Prague is a place I’ve visited before. And, to be perfectly honest, I don’t understand the fuss. The castle on top of a hill provides great views of the city and the main footbridge is beautiful but beyond that there are many cities I prefer.
One promise Prague does keep is great beer. Budvar and Pilsner Urquell are the two most popular and they’re both good. But one night out we found ‘Full-strength beer’!! This beer was over 12% alcohol. Maysie was the only one game to try it and, needless to say, one was enough.
One of the most interesting places we visited on our whole trip was in Prague: The Communism Museum. The communist era is something I know little about. I’ve studied the Second World War a fair bit and I’ve read plenty about the breakdown of communism, but what life was like during communist rule is a mystery.
I learned that some people liked their life under communism. The farmer and factory worker were displayed as heroes of the nation. And those that sold luxury items and rarities could make loads of money by hiding them and selling them at increased prices to preferred customers.
The Velvet revolution would have been a scary time to be in Prague. Plenty going on and lots of confusion. Even the police seemed confused and would forcefully break up any protests. It was difficult to fathom that it took place in my lifetime.
We had a big night out in Prague at a small bar just up the road from our hostel. We met some ‘local’ youngsters who were not a terribly lively bunch. Squish did his best to engage the young folk and discovered that they were actually Danish and here to watch a football match.
The other endearing feature about Prague is that it’s the setting to two of the greatest INXS video clips of all time. We think we found a few of the vantage points used for those clips. And we heard a fair bit of INXS while we were there. I haven’t heard that much saxophone in years.
One of the low-lights also came during our trip to Prague. Maysie, the crazy man from the mines in central Queensland who every now and again thinks he can fly, left us. To be fair, he had a good excuse. He was on his way back to Melbourne for his sister’s 21st. It was great to see the bloke again and hope it’s not too long until I see him again.