Before we get carried away with everything that Prague has to offer, we would like to take a moment to thank our most gracious hosts for making our Prague expericence unforgettable. Not only did they hook us up with the most unbelievable apartment overlooking the city (minutes from the famous Prague Castle), they also left us with a fridge full of food, tram tickets, a cell phone, got us wasted the night before they left and fed us yummy home made deserts. On top of all that, they connected us with two brothers from a different mother :). THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS!!!!!
Prague is a perfect example of an ex-communist eastern european city making a smooth transition into western europe. If the EU was to write a ``how to`` manual, in our opinion, Prague should be the role model. Please note that this is looking at the Czech Republic from an outsiders point of view based on a short stay in one city, so the Czech people might completely disagree. But they would have to be crazy to.
Prague`s old architectual beauty is juxtaposed with its new ultra-morden self. Anything you would want and are accustomed to you can find in Prague, and then some. From Tony & Guy hairsalon, all brands and clothing labels, to grocerry stores filled with fruits and vegetables Canada has never seen. The city has gotten rid of all its old school analog antenas and has gone full on HDTV digital. In addition to that, the thing that blew our mind, coming from a city with a pathetic and archaic transit system, is that you can get up to minute transit information (arrival, departure of any tram/bus in the city anywhere on any line via internet) which is to the minute 99% accurate. For example, we looked up how to get from the apartment to the train station and were provided with detailed instructions on which tram to board, at various departure times from our stop to get us to the train station at the desired arrival time, with changeovers, including minutes needed to walk from stop to stop or enter the metro. Unbelievable!
In all this modenization, however, Prague has not lost its historic charm of cobble stone covered roads and old gothic and baroque buildings. We spent almost all of our days walking the streets and snapping hundreds of pictures (to give you an idea, a walk from the apartment to the lower part of the castle should normally take about 45min - 1 hour and it took us at least several hours each day). The rest of the time was spent chilling with ``the brothers``.
 |
| Staromestske nam square |
 |
| The Dancing Building, Prague |
We don`t want to bore you with a list of all the stuff to see in Prague as that`s what Google and The Lonely Plant are for, but we do want to mention a cool building designed by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunic called the Dancing building after Astaire and Rogers. Pretty cool.
Our stay included a chill night with the two brothers with a fantastic view of the city and a Seinfeld marathon and a little Prague nightlife with one of the greatest Czech directors of our time. Very cool maaaaan. Great views of the city, some communist cola, Austrian tourists, lots and lots of laughs, great Czech food and a happening club later made for a fantastic night. And who can forget the Hawaiian Czech cellar :). Just awesome. Can`t wait for more good times and gentlemen thank you very much for your hospitality!!
We`d like to point out, again, that Czech (well, the written language) is really similar to Serbian. We were amazed at how much we could understand walking around ... but when it came to spoken Czech, we were pretty clueless. We`re still convinced they`re in-the-closet Serbs and they`re just trying to isolate themselves from us.
Here are a few pics and a link to more pictures:
http://photobucket.com/SM_Prague2010 (password: praha).
Talk to you again soon,
S&M
 |
| Obecol dom, next to the Powder Gate |
 |
| Powder Gate |
 |
| Hram Svetog Vito, by Prague Castle |
 |
| Krativ Most |
No comments:
Post a Comment