First Impressions - a visit to Prague end of March 2013.

            It was lovely to have the opportunity to visit the city of Prague, filled with so much history and tradition.  We were visiting our son and daughter-in-law, and that always makes visiting a new place easier. There are always interesting things to take in when visiting a new place, and so I thought it would be interesting to record our impressions of our visit.

            The first thing you will have to face is travelling on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, unlike in UK or Japan which is on the left side of the road.  You will need to make sure to look left when crossing a road, and if crossing from the tram stop, look the other way.  It took awhile to get use to that, and so to make sure I didn’t get knocked over by a car, I looked both ways at first!! 

            Getting around Prague is reasonably easy on the tram, metro or bus.  You need to buy a ticket before you get on the transport system.  You can buy tickets from a dispensing machine at certain locations, and you buy by the hour rather than the destination.  They have 30 minute ticket, 24 hour ticket, 76 hour ticket, etc.  When you first get on the tram or bus, you need to activate the ticket in a slot on the vehicle.  If you ride without a ticket, or an expired ticket, and the conductor comes round to check on your ticket, you could end up with a hefty fine.  However, having a ticket does mean you can get on and off a tram, or metro underground train, or a bus at will, so does make travelling around easy. 

            There was some snow about when we were there.  The city council has a very efficient snow removing team on the job very promptly.  They clear the pathways so they are not generally slippery, and roads are soon cleared, and traffic does not seem to be unduly hindered. 

            Having a meal in Prague also had some things which were interesting to say the least.  The first, is that they will often bring a little basket of bread or rolls, which in some restaurants you will pay for if you eat the bread.  The other thing was that as soon as you had finished your meal, they removed the plate.  This was different, and not quite sure what the reasoning may be behind it.

            In one café, we ordered our drinks, and I had a milk chocolate.  The others had various kinds of flavoured tea.  My milk chocolate was very thick, and while I could drink it, it was easier to drink with a spoon!  I think this was just this particular café as in another café it was more how I would imagine it should be. 

            Tipping was different.  I paid for the meal with cash, and they just assumed that all the money I had given was for the bill and tip.  Fortunately, it wasn’t a lot more.  Apparently they round up the tip by 10%, and so must have assumed that was what I had given.  Life is different in different places!

            We were in Prague just before Easter and there was a lot of evidence of how they celebrate it from painted Easter eggs, Easter bunnies and other Easter paraphernalia.   Lots of churches too, but how Easter is actually celebrated or remembered, I am not quite sure. 

            The public conveniences while available in some of the more prominent tourist locations do require a coin, either a 5 or 10 koruna coin will be needed.  Sometimes MacDonalds can be used without the coin, but the MacDonalds in Wenceslas Square require a coin. 

            The people are not very friendly, and very rarely greet you when out and about.  This, we were told, is probably a hang over from the communist regime time, when you didn’t trust anyone.  Also at Tescos, the lady on the till was quite impatient not giving one any time to pack your bags before the next persons shopping was coming through.  But there were also some nice people too.  The guy at the pottery shop that we popped into was very friendly and chatty. 

            It would seem that a lot of people shop on a daily basis for their food items.  So you get strange looks if you are carrying the weeks shopping home on the tram. 

            Prague is a very beautiful city with a lot of character.  The buildings are very interesting, and there is a lot history to many of the sites that one visits in the Old Town, or on the Castle grounds and Cathedral.  Lots of statues of different individuals, and ornately decorated buildings.  The parks too were nicely kept, and a pleasure to visit.