DJStroky
Seattle
A review of this place: two parts — 2 weeks ago
Worth visiting!
As I neared the touristy area of Prague, I could sense that some things weren’t right. At a newstand, someone offered me a city map for on 140 Kč, I sat down at a random cafe in Václavské náměstí and ordered a glass of Pilsner Urquell for 95 Kč. However, just last night at U Sama I drank a glass of beer for only 25 Kč and bought a city map from a newstand near Karlovo Náměstí for 40 Kč. So I warn you all, think twice before you buy stuff along the tourist routes.
As for the talk about Praha being sketchy, part of this I think is that it’s blatantly obvious if you are a tourist in Praha with your phanny packs, 3 foot long camera lenses, and boisterous conversation. And really, in any big city being alone at night if you’re a woman isn’t a good idea.
So aside from the whole touristy part of Praha, there is much else to see that are perhaps too subtle to be noticed by many tourists. First off, perhaps due to some countrywide business code, or the fact that Czechs are one of the highest per capita consumers of beer, there are countless little restaurants and cafes that almost always serve beer.
Secondly, due to the socialistic government that offers a variety of services to people with mental health problems, there were almost no bums in Praha – I saw 2 during the 5 or so visits to Praha and one was being approached by two Police officers.
Third, the transit system in Prague is fantastic. There are 3 subway lines, about 30 streetcar lines and frequent (typically every 10 minutes or less) bus service going everywhere else. I’d highly recommend taking transit to whereever you need to go if it’s too far to walk.
And finally, the urban form of Praha is perhaps a perfect model of what a highly functional city looks like. There are hundreds of huge apartment buildings almost always within walking distance of a metro station. And once you pass the ring road surrounding Praha, the city just completely ends. It seriously goes from 20 story apartment complexes to vast wheat fields. Also, at each end of the B-line subway there are huge shopping complexes and big box stores that do consume a lot of land, but they have all the cheap large volume stuff. I didn’t feel guilty shopping at these places since I realized that their impact on the city was probably fairly minimal and they were the only big box stores in the whole town.
