Around the World with Hardy(T)Around the World with Hardy(T)Make no mistake - Prague is the total P-A-R-T-Y capital of Europe. Beer halls, bars and clubs that never seem to close, excellent local beers at incredibly low prices and all-night, cheap public transport. Oh, and there are a few touristy things you should probably take a look at too...
Don't believe
any of the nightmare stories about Prague station being a dodgy place to
arrive at. The friendly people at the AVE office soon fix me up with a bed
at an excellent hostel, the name of which escapes me, out near the Dejvicka
Metro station. It's only 200 kc (about £5) a night and they have a
24-hour bar selling beers at 10kc a go!
There are a couple of things to remember about travelling alone. Firstly, you are never alone when you travel alone. Secondly, if you sit in a bar for long enough waiting for something to happen, sure enough, something will eventually happen. Thus it is that I meet some of my favourite people of all my year-long travels. For some reason, the hostel is full of Irish travellers, including Karen, a fiery red-head, the unfortunately named Fuchna (yes, that is how you pronounce it) and Mad Michael McGrath, possibly the only person in the entire universe with a greater memory than myself for Smiths' lyrics whilst in a drunken stupor. Our first night out in Prague entails visits to the excellent Marquis de Sade jazz bar and the Chapeau Rouge all-nighter. The first rule of drinking in Prague is that if you are too drunk to work out how to catch the night tram, then the best thing you can do is go back to the bar and keep drinking til the Metro starts. Following this rule, we staggered back to the hostel at 5am, only to avail ourselves of the drinking facilities offered back at the hostel.
There is, of course, more to Prague than nightlife, although I must say, because of the huge crowds that throng the streets of the Czech capital, sight-seeing is considerably easier at 4am. However, let's take a look at a few of the tourist highlights...
The castle area (Hradcany) is excellent. Firstly there's the really impressive St Vitus' Cathedral. Believe me, it takes a lot for me to admit that a place of worship is even "quite good" but this one has huge Gothic spires, fantastic gargoyles carved into the walls and incredible stained glass windows. The whole castle area is a maze of cobbled streets and historic houses, most of which (it is claimed, at least) have been lived in by Franz Kafka. He must have got about a bit. The Old Royal Palace is in this area too, as is the National Gallery and the rather good Loreta Palace. The whole area overlooks downtown Prague and affords excellent views of the river and the historic city.
Down below in the city, first stop is
the Karlov Most (Charles Bridge) which featured in some little known B-grade
movie starring a guy named Tom Cruise. If it weren't for the hordes of tourists,
this would be a little gem of a place. As it is, it's just a seething mass
of bodies, interrupted by the occasional street performer or artist. There's
a pretty good tower on the bridge where you can momentarily escape the crowds
and catch a good view of the city and the castle. Heading into town from
the bridge, you pretty soon get to Starometská Square. This would
probably have been quite a nice place to hang out four centuries ago, but
now it's on the well-beaten tourist trail. Even the much-lauded fifteenth
century horologe is a real let-down. From Starometská, Václavské
námestí runs past a clutch of Prague's most exclusive shops
and also all of its Macdonalds and Pizza Huts, up to the famous statue of
King Wenceslas (Václav). One can only take so much of being an emmet.
(Note for cyber-travellers: There's an internet cafe on
Štepánská, off Václavské námestí,
about halfway up)
It's almost possible to escape the crowds down in the Jewish Ghetto area just north of Starometská. Unfortunately the respectfully sombre mood of the queue to get into the Jewish Cemetery is shattered when an Australian tourist suddenly shouts out, "Look! There's Alex out of Home and Away!" One of the few occasions on my travels when I openly admit to being English. The Jewish Museum and Cemetery are really good. Unfortunately you can't get to Kafka's grave - unless you read Hebrew you wouldn't know which one it was anyway and, besides, the actual graveyard area is roped off. Ho hum.
The only other
place I find in Prague where there aren't too may tourists is the Vysehrad
area, over the river and to the west of the old city. You can get the funicular
railway to the top of the cliff and look out over the city. Then you head
through the park to the Ruzový Sad tower. It's quite an old tower,
constructed, in fact, well before the days when lifts were invented, so
it's a fair old climb to the top. However, it's worth it, since, from the
top you can see not only the whole of Prague, but three major sports
stadia! The most obvious one, because it's right under your nose, is the
phenomenal former army stadium which, at one time, had a capacity of 220,000
(yes, that's the MCG plus Wembley, plus Old Trafford) and
was used almost exclusively for gymnastics! Can you believe it? Way out
to the northeast is the Spartakíadní Stadíon, home
of the Czech Republic's most successful soccer club, Sparta
Praha, whilst to the northwest, very near to the hostel, is the Julika
Stadíon, home of Sparta's arch-rivals, Dukla
Praha. It's also a very pleasant walk, back through the old military
barracks and the Hradcany area, to the hostel.
Now, back to the drinking!
(More drinking takes place on page 2...)