Prague and Praha

Prague- There are two different cities here. Prague and Praha. Prague is the internationally known city where tourists come to see the famous St. Vitus Cathedral surrounded by a castle were hundreds crowd around to watch the ceremonial changing of the guards every noon. Praha is where the citizens of Prague live and work, unless they work in Prague.


One of the many bridges crossing the Vtava River in Prague.

Every major tourist destination has these split personalities. One is a facade of a town which we are told actually existed and functioned as a normal town several decades, or even centuries ago. This fraction of the city still provides a very important economic and cultural role for every resident involved, but never seems to fully reciprocate the feeling with the actual town, in this case Praha.


A park in Praha.

Praha is the Czech spelling of Prague. Like when an actual Parisian pronounces Paris, "Pari," unlike the American emphasis on the "s." Although, this does involves an entire different spelling of the name of the city. This alternate spelling is not solely and English affair. In German it is spelled "Prag."

This difference in spelling may merely be an issue of semantics, but it relates to a separation in the city as a whole. Two days ago, Ian and I set off to do some shopping across the north end of the Vtava River, outside of the tourist boarder of Prague, Praha. We scaled through local parks and side streets to find your typical busy city full of trolleys and pedestrians. Nothing more and nothing less than the financial district of San Francisco, minus the super tall buildings.


Nearly all buildings in Prague are about six stories tall. This buiding is across the courtyard behind our own building.

As said before, every tourist town as this. But Prague sets the bar for its separation of historic and function. Never have I seen such a dramatic drop in travelers when I cross a single road. The old Jewish Quarter in Prague is packed, shoulder to shoulder with tourists, guides and store owners, but none exists outside of the six square block section. When you leave Prague and enter Praha you literally feel like it's a different town.


An apartment building in Praha.

While on the train to Prague from Budapest, we met an older American couple who explained to us that around 60% of Prague's GDP comes from tourism. I'm not sure if this statistic is accurate, but it sure feels right when walking through the city. Budapest felt nothing like this. Budapest felt like a regular city which happened to have some land marks which some visitors might like to see. There were no neighborhoods devoted to tourism. Prague doesn't just have squares, or streets, but entire neighborhoods, 100% devoted to tourists.

It is very possible that this is only an initial reaction to a fact of a continent that has been around for much longer than the country I was raised in- that I am yet to grasp the understanding of how real tourist destinations righteously function.



I really do love Prague. It is small enough to walk anywhere a traveler may need or want to go. And living here would not be so bad- known of those damn tourists would get in your way. You live in Praha, while they are visiting Prague.

Prague Day 1: Trains, friends and trains

Copied from my journal
6/25 8:15 A.M. Central Europe Time Zone

Prague- It took about 10 hours, with no sleep for 36 hours, and we had a race against time to transfer train stations in Vienna, but we made it to Prague, or as the locals call it, Praha.


St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague


Walking through the gardens of Prague Castle with Anjali, a friend we made in Budapest.

With a 6 A.M. train out of Budapest, I deceided to not sleep the night before, in fear of sleeping through my alarm. Although I truely wish I could have slept that night, the groginess I felt all day yesterday was worth the security of knowing we should not miss our first train.

Unfortunatly, I felt terrible the following day of travel. Never was I able to sleep for more than on hour at a time on the train due to the uncomfortable seats, sudden joting of the cab, or pain of hunger in my stomach.

On top of this, we had a very close call of missing our train transfer in Vienna. We had a one hour "lay-over" in Vienna, but our arrival and departure stations were about 2 kilometers apart.

The debacle started when our first train (from Budapest to Vienna) arrived 15 minutes late in Vienna's Western station. No, there were no cowboys on horseback to great us. So now we had 45 minutes to get to the Vienna Southern Stations. 15 minutes later and we were off our platfrom, found the info booth to figure out how to get to the other station, bought the tickets for the tram to the other station, go back to the info booth to find out if the tickets we got were the right ones and finally made our way to the platform.

We had 30 minutes left to go (with a 20 minutes tram ride ot fit in there). While waiting at the tram station, we consulted a map to determine how many stops it should take us to get to the other train station. As we face the map with our backs to the tracks, our #18 tram comes... and goes. Note to self: all three travelers need not be consulting the map together at the same time.

Another 5 minutes, and again the #18 tram swings by. We jump on and hope for no more delays. The trams eventually goes underground which allows for faster stops and less time between them. This is when I realize that this may be the only chance we get to see Vienna on our trip. Now most of what I know about Vienna is underground.

We get to the Southern Station, still no cowboys, with only minutes to spare. We find our platfrom, get our tickets validated at the ticket window and rush to our platfrom. As we are placing our bags on the racks above our seats the horn begins to blow, signaling the departure. Made it.


--------------------------

Our hostel in Praha looks nothing like a hostel. We each have seperate twin beads in a private room with loads of space. 12 foot tall ceilings are decorated as though this hostel used to be a very nice, chic, apartment. We even have a private balcony opening to a fantastic view of the river and across to the other side. The kitchen is very modern and living room feels too clean.


Dwayne and our private room's view

Large, empty, white walls surround every room and trendy blue spotted comforters cover each each bed. If the Loft Hostel in Budapest was the teen Eurotrip movie set, this is the Jason Bourne Aprtment in the Bourne Identity.


Streets of Prague

The downside of having a private room and much quieter common room is that the likelyhood of making friends here is much lower. But the amount and quality of sleep will improve a lot. Making friends in hostels increases the overall experience of a trip.


Chilling on the Danube


Walking with friends on the bridge of the Danube at sunset

Without the friends we made in Budapest, we never would have found the blues bands in a basement bar, stuffed our faces at Mongolian BBQ, or partied on the bank of the Danube River. Connections get you into and inform you about places you neevr would have seen otherwise had you stayed in a hotel.


Walking around Budapest with hostel mates