If you’re in Europe and you’ve never been to Praha, don’t do the same mistake I did- just go. I don’t really remember why I kept postponing the trip, usually in exchange for other places like Barcelona or Amsterdam. Turns out Prague does not only compare, it outshines (not Barcelona- nothing outshines Barcelona-, but Amsterdam anyway).

… that is, until you see the hordes and masses of tourist crowds run you over. The city feels ike Paris, maybe not as dirty and a fair bit smaller. But in general the Czech tend to be just as rude and cold as the Parisien, and the architecture – untouched from either World War – is just as stunning and breath taking. Besides, it was nice to take a break from the shitty weather and the workload of Berlin. With only 16 € and five hours on a luxurious bus drive (movie, restroom, adjustable seats- I wish Orange Ways would travel within Germany, it’d save me so much hassle and not to mention the money).

Enough of the cheese though. We spent most of the time roaming the city and discovering everything on a slow pace: the food, the markets, the buildings, the history. It was the first sunny and beautiful weekend of the year and a Christian holiday, too, so the city was packed with tourists from all over Europe. There is a lot of history to catch up on, but not many activities. There are a couple of random museums (The Museum of Middle Age Sex Machines? Really?) but nothing that particularly stands out. We tried climbing the hill up to the fake Eiffel tower but our lungs only carried us so far (and my cameras battery died shortly before that, so I don’t even have pictures to prove that we tried at least).

The major tourist bullshit thing we did was to take a boat trip on the Moldau with “the Venice of Prague” which turned out to be really lame. We basically floated half an hour around the same spot while the tour guide mistook his role for a stand up comedian. And it was expensive, too. As attractive as the tickets look, don’t do it, it’s not worth it.

In the evenings we went to local sports bars and enjoyed football and hockey matches. On Sunday, the Czech even won the ice hockey world cup against Russia, so you can imagine what the party was like (honestly, it was nothing like football victories, but it was still awesome).

You can check out more pictures on my Flickr profile.

There was one slightly bitter taste to the trip, though. It had nothing to do with Praha exactly, just what came along with it. In a funny feeling moment we decided to join a tourist Pub Crawl to hang with more tourists, and I think I was instantly traumatized. Underage Brazilian chicks who act like whores because they’re in a different city, creepy old American dudes (along with the less creepy and rather douchebaggy New Jersey type of guy) who try to pump them. Most of them succeeded by the end of the night. And it was just that: nobody cared about the local bars, the music or the city itself. Everyone just wanted to get wasted and do wild style.

Not that there was anything cultural to care about. Imagine the most trashy club you can think of – this is what they sell you on a Pub Crawl in Prague (I know, for a matter of fact, that they sell you the exact same shit in Berlin too). I don’t know if that’s a certain treat of the east or if that’s just a general tourist thing in Europe. It was no surprise there were no Europeans on the crawl, I think they were all chilling in their cool spots, listening to nice music and enjoying cheap drinks with their friends while raising a condescending eyebrow on the mutant animal travelers from overseas. Now that’s a way to make an impression.

Really, I couldn’t care less about what others do. What this showed me though is how hard it is not to generalize. I was a tourist myself, and I was on the Pub Crawl too after all- I wanted to meet interesting people who tried to have a good time, right? But instead they tore shit apart and threw up on dancefloors. I could basically feel the locals stare at me, going all “oh just another shitty tourist”, and you know what? I’m scared this is what’s going to happen all over again when I go on the RTW trip. Especially in well traveled places – Thailand, Australia – I wouldn’t want to be the typical tourist. Except there is no way around it, right? I’m not there to have a party and get wasted, but I do have a backpack, I live in hostels, and who knows how much you can change when you’re far away from home?

I wonder if that change is always as positive as people make it out to be.

cities, europe, prague, weekend trip On The Road