Happy Halloween - Last Full Day in Prague

Communist Museum

The weather was nice today - clear but cold. It was about 40 and thank goodness I brought a thermal! I ventured out looking for the Communist Museum and boy was it hard to find. It took me a good 30 minutes to find it as it's located next to and above a McDonald's and a casino... irony. I circled the block a few times and for the sake of my colleague Pantea, I stopped to have some Czech street food. I had a grilled pork sausage on a baguette for 60 koruna (~3.30 USD) and it wasn't bad. I wish it had been a little hotter (temp wise) but it had good flavor.

Street sausage

The Communist Museum was pretty cool. They traced the history of Communism in Czechoslovakia from WW1 up to the Velvet Revolution in 1989. My favorite part of the museum was the video of the events before and after the Velvet Revolution. It's pretty cool to see some the of the same streets who are now full of tourists occupied back then by police and protesters.

My last dinner in Prague is going to be the national dish of the Czech Republic - roast pork, dumplings, cabbage and of course pivo (beer).

Below are some photos of the day:

The Interrogation Room

Communist Coca-Cola?

Replica of Communist Era grocery store

A few shots from my walk

Wednesday, October 30th

Another Walking Day

Today was a bit gray and cold in the morning - in fact, the clouds were quite dark and it looked like rain but it never really came down. I walked through the Jewish Quarter around lunch looking for a nice place to eat but nothing really struck my fancy. The food and beer prices in some of the tourist spots can be very inflated when compared to restaurants in close proximity. For example, I met a new friend (the ex-pat tour guide) for a couple of beers at a local bar this evening. We paid ~ 34 Czech Koruna (1.78 USD) for a 1/2 liter of beer but the bar next door charges ~78 Czech Koruna for the same beer... In fact, as you get closer to the major squares you'll probably pay closer to ~85 Czech Koruna. It's a no brainer. It would have been a great museum day but the National Museum is closed until 2014 for renovation. Tomorrow, I'm thinking the Communist Museum might be the way to go. I read Rick Steve's description of the Velvet Revolution in a guide book at the apartment and I'm very interested in seeing Czechoslovakia back in the days of the Iron Curtain. 

For my colleagues who wonder why I'm not eating Czech food for every meal :-), as an international city, you should be able to find good food regardless of the cuisine. Regardless, I'll have my final dinner in Prague at a traditional Czech restaurant.

Below are a couple photos of today's walk.

The Astronomical Clock

View from my lunch spot

Another view from my lunch spot

Side note: my friend Greg who lives here now used to be a dive instructor at a fancy resort in Malaysia for almost ten years. He was showing me some underwater photos on his iPad Mini of the marine life he encountered during his time in Malaysia and I think diving might be my next adventure. The photos were incredible!

Photos from other days:

Cesky Krumlov

Old Town Square

View from National Museum down Vaclavske Nameste

Cold War Era Building

By the way - RIP....

Gastronomy Adventure: The Quest for Pho and Mexican Food in Prague

Pho in Praha

Czech cuisine can be quite heavy and with the weather being colder today (vs the rest of the week), soup sounded like a great idea. I "googled" pho and came up with Tuan Lan Pho Vietnam. Believe it or not, the Vietnamese community is the third largest ethnic community in the Czech Republic. Many Vietnamese came to Czechoslovakia during the communist period as guest workers invited by the communist government. Therefore, I figured the Pho might not be too bad and it wasn't. Unfortunately, the pho came in beef or chicken - no beef balls, tripe, tendon or rare steak but the broth and noodles were quite good. The bowl of soup cost 99 czech crowns (~ 5.50 USD). The restaurant was about a 50 minute walk one way and I got to see a lot of the non-tourist section of the city. I'm fascinated by the huge apartment buildings many of which date back to the late 1800's / 1900's. I can only imagine the lives of the people who have lived in those apartments over the past 100+ years.Pho in Prague

National Museum

Apartment buildings in Prague

Vietnamese restaurant

Old Pepsi advertisement

Mexican Food in Praha

For dinner I decided on Mexican food and the food was not bad. I had an Al Pastor "burrito" - it was more like a quesadilla suiza than a burrito. I did enjoy the beans, guacamole, nopales and salsa on the side. I would have enjoyed it more had they been inside the tortilla. The bartenders and servers all spoke Czech, English and Spanish so I was quite at home. Las Adelitas

Bar at Las Adelitas

Get Lost Day and Food & Beer Tour

Monday, October 28th

I decided today would be "get lost day" - to me, that means walking with no particular place to go - if the street looks interesting, I explore it. Today, I found the closest Starbucks to the apartment, the American Embassy, the British Embassy and a few of the restaurants on my wish list. I also walked across the famous St. Charles Bridge. That has got to be one crowded bridge - even more crowded than London Bridge! Unfortunately, I took my regular camera and I'm unable to transfer the photos to my laptop as I only brought a mini-usb cable for my phone and tablet. Bummer... I did stock up on supplies like fruit, lite cheese, bread, beer and turkey. I had lunch at a restaurant near the apartment called Lokal. The meal was definitely not low-cal but it was delicious. I had a potato soup with some beef and bread dumplings in a sauce. It was quite good and will sustain the vast amount of walking I did today. Curious to see what the FitBit reads for the number of steps I took today. It was supposed to rain today but the weather was awesome. Additionally, I think it was Czech Independence Day so they had some cannons go off around noon.

Later this evening, I have a "small group" food and beer tour. I will definitely take some photos with the phone. Na shiedanou (NAHSH-leh-dah-noh) until later!

Small Group Food and Beer Tour

The tour group was very small: a couple from NY, myself and two guides (one was a guide in training). We went to a couple of small restaurants and sampled a few beers and ate Czech cuisine. The cuisine consisted mainly of bread, cheese and sausages. Of the beers we sampled, I would say the unfiltered Pilsner Urquell was quite good. The company just released the beer about a week ago and you can only find it in a few select pubs. The guide in training is an ex-pat who's been the Czech Republic for about a year with his Czech wife. Prior to that he was a diving instructor in Malaysia for about nine years. He pointed out a number of bars where I could purchase a beer for almost one-third the price I paid at some of the touristy spots. We capped off the evening with a final beer at a restaurant that used to be a hotel back in the 1700's where Mozart is said to have stayed.

Bridge North of the Charles Bridge

View of the Charles Bridge in the early evening

A Street in Old Town

Charles Bridge at night

Weekend Tours

For me, the difficult part of writing a travel blog is deciding what to write and what pictures to show - how do you best convey all of the information / memories of the past two days? Below is a snippet of two very fun and informative days. 

Saturday, Oct 26th - Prague City Tour

The Prague City Tour started at 2PM in Republic Square. Republic Square is a "typical" European square with restaurants, cafes, food booths, etc. We had about ten people in the group from various nationalities and so the tour guide had to repeat everything three times - German, English and Spanish. It was quite amusing for me to hear the different interpretation of the same description in English vs Spanish - some things do get lost in translation. We drove around Prague in a small van through the various cities - Old Town, New Town, Little Quarter and the Castle Quarter. It was a great way for me to get my bearings and from now on anytime I travel to a new locale I'm going to take the city tour on the first day. The highlight of the tour, for me, was Prague Castle and the surrounding area. I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking for me:

View of Prague from the castle

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle Complex

St. Vitus Cathedral

Selfie at Prague Castle

Sidenote: City Tours are a great way to meet other tourists. After the tour, I grabbed a few beers with a fellow traveler at a local Irish Bar. The bar was packed with futbol (soccer fans) watching the Barcelona vs Real Madrid futbol match. We ended up sharing a table with a couple from Barcelona and had a nice dinner after the match. It was quite a group - two Spaniards, a Swiss-German and an American in Prague. It made for a very fun and interesting evening!

Sunday, October 27th - Cesky Krumlov Day Tour

It was tough waking up early to take an all day tour starting at 9AM but the time change made it a bit easier. Cesky Krumlov is a few hours drive from Prague and dates back to the 1300's and consists of an old town and castle with a small river running through the town. The history of the town is quite amazing. Originally it was founded by Celtic Tribes followed by Germanic and Slavic Tribes.The castle has belonged to the Roznberks, the Hapsburgs, the Nazis and it is now managed by the Czech government. The town is full of shops, small hotels and restaurants situated inside a mix of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings with a huge castle. I had a very nice time in this beautiful little town.

The castle tower from below

View from the castle

Me at the castle

My Apartment for the next seven days

"The Charles", as the property management calls it, is built like a fortress. Three doors to get in and each one has to be locked manually by turning the key two times to the left. I feel quite safe! Per the apartment manual, the unit is located in a building that used to be a seminary for Catholics back in the 1500's. It's somewhat small but has all the amenities I need or want: washer/dryer, stove, microwave, sat TV, wifi, dishwasher, fridge for beer, fireplace and well stocked kitchen with a tea pot and french press. It's located a block from one of the metro lines and about the same distance to the St. Charles bridge. I am pleasantly surprised with the accommodations!

Window View