Viva Praha!

  Prague, Hlavní Mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Saturday, August 15, 2009

So yesterday I handed in the thesis that has been torturing me for the last 4 months, and officially completed my MSc and my time in Loughborough (providing I pass of course...). Befittingly for the state of the town, I conspired to leave as soon as possible, and after a fun day of trying to stuff everything into my ickle green box car I made it home at 12.30 am, needing to unpack and repack in time for the next morning's flight to Prague from Liverpool airport.

Pretty much every second person I spoke to about it seemed to have been to Prague already... they all said it was beautiful and I'd love it. I had no idea what was coming - too busy writing the blasted dissertation to research anything. It was actually really good that way though, no expectations. Anyway, the first thing was that it was hotttttttt, not entirely unexpected, but hotter than I thought... definitely a good thing. Well, maybe not when you're carting bags around on public transport. The system there was really really good - bus into town, then metro, then a tram to the hostel, and we didn't have to wait more than 2 minutes for any form of transport, any day we were there.

The best thing about the transport systems are the ample opportunities they provide for people watching. In Eastern Europe this specifically refers to mullet watch. Immediately on the metro there was an undisputed champion - stringy brown mullet, thick tash, cut off jean shorts, high socks and boots, and uber camp pose. But they were everywhere, it was like living in Eurotrash... brilliant :D

Anyway, we found our hotel about 90 mins after landing. I really enjoyed it - it was modern, a little futuristic almost. Everything in black and white, nice and simple, it even had giant pillows, and CNN with repeated adverts for holidays to Angola... alas Mum failed to be convinced. There was a brief turnaround before we hopped on the tram back into town, and took a little wander round, first to the Old Town Square...



The whole place was absolutely heaving, it was almost an uncomfortable amount of people, everywhere you went - the complete opposite of England, where people actively avoid leaving their houses to walk round the centre of town in the evenings because its:
A) Too cold
B) Too dangerous
C) Nothing to do

We then walked down by the river - looking out onto the infamous Charles Bridge. Everyone was right, it was ridiculously beautiful. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant on the street leading onto the Charles Bridge - again, great for people watching, and lovely to sit out in the warm weather. We got a couple of cocktails, some warm bread and garlic butter and then I ordered a vegetarian pizza, which was pretty good.



As the sun was setting we walked across the Charles Bridge, taking in the chilled summer atmosphere.





Most things were lit up at night, all the streets were busy, people sitting outside chatting, and virtually no sign of drunken Brits, despite all the stag do hype! We went for a couple more drinks at an Irish Pub... "happy hour", and then entertained ourselves by watching others try hardily to climb a nearby giant chair. Then when they moved on and we finished our drinks, we readily did the same ourselves... fun and games :)