Prague: Commercialisation, Resturants, Places to Stay, Bars, Public Transport, The Secret Police, Guns.
Created | Updated Apr 13, 2002
The fall of Communism has left a great hole in the marketing strategies of most Western Multinationals. The Czech Republic itself constituted one of the biggest and most gaping voids in any marketing division's portfolio. Consequently, they have all rushed to fill this vacuum in double quick time. Tesco, Marks and Spencer, McDonald's they are all there. I suspect the Czech Republic has been popular with sales executive types because they can end a day gulping down some of the finest beer in Europe after carving up the fine city of Prague into markets for their consumable products.
As all tourists should be aware, they have a massive impact on the country they are visiting. The demands of tourists can destroy ecosystems and parts of the culture, even whilst at the same time as preserving certain, more profitable, ones.
It is incredibly difficult to find authentic Czech food any more. There have, around the tourist districts of Mala Strana, Vaclav Namesti (Namesti or Nam. means square) and Starometska Namesti, sprung up resturants which cater for the mass tourist 'interest'. Badly done Italian food is the main fare of some. Others present traditional food, but not nearly as cheap as one suspects it should be.
The issue about prices in the Prague is an intersting one. When speaking to most tourists, the overwhelming consensus is that Prague is good because "It's so cheap...". Can you imagine what you'd think of a tourist and tourism in general if when you met them they thought the best thing about your country was that it was cheaper than their home? I think I know what my reaction would be if I were a bar owner.
There are decent resturants though. Czech only menus are a good sign, decoding them is great fun and a good way of never being complacent about your order. As all the guidebooks say, watch out for over charging. If you are in a small out of the way resturant which has Czech and foreign language menus, it can be revealing to compare the prices, but that is in no way to say that you are going to get ripped off all the time. A good test for the authenticity of a returant in Prague is this: Order a coffee, just straight coffee (Kaffe) if what you get is really, really bad black sludge at which no attempt at removing the coffee grains has been made, then your resturant is authentic Czech. If on the other hand you recieve a lovely cup of brewed coffe with a little plastic pot of Dowe Egberts coffee whitener, then your retranteur has been listening to the other tourists who tell him his country is sooo cheap...
If you arrive by plane, make haste to the train station and wander around for a bit. Odds on you will be approached by someone who will ask you if you have anywhere booked to stay. Don't be afraid to say no. Most of these people manage flats in the city which are much cheaper than a hotel, especially if it is high season, they are often four bedroom apartments with small kitchens. It's like meeting people in a hostel but without the dormitories.
There are loads of really good bars in Prague, you sit down and a waitress brings you everything. Beer is about 50p a pint in a good bar, cigarettes around a pound. I found only one late licence place in Prague, Jo's Bar opposite the cathedral of St Nicholas' in Mala Strana, most bars I went to closed at around midnight, a lot see how many people are in the bar and close when the number gets too small. Jo's opens until five am. It's got, below the innocuous top bar, two floors of cellar/dungeon style halls. The bottom floor is a disco, which plays eclectic, if difficult to dance to and sometimes a bit cheesy tunes. The flyer quotes, in a review from the UK Observer, that 'this is the new left bank' and that Jo's is 'one of the best bars in Europe'. Unfortunately they are wrong, or the intellectual level has slipped a bit. Or the Americans have moved in... Still its a good place to go.
Better places are: 'La Casa Blu' in Josefov. This really does seem like it's 'the new left bank', with rather strange ex-pat types discussing issues of importance in a South American style atmosphere that is calm and relaxing. The multi national staff are very freindly and they operate on a kind of collective system, and indeed, there's a little shrine to Che Guevara above the bar.
Another good place to drink is 'Cafe Marquis de Sade', also in Josefov. Here religious icons are mixed with erotic paintings in a huge open plan bar. They regularily have live music on, and its near the Josefov Traveller's Hostel (tm) so it attracts that kind of crowd. The guidebooks say that cocktails are rare and expensive in Prague, not any more. There still pricier than beer, but they are everywhere.
The main shock when first arriving in Prague is the public transport system. It took me around a week to decode exactly how to use it. The system is based on trust, there are machines that sell different types of ticket at the metro stations and newsstands also sell them. If you buy a twelve crown ticket, you validate it in the machines on the trams, busses or metro station halls and its valid for an hour on any form of transport. The trust scheme is backed up with plain clothes inspectors, who will levy an on the spot fine of 200 crowns (£4)if you get caught. When I got caught I was the only one on the tram who didn't have a valid ticket, and it was very embarrassing. If you get nabbed don't bother giving the 'I'm an innocent, ignorant tourist' defence or even 'two tickets please conductor' because it don't work. I half suspect that the complex nature of the ticket system means that a vast proportion of the fines come from tourist pockets, with bags and cameras you make easy picking for the transport cops. If in doubt about what ticket to get buy a couple of 12 crown ones. A 24 hour ticket is 72Kc
Speaking of the police, because of the process of reconciliation between Communists and Reformers was a 'velvet' one (not done by violent coup de etat) there are quite a lot of old secret policemen out there, some of them possibly guilty of murder and torture. You can see the old secret police HQ and even stay in the cell that houses Vaclav Havel (the current president and velvet revolutionary.)
Possibly as a result of this presence of a small number of shadowy murderers and torturers at large in society, there was a brief fad for buying guns. The sales have dropped rapidly off in the last few years, but they are still readily available in licenced stores. Banks have specific signs banning guns from their buildings. This is something to bear in mind if you are attempting to buy drugs from the hawkers outside the KOTVA shopping mall on Republiky Namesti (opposite the Campari advert).
The best thing about Prague though is exploring, especially wider afield than the main tourist haunts, its safe and friendly and beautiful.
As all tourists should be aware, they have a massive impact on the country they are visiting. The demands of tourists can destroy ecosystems and parts of the culture, even whilst at the same time as preserving certain, more profitable, ones.
It is incredibly difficult to find authentic Czech food any more. There have, around the tourist districts of Mala Strana, Vaclav Namesti (Namesti or Nam. means square) and Starometska Namesti, sprung up resturants which cater for the mass tourist 'interest'. Badly done Italian food is the main fare of some. Others present traditional food, but not nearly as cheap as one suspects it should be.
The issue about prices in the Prague is an intersting one. When speaking to most tourists, the overwhelming consensus is that Prague is good because "It's so cheap...". Can you imagine what you'd think of a tourist and tourism in general if when you met them they thought the best thing about your country was that it was cheaper than their home? I think I know what my reaction would be if I were a bar owner.
There are decent resturants though. Czech only menus are a good sign, decoding them is great fun and a good way of never being complacent about your order. As all the guidebooks say, watch out for over charging. If you are in a small out of the way resturant which has Czech and foreign language menus, it can be revealing to compare the prices, but that is in no way to say that you are going to get ripped off all the time. A good test for the authenticity of a returant in Prague is this: Order a coffee, just straight coffee (Kaffe) if what you get is really, really bad black sludge at which no attempt at removing the coffee grains has been made, then your resturant is authentic Czech. If on the other hand you recieve a lovely cup of brewed coffe with a little plastic pot of Dowe Egberts coffee whitener, then your retranteur has been listening to the other tourists who tell him his country is sooo cheap...
If you arrive by plane, make haste to the train station and wander around for a bit. Odds on you will be approached by someone who will ask you if you have anywhere booked to stay. Don't be afraid to say no. Most of these people manage flats in the city which are much cheaper than a hotel, especially if it is high season, they are often four bedroom apartments with small kitchens. It's like meeting people in a hostel but without the dormitories.
There are loads of really good bars in Prague, you sit down and a waitress brings you everything. Beer is about 50p a pint in a good bar, cigarettes around a pound. I found only one late licence place in Prague, Jo's Bar opposite the cathedral of St Nicholas' in Mala Strana, most bars I went to closed at around midnight, a lot see how many people are in the bar and close when the number gets too small. Jo's opens until five am. It's got, below the innocuous top bar, two floors of cellar/dungeon style halls. The bottom floor is a disco, which plays eclectic, if difficult to dance to and sometimes a bit cheesy tunes. The flyer quotes, in a review from the UK Observer, that 'this is the new left bank' and that Jo's is 'one of the best bars in Europe'. Unfortunately they are wrong, or the intellectual level has slipped a bit. Or the Americans have moved in... Still its a good place to go.
Better places are: 'La Casa Blu' in Josefov. This really does seem like it's 'the new left bank', with rather strange ex-pat types discussing issues of importance in a South American style atmosphere that is calm and relaxing. The multi national staff are very freindly and they operate on a kind of collective system, and indeed, there's a little shrine to Che Guevara above the bar.
Another good place to drink is 'Cafe Marquis de Sade', also in Josefov. Here religious icons are mixed with erotic paintings in a huge open plan bar. They regularily have live music on, and its near the Josefov Traveller's Hostel (tm) so it attracts that kind of crowd. The guidebooks say that cocktails are rare and expensive in Prague, not any more. There still pricier than beer, but they are everywhere.
The main shock when first arriving in Prague is the public transport system. It took me around a week to decode exactly how to use it. The system is based on trust, there are machines that sell different types of ticket at the metro stations and newsstands also sell them. If you buy a twelve crown ticket, you validate it in the machines on the trams, busses or metro station halls and its valid for an hour on any form of transport. The trust scheme is backed up with plain clothes inspectors, who will levy an on the spot fine of 200 crowns (£4)if you get caught. When I got caught I was the only one on the tram who didn't have a valid ticket, and it was very embarrassing. If you get nabbed don't bother giving the 'I'm an innocent, ignorant tourist' defence or even 'two tickets please conductor' because it don't work. I half suspect that the complex nature of the ticket system means that a vast proportion of the fines come from tourist pockets, with bags and cameras you make easy picking for the transport cops. If in doubt about what ticket to get buy a couple of 12 crown ones. A 24 hour ticket is 72Kc
Speaking of the police, because of the process of reconciliation between Communists and Reformers was a 'velvet' one (not done by violent coup de etat) there are quite a lot of old secret policemen out there, some of them possibly guilty of murder and torture. You can see the old secret police HQ and even stay in the cell that houses Vaclav Havel (the current president and velvet revolutionary.)
Possibly as a result of this presence of a small number of shadowy murderers and torturers at large in society, there was a brief fad for buying guns. The sales have dropped rapidly off in the last few years, but they are still readily available in licenced stores. Banks have specific signs banning guns from their buildings. This is something to bear in mind if you are attempting to buy drugs from the hawkers outside the KOTVA shopping mall on Republiky Namesti (opposite the Campari advert).
The best thing about Prague though is exploring, especially wider afield than the main tourist haunts, its safe and friendly and beautiful.
