Czech Republic

From Berlin we took the train to Prague... btw, German trains are awesome! They are new, clean, and very comfortable. I wish all the trains we took were this good. Second time around in Prague was a much better experience. The weather cooperated and except for an afternoon shower (during our walking tour of Prague), it was sunny and nice.

Here are some of the places we got to besides the main tourist attractions: the Czech Cubism art museum, the dancing building in New Town, Letna Park, etc.

This is the Dancing building in the newer part of Prague (picture the curved building is the woman leaning against the man, the straight building)

Stairway at the House of Black Madonna where the Czech Cubism Museum is located

The Grand Orient Cafe in the same building... a nice place to get away from the tourist crowds

The John Lennon Imagine Wall

People started to write graffiti on the wall when John Lennon died. The communist government would white wash the walls everyday, but people would fill up the wall again at night. It was a way for people to express their desire for freedom and democracy. Pretty cool story.

We even got a day trip to Karlstejn Castle, a small fairy-tale like castle. It's not a big castle and the town is very small as well so it was a nice leisurely day trip.

View of valley from the castle

Funny sign at the castle right before the entrance

4 short days in Prague and then back to the US for a few weeks before the next phase of our trip. I can't believe the first 2 months is almost over. At least there's still 7 more months of travel ahead of us, otherwise I'd b really depressed.

Here's a map of the places we visited in Czech in case you're like me and had no idea where they were before this trip:

Marianske Lazne is cool, but not easy to get in/out of. Getting to Trebic involved a 1.5 hr bus ride, then a 5+ hr train ride. When we got on the train, the conductor came by and said a bunch of stuff in Czech. I naively thought he said he was going to tell us before our stop came up, but Ashok was worried because he heard the word “bus”. He was right. About 1 hr into the train ride, the conductor came by and told us we had to get off and get on a bus to go to a different train station that turned out to be in a city about an hour away. Apparently this is the season for track maintenance - lucky us. On the brighter side, the Czech countryside is very pretty, with gently rolling hills that's alternately green and gold (barley? wheat? it doesn't matter) so it was a scenic ride.

Trebic is a very small town (even smaller than ML) and is known for one of the best preserved Jewish settlements in Europe (a UNESCO World Heritage site).

Even though it's restored now and looks nice in the picture, it's actually not a pretty history... the Jewish town is wedged in between the river and the rocky hill and therefore everything is squeezed into the small area, and the Christian town is across the river. It's not there anymore, but there used to be a gate that is locked up on weekends and holidays. Sadly, during WWII less than 5% of the Jews survived, and even though it has been restored Jews don't live there any more. We decided to stay overnight in the Jewish quarter to experience what it was like (small quarters, low ceilings). It's so small that we pretty much walked around the area in a couple of hours.

The next day we took the bus to Telc (an hour away), another UNESCO World Heritage Site. This time it's because of the beautiful Romanesque building facades in the main square. Lonely Planet claimed it was the most beautiful square in Czech and I would have to agree.

It's again a very small town and there's not much more than the main square with a chateau on one end, but it's so pretty that it is nice just to stroll around or sit in one of the cafes and relax. In hind sight we should have stayed overnight in Telc and taken a day trip to Trebic but either way glad we got to see both.

Even though there were more places on our list, after a week and a half, we both feel it's time to leave Czech and see some other countries.

We left Prague on Friday, 7/11, which was when the adventure really started. Being a fairly international city, Prague was actully pretty easy to get around. Not so once you leave Prague and go into the smaller towns of Czech. Our first stop outside of Prague is Marianske Lazne (aka Marienbad), on the western side of Czech close to the German border. Ashok had read about it somewhere, but it was not listed in my Eastern European Lonely Planet guide so we had no additional information or map of the town (minor detail)... not good when the bus station is not in town but in an area that looked pretty abandoned. Ashok called the hotel to get directions but the woman only spoke German and Russian... Great! Luckily we had a phrase book (a last minute purchase that has come in very handy) so somehow Ashok was able to find out from a local which tram to take. The tram driver was also very helpful and told us when we got to our stop and even pointed out our hotel. People here are more helpful.... even if they are a bit gruff and you're not sure at first if they're telling you off but then you realize they're actually helping you out.

Marianske Lazne was developed as a spa town for the rich in the late 1800's to take advantage of the surrounding cold mineral springs which, apparently, can cure almost everything. The main part of town still looks as grand as it did back then:

including the nicely landscaped park complete with a singing fountain (it's choreographed to classical music):

and an old-style colonnade

I feel like we've been transported back in time, and should be dressed like Jane Austen characters and stroll around with a parasol and my hand on Ashok's arm except, of course, we would be speaking German, not English.

Unfortunately for us, the weather decided not to cooperate and rained for the next 2 days. We made the best of it and went to the 130 years royal bath house (where supposedly many famous people, incuding King Edward VII went). The place was really cool and we did feel like royalty there.

The second day we took a day trip to nearby Plzen to visit the Pilsner Urquell brewery (home of the original Pilsner beer). Finding the brewery was like an Amazing Race moment (I'll spare you the details) but it all ended well and we got there in time to make the last English tour. Of the brewery tours that I've been on (quite a few by now for some reason.. hmmm), this is one of the better ones because you actually see the real brewery not just a visitor center where the process has been recreated like a theme park. The most interesting part was the underground tunnel where they used to store beer, and still use to let the beer ferment. The fresh, unfiltered beer tasted really good too (sorry ran out of battery on my camera by then but trust me it was good).

Almost a week into the trip and we're starting to adapt to our new lifestyle. The past few days have been somewhat trial and error and of course just adjusting to jetlag, being in a foreign country, etc. One thing that we weren't prepared for is the lack of affordable access to the internet (affordable based on our budget anyway). That's not only affected our ability to check emails and update my blog, but also our ability to research and plan out our trip. We're starting to figure out how to find the cheap internet cafes and how to work it into our schedule so we don't waste the best times of the day on the computer. Other than that, it's been quite easy to get used to not working although it still feels more like a vacation than a 10-month hiatus. I know I had doubts before, but already it's worth all the prep work to be here.

Prague was a great place for us to start the trip. It's got beautiful architecture and because it's surrounded by hills you get great views of the city from lots of places. It's definitely cosmopolitan, but at the same time it's also very chill.... a good break from stressful New York. By NY standards, Prague is not expensive. However, on our budget it is on the pricey side. Not to worry – we are still eating (as much as we love food we would not give that up!)- just not in the finer restaurants. We've still been able to find some good food. Czech food is pretty much all about meat – steak, roast pork (so tender! yum!).... however, after 2 days of just meat and potatoes we managed to find a good vegetarian restaurant that has unique décor. As I get more organized I will post separately the list of places so it's easier to find as reference. Another good thing about Prague is that beer is cheap – only $2.50 for .5liter (approx. 1 pint) – how can you not love that! Some may find this surprising (and my German friends may disagree), but Czechs consume more beer than any other country in the world (source NY Times - the Dannon legal team has drilled it into me to state my source).

The one surprise for us is that people here are not very nice or helpful, especially to tourists. We've had waiters that avoid eye contact and don't want to serve/ seat you (at the U Zlateho Tygra, a traditional Prague pub where President Havel took President Clinton according to Lonely Planet). We've also gotten yelled at by the woman at the train station information booth because we had questions on train times (go figure). Maybe it's because Czech was part of the Eastern block for so long? To be fair, we've run into some very nice and helpful people, but overall I think the Czechs don't like foreigners.

One more funny tidbit – the escalators at the metro stations are extra long and steep, and go at super speed. Let's just say it was not fun for Ashok who has a fear of heights. Even with that, people will just push the strollers onto the escalator... very different from the US where that would not be allowed, or from Japan and Taiwan where the train/airport staff actually followed us because we took our bags down the escalator.

Here are some pictures of us sightseeing around Prague:

View of the Prague Castle (one of the main sights in Prague):

View of Prague from the Castle:

Ashok in front of the Astronomical Clock in Old Town: