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Prague

Arrival in Prague was around 9 o'clock the next morning and I was greeted by nice sunny weather. The first thing I had to do was to change money. Considering that it was Sunday and possibly not many banks or money changers would be open for business, or at least not at this time in the morning, I searched for some currency exchange booth in the station itself. No problem at all finding one. Over time I have become accustomed to find exchange booths at stations and airports upon arrival, so travelling to a foreign country without local currency doesn't bother me, as long as I have some amount of Euro or US$ in cash with me. the Castle Sure traveller checks may be safer, but I found they are not always easy to cash in. Credit cards and some cash in Euro and/or US$ is definitely what I recommend.

Usually I like to get around in cities on foot as much as possible because I think this is the best way to get some feeling for the place. Normally I also try to get from the station to my accommodation by myself. When I stepped out of the station it was not too long before I was asked by some taxi drivers whether they could be of service. Sure, my bag was huge and looked heavy (well, it was heavy), but I had a printout of the route from the station to Old Town Water Tower at River Vltava Hostel Rosemary, where I had a reservation, and it did not look very far at all. Indeed, after only a few minutes I arrived. Of course it was still too early to check in, but I could leave my luggage and head off to explore the city.

Someone who is interested in architecture, history or the like might well blame me for total ignorance, but to my eye Prague looks very similar Budapest; same huge stone houses and a large river in the center of the city. But one very nice thing about Astronomical Clock on the Town Hall Tower Prague is that all the interesting things to see are right there in the centre and withing walking distance from each other. During the two days I stayed in the Czech capital I did not once have to use a bus or metro or anything. Right in the very centre it would not even be possible to get around in a bus or so, streets are very narrow with lots of sharp bends. Better still, they are mostly made of cobble stones. These kind of streets are much to my liking.

I quickly grow tired of old buildings, churches and the like; I'm not interested in these things. But the centre of Prague seems to be made of these through and through. So it is not surprising that one of the places I enjoyed most was Petrin Hill. The view from there is splendid on a sunny day and it is not as packed with tourists as the old town. view from Petrin Hill towards Old Town I was very surprised by the sheer number of tourists. The first day I attributed it to begin a sunny Sunday and assumed there were many Czech people heading for a daytrip to the capital. However, the next day it was not better at all. Sometimes you even started to wonder whether there were any locals around at all.

All in all I had a good time in Prague. The accommodation was reasonable, comfortable, clean and conveniently located, food in the restaurants I stopped at was tasty and besides two short downpours in the evenings the weather was beautiful. However, I was well ready to catch the overnight train for Warsaw after the second day; I'm not really a fan of large cities and going to the countryside would have required more time than I had. One day in Prague would have been a rush, two days was just right, more would have become boring.

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Page last modified on 2008-Oct-04 16:01 GMT
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