This past weekend Becky and I made our way to Prague and while there we went to a great craft beer bar near the old town called the Craft House. It has a nice atmosphere, great for conversation with subtle music in the background. It also boasted a few different varieties of classic Scandinavian open-faced sandwiches which were tasty, especially the one I had with blue cheese, pear, and walnuts. This place also boasts almost 30 taps, most of which were local Czech beers, with a great variety of styles as well.
I decided to give the dark lager a try and am glad I did. This beer from a local brewery poured a deep copper almost brown color with a 1 finger dense light tan head. It has a nice clean lagerlike aroma with hints of cherry chocolate and burnt sugar. The first thing you notice about this beer when you drink it is how light bodied it is. People often assume beers dark in color are thick and difficult to drink, but this was quite the opposite. It has a slightly roasty taste, backed up with a malty sweetness and hints of caramel before cleanly finishing. This dark lager was incredibly drinkable and would a really tasty beer to enjoy with Scandinavian open-faced sandwiches.
The trip to Prague was incredible, but was not without its transportation nightmares, particularly on the way there. We missed airport buses at two different stops in Dublin by just seconds, and when we finally got on one, Dublin was at peak traffic. This may have been the most nerve-wracking 45 minutes of my life as we arrived at the airport just 30 minutes before our flight was scheduled to take off. Fortunately, we hit a stroke of luck and security was a breeze, so while we still ran through the airport to reach our gate we did make it there with a couple of minutes to spare.
However, once we arrived in Prague, things seemed to go a little smoother. Our hostel was extremely friendly with the staff eager to get everyone involved. It was a bit of a party hostel, so it was constantly loud and the kitchen full of people playing beer pong, but I suppose that is the way it goes sometimes.
For our first full day in Prague, we were planning to get up early and hit all the major sites, but unfortunately, that early start quickly turned into an 11am start as we slept in way too long. This ended up not being too big of a deal as the places we wanted to go were a relatively short walk away. Our first stop was Wenceslas Square, which is very large and full of vendors selling hot dogs, and it doesn't offer too much for tourists, but historically has been the site of many protests against Communism back in the second half of the 20th century.
We then made our way to the Astronomical Clock and the main square just in time for the clock to chime and the 12 Apostles to parade in the windows. However, be warned, if you ever go to Prague, the space in front of the clock is always packed with people and it is hard to maneuver around with the various tour groups jamming you in on all sides. In light of the this, I really enjoyed the clock and its intricate design. Later in the day we took the opportunity to climb the tower as well, which offered spectacular views of the whole city and was one of the best parts of the whole trip.
This main square has a couple beautiful churches, especially St. Nicholas' Church, which although it is small is beautifully decorated and hosts concerts at 5 and 8pm. These, while being commonly disregarded as "tourist" concerts, are still much more affordable than others in the city and because of that, we took the opportunity to attend two different ones, which was a really fun experience and definitely different than we would usually do. Now not being a music expert myself, I couldn't tell you if these were particularly high quality or not, but I still really enjoyed them.
Also in the square are a variety of food vendors selling Czech food and for lunch all three days I enjoyed either a sausage or a langos, fried dough topped with a garlic sauce and cheese, and these were a really fun way to have an affordable lunch with excellent people watching in the main square.
After, we made our way through the Jewish Quarter, stopping at a nice little cafe, tourist shops, and the well preserved synagogues that dot the neighborhood.
That night we decided to go out with the hostel, and they took us to a student bar in an underground cave-like setting. Unfortunately it was very crowded and hot, but still kind of a cool location for a bar.
Saturday morning, we went to a farmers market along the Vltava River, which had an impressive array of baked goods, smoothies, meats, coffee, and much more. The only bad part about this market is that its impossible to make up your mind with all the different options. After the market we made our way to the John Lennon Wall, a place of public graffiti, which was actually a little smaller than we expected. You have to travel down a little side street to get there, and it probably isn't worth your time to go out of the way to see it. That afternoon we made our way to Plzen, the birthplace of modern beer, but I'll get into more details on that in the next installment.
Our final day in Prague consisted of walking along the ever-crowded Charles Bridge to make out way up to Prague Castle, while free to enter the grounds, each building itself costs money to enter, so it was a little disappointing. In light of this, the gothic St. Vitus Cathedral is a sight to see, and was very reminiscent of the Dom in Koln, just a little smaller and less ornate. The view from the castle area is also very nice and you get a great view of the old town and the river. We also indulged on some chimney cakes with mine being filled with white chocolate and Becky's with strawberries, chocolate sauce, and ice cream. Prague was an incredibly beautiful city and if you get the chance, I definitely think it is worth a visit.
