Then I walked to the edge of a square and was right in the middle of a Christmas Market.  It was ridiculous.  This was my first view of Prague's Old Square and I think this was when I knew that I was going to have a ridiculously good time.