Blogs from Czech Republic, Europe - page 268

As mentioned previously, we stayed right across from the Estates Theater. We noticed signs for a concert of Mozart opera arias and decided to check it out. The concert was in commemoration of the 218th anniversary of the first performance of Don Giovanni at this theater. We had seats in a box in the second balcony with a great view of the stage. The concert consisted of three musicians playing various woodwind instruments and one male and one female opera singer. It only lasted an hour, but it was well worth it! The music was great and whetted my apetite for opera (I've never seen a full length one before). ... read more

Just a quick post on food in Prague... It became kind of a joke this weekend that my meals included "hidden ingredients": - a wheat roll contained golden raisins - a cheese and vegetable sandwich harbored hard boiled eggs between the bread (not visible in the case) - a black forest cake contained cherries disguised in the cream layer - a major ingedient in my beef stroganoff was pickles (unexpected but oddly not bad) * I dislike raisins, hard boiled eggs, and candied cherries!!! In the Old Town Square, several of the outdoor cafes had stands selling delicious "wafers." They are heated on waffle irons, measure about 6 inches in diameter, and come in several flavors including chocolate and cinnamon. Nice afternoon snack! Also found a stand on the street that had inexpensive small pastries with ... read more

We took an early morning flight from Zurich to Prague today for a long weekend. It was "The Day of the Republic" which marks the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 so we were a little worried that shops and attractions would be closed, but everything seemed to be up and running. An acquaintance from Prague set up accommodations for us at a guesthouse near the Castle. However when we checked in, we were met by two ladies who didn't speak English. They called the manager (who does speak English), and he explained the house was full but they would take us to an apartment near the Old Town Square instead. We had no real choice but to agree, so we hopped in a cab with the housekeeper across town. The apartment was in the attic above ... read more

Prague is an amazing city. There is really no other way to describe it because of a huge shortage of other words sufficient to describe this ancient metropolis. We got to Prague late Wednesday night with basically just enough time to get to our hotel and have a little bit of dinner. We noticed in the cafeteria of the hotel a sign that was rather telling, I think, of some cultural prejudices there. In English was written “Please do not take food from the eating area.” Under it was another sign that had a small paragraph in German to the effect of, “Please do not take any food or silverware or napkins or plates or anything else from the eating area. Leave it all here. Do not take it.” Ok, I am exagerating a little bit, ... read more

Sorry to keep you waiting (again) It's me sorry I've been far too slack (Ben) I think the more Dan and Sam moan about it to me the more I'm like: yeah whatever. Anyway we've done Prague in the time since the last blog and very nice it is indeed. The place was rammed with tourists; how inconsiderate, but hit the top sights like the castle, charles bridge and a variety of other dashing buildings. Definately up there with Berlin as our fave destination so far. We managed to catch the footy in an English bar. Its was v. expensive but worth it to see the look on Ben's face as the Geordies sang "There's only one michael owen"! (Sam) Dan was offered a tempting Thai massage in the old town square by a random big ... read more