2010 Trip: Prague Day 1
24th May 2010
Today, after a rather extensive breakfast at the hostel, I headed out to experience the wonders of Prague. I caught the tram to Wencelas Square, right in the centre of New Town.
Prague is confusingly divided into 23 districts, but no one uses that system, except for official purposes. It used to be divided into 10 different districts and most people still use this definition, even most of the street signs use it. To be even more confusing there are also sets of named suburbs on top of the district names and finally the inner city is divided into three parts: the Old Town, the New Town, and the Lesser Town.
From here I wandered the streets admiring the sights. My first port of call was the Museum of Communism, a well marketed and very interesting little museum on Czechoslovakia under the Iron Curtain (though it is a little worse for wear). They had well written information on lots of interesting topics, but some of the exhibits were a little passé. They had a few awesome things, including a very good set of propaganda posters, showing the clichéd examples of men and women staring up at the hammer and sickle. They also had an interesting video of the Czech anti-communist demonstrations in 1989. Finally, the way they advertised the museum was rather cool, one example was a picture of a babushka doll (the doll containing a doll, containing a doll…) with big sharp pointy teeth.
After this, I headed in the direction of Old Town, passing through the Powder Gate, a dark Gothic tower on the old edge of the city. I wandered through the narrow streets, towards the central square, towards the music. The night before, as I already knew, the Czechs had won the world ice hockey championship. They were pretty stoked, hence the music. I stayed around for a few hours watching the crowds gather, listening to a couple of cover bands mainly playing classic American rock anthems, though the occasional Czech song did get played. I ate langose (a deep fried pancake, covered with garlic, tomato sauce, and cheese) and joined the crowd for a beer. When the team actually arrived home (for it was not just a random celebration) and came to the square, the crowd went pretty apeshit (one of my new favourite phrases) in congratulations.
While I was there, I also went up the tower in the centre of the square (Staroměstská radnice). It had a great view over the city, particularly the impressive buildings surrounding the square.
After the event had started to draw to a close, I wandered around the old city, admiring the old buildings. At about 5pm it started raining and I headed back towards Wencelas square (named after the first Czech king).
At 5:30pm, I met Lenka, the Czech girl I had met in Budapest, and we headed to a local institution - a cafe in an arcade off the square where we drank proper black tea with honey. We chatted and listened to the live piano music. Of particular note, just outside the cafe is the most awesome of bronze sculptures, an upside down horse, hanging from the ceiling with a rider on its belly. Very surreal.
As the rain, lightning, and thunder refused to give up, we headed to the cinema and watched Kick Ass, with Czech subtitles (by the way, if you haven’t seen it, it is well worth it! - the subtitles are of course mandatory). By the time it was finished, it was late and we decided to meet up tomorrow morning to explore Castle Hill. I caught the tram back to the hostel and that was that.