"1000 Spires and 1,000,000 Pints" a Prague Travel Page by finnegan

Prague -
Great town, divided up into five main districts (previously separate, walled cities) plus a few others. The five along the river Vlatava are Hradcany and Mala Strana (the Castle District and the Little Quarter) on the West Bank) and the Stare Mesto, Josefov, and Nove Mesto on the East bank. Other districts worth checking out are Zizkov and Vyshehrad, in the Eastern bit, and Holesovice in the Western bit.
At all pubs, they mark off what you buy with marks on a little white slip of paper, and tally it up at the end. Food also goes on there. NOTE: NEVER PAY MORE THAN 20 CROWNS (kcs) FOR A BEER. And frankly, you can find 15 crown and less in town. If a place charges more, go elsewhere.
Prague taxis are the most dangerous in Europe – take a cab only if you also have a Czech speaker with you, who should sit up front and chat with the driver.
Tipping is uncommon outside of Prague, normally you just round up (so, a 245 kcs bill becomes 250 kcs). In Prague, you might want to tip up to but no more than 10% - but not if a real “authentic” place. There just round up. Otherwise they will hate you – thinking you are showing off what a rich foreigner you are.
Finding accommodation shouldn’t be too hard – one good trick is to go to the main train station (Hlavni Nadrazi) or the Smichov Station (Smichovske Nadrazi) and find one of the many people wandering around with “ubytonvi, unterkunft, accommodation” signs. They’ll rent you a small flat or room for a good rate. Also, the mathematical faculty used to have a dirt cheap hostel just off Wenceslas Square. Maybe still do. Hostels are going to be cheaper than hotels at any rate.
Also – Prague is a fantastic jazz city. Make sure to take in some good jazz, which is everywhere.
Czech is a difficult language – seven cases, which means word ending change depending on their relationship to the other words in the sentence. So, “Praha” is Prague, but you go to (“do”) or from (“od”) “Prahy”, you are in “v” “Praze”, and the adjective form is “Prazske” sometimes. Look for roots, like “prah” and you’ll be okay.
Get a copy of the Prague Post, the English language paper in town (also online –www.praguepost.com) for more up to date where to hang out things than I know (it HAS been 5 years, after all).
Get a good map. Indispensable. Most main places mentioned below can be reached via the Metro (subway). And get the Prague Post.

Note: names below are without the diacritic marks. A rough pronunciation is included. ALL CZECH WORDS HAVE 1ST SYLLABLE ACCENT. The letters “I” and “y” always make a long ee sound. The letter “c” makes a “ts” like in the word “cats”. “J” is like in German, a “y” sound. The letter “r” is always rolled, and “r” and “l” are semi-vowels, which is how you can get words that seem to be all consonants (like “krk”, meaning “throat”). “Z” with the little v over is is “zh” like the soft sound in “pleasure”. “S” with the v is “sh”. “C” with the v is “ch”. “Ch” is like the German “ch” or the “ch” in the Scottish “loch” (to learn it, say the English word “hue”, then put a short “i” in front (like in “it”) so say “i-hue”, the drop the “ue” so you have “ich”, then drop the “i”, so you are left with “ch”, kind of a hissing sound in the back of the mouth). “R” with the little v over it is almost impossible to learn in a short time – a rolled “r” combined with “zh” into a single, short sound.
Crucial words:
Jeden (ye-den)- 1
Dva - 2
Pet (pyet)- 5 (words for 3 and 4 are difficult)
Pivo (pee-vo)-beer
Prosim (pro-seem) – please
Diky (dee-keee) – thanks
Zaplatim (za-pla-teem) – I’d like to pay
Ano (uh-no) – yes (short form slang is “‘no” pron. “noh”)
Ne – no
Namesti (na-mye-stee) – square (as in town square)

Hradcany (Hrad-cha-nee)– The Castle Quarter - easy to find, it’s up the hill where the castle is. Wandering the castle is fun, especially the “Golden Lane” (Zlaty Ulicka – zla-tee oo-lich-ka), where Kafka lived for a spell and a famous Alchemist leap to his death. St. Vitus Cathedral is also amazing. Around there are great views, make sure to see the Old Castle Steps, and up in the square there, towards the Starahov Monastery, there’s a classic Czech pub called….maybe U Cerneho Vole (At the Black Ox) [most pubs will start with that “U” meaning “at”] – they refill your beer automatically unless you put your coaster back in the pile. As you walk down from Hradcany to the Mala Strana, you will most like be on Nerudova Ulice (ulice pron. “oo-lee-tse” = street). There is, I think it’s the Romanian Embassy there, with there well-known statues holding up the doorway – legend has it that if you touch the feet of these statues, you are guaranteed a return to Prague one day.

Mala Strana – The Little Quarter - lots of cool, narrow, twisty alleys. Check out the Valjstejn Zahrady (Wallenstein Gardens) near the Malostranska Metro Station, go to some of the pubs along Ujezd Ulice (I remember a pub that served delicious Platan pivo (beer) for 11 kcs). Go to Kampa Ostrov (Island) and check out the parks and little alleys. There also used to be a place right along the base of the Karluv Most (Charles Bridge) that had the best sunkova rolka (“shoon-koh-va rol-ka”)(ham rolls) – a Bohemian specialty (thin Prague ham rolled around horseradish and whipped cream – delicious!). Above the Mala Strana is Pertin Hill, with a small copy of the Eiffel Tower, and a funicular railway up the hill (catch it on Ujezd).
The Charles Bridge, the one with all the statues and people, connects the Mala Strana to the Stare Mesto.

Stare Mesto (sta-re myes-to)– The Old Town - main thing, apart from the winding streets, is the Staromestske Namesti (Old Town Square), with the Tyn Church, Jan Hus Monument, Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock (worth waiting to chime). Places to hang out around there are pricier, generally, though U Katu (At The Executioner’s), right over behind the town hall a bit, is a good, no nonsense pub. Going down Parziska is nice, and Namesti Republiky has some good stuff around it (including the beautiful Obecni Dum). If you head down Parziska to the river, you’ll see this big red metronome thing. Great view from up there (see Holesovice below). Heading up towards Josefov (The Jewish Quarter), look for The Thirsty Dog (U …something…Pes) – lots of locals and foreigners hang there, and great beer (on the little “Holy Spirit Square” “duch” is spirit or ghost).

Josefov (yo-se-fof) – The Jewish Quarter - small, incredible. While the Nazis destroyed Jewish Ghettos around Europe, they not only preserved this one, but brought Jewish treasures from all over Occupied Europe here. The idea was to make “a living museum to the decadent culture of an extinct race.” Chilling, but lucky for Prague. The famous Golem story comes from here. Check out the Jewish Cemetery – worth the price of admission. Also see the twisty streets.

Nove Mesto (no-ve myes-to)– The New Town – Separated from the Stare Mesto by Na Prikope (meaning “on the moat, which really was a moat once, separating the then separate cities of Stare Mesto and Nove Mesto. Vaclavske Namesti (“va-tslav-ske na-mye-stee) (Wenceslas Square) is the largest in town with lots to see. The Museum at the end is cool, but not really worth actually going inside unless you love that sort of thing (they do have a great bug collection). About halfway down the square (which is really a huge rectangle) go down Vodickova (vo-deech-ko-vah)where, a bit past the McDonald’s, there’s a great, underground wine bar (vinarna). Keep going to Karlovo Namesti (Charles Square), a very nice park with the Faust House at the far end over by the twisted up tree that’s been struck by lightning like 4 times. If you keep heading that direction, to Vysehradska Ulice, you enter Vyshehrad (see below).
Heading behind the Museum (which invading Soviet tanks fired on in 1968 because they thought it was the Parliament), you’ll get near the Metro Station I.P. Pavlova and Café Radost – a joint Czech-American run place that serves a killer breakfast (unheard of there normally) and vegetarian food. Lots of foreigners hang out there. Don’t know if it’s still around, but they used to have Beef Stew, a Sunday evening (6pm?) English-only spoken word thing and great way to meet folks, ex-patriots and the like.
Along the river, you can see the famous Fred and Ginger building, a very odd piece of modern architecture. Further down, towards Vysehrad, there’s my favourite statue – the Titans fighting the Gods. Awesome.

Vysehrad (vee-she-hrad) – This is a bit south up on a hill along the river bank. This is the original castle in the area, where, legend has it, the king’s daughter had a vision of a huge metropolis filling the valley along the river, and Vyshehrad was the threshold. Thus the name for Prague, “Praha” in Czech, which means “threshold”.
Around the bottom of the hill are a series of Cubist villas – Prague has some of the only Cubist architecture in the world. I have heard, however, that these villas were badly damaged by the flood a couple of years ago. Also near there is the big National Cultural Center – a grand Communist built hall for a variety of events, right near a huge overpass bridge that crosses a narrow but deep valley.

Zizkov (zheezh-kov)– Once known as “Red Zizkov” because this is where the 1948 Communist revolution had its staunchest supporters, it is now a great area for bar hopping. Also check out the huge, funky, futuristic TV antenna, easily seen from everywhere in the city, which used to block out radio and TV signals from the West. Near there is another great area around Namesti Jiriho z Podebrod, (na-mye-stee yee-rzhee-ho z poh-dye-brod)(with a very cool modernist church and lots of good drinking and eating spots.

Holesovice (ho-le-sho-vi-tse) – Where the famous Globe Café is – an expatriate owned café/English language used bookstore. Plenty of folks to meet here, though the prices are bit steep. Also, the Praha Vysteviste (vee-shtye-vees-tye) – the Exhibition Grounds, are worth a look. Some good pubs as well, not frequented by tourists.

That’s Prague in a Nutshell – there are plenty more things, but this’ll get you started.