Prague Agog

I went to Budapest this past weekend. It was very amazing and I will tell you all about it. But I thought it'd be weird to tell you all about Budapest, which was very amazing, without telling you more about Prague, which is also very amazing.

You may be thinking, "But you told us about Prague already. About the food and the people and the public transportation." But what good is all that if there aren't any photos? So, without further ado.... Prague, which is very amazing (note - click all pictures to see larger versions):

Ah, Prague. The City of a Hundred Spires. (You can see at least six in the photo above.) Do you want to know how to offend a Czech person? Tell them that they're Eastern European. The Czech Republic is located about as close to the center of the continent as possible. In fact, think about Vienna. Would you call that city "Eastern European?" Because it's east of Prague. OH SNAP I JUST BLEW YOUR MIND, YO!

Truthfully, I'm finding that the differences between Western, Central, and Eastern Europe are more idealogical than geographical. In any case, just watch it if you're here. They're Central European. Pssh.



This is the Astronomical Clock:

Every day, we walk past it on our way to class. It was built a long time ago. 1410, I think. But it was damaged by Nazis at one point. So some of it is rebuilt. Every hour, a little skeleton rings a bell which is creepy, and then those two little windows above the main clock portion open up. Little wooden apostles scroll by. It is really lame. They don't even come out. Apparently, the original clock didn't have these irrelevant little figures to entertain the commonfolk. Originally, the clock only featured "the pure art of astronomy" as Jan Táboský -- the clock's curator in the years 1551-1572 -- said. I think that's nice.

Every hour, starting about twenty minutes before the Apostles do their dance, a huge crowd gathers. To those of us who take the clock for granted, it's one of the few drawbacks of going to class every day in the prime tourist area of Prague. It's crowded and things are expensive. Still, you can't argue with the sheer history and beauty of that place. People don't flock there for nothing. Here's a picture of it:

(Click the picture to see a larger version. Seriously, this tiny pic doesn't do it justice!)

Now, does that look like fun or WHAT??


Moving on...



For my friends in New York. You know how the Halal food from the carts can be super cheap and super delicious, but there's something gross about hot dogs from the street? Or, I don't know, maybe that's just me. Maybe you love New York hot dogs. You can have 'em. Even Gray's Papaya skeeves me out unless I'm on my way home at 2AM and I'm...tired. (A euphemism? I'll leave it up to you. My grandparents read this blog...)

Anyway, in Prague, the street meat is vaguely similar. They usually offer a wider variety of things. You can get fried cheese with tartar sauce, fried chicken with tartar sauce either as a sandwich or plain (Czechs love tartar sauce), some bastardized form of a hamburger, a potato pancake, or my personal favorite, a potato pancake with bits of roasted chicken inside. All these are usually really cheap. One thing they don't have, though, is regular hot dogs. I think this is because they don't have hot dog buns. Instead, they sell what they call "Eurodogs" or "Euro Hot Dogs." It's a regular weiner, sure. But they use a sub roll (hoagie for my Philadelphia brothers and sisters) which has been impaled on a metal rod. This metal rod is hot, which serves to heat the hole it makes in the bread. They squirt mustard and/or ketchup (if you want) into the hole, and then drop the dog in. Then they add more mustard and ketchup for good measure. It's interesting to say the least, and only costs 15 Kc, which is less than a dollar. Still, I wouldn't call it filling. Me and some friends have been taken to getting the sausages in Old Town for 50Kc instead. It's still cheap, and feels more gourmet. It's not a hot dog. It's a sausage.
Mmmmm.


Or, if you want a real meal, you can go for something more traditional. Roast pork, cabbage, and dumplings. Don't let "dumpling" fool you. Dumplings here aren't like the dumplings you'd get in a Chinese restaurant. They look kind of like slices of bread and are very doughy. Commonly, they're just potato or bread dumplings. But you can also get them with meat in them, too. They also have "sweet dumplings" which have little bread cubes in them. It's a Czech specialty.
The dumplings above are bread dumplings. They had something like croutons in them. But softer. The pork was delicious. I'm not a huge cabbage fan, but I couldn't complain.



Speaking of food, last week we found an amazing little cafe that is rarely occupied and has free wifi. It's our favorite place. It's called Kavárna U Prstenu. Hard to pronounce. "Kavárna" just means "cafe" and "u" means "by" or "in" or "at," so you'll see a lot of restaraunts and cafes called Kavárna U blahblahblah or Restaurace U blahblahblah. Often, it's just the street name. Sometime's it's the owner's name. Here's a picture of our favorite Kavárna:



What else? Oh. Charles Bridge. Charles Bridge is also one of the biggest tourist areas in the city, and it really is wonderful. It's one of a bunch of bridges that gets you from one side of the Vlatava River to the other. But this one is like the Times Square of bridges. Also, it's pickpocket central. So be careful. You can see the bridge behind us here:

And here's a view from below, after we crossed to the other side.



I go to school at Disney World or Universal Studios or something. It's like out of a fairy tale. Come visit.