Having discussed at length the options for a long weekend away, Simon and I ended up in Prague. We took some stereotypical elements of the traditional romantic breaks and stag tours and ended with something resembling neither.
Arriving quite late and getting a taxi to Hotel Metamorph(os?)is we were just in time for last orders in the Irish bar over the road. After a very nice first pint of proper Czech beer we took a short stroll to the main square of the old town. It was lovely and peaceful being late on a Thurs night, only slightly marred by a bloke trying to sell us 'Bunga Bunga' in one of Prague's many many strip clubs.
On our first day we wandered around the old quarter, over the impressive mediaeval Charles bridge and to the castle. We then booked ourselves onto a guided tour covering communist Czechoslovakia and the emergence of the democratic Czech Republic, ending with a tour of a communist era nuclear bunker built to house Prague's citizens in time of nuclear fallout. Really fascinating and included a chance to dress up with gas masks and Kalashnikov's.
On the way back from the tour we were looking for somewhere to relieve ourselves and possibly grab a drink. We stopped at the same Irish bar we'd been to the night before. Bad move. By 5pm the place was packed with meat heads on stag do's who'd been drinking all day. Probably the most traumatic piss I've ever taken. The guy next to me at the urinals could barely stand and was clearly looking forward to the days first fight. How I wished I hadn't been holding it in for so long. It should have been one of those monumentally satisfying wee's but instead those minutes of bliss felt like hours of fear.
Escaping rapidly never to return to Ireland we found a fantastic Czech bar, had some tasty goulash and enjoyed the beer and the nightlife probably a little bit too much.
Saturday morning was a bit of a write off. Actually, so was much of the afternoon. After nursing the hangover we got locked in a nondescript flat and had to follow a bunch of clues and solve a load of puzzles to escape. It was a weird game called Trap Prague set in the flat of a secret service dude from the 50's. Very quirky and very good fun.
That evening we took it easy and had a fairly quiet one. Recharged for the last day where I went for a wander in the morning to the main square of the city. There was a nice show of support for the people of Ukraine at the statue of King Wenceslas.
Simon and I met up again around lunchtime and headed for the Karel Zeman Museum where we learned how this Czech dude made early film special effects. Good little distraction with some pretty fun things to play with.
We also invested some time to dicking about with our cameras panoramic mode. We named the results Panoragic's.
The final night was spent enjoying amazing beer in the beer museum, having traditional Czech food (and beer) at Lokál and ending it all in a jazz club with an amazingly funky band. I'm pretty sure their closing number was the theme from The Golden Girls.
All in a great weekend away. Great company, lovely city, nice beer. Bliss.
More photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/101454232293966616010/albums/5984082190130092833?authkey=CIm-oeXYwNjO_wE
Arriving quite late and getting a taxi to Hotel Metamorph(os?)is we were just in time for last orders in the Irish bar over the road. After a very nice first pint of proper Czech beer we took a short stroll to the main square of the old town. It was lovely and peaceful being late on a Thurs night, only slightly marred by a bloke trying to sell us 'Bunga Bunga' in one of Prague's many many strip clubs.
On our first day we wandered around the old quarter, over the impressive mediaeval Charles bridge and to the castle. We then booked ourselves onto a guided tour covering communist Czechoslovakia and the emergence of the democratic Czech Republic, ending with a tour of a communist era nuclear bunker built to house Prague's citizens in time of nuclear fallout. Really fascinating and included a chance to dress up with gas masks and Kalashnikov's.
On the way back from the tour we were looking for somewhere to relieve ourselves and possibly grab a drink. We stopped at the same Irish bar we'd been to the night before. Bad move. By 5pm the place was packed with meat heads on stag do's who'd been drinking all day. Probably the most traumatic piss I've ever taken. The guy next to me at the urinals could barely stand and was clearly looking forward to the days first fight. How I wished I hadn't been holding it in for so long. It should have been one of those monumentally satisfying wee's but instead those minutes of bliss felt like hours of fear.
Escaping rapidly never to return to Ireland we found a fantastic Czech bar, had some tasty goulash and enjoyed the beer and the nightlife probably a little bit too much.
Saturday morning was a bit of a write off. Actually, so was much of the afternoon. After nursing the hangover we got locked in a nondescript flat and had to follow a bunch of clues and solve a load of puzzles to escape. It was a weird game called Trap Prague set in the flat of a secret service dude from the 50's. Very quirky and very good fun.
 |
| Trapped |
 |
| Clueless |
That evening we took it easy and had a fairly quiet one. Recharged for the last day where I went for a wander in the morning to the main square of the city. There was a nice show of support for the people of Ukraine at the statue of King Wenceslas.
Simon and I met up again around lunchtime and headed for the Karel Zeman Museum where we learned how this Czech dude made early film special effects. Good little distraction with some pretty fun things to play with.
We also invested some time to dicking about with our cameras panoramic mode. We named the results Panoragic's.
The final night was spent enjoying amazing beer in the beer museum, having traditional Czech food (and beer) at Lokál and ending it all in a jazz club with an amazingly funky band. I'm pretty sure their closing number was the theme from The Golden Girls.
All in a great weekend away. Great company, lovely city, nice beer. Bliss.
More photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/101454232293966616010/albums/5984082190130092833?authkey=CIm-oeXYwNjO_wE
