I am writing this blog because I have never been to Prague before, while Matt has been here three times. I am not sure that I will have anything more interesting to say...but here goes nothing.

In Prague we stayed with Stano, whom Matt met at school during his Rotary exchange to Slovakia. The city itself is stunning apart from the smell emitted from the neighbouring apartment and the odd communist-style building. I think it is considered the most beautiful city in the world because it has no central CBD with massive skyscrapers that would block the view. In the centre of Prague new buildings are built to blend into the old architechture. From the top of the Petřínská rozhledna we could see all of Prague. There are two also castles in Prague where you can get a great view of the city: Pražský Hrad and Vyšehrad.

I know, I know, tiny photo. However, it gives you an idea of what the city looks like and you can click on it to see a larger photo.

We spent one morning at Pražský Hrad to see the famous St. Vitus Cathedral, or Katedrála svatého Víta, and its stained glass. The stained glassed windows are large, intricate and generally have one dominant colour (i.e. mostly reds, purples or blues). One of the panels was painted, which looked really cool and I wish I knew how they did it. The gargoyles on the outside were still intact and imposing. It is the most beautiful cathedral I have seen so far.

Exterior of Katedrála svatého Víta.

After wondering around the city and making our way through the crowds ambling over the Karlově mostě we spent the afternoon walking around Vyšehrad and its extensive gardens. Within it is situated the oldest cemetary in Prague and it is still used by the rich and famous. We also saw a few medieval societies - why is it that they look similar to the ones at UWA? Do you have to look a certain way to be in a medieval society? Nerds unite? They had some sweet looking swords though.

One Statue in the Gardens of Vyšehrad.

Prague is also relatively cheap, though some things are definetely cheaper than others - like beer! A 0.5L beer is usually 30CKK, coke is more and orange juice or water can be double the price. No wonder everyone drinks so much beer here. So yes, it is cheaper than at home and you can buy beer from the supermarket like most of Europe. Sweden is the exception to this with their government run bottleshops and high alcohol taxes (the price is similar to Australia).

We spent most of our time in Prague eating out because it is cheap. The portions here are huge and we are sure to gain some weight even though we are ordering salads and buying fruit. During our stay we tried dumplings, duck, red cabbage salad, bryndza, goulash and fried cheese. Stano knows some great places that included:

• The Pub, a franchise that has good Czech food and beer taps at your table;
• A good mexican place where I had a yummy chilli chicken burger;
• A Pakistani place with hot vindaloo (real hot food is rare here);
• A Slovak place that had good Halušky.

Halušky with bryndza and sausage.

Besides from trying new foods we caught up with some of Matt's friends. We met Petra (one of Matt's host sisters) for lunch, hunted for my new hiking shoes and then she introduced us to a summer beer garden in the park near her home. In this area of town there is a TV tower that has been decorated by David Černý, a local artist, with statues of babies. We never managed to see these freaky things, but we did see another statue of his called Piss.

"Piss"

We also spent a lot of time with Caroline, who just moved to Prague from Vienna. Matt has blogged about the sightseeing road-trip we took. In Prague we visited her IBM office because we are all such sticky-beaks and helped her put together some IKEA furniture for her new apartment. For payment she gave us cakes, cookies, chips, nuts and wine. Sounded like a good deal to me!

The day we left Praha for Vienna we had 220CKK (~$15) and decided to blow the money on breakfast and lunch, which we bought before we arrived at Hlavní nádraží (Praha's main train station). At the station we sat in Burger King drinking beer and coke to kill the time and I though, "Shit, I could sure use a burger". Hoping for the best, I approached the counter with 63CKK. We discussed my burger options and I walked away with three cheeseburgers for 60CK ($4). Cheeseburgers have never tasted so good.

Location