Beer and Bramboraky

If there is one thing we have grown to love about Prague it would be the 'Beer Garden' culture here. Sunday afternoons spent at the Letensky Sady beer garden overlooking the beautiful city is fast becoming a favourite, when the weather is right. The garden is shaded by big beautiful chesnut trees and is situated right in front of a neo renaissance mansion which (I think) is a restaurant. The garden is full of all kinds of people, from families with children, people on rollerblades stopping for a beer on their way through the park, business people, couples, expats and of course lots and lots of dogs!! A pint of beer will cost you about 33Kc which is about $1.50 Aus. :) 

We also visited the Prague Beer Museum, which is not as big or as boring as it sounds! It is a little bar in Old Town with about 30 local Czech beers on tap. All of the beers are boutique and are very interesting...I had a blueberry beer (which was delicious) and Jon had a dark ale. There are all sorts of beers on tap, including cherry and carmel honey as well as high percentage stouts and dark ales (not for the faint hearted). This is a great place to go if you are getting just that little bit tired of the all to popular Pilsner Urquell or Gambrinus. 

While out with some friends, sampling another beer garden, this one in Reigrovy Sady (a large and shady park in Prague 3), we decided to try some of the local Czech food. A friendly bar tender told of us of a good place just around the corner where the meals cost an average of 150Kc, or $8.50. This is a pretty standard price for a good meal in a nice restaurant here. Czech food is meaty and starchy...and little else. I am not sure if there is any nutritional content to the food, but it tastes amazing! We shared a traditional starter platter which included pickled sausage, game pate', ham off the bone, fried camembert cheese and brawn. Everything expect the brawn (which was meaty chunks in a fatty jelly...kind of like cat food) was quite nice. I think Jon was more a fan of it than me! Dinner consisted of a plate sized pork schnitzel, goulash with bramboraky (a fried potato pancake), beef and cream and sauerkraut. We were incredibly full after dinner that we could only manage one more beer before we needed to lie down. It was a good night though :)

Eating and drinking in Prague is both enjoyable and affordable. It is a large part of the czech culture so it makes more sense to go along with it than fight against it...Beer anyone? :)

The Biggest Fattest Bumble-Bees Ever!

For a city that seems so big, you can easily tour the city by foot. We decided on a day of walking that began at our apartment and ended at our apartment, with a lot of Prague in between. We walked up to Letenske Sady, a park located between Prague 6 and Prague 7. With spectacular views of the city, the park is well worth a visit. It has beautiful shady trees and various monuments and statues. It was here that we came across some of the biggest bumble-bees we had ever seen! One of the more amazing views from the top and a bumble-bee;

We walked down from Letenske Sady and headed into Mala Strana, which is on the same side of the Vltava River as Prague Castle. We stopped for some lunch by the river and we shared the space with plenty of dogs and their owners. This seemed like a popular spot for people to come eat lunch and catch a good view of Charles Bridge. The photo below was taken from the banks of the Vltava River looking over to the Old Town side of Charles Bridge;

Mala Strana is a beautiful area of the city and the architecture reminded us of a fairy tale, with the spires, cobble stone streets and general Bohemian/Gothic charm. We crossed over Charles Bridge with a little difficulty due to the amount of people swarming to get a photo and the merchants lining the bridge selling their (expensive) souvenirs. Along the length of the 516m bridge there are 30 statues, each depicting various saints and patron saints venerated around 1700. All of these statues are now replicas of the originals, but still are amazing pieces of art. The Old Town end of Charles Bridge is considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world.  Even with the throng of people packing the bridge, it is still a must see for visitors to Prague.


Exploring the city by foot is definitely worth the effort! Everything is seen from a different perspective. We found ourselves lost on a few occasions but it just helped us to learn more about the city and see some really interesting sights. A little bit of sun cream would not have gone astray though.

Back to School

We had our first day of "School" today, the beginning of our TEFL certificate. It was interesting and strange, with a whole lot of nothing thrown on your plate. We are expected to 'just plan a lesson and teach' with a look of 'what's so hard about that?' from the teacher and a bunch of blank expressions from the students. All in all we think it will be fun, the people are really nice and the course is not too busy, with a day off Tuesday and a cheeky Friday afternoon off too! Our first actual teaching classes begin this week, one on one with a local Czech, teaching them basically whatever they want to know. If we can manage to hold a interesting conversation with a stranger who speaks intermediate English for one hour then we are doing well.

Prague is such a beautiful city, with photo moments coming up at almost every corner. We found the tower that the Amazing Race contestants had to climb, and it is just down our street! It feels very surreal. The area we are living in is amazing, Namesti Republiky, which is about 15 minutes walk from Old Town Square (where the astronomical clock is). This area is beautiful, close to the Charles Bridge, but FULL to the brim with tourists, a little like us actually :) Here is a photo of the Prasna Brana aka Powder Gate from Amazing Race: