Praha (Prague) Aug 2, 2011

My brother-in-law is going to Prague for the first time later this month, to do a bit of work for his company. It’s his first trip to Eastern Europe. This post is for him.

In August 2011, I had a travel layover in Prague. While the layover has mostly gone the way of the telegraph, the hatbox and the white cotton glove, it still exists, especially when you are trying to get from one out-of-the-way place to another out-of-the-way place. Trying to get to/from the US to Riga, Latvia, one often encounters a layover.

Since I was spending a long afternoon in Prague, my Latvian pal Marija (aka @Swiluma) who used to live in Prague, told me where to go eat in the city.

Knowing that I hadn’t been in Prague in over a decade, she sent me on a bus from the airport to the Dejvická metro station (metro line A – green line). Then told me to go 4 stops until Můstek. This is what the stop looks like:

At the metro station, she told me to look for the exit mentioning Stavovské divadlo.

“This will directly lead you to the street, called Provaznická. Just after the exit slightly on right there is a pub Restaurace U Provaznice.”

Alas, the Můstek station is HUGE to someone from Austin, Texas who doesn’t take the subway very often. I got so very lost looking for the proper exit.* Once I gave up looking for the right exit and just left the station, I got even more lost.

Luckily, it was a beautiful day and I ended up walking around for hours and taking lots of pictures of people taking pictures in this very pretty area of Prague.

Walking around Prague that afternoon, I took pictures of the Prague tourist attractions, and noted that things seem to have cleaned up in a big way since I was there in 2001.**

After walking in a lot of circles, I finally found the restaurant (and thinking I was hungrier than I was after all that walking) I ordered both the potato soup and the hermelin (cheese) in potato pancakes. As I finished the soup, I thought, “that was the right amount of food.” Then the next course showed up, and I realized that the side pancake that had come with the soup was part of the soup, not the pancake course at all.

Ordering the hermelin in potato pancakes was too much food on top of the soup!

Ah well, that’s a luxury problem. While drinking my Pilsner Urquell, I had the Buster Poindexter song “The worst beer that I’ve ever had.” playing in my head. (Not because I was drinking a bad beer, but because it’s the only song I know that namechecks Pilsner Urquell.)

While eating, I thumbed through an English language tourist guide from the hotel, and found that there was a ghost tour starting fairly soon and nearby, from underneath the most photographed clock tower in all of Prague, maybe in all of the world.

Just underneath this amazing Prague Astronomical Clock is the spot where all of the tour guides of the several competing Ghost tours of Prague try and drum up business among the living.

While I’d already wondered around plenty that day, If you have a free evening in Prague, I’d totally suggest the McGee Ghost Tour (my tour was led by an American who may–or may not–have been named Sean. He’s not listed on the tour guide roster.) I don’t think we bothered any ghosts that night, but I was amused and we finished in time for me to (barely) make the last train back to the subway stop I’d started from.

Ghost tour guide.

Ghost tour guide, an American dude.

*Marija later told me it took her 9 months to get oriented in the Můstek station. “The most difficult place in Prague,” is how she explained the station. Considering that I’ve literally gotten lost in the old part of Riga–without being able to find Dom Square– I thought it was just me. I’ve also gotten totally lost in Tallinn, Estonia, which really doesn’t have much room to get lost in! In other words, if you get me away from an urban grid, I get lost a lot!

**Unlike the last time I was in Prague, I didn’t have my wallet stolen on the way from the airport, ending up with a US Passport issued on Sept 11, 2001. The Czech police seemed to be far more tourist friendly nowadays, even having a van with a map and a place to water your dog in the tourist area I walked around in. I have no clue if they’ve cleaned up the mess they had with cabs in 2001, but overall the city seems much more Western and modern and far less sad and post-Soviet.

Here’s a selection of my pictures from my layover in Prague:

A man pokes a woman with a sword. Why is it never the other way around?

Ye olde Europe.

I didn’t go in, so I have no clue if the patrons are regular or “irregular.”

Ye olde drainspout.

New art in Prague.

Old art in Prague.

Shocker: Not all of the tourists in Prague are there for the art.

“The World Is Full of Kings & Queens Who Blind Your Eyes & Steal Your Dreams.” If you read it out loud, it almost scans. Almost.

Town Hall Square? Clock Tower Square? I bet the locals call it “Tourist Square.”

Inside the clock tower.

Inside the clock tower.

Outside the clock tower, tour guides try and drum up business.

The streets outside the Prague tourist area can be empty after midnight!

The Mariott by the Prague airport was straight out of Logan’s Run!

The death of Amy Winehouse was also news in the Czech republic.

I bet flowers are just as important in the Czeck Republic as they are in Latvia.

Capitalism won. Prague has totally embraced the tourist.

FYI:
Here’s an interesting video of the clock tower reflecting 600 years of Czech history. Pretty, but slightly confusing for someone who doesn’t know much Czech history.

The 600 Years from the macula on Vimeo.