"Prague" Prague by LeeRobertAdams

On a club toilet wall in Prague, I once saw written: "Yo Yo Yo! Harder, faster, mother****er!". Now I've read a lot about the city that once obsessed me, and although it continues its transformation into a gorgeous, shiny world class capital, it still has enough buzz and rough edges to make that line of graffiti about the most apt and concise thing ever written about it.

During my time in Prague, I’ve been attacked by dogs, fallen head-first down Metro escalators. I’ve been robbed, chased by pimps, ambushed, barricaded and intimidated. I’ve walked silently through Olsany’s garden of the dead, turned my collar against the first hush of snow, adjusted my balance to the esoteric tilt of her streets.

I’ve cavorted and I’ve capitulated, written hatchet jobs and conjured fables where fact becomes indistinguishable from fiction. I’ve got spliffed up on Charles Bridge and partied with the riot of statues on Krizovnicke Namesti. I’ve dreamt of flight and found myself walking the streets of this city, where dreams are as common as dog turds on the pavements of Zizkov, and harder to keep hold of than Leprechaun gold.

I’ve been offered women, drugs, counterfeit currency, uranium and monkeys by the connivers of a dozen Prague dives, and swapped beers and mutually misunderstood oaths with the denizens of a dozen more. I’ve even done battle with a Gypsy curse I picked up in Romania and left in Prague to greet me every time I got off the plane, one that threatened to bring the saints and cherubs of this hallowed, haunted city down on my head.

• Pros:Stunningly beautiful, great bars & restaurants, always something going on.
• Cons:Tourists, prices rising, and can be a little seedy at night.