MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
DATE: JUNE 21, 2008
PLACE: O’CHE’S BAR, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
Since we were already in Germany, we decided to rent a car and knock Czech Republic and Poland off the list.
Eastern European countries have a high rate of vehicle theft, so you cannot rent a German car in Germany if you are going to countries on the prohibited list (like, say, Czech Republic or Poland). We ended up with an Opel Zafira minivan which we discovered all too late had no air conditioning. Whoops. (More on that during the drive back from Poland.) By American standards it was still a nice, new car, although since I didn’t do any of the driving (haven’t learned to drive stick yet) I can’t speak as to how it handled.
Before driving in Czech Republic you need to buy a sticker (which you can get at any convenience store near the border):
The fine for not buying this was huge.
We also rented a Garmin nuvi (navigation system), which we were told had strong coverage of Eastern Europe (moreso than other brands). It took us to Prague with no problem — that is, until we were inside the city and making our way to the hotel, at which point it had us drive down pedestrian streets (double-whoops) and then suggested we turn left into a wall (a direction which we ignored, unlike some people). The location of the hotel may have had some part in confusing the GPS as it was 50m from the Charles Bridge and situated right in the middle of the tourist district, where the streets are frequently overrun by wandering pedestrians. In the end we parked and decided to walk the last bit of the route to avoid killing any innocent Czechs.
Speaking of driving… if you thought you pay a lot for gas, when was the last time your gas receipt had four digits before the decimal place?
Gas = lots of money
We spent Friday night at the U Zlatého Stromu, which is quite literally at one end of the Charles Bridge.
(Does this chain look familiar?)
U Zlateho Stromu Room Card
The snazzy hotel bathroom
Couldn’t have asked for a better location. The view from the room was fantastic, if you didn’t mind leaning out the window for it:
(I cannot recommend booking hotels through Hotel Reservation Service enough. Awesome picks, every time, every country.)
The man at reception was very nice and spoke English well. (Hey, I’m busy learning German, so my capacity for Czech vocabulary is limited.) We chatted a bit about his feelings on globalization and Czech Republic’s impending adoption of the Euro. (Czech currently uses the koruna; at the time of this visit, 1 koruna = $0.06 USD.) He thought it was a positive step because if larger countries like Germany were adopting the Euro, it must be a better choice. (Selfishly, I prefer pre-Euro European countries because their currencies tend to fare better against the declining U.S. dollar.)
The hotel has a popular bar (there was loud partying outside our window until at least 4am, even though nothing else on the street was open much past midnight) and a 24/7 restaurant (the only one around from what we could tell during our 1am wandering). Somehow between 4am and 7am the restaurant transformed from a crazy party to a demure, formal dining room which served a delicious complimentary breakfast that included ample warm croissants (my second-favorite food, after Guinness), fresh fruit, and a brimming cheese platter, not to mention poached eggs and bacon. Om nom.
During our Garmin-inspired “tour” of the nearby area the night before, we saw a Guinness sign in front of a bar, so we headed there for a lunchtime drink. After sitting down and ordering our beer, we realized that the place, O’ Che’s, was a socialist bar named after Che Guevera. I couldn’t be less of a socialist if I tried, so drinking my Czech Guinness at O’Che’s was especially amusing. (We didn’t try the food, but they did have free wi-fi, which scores points.)
Would Che approve of being on a business card?
Prague was once the up-and-coming Eastern European city, until it was eclipsed by Budapest, which is prime to be eclipsed by [Split? Vilnius?]. (If the initial transition at all interests you, I can’t recommend reading Prague by Arthur K. Phillips highly enough.) I expected it to be more expensive than it was, but we were struggling somewhat to spend our last 500 koruna. We ended up purchasing two matted photographs and a cute WC sign from vendors on the Charles Bridge for around 100 koruna apiece.
We wandered for an hour, had some ice cream, and then headed off to end our Saturday in Poland.
(Many thanks to Damon for photographing the trip!)
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