Prague

[May 9-15]

This trip has spawned countless recurring jokes. When you spend almost every minute of every day with someone, it's easy to run out of things to talk about, so repeated jokes offer the same sort of brain-numb amusement as a Simpson's rerun you've seen five times. One of them is the "You should have been here ten years ago" line, occasionally spouted by travelers who think that the places you're visiting now have been "ruined by tourists" long ago, and that you should have been there when is was "more real."

Prague is one place for which this sentiment has become a mantra of travelers and travel writers alike. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the city's been reintroduced to the tourist circuit as "The Paris of the East," and the resurgence of the tourist industry has commercialized much of the old city's charm.


The crowds on Prague's Charles Bridge

Another favorite joke is the re-branded nicknaming of destinations as the such-and-such of some locale. Without setting foot in Italy this year, we've already visited the Venice of India (Alleppey), the Venice of the East (Bangkok), and the Venice of the North (Amsterdam). According to this site, there are many more Venices waiting to be discovered.

The crowds keep growing. Some attractions drew bigger crowds than any other destination on our trip, and that's not even in high season. The biggest sight of them all, the St. Vitus Cathedral, accidentally captured in the background of the above pic, was so busy that we decided to skip it altogether. Still, Prague isn't a one-trick pony -- it's a national capital and a major business hub for Eastern Europe. While it's true that the big sights are swarmed in the summers, the city has much more on offer.


Deserted streets, just a couple minutes east of St. Vitus

So if we weren't busy bagging the big sights, what were we doing for our six days in town? First off, our pals Katie Frey and Bryn Perkins have made Prague their home for the past few years, and our visit was as much about seeing them as seeing the city. They were kind enough to let us crash in a spare room at their offices, the international headquarters of Monitor CE and The Prague Daily Monitor. Last time we saw these two in Seattle, we were casually throwing the disc around in a park, so seeing them in their professional demeanor caught us a bit off guard.


Dean, Marita, Katie, and Bryn -- in bad lighting

Luckily, Katie was able to take a little time off and show us the town. One of the best walks was through the Old Town, where each winding alley seemed to lead either to a square surrounded by ancient spires, or to another ice cream shop. We also visited the museum of Jara Cimrman, the fictional "Genius, Who Has Not Become Famous," of the Czech Republic. A huge oeuvre of work has been attributed to Cimrman, including the idea for the Panama Canal and the training of a dancing tortoise, making for a hugely amusing museum experience. A very creative site about him exists in Czech.


Old Town

Prague is also home to some interesting sights that don't often show up on postcards, such as the longest escalator in Europe, lifting passengers from the Prague Metro 100 meters from the Soviet-era tunnels below ground. Another sight visible from Katie and Bryn's apartment is a radio tower built to jam radio and television transmissions from the west during the Cold War. At some point it was decorated by a rebellious artist, who placed sculpted babies crawling up and down its pillars. Go figure.


100 meters of people-mover

Other than sightseeing, we spent our time updating your favorite travel blog, playing disc golf, and eating a range of excellent dishes. A local restaurant, Husa, was a favorite of ours, and the local beers -- Staropramen, Pilsner Urquell, and the legendary Budvar Budweiser among them -- did wonders for our thirst. Katie also demonstrated her considerable skills in the kitchen, whipping up a series of delicious meals around which our little expat community could converse about the wonders of the world. One of these meals also ended with a measurement of exactly how many milliliters of beer an upside-down 175-gram Ultra-Star frisbee could hold. A: Unless you've done this before, more than you think.


Bryn carries a full frisbee very carefully to the sink

We left Prague for Cesky Krumlov, but passed through town once more on our way to Budapest. During that stop, we ate some terrible sausage with mustard and visited the Mucha museum. Prague is known for its Art Nouveau architecture and art, and Alphonse Mucha is the city's darling, creating everything from posters to stained glass to paintings. The exhibits and video were fascinating, and the museum provided ample opportunity to empty our wallets. Curse our tiny backpacks! Still, it's not like we had much money to spend -- once we emptied our pockets in search of change to pay for bag storage and tram tickets to the train station, we discovered that we had only about a dime in Czech currency to keep us afloat. Talk about cutting it close!


Good thing we had some money to spare

Thanks, Katie and Bryn, for a great time in Prague!

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The signal-jamming tower in Prague