Czech yo'self before you....

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Prague. The Paris of the something.

But it is special.

We made the trip in by train, and it was pretty straightforward. Then, the castle. At first we had a little trouble finding it. Yes, that's right – we couldn't find the city's main attraction.

Probably because it wasn't a castle.

A big church – check.

Wall – check.

Guards – check.

Tourists galore – si, había.

But no castle. It seems the Czechs had caught the English disease – why call it a castle when there isn't one? The zombie test didn't even need to be run on this one. A very nice building it was, but probably not the highlight of Prague. In fact, the best thing about it may have been Kafka's house and the loud Australian tour guide we spotted offending the locals.

What was good about Prague began after we left the castle. We made our way, slowly, down from the top of the hill. Stopping to admire doll shops, drink beer on the street and poke around in boutiques. Absorbing the atmosphere of this, one of Europes premier cities.

Prague truly is a beautiful city. Just the right amount of old buildings, and still a little bit of that edge that's been filed off in places like Paris and London.

It is a place that is well and truly on the tourist map, though, with all that entails. Still, there's something to be said for that. And, as always, there's a reason people go to tourist places.

We eventually found ourselves in the main square, and a neater, more beautiful square I'd rarely seen. Packed with good natured punters out and about on a lovely summer's day, it was like someone had taken an Aussie music festival crowd, evaporated the wankers, and added sufficient toilets. There were jugglers, beer and food stalls galore - more than one with an entire succulent beast on heavy rotation.

We didn't spend as long as we should have in Prague. It was a place we would have to come back and see again, probably in winter.

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