Prague no - Praha yes

May 1, 2009

You would think that city names would stay the same where ever but not so. In Europe Prague is Praha. Not sure why except that it does make you feel like an idiot when you are trying to explain where you are headed for.

Prague, sorry Praha, is a beautiful city that somehow escaped the destruction visited on most European cities for the last few centuries. The old town has magnificent churches and buildings some of which were built in the 1300s. If you like baroque then this is the place.

We made another late night arrival on the train from Vienna. Getting good at figuring out metro and tram systems while being dead tired. Our hostel is in a neighbourhood a little away from the overcrowded tourist district but it is only a 30 minute walk away.

The food here is heavy on the dumplings and of course beer is everywhere. There seems to be a small bar about every 20 feet and the drinking is serious. Of course this may have something to do with them having some of the best beer in the world, but then again maybe not.

The old parts of the city span the river and there is a castle and palaces on one side with the old city centre on the other. Prices here are less than in Vienna but they use their own currency so we are trying to do the currency rate thing in our head. At times it would be nice if we were back with the euro.

A fair number of people speak some English but it is amazing what you can do with a few frantic hand gestures and carefully watching the total on the cash register. Thank god that the numbers all look the same.

Lana thinks that Praha is the most beautiful city that she has ever seen and the old town certainly fits the bill. If Disney was going to come up with a European city theme park they would build something that looked like this. Things are crowded but I can't imagine what it is like during the height of the tourist season. It is bad enough on the old cobblestone streets as it is.

Talked with David in Finland a couple of days ago and he is, as we speak, somewhere in Russia. At the time we told him our travel plans (Praha, Warsaw, Tallinn and Helsinki) and he talked of his trip. It is going to be awful boring when we get back to Canada and start talking about Vancouver or Toronto.

By the way it is Spring here and the lilacs are in full bloom. Hard to stop Lana from leaping into the blooms to "smell the roses" so to speak.