Czech Me Out!

Situated on the Vlatva River in central Bohemia, Prague has been the political, cultural and economic centre of the Czech state for more than 1100 years. For many decades during the Gothic and Renaissance eras, Prague was the permanent seat of two Holy Roman Emperors and thus was also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire Today, the city proper is home to more than 1.2 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 1.9 million.

The taxi ride from Prague central airport to Hostel One took a little over 20 minutes and cost about 600 crowns (the Czech currency). Luckily between the 8 of us, that is actually pretty cheap since 20 Crowns is equivalent to about 1 US $.

Prague is a relatively cheap city food and drink wise comparative to everywhere else in Europe. Their inflation is through the roof though and carrying around a handful of 1000 crown bills feels a bit strange.

The city is essentially divided into two parts: New Town and Old Town Center. Old Town is where the majority of the historic sights and tourist attraction are including the Royal Palace. There is a large open square with food market and many odds & ends for sale at an elevated price comparative to elsewhere in the city. This area of town is littered with historic churches. Almost every other block has a chapel/basilica/cathedral but this makes sense when you consider the fact that hundreds of years ago, the Papacy was based out of Prague and not Rome.

The New Town (I found it ironic that its name includes 'New' because it literally looks like something pulled out of the 1970-80s era Soviet block) is a bit run down. It was hard to see the city as it is meant to look because of the serious amount of snow accumulation on everything. I met a girl from Prague that spoke amazing English and she told us that this is the most snow Prague has gotten during her lifetime (this seems to be a strong winter world wide).

Everything is very spread out though. Most days we ended up walking 12+ miles to get to and from the landmarks we dubbed as worth seeing.

We came to Prague for Mardi Gras and although the main festival is today there was still plenty to see and do in preparation for the event. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the grande finale because I have a test tomorrow evening but the portion we did experience was pretty awesome.

The trip was great; the people were the closest to American we've encountered, and the food was cheap. I loved it.

Hope all is well.

All good; all the time,

Thomas