Know Before You Go: Prague

Dobrý den, my friend!

(And that wraps up my limited knowledge of the Czech language)

You know when you land in a new city / country and find yourself struggling to find the ticket counter for the metro train? Or find yourself in the middle of complicated calculations trying to decide if you should buy that day pass or not?

Fear not, this new feature – ‘Know Before You Go’ is going to enlist a few tips culled from my visits to a few cities that should help you find your way around, just a little bit easier.

Here are some useful things to know for your first (or repeat) visit to the City of a Hundred Spires, Prague a.k.a. Praha.

The Spires and the Orange Roofs of Prague

• Prague (and the rest of the Czech Republic) is a bargain, compared to a lot of other European cities, especially ones that lie west of it. You will find prices reasonable in general – but in my case, this sometimes leads to overspending, due to my falsely perceived ‘wealthiness’.
• Service staff in restaurants sometimes tends to be grumpy. Legend has it that this has to do with the Communist occupation of the city. Smile and don’t forget your ‘hello-please-thank you‘ routine.
• Beer is cheaper than water – at least the local brew is, at the kind of non-fancy places that locals might frequent. This has serious potential to throw your sightseeing plans off-track though. 🙂
• The best place (and sometimes, the only place – true especially at night) to buy public transportation tickets is a news stand / tobacco shop inside the train station / near the bus stop. Don’t bother with the old-looking ticket vending machines that don’t have very clear instructions. Single ride tickets valid for the stated time (32 CZK / 1.2 EUR as of Mar ’15 for the 90-minute one with transfers allowed) and are usable across multiple modes of public transport like metro, trams etc. An extra half-ticket is needed for a large piece of luggage – don’t avoid buying this; it isn’t expensive and you don’t want to mess with the ticket inspectors in Prague (see next tip for why).
• You MUST validate your ticket before getting on the bus / tram / metro – a friend of ours had to pay a 500 CZK fine for not doing so (and was almost handed over to the police by the ticket inspector for arguing with him).
• There’s no direct public transport to the airport from the city – the quickest way is to take the metro line A to Dejivicka from the Old town or Wenceslas Square and then the Airport Express bus; the entire trip takes under an hour – IF you can manage to squeeze yourself and your luggage on to the bus (which only comes once every half an hour, so be prepared to jostle and nudge your way in)
• There’s art hidden in corners and inconspicuous alleys of Prague – like this statue of Saint Wenceslas on an upside-down horse by David Cerny in the Lucerna Pasaz:

  

  ‘Yes, of course, I know how to ride a horse’

• English is spoken quite widely and well by the young, so you will not struggle too much for your lack of knowledge of Czech / Slavic languages.
• Vegetarians, rejoice – Even though traditional food is meat-oriented, vegetarianism is better understood in the city than others because of a growing international population and you have options of multiple restaurants like Beas, Govinda, Maitrea, Lehka Hlava (all recommended by our guesthouse owner and reasonably priced) – some of these are cafeteria-style places that sell food by weight and tend to be sold out by evening (a hard lesson that was learned by finding empty trays on a hungry Monday evening). Happy Cow should also be able to fix you up with some good options. Below is a Bramboracka, a very filling, traditional Czech soup that’s vegetarian and served in a bread bowl (seriously – you can eat the bowl).

  

  One vegetarian soup (in an edible bowl, of course) and a beer please

• Possessing small quantities of drugs is apparently legal in Prague. Not consuming, weirdly, only possessing for personal use. I did not look too much into this, for lack of interest, but if you’re inclined, you should check and double check with multiple sources, lest you get into trouble.
• Like a lot of other European cities, Sundays are kind of dead in Prague. The streets are dark and deserted after evening – keep the phone number of your hotel / hostel handy in case you’re arriving on a Sunday after dark and can find noone to ask directions from.

Overall, Prague is an interesting, lively and largely low-profile city – though its party scene has quite the reputation in Europe. Pack yourself some comfortable walking shoes and warm clothes for nippy morning and evenings and you’ll be set to explore!

If you’d like to read a bit more about Prague / see some sights of the city – go here.

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Have you been to Prague? What are your top tips for the city?