Prague

[Scooby_Doo]

I'm going to Prague shortly for a long weekend - anyone been recently with good places to go, bad places to avoid? 

And yes, I know @Prahakillie might be useful here..... 

[cammy_boy]

Where are you staying? Generally the areas around the old town square and such are total tourist traps. However there are some good places to be found on Dlouha just off the square. There is a street kinda hidden behind the square called Michalska (had to look it up) with a cool basement bar and its super cheap fir the old town. Full of locals from memory. 

I stayed uo in Letna the last time I was there. Up by the Sparta stadium loads of cool bars and such up there. Id recommend taking a walk up into the park with the metronome overlooking the river. Steep trek up but there is a cool beer garden up there and hardly any tourists. Great to see the locals enjoying a beer after work. 

[cammy_boy]

Also the Petrin hill is a nice area. The funicular is a cool way up as is the walk across from the castle. Id recommended walking back down if your fit enough. 

Basically avoid Wenceslas Square at night unless your for the scuddy bars. See the old town but dont really spend too much time there the city is beautiful. If you get nice weather walk where you can as you will find hidden gems in the side streets and passages. The trams are brilliant tho so defo make use of them. 

[Prahakillie]

I'd agree with recommendation for Letna Park and beer garden. Best place to hang out imo in good weather. 

Another favourite beer garden (Riegrovy Sady) is closed this summer. 

Vysehrad is often overlooked and well worth a visit and there's a decent beer garden there as well. 

I haven't been to this place yet but looks decent and only a few tram stops from the centre: 

https://www.dvakohouti.cz/en/

 

The whole Karlin district is pretty good actually with decent prices and plenty of bars if you walk out along Krizikova or Sokolovska streets. 

 

A bit pricier but you can find a roof terrace in the centre with a view here: 

http://t-anker.cz/en/news/

 

Also, I forgot to mention that in the better weather everyone spends their evenings along by the river (at naplavka):

There are bars by the walkway on the riverbank and on boats. 

https://prazskenaplavky.cz/

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2019 by Prahakillie

[Prahakillie]

Also check out these guys on youtube, fairly accurate and out to avoid tourist rip-offs: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt7oj318jVQi7vRbc1bNjJA

[Squirrelhumper]

I'm heading over again in October, love it over there!

Doing 2 nights in Prague and 3 in Bratislava.

[cammy_boy]

23 hours ago, Prahakillie said:

Also check out these guys on youtube, fairly accurate and out to avoid tourist rip-offs: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt7oj318jVQi7vRbc1bNjJA

Watched most of their videos. Good viewing. Their bit on Letna was cool. Went into the cafe we used in the mornings. 

[seedsy]

Going in October. The honest guide videos are great. My missus is all over where we are gonna go. 

[trenwick]

Loved my two trips there, especially managing to got to the Prague derby Slavia v Sparta which was mental, with the flares, and seats getting lobbed at the polis. 

[Squirrelhumper]

48 minutes ago, seedsy said:

Going in October. The honest guide videos are great. My missus is all over where we are gonna go. 

I'm going in October too ya wee creep!

[Scooby_Doo]

Sorry, I forgot to come back on and update everyone. Thanks for all the advice.

We had a great time. Weather was scorchio, we stayed in Hotel Pod Vezi at one end of the Charles Bridge, which was excellent. Had some great food (in particular one restaurant called Wine O'Clock) and did the Communism and WWII e-bike tour, which despite the name, was very good indeed.

We mostly avoided the touristy bits, and we did pop into one bar and around eight drinks cost less than £15.

I will go back sometime soon, but it will only be after I've watched every single one of those Honest Guide videos, which oddly I keep watching since they're in my Youtube feed.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Scooby_Doo
Rudely forgot to thank anyone!

[anndeetee]

If the fixtures are obliging it is possible to catch 4 games on a long weekend; Friday night, Dukla tend to be at home, Saturday morning lower league games kick off at 10:15, Saturday afternoon/evening and finally Sunday morning, again 10:15. Beer at 30 crowns in the grounds is of course mandatory. 

[Prahakillie]

1 hour ago, anndeetee said:

If the fixtures are obliging it is possible to catch 4 games on a long weekend; Friday night, Dukla tend to be at home, Saturday morning lower league games kick off at 10:15, Saturday afternoon/evening and finally Sunday morning, again 10:15. Beer at 30 crowns in the grounds is of course mandatory. 

Nice idea in theory but just about impossible I think. 

You might get 3 out of 5 teams at home but not 4. 

Dukla used to play at home Friday evenings when in the top league but looks like they have settled for Saturday mornings now. 

Viktoria Zizkov usually play Sunday mornings at 10:15. 

In the top flight I don't think Sparta and Slavia play at home on the same weekend. 

Games usually scheduled as 5pm Saturday but might be moved to Sunday or Monday for TV. 

There is of course ice hockey and sometimes possible to see Sparta at home Friday and Sunday, Slavia (in the second league) might play on the Saturday. 

 

[Squirrelhumper]

Slavia vs Dortmund on when I'm there - I take it chances of tickets are zero?

Edited September 24, 2019 by Squirrelhumper

[Prahakillie]

All sold out, through the club at least. 

I didn't get any. They sold them all as a package for the 3 Champions League games. 

Some packages (all 3 games) went on general sale yesterday but I forgot all about it and didn't go along to try. 

[anndeetee]

5 hours ago, Prahakillie said:

Nice idea in theory but just about impossible I think. 

You might get 3 out of 5 teams at home but not 4. 

Dukla used to play at home Friday evenings when in the top league but looks like they have settled for Saturday mornings now. 

Viktoria Zizkov usually play Sunday mornings at 10:15. 

In the top flight I don't think Sparta and Slavia play at home on the same weekend. 

Games usually scheduled as 5pm Saturday but might be moved to Sunday or Monday for TV. 

There is of course ice hockey and sometimes possible to see Sparta at home Friday and Sunday, Slavia (in the second league) might play on the Saturday. 

 

Have done Dukla, Friday night, Loko Vltavin Sat am, Bohemians Sat pm and Zizkov Sun am. Sorry to hear that Dukla have moved from Friday night. 

[Prahakillie]

46 minutes ago, anndeetee said:

Have done Dukla, Friday night, Loko Vltavin Sat am, Bohemians Sat pm and Zizkov Sun am. Sorry to hear that Dukla have moved from Friday night. 

I didn't realise you were going so far down the league system. 

[Squirrelhumper]

20 hours ago, Prahakillie said:

All sold out, through the club at least. 

I didn't get any. They sold them all as a package for the 3 Champions League games. 

Some packages (all 3 games) went on general sale yesterday but I forgot all about it and didn't go along to try. 

Where's best to watch the game in town for atmosphere?

Been to Prague loads but wouldn't mind going to a local pub further out.

[Prahakillie]

5 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

Where's best to watch the game in town for atmosphere?

Been to Prague loads but wouldn't mind going to a local pub further out.

I don't know really as I am very rarely out to watch football but I guess heading towards Slavia supporters pubs wouldn't be too bad on the night. There are a couple of places mentioned here: 

https://goout.net/en/magazine/the-unkempt-beauty-of-working-mans-vrsovice/olh/

"Who Do You Support Tonight?"

In front of the giant Eden mall, a group of ten-year-olds chase each other, running in front of cars and trams like they’re in a video game. The mall looks bizarrely out of place there, an overly clean, colorful, bulbous dome located right in the middle of rows and rows of old-timey Soviet panel buildings. The panel blocks are arranged geometrically, right down to the next detail. This is Prague’s USSR-era museum if there is one, and the street names — Tashkent St, Amur St, Krasnoyarsk St, Turkmen St — agree.

In the nineties, local cultural scene was symbolized by Club Eden; it was a legitimately good venue, with Sugarcubes among the artists who paid it a visit. Now, the building is closed, and its decline serves as a stark reminder of early 90’s capitalism going haywire (the close presence of the Koh-i-Noor factory scarily looming over the area would be another one).

The real culture here is represented by football. Vršovice are a proud home of not one, but two of Czechia’s biggest football clubs – SK Slavia Prague and Bohemians Prague – and so the last part of our research was dedicated solely to them. Which one has more fans around here? And what happens if they play each other?

"Fans here don’t fight that much. They shout a lot, yes, but violence is rare," says Blondie. "Vršovice derby, however, is still a huge event. The whole Vršovická St closes. The rivalry between Slavia and Bohemians is very real, but it’s healthy, you know? Fans of both clubs hate Sparta passionately. Bohemians is probably the more ‘local’ club, though. Everybody here loves Bohemians. Even when they were playing in the second division, people would still support them. Their stadium, Ďolíček, is a symbol of Vršovice."

 

"I know people who don’t even know which league are we playing in," says Bohemák, a Bohemians fan. He swears he never fought anybody, but doesn’t judge those who do. "The hooligans are like that… so what. The rivalry with Slavia can be fierce, but it’s purely about football — we want to defeat Slavia, because then, we are the kings of Vršovice. But us Bohemians fans don’t want to beat up Slavia fans. That’s reserved for Sparta. They are the real enemies here, both for us and Slavia fans."

Slávistka, a Slavia supporter, name-drops two legendary pubs:* U Koziček* (‘At Goats’), named after the facts that there used to be a goat barn there, and Synot Bar, located right at the stadium. "Yeah, that one’s a classic. You can place bets there, watch matches, and on a match day, it’s always full," she confines. "You can even play your own music there. The atmosphere is great."

Sometimes, though, the supporters' scene is not that vanilla. The Bohemka Bar is frequently visited by cops, and fights can sometimes break out even in Synot Bar. "I witnessed a fight between two girls once. They smashed each others' faces with bottles," Slávistka recalls. "Also, during matches, cop patrol the area on horsebacks. Once I saw a cop entering the bar because his horse just wanted to go there, I guess. That was funny as f**k."

 

In the aforementioned Bohemka bar, the atmosphere is surprisingly calm when we walk in. No hooligans, no cops on horsebacks, just a few ageing barflies loudly singing Africa by Toto, which is, like, Jodorowsky level of bizarre.

The Toto Choir is really the only thing going on there at this hour, save for one other local guy who stared at Boy for almost twenty minutes. It felt like he wasn’t even blinking. Then we got up and walked away, but it was at this point that Boy remembered another similarly uncomfortable episode that happened a few years at Hospoda U Stadionu, a Slavia supporters' pub.

It was Derby day — not Vršovice derby, but the one with the capital D, Slavia versus Sparta. Boy and three other guys went in; two of them Slavia supporters, the other two supporting Sparta. Of course, nobody had any team colors of symbols anywhere, but that didn’t stop the waiter from checking: “Four beers, please.” “Sure. And who do you support tonight?” “Umm… fifty fifty.” "Okay. So, two beers for you two. And you two get the f**k out of here."

 

 

[Squirrelhumper]

Cheers mate