notes

5 days in Prague. Yeah, again. I felt like i had to go back after a short visit in summer. And 5 days it’s not enough, of course, but I think I used the time well. I stayed in Žižkov district, which is very close to the center (2 tram stops or 20 min walk), but much cheaper, and feels like a normal city, not a tourist circus you have in the Old Town. It has very interesting parts too. There’s a an ugly TV Tower, with David Černý’s babies crawling up and down. There’s a Jaroslav Hašek’s monument. A cubistic chapell. Franz Kafka’s and Ota Pavel’s grave at the New Jewish Cementery.

I fell into a pleasant routine. A walk in Žižkov in the morning, and then visiting museums in the center of town. In the late afternoon – lunch/dinner in Moment, and later a beer in Republika Žižkov. I went to U Vystřeleného Oka once, but, as much as it felt very much as a local pub, it also was filled with a thick cloud of cigarette smoke. So instead I was going every night to the only non-smoking pub in Žižkov.

Museums. Mucha Museum, Kafka Museum, Stone Bell House, Museum Kampa, Veletržní Palác, Hollar Gallery, Bílkova vila. A lot of really good Czech (mostly, but not not only) art, most of the artist I didn’t know before. I was very happy to see some Vladimir Boudnik’s works (he was a friend of a writer Bohumil Hrabal (which I love)) I was really impressed with collection in Veletržní Palác. Went there twice, it’s too much to do it all in one go.

In Republika Žižkov they had a very good beer from Kocour Brewery, I also tried something which could easly become my favourite winter drink – hruszka z hruszkou (pear with pear): warmed up pear juice infused with a pear schnaps. I was very lucky to meet the owner, Pavel Trojan (historian and lover of Žižkov, author of a Žižkov guide), apparently he appears there only once a year. I spent a very nice evening bothering him about zizkov and Czech movies (but apparently he likes polish ones better!)

There is one thing I am really impressed with in Prague, and it’s a public transport. Almost as good as in Berlin. But much cheaper. (Which I suppose levels whatever might be worse)

And… I would like to go there again. Maybe in the spring…