Crowds in Prague

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014--Brno to Prague

The Student Agency buses here in the Czech Republic and parts of Germany are wonderful.  The buses have leather seats, free wifi, free movies (selections on an individual screen), etc.  It cost only $10.50 each for the 2 1/2-hour trip from Brno to Prague!  It was a smooth ride, it was on time, and it was faster than the train.

I was in Prague about 1985--while it was still under communist rule and before much had been restored to look nice.  I arrived in the late afternoon.  I remember going up and down Wenceslaws Square looking for a hotel room, since that was where there was the largest accumulation of smaller hotels that would have reasonable prices.  All were full.  Somehow, maybe because it was recommended, I headed to the Hotel Paris.  There was a room for me there, and the hotel was totally charming and nice.  It had been restored while keeping its old features such as the cage elevator.  It was also a surprise for me to find there was a shortwave radio in the room.  The hotel may have been restricted only to foreigners, because such "outside" news was generally illegal in communist times.  Of course, Czechoslovakia, as it was known then, was one of the more liberal communist countries (along with Hungary) at the time.  Anyway, the hotel was elegant and I had a memorable stay there.  It's still a popular hotel in the city.

At that time, Prague was already a popular place for visitors.  Czechoslovakia, as I wrote above, was one of the two communist countries (including Hungary) which was liberal enough to let western visitors enter without a visa in advance.  It still was a rather dreary place, however, since communists had little money for restoration of buildings.  There still existed bombed out ruins from WWII of major churches, and most buildings were dark and dreary looking--mostly gray since the communists hardly ever had paint to make a place look bright.  It's a different story today.  Prague sparkles with all the restoration work that has been done.  And instead of being popular, it is now mega-popular.  Not just the main square, but large portions of the older parts of Prague are crowded with people on the same level as Times Square in New York.  It is just unbelievable how many people there are moving and standing around all over this city!

It only took us 15 minutes to walk from the bus station to our apartment which is only 3 1/2 blocks from the Old Town Square.  And the apartment itself is old style--elegant and beautiful.  (It looks just like the photos on the website.)   Our landlady was here to meet us and give us basic instructions on which keys open what, how to operate the TV, etc. 

Once she was gone, we headed out to explore the city haphazardly.  We walked to the Old Town Square.  We watched the astronomical clock go off.  We walked along the river looking across to Prague Castle.  We went over the Charles Bridge (not nearly as pleasant of an experience as it was 30 years ago because of the large crowds today). 

Eventually, we were tired and headed for Tesco, the British version of Wal-Mart and bought groceries to have in our kitchen for our 4-day stay here.  We got cold cuts (salami, ham, chicken, edam cheese), bread (a heavy peasant variety), butter, Czech beer, Czech wine, and some Italian tomato sauce in a jar to go with half a package of pasta we had leftover from a week or so ago. 

We relaxed at the apartment in the late afternoon and evening.  We had the pasta with tomato sauce and the wine for dinner.  We figured out how to watch TV.  (It's never easy to figure out how to control both a TV and a box.  Here, the box is via the Internet over an HDMI connection.) 

Tomorrow, we will really start exploring the city.  I just hope we aren't continually frustrated by the large crowds.