Prague

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Prague is a city best enjoyed with your significant other, but when offered a chance by my employer to attend a conference of Indian bond dealers there, I said yes right away.

Flying Turkish airlines and changing flights at Istanbul, I reached the hotel in Prague (a Hilton business hotel not too far from the old town center) around 3 pm in the afternoon. The conference managers had organized an orientation tour of the city that evening, but I decided to explore myself at my pace, on my own whims.

I set out for the Old Town Square, but lost my way and hit Wenceslas square instead, a wide boulevard culminating in the statue of Saint Wenceslas and the national museum at one end, and lined with office buildings, hotels, retail stores and strip clubs. The area sported a typical festive summer atmosphere. The crowd was a mix of locals and tourists, and a concert setup was in the works.

From Wenceslas square, I passed through narrow cobblestoned streets lined with cafés and boutiques to reach the Old Town Square. On one side of it was the pretty Tyn church and the opposite side, the Tower Hall with its astronomical clock. Both the church and hall were closed for the day, but I could go up the bell tower to get a panoramic view of the city.

 

From the town square, I headed north to the Jewish quarter, where a few old synagogues stood among high end retail stores. At one of the synagogues I bumped into the orientation tour group and joined it for a bit. The tour then headed back to the town square, whereby a couple of friends and I split from the group and enjoyed some Skaroramen beers at one of the cafés at the square.

Later that evening a river cruise was organized for the conference attendees. While some river / bay cruises, such as the ones in New York, Istanbul and Sydney, give you a different view of the city that cannot be had from being on land, a majority of cruises the world over are tourist traps with bad buffets. This one belonged to the latter category, though it was fun having a few drinks with colleagues in the industry.

After the cruise, I took an overnight bus to Budapest for a really short trip and was back the next night at 1am. (see my blog Budapest and Bratislava .. In a day!) The day after that was the actual conference. I attended the morning session and then headed out to the explore the Castle district.

Located on the other side of the Vltava, the Prague castle is the foremost attraction in the city. I bought a ticket that covered the four main attractions in the complex. I first headed to St Vitus Cathedral, a Gothic masterpiece considered the best building in Prague. The tall vaulted ceiling and large stained glass works were very impressive. Across the Cathedral were the Basilica and the Royal Palace and while they have historical significance, aesthetically they were uninteresting. The fourth entry on the ticket was the Golden Lane, lined with houses of commoners - Tarot card readers, goldsmiths, cavalrymen - across the past few centuries. Some houses are now converted to shops while yet others have exhibits related to their occupants. The slight drizzle that was on since the morning had by now turned into a downpour and I was getting soaked, having forgotten to carry any rainwear.

I had to buy a separate ticket to visit the bell tower of St Vitus Cathedral, which gave a nice view of the city including the old town square on the other side of the river. As I exited the castle area from the other side, I noticed a tavern, went in and took the only table available.  I ordered the homemade dark beer, and then had a look at the menu - to realize that this place had been open since 1350 and Mozart had been a guest at some point of time. A British couple from Liverpool joined me at the table and informed me that this was the oldest tavern in town and they had put in some effort to find it. Lucky me to have randomly bumped into it ! Their Liverpool accent was really tough to follow, but I managed to have a bit of a conversation about football and work and travel. With the refill of the beer, I also ordered for some baked Camembert cheese, which turned out to be quite delicious. True to it's medieval origins, the tavern had no wifi, the waiters banged the beer glass on the wooden table rather than serve it on a coaster gently. When I visited the washroom situated in the basement, I noticed that the ceiling was covered with human skulls!  The cost of enjoying two pints of homemade beer and fine cheese at this 600 year old tavern was less than having an average cocktail in an average bar in Mumbai.

The rain had stopped when I left the tavern. I walked through Mala Strana (lesser quarter) , where ethnic Germans lived in the Middle Ages. I thought of going into the well regarded St Nicholas Church, but I felt I had seen enough churches in the last couple of days and decided to save a few Korunas instead.

I crossed over the pretty Karluv Most (Charles Bridge) to the other side of town and roamed about for a bit, looking for places where I could spend the late evening - after attending the conference Gala dinner. I spotted a Jazz club and a couple of black light theaters. Just within a few blocks, there seemed to be half a dozen churches playing organ concerts. One could spend a week in this city visiting museums during the day and enjoying good music in the evenings.

Walking around, I ended up in Wenceslas square again and picked up a stylish leather backpack for my wife. I then took the metro back to the hotel, changed into smart casuals and boarded the bus headed to Zofin Palace, the venue for the gala dinner. It was a beautiful neo-Renaissance style building on a small island on the Vltava, connected to the mainland by a small footbridge. The food was average, but a Violin duo playing some classics including Pachelbel's canon was the highlight of the evening's entertainment. Chatting with friends and colleagues, I stuck around at Zofin till the event wound up around midnight, and by then it was too late to find any jazz or theatre.

I had a couple of hours in the morning to explore the town before heading to the airport, but the constant drizzle dampened my spirit and I just loafed around the hotel, having a long breakfast and chatting with friends.

I had barely scratched the surface of this beautiful city in the two half days I had to explore it. I will go back for more as soon as I can!

 

 

 

 

Budapest and Bratislava ... in a day!

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In an ideal world of unlimited holidays, one should spend at least a full day in Bratislava, and 3-4 days in Budapest to soak in the beauty, culture and nightlife these Eastern European capital cities have on offer. But even a glimpse is better than nothing, and I thus planned a hectic 24 hour side-trip to these places from Prague, where I was attending a conference and had a day off.

Post a Vltava river cruise with the Indian banking fraternity that ended at 10 pm, I had a quick change of clothes at the hotel and walked to the nearby Florenc bus station to take the overnight bus to Budapest. It was drizzling when I reached there at 5:30 am: thankfully I was carrying an unopened poncho I had bought at the Singapore GP 3 years ago. A Spanish tourist about to leave town gave me his 24 hour ticket for the public transport system. It would last till midday which suited me perfectly. I had a falafel sandwich for breakfast at the metro station to kick start the day.

My first stop of the day was the Deak Ter station, the heart of Pest. I walked South west on Karlovy Korut, one of the major thoroughfares with trendy cafés, shops and old world architecture. Just a few blocks away was the Great Synagogue, built using the Moorish style and the largest in Europe. It was still just 7 am and the building wasn't open to visitors yet. A couple of bars on Karlovy Korut, however, were open and abuzz with revelers.

Retracing my steps back to Deak Ter station and walking a block further, I reached St Stephen's Basilica, perhaps one of the most impressive buildings in all of Eastern Europe. There was barely a soul inside and I could walk around admiring it's massive dome and neo-Renaissance architecture in total peace. Building regulations in Budapest restrict any building to be taller than the dome of the Basilica. A short walk along Andrassy Avenue - considered Budapest's answer to Shawn Élysées - got me to the Budapest Opera, another neo-Renaissance masterpiece. It still wasn't even 8 am and thus even the box office wasn't open yet.

I then took the metro to Vorosmarty square, one of the most happening plazas in Pest, but at that moment, deserted. From the square I walked along the cobblestoned Vaci street, lined with boutiques and quaint restaurants as well as the regulation Starbucks, McDonalds and Burger King. At some point I turned towards the Danube river to views of the Buda Castle on the opposite bank. I crossed over the famous Chain bridge to the Buda side and climbed the couple of hundred steps to reach the Gothic St Mathias Church. I couldn't enter as Sunday Mass was going on, but I took the tour of the Bell tower. The top afforded a 360 degree panoramic view of both Buda and Pest, with the highlight being the sight of the Hungarian Parliament - as tall as St Stephens, no more no less - on the opposite side of the Danube.

The guide for the tour, Arpad, was a fan of Bollywood. He told me he liked SRK, but his favorite movie was Pyaasa. Then he went on to explain to me how it represented the class divide in India. I love the movie too, but this guy had a different way of experiencing it. It happens most times I travel - I end up meeting someone who talks about India in a way Indians don't.

After descending from the wall tower, I visited the Fisherman's Bastion. The name doesn't give any clues about the building - as per it's website, it is "a panoramic viewing terrace with fairy tale towers". An Asian couple was getting wedding pictures clicked, and with the sun out now, the setting couldn't be any better. I could hear Strauss' The Blue Danube ringing in my ears !

There were a couple of interesting places to visit in the neighborhood: the "Hospital in a rock", a nuclear era bunker, and "Labirinthus", an underground network of pathways and caves.  But time constraints meant I couldn't visit either of them. I walked to the Buda castle, situated a few blocks away at the same panoramic elevation as the church and bastion. Though it looked impressive from a distance, it wasn't as beguiling up close as other places I had seen that day. Moreover it had been badly damaged during WWII. It houses a well known museum but I didn't have the time to visit it.

In many ways Budapest offers similar attractions to most European cities: castles, plazas, art museums, opera etc. What sets it apart are it's  public baths with their sauna, hot pools and array of spa treatments housed in impressive classical buildings. From the Buda Castle, I took a bus across from Buda to Pest and then a metro to one of the city's top attractions,  the Szechenyi baths. I was quite impressed by it's locker system. When paying for entry, you received a remote device that you wore like a watch and which could be used to lock whichever locker you choose to keep your stuff in. In case you forgot the locker number, then there was another device around where you could scan your watch and it would flash your locker number. I spent close to an hour at the baths, rejuvenating my tired feet.

I left the baths at around 1 pm and headed to the central market with a view to have lunch there and perhaps pick up a souvenir or two, but it was shut for some reason. I had a nice potato soup at a joint across the street and headed back to the bus station.

I barely spent 6-7 hours in town, but got a good flavor of things on offer. The city was as pretty as any in Europe, but tourist numbers were much less than you'd find in Paris, Rome or even nearby Prague. A few travel websites are spot on when they say that Budapest is one of the hidden gems of Europe. I felt that a few parts of the city were dirty, but I guess that is line with Eastern Europe still catching up with the Western part in terms of prosperity. One observation reminded me of Mumbai's suburban train network - there were no ticket turnstiles at underground stations.

I boarded a bus at 3 pm and reached Bratislava at 5:45 pm. I had earlier considered spending a few hours more at Budapest and leave at 6 pm to reach Prague past midnight. But Bratislava was on the way and I thought it would be nice to break the journey into two parts, be somewhere fun during dinner time, and peek into the Slovakian capital even if just for a couple of hours.

The 10-15 minute walk from the bus station to old town was through a residential neighborhood - it was deserted and everyone was indoors as one would expect on a Sunday evening. I came across a neighborhood church, painted blue both on the outside and inside, and filled with locals. A few minutes later I reached the old town square which was full of activity thanks to the tourists. The castle and the main church in town were closed for the day. While they probably were worth a peek, the town didn't have any must-see attractions. A few blocks from the Town square was the Danube riverside, lined predominantly by modern glass facades, with the odd building with classical architecture.

For dinner, I picked a place serving Slovak specialities. What I ordered had a Slovak name I forgot, but it was a sweet-savory dish consisting of four plum-stuffed large Gnocchi balls, covered with a sweet sauce containing poppy seeds. Given how meat dominated Eastern European food is, I had discounted any possibility of enjoying the local food, but authentic experiences are even more enjoyable when they come up unexpected.

 

After an eventful day I took the 8:30 pm bus back to Prague reaching there at 1 am . The bus, run by a company called Student Agency, not only did have an entertainment system, but also free hot drinks served by a hostess on board. For all the fun I had, the total damage was less than 100 Euros!