Having been to Prague with Angela and friends back in Oct 2005 I was looking forward to returning.
This time I flew from Bristol Airport. Unfortunately ThomsonFly only started to fly to Prague from Bournemouth in November 2006, but I was going out and back by the end of October! Very annoying as it would have been an easy taxi ride rather than a tortuous drive across country and then finding the shortcut that was recommended was blocked off and I had to drive around the ring road of Bristol anyway. I could also have saved on the car parking cost for a few days.
Anyway, I booked with EasyJet in the end. I waited for a while and all I could initially book from Gatwick was the outbound journey but not the return. How good was that? So, in the end I had to book the Bristol flight before prices start to creep up nearer the time as they invariably do.
I found that the EasyJet car parking option was £1 extra than booking direct with Bristol Airport itself!
Remember, when you are getting into the car park at the gates at Bristol Airport, you need to put in the credit card that you used for the Internet booking. I got all confused in the queue with cars behind me and running a bit late and mistakenly took a ticket out. However, the situation is recoverable and you don't need to pay twice as the nice people in the booth at the exit will sort it out for you if you let them know.
On arrival, my friend Milan had bought me a 3 day transport ticket for 220Kc, which is £5.50. This gives unlimited travel on the Prague public transport such as the buses, trams and metro.
We got bus to Divjeck/Terminus, changed to using the Metro to Museum stop and then by tram number 11 to where I was staying.
I was staying at Peko Pension, which is a small bed and breakfast place that is about 15 minutes outside of the centre of Prague. One useful thing they had was free wireless Internet access albeit a bit slow, which came in handy on a Sunday morning when I had to sort out one of our servers.
My friends from Birmingham got a bargain at the Corinthia Panorama. They paid £50 per room with twin beds, which worked out as £25 each. They could have booked at the Towers for £40 a few weeks beforehand but their party took ages to decide. Nice 4 star hotels though. Both were about 20 minutes transport away from town but it saves a few pounds.
I have stayed at the IBIS hotel before for about the same cost though and that saved all the travel and you could walk into town and the main areas very easily.
After checking in, we headed off back into town and went to bar just past the English/Irish bars in the Old Square. It was less than 30Kc for a beer and they also served the georgous Czech dark beer. I think the place is called Staromestska Jama as that was on the large green sign hanging up outside.
With regards to money, I again found that Marks and Spencer had the best deal on currency conversion. Remember to take a passport or drivers licence if you plan to change something largeish. The exchange booths in Prague are a complete rip off as well. Just take it out from the ATM in an emergency.
The price of beer is always contentious for me when I know how cheap it can be but then we end up somewhere where you pay 3 times the price. This was like when we had a meal at the end of Wecenslas Square in a restaurant and the beer was 89Kc!
My favourite place is a bar called U Vejvodu (pronounced with a silent J). This place opens till 4am, which is handy for thristy Brits abroad. We left at 3am! After bigging it up to my friends I could not find it. I thought it is on the end of Jilska, can't be that hard. I finally found it after stopping off at a cocktail bar just around the corner.
Hot dogs on Wenceslas Square are always a bit of a treat after a night of beers. I also tried a pork steak in a bun that was just as nice.
One night we went to a place called Penguins restaurant (Náměstí 14 října, Praha 5), near the Andel metro stop, which was a general restaurant selling pizzas, meat and stuff. It was not very traditional Czech though. Very hot downstairs and took an hour and half to get our food. We were starving. The air conditioning, if it had any, was not working effectively. They brought a fan but it wasn't really large enough for people to benefit from it blowing the hot air around.
Milan's wife Alenka said that if the restaurant doesn't bring your food within a certain time, then you are entitled to it free. Not sure if that is really law, but it sounds good.
After the restaurant we went along the road to a nice bar just a few doors up. Not sure of the name but it was very modern and trendy. After a bit of digging and brain racking I think this is it, Lokal Blok. There aren't many photos for me to work out. A bit too cryptic for me.
It was a very nice place but when we went in, all the tables had been taken so they said they were full. This was strange as there was plenty of space so we stood and drank, which may be a bit odd for these kind of places in Prague. I'm not sure. Standing and drinking is a way of life back in the UK.
We then headed off into town and stumbled across a few bars off the Wecenlas Square. One bar was full of Americans celebrating Halloween in fancy dress. I was flagging so by 2am I had to leave and got a hot dog, before getting a taxi back. I was half expecting to get ripped off but it worked out OK in the end. I just had to keep on asking what the price would be beforehand.
Taxis were not too bad price-wise as I have always heard that they were a complete ripoff. It was 180Kc for me to my hotel and 300Kc for Birmingham lot to get back to theirs. I think the dodgy practices have been clamped down upon as there are random checks by officials posing as tourists and so on. The driver was a bit mad, zipping in and out of tram stops.
Overall, it was another good trip to Prague. We didn't get to see much of Prague this time round as we were there for karate training hence the early hours!
Looking forward to Budapest next in Jan 2007.
