Prague

Eastern Europe has never failed to mesmerise. That is why when I booked the flight to Prague two months ago, I knew I would be in for something special.

Being in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, was like a pilgrimage back into history - how I used to know this country as Czechoslovakia when I was in secondary one, before it became two separate countries; the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was once a communist state. Like Krakow and Budapest, the appearance of its public transportation system bears a passing resemblance to a communist country that it once was two decades ago.

Airport bus

I was quite impressed when the plane landed safely at the airport in the midst of thick and heavy snowfall. Coming from London, 5cm of snowfall could easily shut airports and train stations. So this was absolutely impressive. Which made me think that the case for the UK was not an issue of learning from the best, but from the rest.

Welcome to Prague

The many interesting shapes of snow

Noris came too. We were quite nervous when we learned few days before the trip temperatures were going as low as -14deg C. I guess we were fortunate that the temperatures averaged at -4deg C daily with the lowest at -9deg C.

With Noris at Prague Castle

There were lots of snow on the pathways. The snow has become ice making the pathways difficult and dangerous for walking. However, the air was fairly stable, so it didn't have the chill factor like in London. Still, the cold cuts through the layers of clothes I wore. That was when I followed my mom's advise of putting on a pair of long johns. I used the Adidas running tights instead since that was all I had.

Old Town Square

Night view

The Czech population is fairly homogeneous. So we did stand out when we were there - what more Noris wore a striking red coat too! What I do like about Prague is that, language is not a barrier here as it was in Krakow and Budapest. Most Czechs were able to speak English. However, I struggled to pronounce some of the names when I needed to ask for directions e.g words like "strc", "skrz" or "svejk". Apparently, they are pronounced as they are spelt!

Inside Hard Rock Cafe

I can live with Czech food easily. They serve lots of meat, pork especially, Noris' favourite. Just joking. However, we abstained from eating pork but had beef, duck, rabbit and fish instead. One of the interesting things I learned about Czech cuisine is that they serve most of the meat dishes with dumplings. These are not the Chinese style meat-filled dumplings but bread dumplings. This is probably what Malaysians would recognise as "pau" cut into slices.

Roasted rabbit in cream and cranberry sauce with bread dumpling, all washed down with a pint of Pilsner

Czech is a beer (Pilsner) drinking nation. A mug of Pilsner cost less than a glass of fresh fruit juice or a bottle of mineral water. It's ridiculous. I had to have a mug for every meal in order to "save" some money from drinking rubbish like coffee or tea. ;) But it wasn't a torture because their Pilsner was light. Apparently, Pilsner is said to be the origin of all types of beer. It was the world's first golden beer.

Prague was interesting in many ways. For a start, we stayed in a boat hotel (called botel), which was a new experience to me. The botel was docked at the Vlatava River, which was considered central to all tourist spots.

Albatros Botel

Ice sheets dotted the Vlatava River. View from Botel

Other interesting parts of the city include Prague Castle and Charles Bridge. Both of them were Prague's icons. The snow provided an interesting visual effect to these spots as they looked white as snow, quite literally!

View of Charles Bridge and Prague Castle at dusk

St Vitus Cathedral, Prague Castle

One of the guards at Prague Castle

One of the statues in Charles Bridge and Prague Castle in background

View from Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge is a unique pedestrian bridge graced by 30 statues dating from the 18th century. It was the only bridge in Prague until mid 1800s. However, there was one thing that I didn't like about this bridge. The public space on the eastern embankment. To cross the bridge from the east, one has to cross a busy road running perpendicular to the direction of the bridge. It was a killjoy and an anti-climax as the journey to the majestic bridge was disrupted by the passing of vehicles.

Charles Bridge

When I told my mom about my planned trip to Prague, she recommended me a Carmelite-order church, called the Church of Our Lady of Victory. Based on the stories she told, I stopped by to find out about the church and got her a souvenir. I attended Sunday mass at the church too. She was right, it's quite well-known among the international Catholic community as I found out when they celebrated mass in English for a large English-speaking community.

Church of Our Lady of Victory

Prague is a lot bigger and more modern than Budapest and Krakow. However, three days was enough to cover a large part of the city even with the snow and slippery footpaths slowing us down. In fact, we ran out of places to see on the third day. So we took the metro and trams to explore the rustic part of the city. It was when we were out of the city that we realised there are actually young people in Prague. Otherwise, Prague as we thought, was a geriatric city.



After traveling to the three major Eastern European cities, this is how I would rate my experience in top three positions:

Food: (1) Budapest, (2) Prague, (3) Krakow
Scenery: (1) Budapest, (2) Prague, (3) Krakow
History: (1) Krakow (Auschwitz), (2) Budapest, (3) Prague
Value: (1) Krakow, (2) Prague, (3) Budapest
Overall: (1) Krakow, (2) Budapest, (3) Prague