Prague

We spent three days in Prague. While we were a tad disappointed with only seeing dense heavy cloud the whole time that we were there, it was thoroughly worthwhile making the detour.

Firstly, the architecture was most impressive. There was baroque, art nouveau, art deco, and even some cubism thrown into the mix (we’ve been learning some new words!). Prague only lost one building from bombing in World War 2, so it is all very original.

Secondly, learning about the history of the city was fascinating. We took a ‘free’ walking tour of the city which was very interesting. Our guide’s grandmother has lived in Prague her whole life, yet has lived in eight different countries. As an Australian, that is unfathomable.

The cool thing about Prague, in a similar way to Berlin, is how recent all the history is. Standing in the square where the protesting happened to bring an end to the Communist regime in November 1989 was surreal. We visited the Communist museum (located between a McDonalds and Casino – Prague black humor) and saw footage of the protests the led to the ‘Velvet Revolution’ and learnt about the extreme lengths the Communist party went to in their attempts hold on to power.

Thirdly, the Goulash! Need we say more?

A bumpy drive into Prague

We ummed and ahhed a fair bit about whether or not we would go to Prague. Firstly, it was a fair detour (refer to ‘Where in the world…’), and secondly it would mean prolonging the cold weather. In the end, the allure of Prague’s beauty and history won out.

As we crossed the border from Austria into the Czech Republic it was quite remarkable how sudden and obvious the change was. The remnants of the former Communist regime were still quite evident in the square housing blocks – ‘Stalin Flats’ - and very tired looking infrastructure. The main road into Prague was like permanently driving on a ribbed warning strip.

We also bade farewell to our dear friend, TomTom. Unfortunately when we downloaded the EU maps, the Czech Republic wasn’t included. We pulled into the first petrol station that we came across and bought a big piece of paper with lots of coloured lines – apparently people used to call them maps? Monique did a sterling job of navigating us through the nonsensical web of Prague roads and directly to our campsite.

Looking forward to seeing Prague…let’s hope the cloud cover clears.

We couldn't help ourselves... :)