I'm going to Prague and Brno for the GP in mid August. I don't know shit. Any advice would be appreciated - bars, hotels, eats, beers, the usual and unusual. Thank you very much.

Drink lots of their beer! Lots and lots!

s'very nice.

Very jealous.

Try the pilsner.

It has no bubbles, unlike the knockoff beer served here.

Very good and non-filling.

It's a breakfast drink in the republic...

Eats - anywhere. It's cheap. Not as cheap as it was in 1999, but still a good deal for Europe. Beer halls will sell you a filling dinner and a beer for very little.

For lunch, get a schnitzel on a bun, with the works and a beer. You can get that on the street for about 2 bucks. Drinking beer while walking down the street is just cool.

The Czechs aren't known for their food, but it's certainly not bad. Hearty stuff, like German fare. You can eat local food most of the time, and go out for some other Euro meal, like French, for a special dinner. A top meal will be less there than any other place in Europe, and just as good.

For lodging, find a place a few hundred yards right outside the city wall. No further than that. Within the city walls will cost extra, and too far away gets you into Soviet Bloc looking neighborhoods.
I highly recommend this place.
It's nice by European standards (more than good enough for me), meaning it's clean, safe, includes breakfast (a big one, so eat enough and you can get by with a light lunch), and the people are friendly. You can pack light because they will do your laundry for cheap (check on that before you go, to be safe). I went with carry-on only for four days.

Music is to Prague what visual art is to Paris. In fact, I consider Prague to be the new Left Bank, since Paris is so expensive these days. You can live well in Prague for a lot less. Make sure to see a lot of music. At 5pm, most churches will have a concert. See a performance of Dvorak's New World Symphony in the town it's about. See Mozart's Don Giovanni in the theatre where it premiered. Make sure to see as much jazz as you can. It's very popular there, and you'll love hearing it sung in a Czech accent. At night, the clubs are full of the usual dance stuff. If you're not into that, beer halls are sort of like pubs.
There will probably be a few good rock shows happening somewhere in town.

The beer is almost all Pils, natch. Budvar is good. Staroprammer is my favorite. Pilsner Urquel is from there.

Go to the Jewish cemetary, get your disposable yamulke, and see the place. Probably the coolest grave yard I've ever seen. Good restaurants and cafes in the area too.

The girls are cute, and if you are polite, the townspeople will fall all over themselves to make you happy. Learn a few words like "hello" "goodbye" "thanks" "please" and "no thanks" and you'll do even better. Very few people take the time to learn Czech so it's a nice touch. In fact, do this no matter where you go and you'll make friends that will show you the best places.

The Alphonse Mucha museum is fantastic. The whole town is Beaux Arts style, and the museum gives you insight into that in it's own way. Since the Czechs have had very little conflict on their soil (they surrendered a lot...) the whole town is well preserved. After the Russians left, they just scrubbed the place down and it was 1909 all over again. It's just gorgeous man.

Last of all, Prague is one of the few places you can get real Absinthe. Have it properly prepared and I promise you'll enjoy it. What you get in the rest of Europe, including France, is not the real stuff. Don't worry about the reputation, Absinthe made people go nuts the same way London Gin killed people young. Poor quality to meet high demand was detrimental to desperate people's health. The stuff you get now is fine. The buzz is like a cross between being high and being pleasantly drunk - the best of both, actually. Really nice.

Have a great time. It's possibly my favorite city.
Why are you going?

-A

alex maiolo wrote:Why are you going?

Motorcycle race in Brno.

Thanks for the help. Keep 'em coming if anyone else has ideas.

alex maiolo wrote:Eats - anywhere. It's cheap.

cheap, yes. good, well it's a crapshoot. i had probably the worst meal of my life in prague. it was nothing like the description. i don't remember what it was supposed to be but what i got was a bowl full of spagetti, canned clams, and hollandaise sauce. they were quite possibly fucking with me. i don't know. but it was fucking sick dude.

i think it's the clown and bard hostel that (at least back in '01) had pints of budvar (czechvar in the states) for what came to about 50 cents. they even had both the regular and rarely seen dark varieties. it's kinda out of the way but it's worth it in my opinion.

Some things to do in Brno:

In addition to seeing Spilberk Castle, the Capuccin Crypts, the Brno Dragon at the City hall, and of couse Petrov Cathedral, you might want to go to a few bars.

Note that you will, in the overwhelming probability, not find any decent music in this country, especially outside of Prague. So don't expect to just show up at clubs and see awesome shows.

Should that prove the case, I would recommend:

Livingstone - a fairly big dance-type place in a passage on Namesti Svobody.
Beer on tap (Starobrno - known to the locals as Starobahno or Starohovno) is not that good, though. Entrance 30Kc on weekends.

Charlies Hat - Rock-oriented club near Nam. Svobody. In a cellar, a little cramped, and gets pretty full, but is a serious place to party. Good beer - Bernhard and Gambrinus. No cover. Across from it is a snack window selling bureks, a balkan specialty consisting of leaf dough filled with ground beef or cheese. One of the best snack places in Brno.

Fleda (former Kabaret u Netopyra [at the Bat's]) Stefanikova 24, a 15min walk from the centre. Legendary Brno venue for rock, jazz, and a kinds of
live music. Has three stages, but these days it is very hit or miss, as there is not necessarily much going on. Still worth checking out. Entry varies. Good draft beer - Gambrinus.

Sklenena Louka (Glass Meadow) - Kounicova 2 (on the way to Fleda) interesting 4-story complex of art galleries, cafes and bars. Right next to the unmistakable whore house, the Moulin Rouge (not sure about that place). Anyway, Sklenena Louka is worth checking out.

Restaurant Gourmand - Josefska 14 right behind the Grand Hotel- pretty much across the street from the train station. A wee bit expensive by Czech standards, $5-15, but has an excellent sellection of steaks, French and Italian fare, and far more vegetarian dishes than the average Czech restaurant. The staff is very friendly and semi-proficient in English.

A could write a lot more, but it would take forever. I lived in Brno from 2003-2005, so if you have any questions about where to stay and what to do, just let me know.

go nicky!

beat rossi!

If pilsner is your thing pay a quick trip to Plzen, about 50 miles (or €2 on the bus) from Prague. It's not a very attractive city, although it does have the obligatory nice-church-in-the-middle. However, it's home to the Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus (my favourite) breweries. Pilsner Urquell do a pretty good tour and the exclusive unpasteurised beer that you get is kick-arses. I lived in Plzen for a while, we viewed Prague beers with suspicion, Urquell rocks.

Local food can be described as "hearty", I'd describe it as "bland shite", especially in non-Prague areas where it hasn't been re-aligned to tourists' palates. However, the act of eating out is cheap and I've had plenty of great meals, albeit not composed of traditional Czech fare.

There are plenty of interesting places to go from Prague, and it's dead cheap to get about on the trains/buses.. Marianske lazne is a very pretty spa town with an amusingly wonky musical fountain, Cesky Krumlov is worth a visit with its fancy castle, ach, there's plenty to do.

I second that "the girls are cute".

watch out for small-minded policemen intent on busting you for jay-walking so that they can trouser the fine.

http://www.ultramarin.cz

great place to eat and drink in prague, lovely.