Spoiler alert, I love opera.
No, I’m not going to apologize. Prague is a great place for the opera, but it’s also, perhaps, the best city in the world to live. I spent 2 months there and saw every inch of the city and found very little that I didn’t like. In order…
The Parks
Prague has some of Europe’s most beautiful parks. The above image is from Stromovka, also called Prague’s Central Park. The truly amazing thing about most of Prague’s parks is they are sans tourists. Stromovka is 258 acres and you can walk seemingly forever. The image on the left is from the Japan bonsai gardens, which are spectacular. (If you put a bonsai garden in an American city park it would be stolen in a week)
One thing that might hit you if you walk the parks enough is how artistic the Czechs are. At first the enormity of the city is a bit overwhelming and then it hits you. Stromovka park has 92 varieties of trees all seemingly placed to create landscapes for artists. I use a Nikon D3500 camera but even with a wide angle lens, it’s hard to get everything in. The gardens by the castle are like that. You feel that something is unique but it’s hard to nail down. You just want to sit down on a blanket and read a novel, surrounded by natural beauty, sculpted by elves. Truly beautiful.
Hiking
These images are from the hiking trail on state land in Prague 6. It’s on the Praha-Veleslavin stop on the subway. Prague has first class rail, both the underground and above ground. The trail itself is mainly paved, but you can off-trail using google maps. The tops of the hills are also filled with trails to hike up and the views are worth the hike.
An additional add on is at both the Veleslavin and Borislava stops there are great traditional Czech restaurants and pubs, but at half the price of the tourist areas. Pork with gravy and bread pudding and a beer you’ll DIE FOR… about 10 Euro.
The Beer
I know, you’ve heard it before. I thought the same thing. Bullshit… everybody claims their beer is the best… blah, blah, blah.
I wish I could explain it. Czech beer is… different. It’s so different you’ll have trouble drinking anything else. My favorite? I just order Czech pilsner and drink what they give me. It’s all fantastic.
Spoiler alert!!! Beer is considered a food in Czechia. It’s very filling and you see very few locals drunk even though they drink all day long. Beer is called “liquid bread” and is sometimes drank at breakfast. After a 10 km hike, I always had one. Just one. You’re full, the aches and pains go away, and you’re ready for… The Opera.
The Opera
This is something I guarantee to be true. If you listen to opera, you’ll probably hate it. If you ATTEND an opera, you’ll get sucked in. If you can watch La Traviata and not love opera, you have a tin ear and no class.
Watching the interplay between the orchestra and the singers, the emotional outpouring of the sopranos (Women) and the complexity, twists and turns of the plots will make you a lifelong fan. That aside though, Prague’s operas are special. Why? First, the opera houses are nicer, in fact better than the much ballyhooed Stadstoper in Vienna.
Prague has three. The Estates Opera is rather small and intimate. Last year I attended the Magic Flute (Mozart) as well as the ballet, Coppelia. Loved them. The larger one is the States Opera house but the grandest (Pics above) is the national opera house. Unlike Vienna, which is filled with tourists (Not to dis Vienna, which has GREAT performances) Prague is more of a local opera lovers crowd.
And they love opera. I went to 7 performances when I was there, (I saw the Magic Flute twice) and all were sold out. Coppelia was also sold out and there were 3 curtain calls.
The City
Okay, I get it. Hundreds of “this is Tuesday, it must be Prague” travelers are creating travel video’s. I won’t duplicate them. Let me simply give a few insights into what I consider one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
First and foremost, you can see almost everything in Prague travel video’s in a few hours. The astronomical clock, Charles bridge and all the pay to pray churches. You can bankrupt yourself going through all of Pragues museums and churches, but keep in mind, central Prague, like any tourist destination is designed to clean out your wallet. That’s not to say you shouldn’t go there; you should. It’s beautiful. But if you spend your holiday on “this is me in front of,” you’ll miss half the fun. Let me list a few things tourists sometimes miss that I loved.
- The parks listed above
- The Old Jewish Cemetery – beautiful part of town
- Olsany Cemetery – Massive with a WW2 burial ground.
- The Embassy area – North of the Vltava river.
- Nirodni Divaldo – The National Theater. Slavic coffee shop next to the theater.
- Vysehrad – Castle and Basilica. Very under appreciated, beautiful walk.
- The area below and around Charles Bridge
- Brevnov Monastery
- The Dancing House is not as big a deal as you might think. In fact, it’s out of place.
One reason many people miss a lot of Prague is because, frankly, it’s a huge city, much bigger than I expected. Even though I took trains and trams everywhere, I still walked between 6 and 10 miles a day. In the inner city, Google maps-GPS roams around trying to navigate the buildings, alleys and tunnels. It can be a chore.
Restaurants
I won’t go too into restaurants except to say the best restaurants have traditional Czech food and the worse have anything that isn’t traditional Czech food. The tourist areas are filled with pizzarias but there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of small cafe’s that are excellent.
The image above is the Dubliner, an Irish pub the old town. It has an American manager and a few American bartenders, it’s a lot of fun. There are 50,000 Americans living in Prague and all of them seem to love it. It also has a shit load of college exchange students seemingly from all over Europe and the US. This is good because Prague is NOT a friendly city. In fact, many Czechs are downright rude, but such is life. I take beauty for what it is.
To Summarize…
Unlike Vienna and many German cities, the Czechs are very artistic. Unlike the regimented parks in places like Vienna and Budapest, the Czechs are surprisingly avant garde. At first you may not notice it, but it grows on you.
I think I’ve beaten the Prague is a beautiful city to death, but he fact is, the WHOLE city is beautiful, not just the tourist areas. Prague 6 and 7, residential areas are fantastic. I would live there in a minute. Prague has the best, newest and cleanest public transport system I’ve ever seen. Prague is also EXTREMELY safe. I walked Pragues streets and took trains very late at night.
Much of Prague’s safety is because of their rudeness. Czechs are almost insanely private. Even their dogs mind their own business. Even when their parks are crowded, they’re very quiet. Czechs mind their own fucking business and expect the same from you. They’re EXTREMELY efficient workers and very smart. It seems as if they all speak English. In fact, English seems more widely spoken than in Vienna.
Once you get to know them, they’re great, but that’s a tough hill to climb if you’re only there for a week. I would suggest a couple weeks if you can, but if you cannot, it’s a great stop. If I was doing a few days I’d make a list of “what do I REALLY want to see.” That will help a lot.
