Day 11: Insufferable bus ride from Budapest to Prague, stopping briefly through Bratislava, Slovakia
Day 12, 13: Prague, Czech Republic
Let me just lay it out: I have a bipolar love-hate relationship with Prague. Firstly, I should have known better than to drink the Koolaid before even getting there. I was SO hyped up about the last leg of my Central Europe trip that I probably had some unreasonably high expectations (just like watching Despicable Me a few days ago). After pretty much everyone told me that "Prague is, like... the most gorgeous city in the world," what else was I supposed to believe?
Hellooooo, Emerald City!!!
Um, I should have kept my green-tinted glasses on.
Prague, also known as Praha, is the capital of the Czech Republic and has been a economic, social, and cultural hub of the Central European region for around a 1000 years. Although only 1.3 million people live in Prague, the city receives over 4 million tourists a year. Formerly part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Czechoslovakia, and a Nazi German protectorate, the region changed hands and rulers countless times over the years. Since the city suffered relatively little damage during WWII, it has maintained its historic architecture and boasts an impressive collection of pieces from various art movements across the years (i.e. Art Nouveau, Baroque, Renaissance, Cubist, Gothic, Neo-Classical).
Okay, so with that brief history synopsis out of the way, I'm going to first tell you what I disliked about Prague (and then move onto the stuff I enjoyed so we can end on a good note!). I know that I'm in the minority though, so you should take my opinions with a grain of salt.
Prague is beautiful... if you can overlook the ridiculous foot and vehicular traffic (both unsympathetically willing to mow you over), tacky kitchy crystal shops, immoral waiters, usurious money exchangers, giant billboards, and garbage cans with trash spilling over. It's unfortunate really, since the cobblestone streets are all lined with beautiful stucco buildings with ornate facades, and gorgeous bridges link both banks of Prague across the winding Vltava River. Personally, the citizens of the city make 40% of the experience for me, and I found them to not so friendly, even deceitful.
Crystal blobs, random scaffolding, metal fences, irregularly parked cars.
Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the most overrated Old Town of them all?
I tried my best to take a good picture of the Old Town square, and since I couldn't, I decided to go in the opposite direction.
Just one of many ugly paperweight shops, oops... I mean "100% Viennese Crystal Boutiques".
Regardless, my mother finds these things irresistible... like a moth drawn to a flame.
And aren't we in Prague, not Vienna?
A standard currency exchange stand.
Come right up, get ripped off unless you exchange $3,451 USD with us!
I had a few defining experiences with the people of Prague that left a bad taste in my mouth. Tour books will tell you NEVER exchange money in Prague unless you're at a bank. Unlike Germany, Poland, and Hungary, you will never get a truly fair rate here and will always leave the exchange counter at least 15% poorer. My mom and I shopped for a decent currency rate, but the absolute worst was the one pictured above. At that time, 1 USD = ~20 CZK (kourna). 19.88 CZK was a really good rate, so it'd normally be an automatic no-brainer decision, except they often have this extra rule that if you exchange an "under limit" amount of money, your rate was reduced to 14.49 CZK per dollar. That's what happened when my mom asked to exchange 100 USD. Are you kidding me, a 27% commission?!! The woman pretended to do some fancy click-clack fingerwork on her calculator (taking a good 30 seconds) and then spat out the lower exchange rate. I mean seriously, what is 100 x 14.49? Would it take a mentally-impaired monkey more than 5 seconds to figure out? So while verifying a nice round number like 100 was easy for us, I could see many an unsavvy tourist falling into this trap and not realizing until much later. We walked away with the woman running after us, yelling and throwing out higher rates. At this point, I was so disgusted at this blatant attempt to rip us off, partially blaming the government for not imposing some sort of tourist-protection regulation.
My other crappy moment in Prague happened while my mom and I rested at a cafe that sat on one of the major squares. I'm always very careful to remember the price and total of the items I order when I travel abroad. When we were ready to leave, I asked for the check but the waiter came by quoting "100 CZK". Now I know that my Pilsner was 40 CZK and my mother's cappuccino was 55 CZK, which totals 95 CZK. I know that it's only 5 CZK difference but I would appreciate it if I actually got the physical receipt instead of a verbal quote. I brush this off as an innocent mistake on the waiter's part and when I get the receipt it says 95 CZK. I give him 100 CZK, but after a few minutes, I realize that he has absolutely no intent on giving me back my change. At this point I'm getting really angry, because there's a certain order of restaurant service that he's arbitrarily changed up to take advantage of me. As a customer, it's my right to decide how much to allocate to your service, unless your menu says "service charge included" (it didn't, in fact it said "service charge NOT included"). My mom told me to let it go, but I'm never one to let someone get away with shit like this unless my safety is in question. I asked him for the change again and then he rolled his eyes and loudly started complaining in Czech to his fellow waiters, which was highly disrespectful and pretty much indicative that he had intended to keep the money for himself. THIEF. I got my 5 CZK back and left with nothing on the table. Stupid move for him, since I would have tipped at least 10 CZK if he didn't try to steal my money.
Here is something pretty: the Astronomical Clock.
Photographed nicely here, but after waiting around openly panting in 95 degree heat, I expected more than some anti-climatic 5 second merry-go-round action when it struck the hour. Plus notice the scaffolding on the left? Just one of many scattered all over the area.
So as you can see, I really disliked Prague's Old Town area. It was just gross, overrun, and congested compared to all the other Central European Old Towns that I visited. However, that doesn't mean that Prague as a whole is ugly... in fact, it's a breath-taking city once you leave the Old Town section. So here officially ends my "Prague sucks" rant.
On the Vltava shore.
Things started picking up once we left the Old Town and traveled west towards the river. The riverbank is really peaceful and scenic, even though the famous Charles Bridge was overrun with tourists and vendors. Standing on the Charles Bridge itself was kind of nice even though it looked nothing like THIS (click link), but the real treat was the view of the river and the shore. As we kept on walking and ended up in the Mala Strana area (Lesser Town), I felt like I could finally enjoy Prague. Sigh of relief.
Over the Charles Bridge and onto Mala Strana, the promised land.
Time to go home and actually enjoy Prague tomorrow!
To Be Continued... (no more complaining, I promise!)
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