My Travel's: Prague

I spent two and a half days in Prague, and I wish that I would have had more time. The main reason why additional time was necessary is because my brother (Chris), our two travel best friends (Jill and Jeff) and I got completely lost when left to our own devices.

In Europe, when with a tour, getting lost is a very serious problem. If we had unlimited time, it wouldn`t have mattered. Chris and I got lost quite a few times in London, but we really had nowhere we needed to be. In Prague, we had one partial free day, one whole free day, and then we needed to get back on the bus and head for Munich. Therefore, lost time equals lost sightseeing, and I wanted to see as much as possible. And it really was silly, how we got lost. We passed our stop, but didn`t get off. The stops the tram made were announced aloud, and were also written on a wall; however, Czech is quite a difficult language to understand. A nice woman tried to help translate for us, but I don`t think she spoke English very well. It took us an extra hour and a half to reach our desired destination, and by that time we were all hot, sweaty, and slightly pissed off.

We had done quite a bit of sightseeing the day before, including St. Hedwig`s Cathedral, St. Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, the Astronomical Clock, Wenceslas Square, and a Jewish Cemetery. Our full, free day was going to be dedicated to shopping. Prague is known as the cheapest city in Europe, and it absolutely lived up to this legacy. Our main mission was to find Jill – and later, myself – amber jewellery. It was apparently very common in Prague, and tripled in value once you crossed into North America.

The streets in Prague are tiny, and wind in many different directions. We found ourselves working our way through the city with a huge crowd of tourists. We went in and out of many different stores, but didn`t quite find anything that caught our eyes. Then, we walked by a small pashmina store and decided to go in. It was one of the best decisions I made the entire trip.
We were greeted by two very friendly Turkish men. They switched to English when we started looking around, and one of the men began asking us questions about ourselves. He was so friendly and welcoming, and we began to feel very at home. I had also just had some of my money stolen from a very rude cigarette saleslady, so I was happy to be talking to a local person who was actually being nice to me. He was from Turkey, but came to Prague to open a business and, hopefully, make money for his family. Each of the pashminas in the store was handmade. They varied from 70% to 100% cashmere as you worked your way further into the depths of the overflowing store.

Our friendly store owner next showed me how to properly tie a pashmina. He said that if I was going to wear a European pashmina, I must tie it and wear it like a European would. He also demonstrated a trick to determine if a pashmina is 100% cashmere or not. If it is, you can thread it through a ring. After we each bought a few pashminas from this gentleman (and by a few, I mean MANY), the second man emerged with a steaming tray of espresso. We all stood at his cash register counter, sipping espresso and sharing stories of travel and life. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

After the espresso was finished, he took us down a winding channel of passageways to a wholesale jewellery store. He wanted to help Jill find the best amber for the best price. We spend a good hour – if not more – in the store, and both Jill and I walked away with some of the most beautiful jewellery I have ever seen. (I must note that while Chris and Jeff were being good sports about all this girlie stuff, they must have been bored out of their minds!) I bought a green amber necklace, and my brother bought me a turquoise necklace for my birthday. I wear the amber almost every day, and keep the turquoise for special occasions.

In the evening, our tour guide took us to a place called "The Beer Factory." If you are a beer lover, pay close attention to this next paragraph. It is a huge bar in a basement directly off of Wenceslas Square. There was a cover charge to get in, but it was very minimal. Once inside, there were a number of large, wooden tables lining the walls of the room. At each table was a beer tap with 8 or 9 spouts. There was an electronic scoreboard on the wall. The entire bar was competing with one another, table against table, to see who could drink the most beer. Each time you refilled your glass from one of the spouts, the scoreboard updated how much beer your table had consumed. We were going at it for hours, and I am happy to say that we won! Beer is also very cheap, and after the lovely Czech to Euro exchange rate, we were spending about 1 Euro per beer. That works out to under $2 Canadian. Not too bad, if you ask me!

I saw a lot in Prague, and it would have been nice to see more. As much as I loved it, however, I don`t think that I need to go back again. I would, of course, if it was a part of a tour. But there are so many other places in the world I have yet to discover. Prague, we had some great moments, and maybe we`ll meet again. If not, so long...