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lisel · 5 years

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czech mischiefs: a lived-in itinirary of three friends traveling through the czech republic.

Once upon a time, around the Christmas season, my two flatmates and I traveled to the Czech Republic. What follows is a chronological retelling of our wanders around Prague and the small town of Cesky Krumlov.

Protagonists: Lise L; Friend L; Friend C; Friend K; Friend A; Friend DK.

day one - night: Departure from Glasgow at around 9pm, arrival in Prague at 11pm. Walk through the city streets to the hostel. Friend L essentially decides she wants to move to Prague. Check in: 12:30am Bedtime: 1-1:30am

day two - day & night: Breakfast at the hostel, Friend C adopts lonely planet guide. Walk around the old town, bit of history on astronomical clock. We take in street architecture. Jewish quarter discovery and emotional synagogue visits.

Coffee in café close to Kafka's house. Lunch at restaurant (pasta, salad, beer); turned grumpy Czech man into a smiling fellow, all the staff loved us. Castle visit - the Halsburg's have ugly faces, thanks incest. Walk around the park and surrounding area. We feel grateful for our resistance to the rainy weather. Stop at the Concert Hall on our way back to old town, we get student tickets for a quartet. Walk home, we buy bread at the breadshop for that night and the day after. Chaotic grocery shopping, in a tired state + dinner at the hostel. Drink out with local Friend K in cool bar. Walk home at night, feeling peckish we bought a trdelnik - it was not a good one. Bedtime: 1:00-1:30am.

day three - day & night: Breakfast upgrade at the hostel - We Made Our Own And We Are Great At Breakfast Making. Walk around our neighbourhood in search of a café for L, who needs to do work. Visit to a bookshop where I find a children’s book on the city of Prague. L finds plug adaptor in cannabis themed tourist shop. C and I go on our own adventure around the city.

Spotted: old camera shop. Head down to Nové Město, to the Dancing House, through a park. Walk around the river Vltava, we get coffee in little place. Antique & second-hand bookshop visit where we find some great vintage prints and posters. Walk along the other side of the river for a bit, then we cross what we assumed was Charles Bridge but really wasn't. We stumble upon local market by the riverside, we get hot plum juice and buy a good portion of oyster mushrooms in hope of making omelette or open sandwiches that evening.

C and I head further down Nové Město, to the Botanic Gardens of the faculty. We have our pre-packed snacks and lunch on a gardens bench. Lots and lots of laughing, followed by a random but well inspired tram journey back to old town.

Stop at the National Theatre where we meet with L and K. Walk around dyzajn (read: design) market and then to the Christmas market. We take a break at Café Louvre with mulled wine - we taste meat broth. Back to hostel for nap until 7:30pm. Meeting up with Friend A, who drives us to New Town, we have beers. He leaves and we go to another pub. L goes home early, while C and I go on a mini pub crawl. We go to a random queer bar + u sudu. Sunny plays outside a kebab shop on the street, we rejoice. A long talk about everything and anything. Walk home, where L is actually still awake. Bedtime: 2am

day four, day & night: Breakfast at hostel + we pack our things (including mushrooms we still haven't cooked). Book bus tickets to Cesky Krumlov, we head out. Bus at 11am, very comfy, we get free coffee included. L says she feels this trip is helping her take another step past her break up. C looks up our options for hostel and food places. We get to Cesky Krumlov at 1-2pm, hungry. We take in the sights on our way in.

The Best Food Ever at local tavern: traut, fried cauliflower, fried cheese, potato pancakes, potatoes, veggies + kraut, beers, desert. Tavern staff loves us (again, we charm the local czech folks). Muddy walk to hostel, L meets cat and is overwhelmed. Check in at Skippy's hostel (10/10, would recommend). Tea on the terrace by the river.

Down to Cesky Krumlov's centre, for Christmas market and town concert where Skippy plays. We get a proper Trdelnik and mulled wine, we are satisfied. We follow the little theatre procession walking around town, along with children and chinese people. We explore the castle site at night, get nights view on town. Small dinner at a warm vegetarian restaurant. Spanish people have dinner next to us and wonder where the meaty menu went. In the restaurant, C's alarm goes off endlessly and we only realise it's hers after 15 min. We go back to the hostel, knackered, and fall asleep extra early.

day five - day & night: We wake up hungry but rested. We drink a great coffee by co-hostess Walk to town centre, L says bye to the cat. We have breakfast at the Egon Shiele Cafe - it looks retro and cool. The museum is closed, C is a bit disappointed. Walk around castle area from another part as the night before. L falls in stairs of old street. It hurts.

I buy wooden train for my niece in little boutique around the castle. We get back to the hostel to pick up our things and take a rushed walk to the bus station, which ends under a light snow. We get to the bus and leave 2 min after. Get back to Prague at around 5:30pm.

We take an illegally free tram to a new hostel in Holešovice. We get there later than we had hoped, but the place looks stunning. We change and put away our things, then head straight out. We have twenty minutes to eat and then head to concert hall for the quartet. We find best place for tartines. So cheap and so good (ed. unfortunately this particular establishment is not listed online, but from memory it is situated at this street corner) Then, we take yet another illegal tram to the Concert Hall. For full disclosure, I do not endorse this kind of behaviour and do not recommend as the public transport police is scary in Prague. We make a run for the theatre and again get there a minute before the show starts, K is there already. The venue is gorgeous, we make a Czech woman smile. Walk from concert hall to bar; K takes us on a spontaneous Places Where She Peed in Prague tour (highlight - the actual Charles Bridge); also a notable place - the park where all her boyfriends dump her (ed: K now dates girls and no longer gets dumped).

At tavern - Friend DK joins us for beers! Old Czech politician is present, he turned 82 a couple days before. He looks it. We have wine, and beer, and absinth. DK leaves before absinth, it's a good thing. Drunk walk home. Takes us an hour. Bedtime: 2am. We still haven't cooked the oyster mushrooms.

day six - day & night: Breakfast at 9:30 in café not far from hostel (a hungover meal of sorts. Ish.) We hit a couple of second-hand shops, then we head to the Contemporary Art Museum in Holešovice. L goes to meet some friends, C and I go for coffee, for what we will now start naming L and C's café crawl. We stay in the neighbourhood with the vague goal to find a present for L's secret santa at last and go out in search of a market.

We go charity shopping - I get a dress and a top, C gets a jumper and acne skinny jeans in her size that L will later die of jealousy for. We walk around just a little bit more, I buy film for my camera, we then stop at a cool art and design bookshop. We get free posters. We get a cheap lunch in hip café. Soup + tortilla. C books a chaotic Blablacar for that very night. Then, we make another stop in a bakery for desert and coffee. C has the pastry of a life time. I am over the moon about coffee.

We finally head to the market, walking. The market is dead. We start feeling the urgency of the ‘present’ situation (see what I did there). C and I comb the area around our hostel for present ideas. We walk through the most classically 2019, multipurpose, uberhip space to exist. To no one’s surprise, we find nothing there of our liking. Finally, we find a bookshop/café/wine place in the middle of a square, our heaven. We get cookbook for L + a pin of the Dancing House back at the hostel.

At the hostel, we meet L, buy stuff at the express supermarket and make dinner with the oyster mushrooms, at last. We exchange secret santa gifts, C heads to her blablacar. L and I have a quiet night in, me packing for the next day, her sorting out her accommodation and plan for next few days as she is staying in Prague after us. Bedtime: too early to matter.

day seven - day: Wake up at 6:30am, departure from hostel at 7am, embarking on quite the transport trail. Get to the airport at 8:15am. Flight to Paris at 9:55am.

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