The travels of Tim and Megan: Christmas in Prague

Fans,

Saturday

After several very busy and stressful weeks, Christmas was finally upon us and we set off early on Saturday morning for London Gatwick airport...via three different underground lines and the Gatwick Express, which was significantly less than express. However, our time at Gatwick itself was fairly easy going, other than Megan having a blowout on her boot zip following the compulsory shoe x-ray at Security. With a brand new pair of shiny boots in tow, we boarded our plane and two hours later we were in a very chilly Prague.

The ground and all of the trees around the airport were blanketed in snow, and we thought we were bound for a white Christmas! However, once our taxi made it in to the city itself, we were a little disappointed to discover that there was no snow at all, yet it was still about -5 degrees. Ripped off.

After checking in to our very flash apartment in the centre of Prague, we set off to explore the city. Before long, we managed to get side-tracked by some fine Christmas market stalls down the end of our street. As it was getting dark, and was by this time about -7 degrees, we were easily sucked in to buying some mulled wine, some roasted hot nuts (ridiculously tasty) and a hot dog. There is nothing finer than a hot dog in -7 degrees.

Prague is such a beautiful city, but the magnificent big Christmas trees and Christmas lights everywhere made it even more so. Once again we found ourselves snapping photos left, right and centre like Japanese tourists! Perhaps it was the excitement of the Christmas lights, or maybe the mulled wine had gone to her head, but as we were crossing the street we looked up and saw a tram coming towards us and Megan panicked and, instead of realising that we were already 80% of the way across the street and that it made sense to keep going, Megan stopped, turned around and ran in front of the on-coming tram, back to the footpath we had just come from...almost getting run over in the process...

After exploring the first set of Christmas markets, we made our way down to the Old Town Square, where there were more Christmas markets...and about 5,000 more people! It was so cold by this point that Tim's head was starting to hurt...probably not a good sign. So Tim stopped in to a little shop just off the square and invested in a stunning hat with side flaps for his ears...the finest 450 Czech crowns he has ever spent...see spectacular pictures below.

With flaps sorted, we strolled around the Old Town Square some more and then found ourselves a restaurant, which was just as well, as we were starting to seize up in the cold. We found a great place with a very Czech sort of menu. Tim ordered a 1/2 duck with bread and potato dumplings (a Czech specialty) and Megan had the roast pork. Tim decided to go for the large beer and was presented with a 1 litre stein of the Czech's finest ale, again see picture below. Nice.

Dinner was made more entertaining thanks to the couple next to us. The guy, we think he was German, was clearly upset that their meals had not arrived in the 50 minutes since they placed their order, but even when the chef came out and apologised and said that their meals would be on the house, the guy threw his toys and said he didn't want his dinner any more and that he would go somewhere else. His wife / partner was, we think, Czech, and was clearly embarrassed by his outburst, apologised to the chef and insisted that they would stay. Anyway, an argument ensued and she refused to eat any of her dinner, and when the waiter returned to ask how their meals were, the guy said they were terrible and that he (the waiter) had ruined his night because now his partner would not speak to him...we had to chuckle.

Sunday

Sunday was by far the coldest day we spent in Prague. It must have been around -8. It was so bad that we could not stay outdoors for longer than a couple of hours at a time, despite wearing about five layers of clothing, including thermals and woollen coats...

In the morning we grabbed some supplies from the supermarket (it's always humorous to visit a supermarket in a foreign country) before heading back to the Old Town Square. We had to laugh as we passed a man selling carp out of a big barrel of water on the side of the street (carp is a Christmas favourite in the Czech Republic). Anyway, a customer was buying his Christmas carp and this feisty one managed to jump out of the seller's net and on to the pavement, where it wriggled and flapped around for a good few seconds before the seller could scoop it up and put it into a plastic bag (still live and flapping around) for the customer to carry away!

Given that it was now daylight, and there were fewer people around, we could actually see a lot more of the Christmas markets in the Old Town Square. We also got a close-up of the Astronomical Clock, a beautiful big clock that not only chimes on the hour, but has a procession of the 12 Apostles marching past above the clock face and a little bell, which is rung once the chiming has finished. Needless to say, this is quite the tourist attraction and at around five minutes to the hour a massive huddle forms around the clock, dispersing the moment the chiming has finished.

Next stop was Wenceslas Square, a huge wide road lined with shops, much like the Champs-Elysees in Paris, and famous in Prague as the venue of many political demonstrations, particularly during the Velvet Revolution in 1989, when peaceful protests led to the end of Soviet occupation. There were also more Christmas markets in Wesceslas Square, and we just had to try the crazy round doughnut type things that seemed to be all the rage. They were pretty good. After a couple of those, some mulled wine and a stroll up and down the street, we made our way to the Museum of Communism. Apart from being a very interesting place to visit, it was somewhere to hang out for an hour or so that was 22 degrees rather than -8 degrees.

Next up was lunch and, after the first place we tried refused to serve us a side of french fries with the soup that we wanted, we found a more reasonable place down the road that actually let you order whatever you wanted off the menu (how novel) and it was very nice.

Before we arrived in Prague, Tim had investigated the possibility of going to a live ice hockey match. Ice hockey is the national sport in the Czech Republic, and the Czechs are amongst the best in world at it. As it turned out, Sparta Prague had a home game against Vitkovice on Sunday. It proved impossible to get tickets online, so we decided to try our luck by rocking up to the T-Mobile Arena and looking for a ticket at the gate. We were very confused when we arrived at the gate and were ushered inside despite not having a ticket. We were almost an hour early for the 5pm start. However, we soon discovered that the game was in fact half way through (possibly why we got in free) so it was lucky that we didn't arrive at 5pm. The game was great, so fast! It's amazing how quickly the players cover the ground, even while controlling the puck and/or crashing into an opposition player. And Sparta Prague won 2-1 in extra time. However, we were concerned for the poor cheerleaders who were skating around in next to nothing in freezing temperatures...

After the hockey and finding our way back into the centre of Prague despite jumping on the wrong tram, we had an amazing dinner at an Argentine steak house. The steak was absolutely perfect, although Megan was more impressed by the live iguana in a little display case in the middle of the restaurant!