Blondes in Prague

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As a backpacker you quickly learn along the way, that there is a big difference between a tourist and a traveller. A tourist always follows a guided tour flashing his camera at everything that moves. You can always spot a tourist from miles away wearing his money belt and backpack while looking at a map upside down. A traveller on the other hand, always finds the hidden gems of a certain city or region, he/she always finds his/her way around because it is of course totally reasonable to expect that every human being knows their way around every corner of the world. And of course a traveller blends in with the local culture carrying every national costume in his small backpack. A real traveller would rather be caught dead than in front a tourist attraction flashing a camera. One can only wonder how those pictures with the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty got taken…

My point is, you can call yourself whatever you want: Traveller, tourist, explorer, anthropologist or lost in a strange place, the important part is that you are experiencing a new culture, that you are taking in new sights, smells, behaviours which makes you appreciate the wonders and diversity of the world we live in.

For me, some times I feel like an explorer when I get lost (I mean when I choose to go to an unplanned place) and other times I simply feel like being a tourist and following the tourist tracks around the area. In Prague we did exactly that.

As a rule, I generally like to research my destination just a little bit. And when I say little I mean just a little as I like to ask the locals where to go and what to do whenever I reach a new place. However, on this trip I was seriously under prepared. My friend Mette had called me just a couple of weeks before to ask if I wanted to come to Prague for a long weekend. Naturally I said yes, thinking a visit to a historic city like Prague would be a great contrast to the wilderness of Alaska. As I had my take-home exam the days leading up to our trip I didn’t manage to do any research before leaving for Prague. I think the only thing I knew about Prague was that it is the capital of the Czech Republic. In fact, our research was so poor that when we touched down in Prague neither of us of knew what currency they used and had to enter a random figure on the ATM and estimate an exchange rate.

Our departure from Copenhagen Airport was some what symbolic of the reason why I have titled this blog “Blondes in Prague”. Mette got so excited at the Mac make up counter at the airport that we lost track of time until we heard the following announcement on the loud speakers: “Would Miss Bohlbro and Miss Odgaard immediately go to gate 27 as your aircraft is ready to depart”. Ever the blondes, we decided we could not depart without fashion magazines so Mette had to hold the plane as I ran to the book store to get some girlie mags. Needless to say we made the plane with bags full of make up and plenty of mags.

Our bus trip from the airport to our hotel went surprisingly smoothly despite having to change buses and metros several times. We were however told to get off the last bus as it had reached its final destination which we had not quite discovered being engrossed in conversation. Our hotel or Botel as it is called was a pleasant surprise. An old steam boat situated in the heart of Old Prague on the Vlatava River. The steamboat has been completely refurbished but still kept many of the original paintings and furniture. Everything has been kept in beautiful wood decorated with brass (see pictures).

Excited like children on Christmas Day, Mette and I threw our bags in our little cabin room and practically ran through the somewhat chilly summer night towards downtown. As we followed the Vlatava river into the city center we got very excited when we first spotted the famous Charles Bridge. King Charles IV was a very popular king in Bohemia, later also Holy Roman Emperor and was later named “Father of the nation”. A very clever guy, he spoke five languages fluently and initiated the wine industry in a country famous for the beer. However, he was also a beer lover ensuring tough penalties on anyone trying to export the fine Czech hops. When not cultivating grapes or admiring his big collection of holy relics, Charles also attended to his wives and kids. He had four wives and an uncountable number of kids.

Today many of the building projects he initiated still stand and have become beautiful monuments of his era. Most famous are probably the St Vitus Church and the Charles bridge. Interestingly, the many sculptures that guard the bridge were not build until 16th century. Some of them have been rebuilt as storms have broken many of them over the years. That of course explains why some of them look like they have just been cleaned (a question Mette and I pondered at the time).

But all this historic information is really just to tell you how famous this bridge is and consequently how embarrassing this next story is. As Mette and I strolled down the street admiring the river, we got very excited when we finally saw the bridge and asked a number of fellow Japanese tourists to take photos of us with the bridge in the background. Later on we became increasingly puzzled as we could not locate the restaurant recommended to us that was meant to be right next to the bridge. When we finally asked a couple of locals after wandering around for hours, we learnt that we were no where near the Charles bridge. But anyway, you can never have too many pictures of bridges 

And so the story of the Blondes in Prague continues. When we finally found the bridge, we decided that it was time for a nice cold beer, non other than the world famous Budvar or Budweiser as it is known in Czech. We found a beautiful little café with a view of the bridge and enjoyed what we thought was a very cheap beer. When the bill finally came a 300% service charge was added to the bill as we had to pay for the view and some unknown Czech tax. So the very cheap beer ended up being very expensive. Needless to say, we later learnt there is no 300% service charge or tax. The blondes had done it again.

Apart from the obvious blonde moments, we did have a ball in Prague. It is an amazingly beautiful city with so much to see and do. The highlight of our trip was definitely the scenic tour around town in an old classic car along with a visit to “U Fleko” a famous bar known for their live horn music, great bear and gulasch. All of which we enjoyed all night until the bar shut. Oh what a night.

And so I am off on my next big adventure: On the 9th of July I depart for the South of France where a couple of hundred of the world’s best cyclists and few small hills await me in the South of France. I am so excited, I cant wait till I stand on top of Alp d’Huez waiving my Danish and NZ flag.

Does life get any better than this?

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