Feb 8th, 2008 at 9:00AM: The sausage stands on Prague's Wenceslas Square are probably familiar to anyone who stumbled its cobble-stoned streets after midnight, looking (unsuccessfully) for a more civilized place to eat. The after-dark scene around these stands is not what most people have in mind when they picture the fairy-tale city of Prague: homeless people, prostitutes, and people of various stages of ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
czechrepublic posts
Hard alcohol banned from Wenceslas Square stands. Kielbasas saved!
Feb 8th, 2008 at 9:00AM: The sausage stands on Prague's Wenceslas Square are probably familiar to anyone who stumbled its cobble-stoned streets after midnight, looking (unsuccessfully) for a more civilized place to eat. The after-dark scene around these stands is not what most people have in mind when they picture the fairy-tale city of Prague: homeless people, prostitutes, and people of various stages of ...Photo of the Day (12/31/07)
Dec 31st, 2007 at 9:30AM:
Allow me to indulge myself by posting my own photo as the last photo of 2007. I took this picture last week in the central highlands of the Czech Republic right before I escaped to sunny Portugal to ring in the new year. It summarizes my year pretty well: sad. Goodbye, not-so-good '07. Glad you are almost gone. Hello, 2008!
***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go ...Is the beer too cheap in Britain?
Nov 12th, 2007 at 1:30PM: Apparently, some people in Britain are mad because stores are charging less for beer than they are for bottled water. When I was in parts of Czech Republic and Poland last month, beer was always cheaper than water. And did it affect me? Well, yes, it did -- but that's because I had a hard time discerning which bottles of water were carbonated or not. There were times when I never did figure it ...Which European Country has the Worst Drunks According to YouTube Videos
Sep 20th, 2007 at 7:28AM: Europe has a long tradition of drinking. While this may not be such a bad cultural norm, there are a few bad apples who embrace their love of alcohol just a little too enthusiastically. If you've been to Europe, you know what I'm talking about. Sure, my home country of America has its share of drunks, but for whatever reason I always see far more stumbling, incoherent, word-slurring reprobates on ...
Leave Prague for Authentic Czech Pubs
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Sep 5th, 2007 at 1:30PM: To get the typical Czech pub experience these days, one must now leave Prague far behind. When I first began visiting this fine city more than a decade ago, traditional Czech pubs were on every corner. They were smoky, served cheap beer, and full of all walks of Czech life, from students to pensioners, artists to soldiers, and everything in between. Today, however, most pubs in the center of ...Low-Brow Wine-Cellar Hopping in Moravia
Sep 4th, 2007 at 4:04PM: Getting away from cities. Folks in costumes. Plenty of cheap wine to go around. If this concept frightens you already, you might as well stop reading now.
Most people visiting the Czech Republic--some 8 million annually--come only to Prague. For those trying to get away from all those tourists, I suggest heading to the south eastern part of the country: the wine growing region of Moravia. ...Mushroom Pickers Unite!
Sep 2nd, 2007 at 3:10PM: Well, it's that time of year again in the Czech Republic. Time for those atavistic hunter-gatherer instincts to be unleashed. Thousands of Europeans with crazed looks in their darting eyes, trembling fingers clutching baskets, socks rolled over their pant legs (ticks!), marching, probing, snooping, we stumble through the forests like zombies. We guard our secret spots, we spy on others for their ...Savvy Traveler: Let Czechoslovakia Die, Please
Aug 28th, 2007 at 9:03AM: It has been 14 painful years for me since Czechoslovakia broke up in what they called a "Velvet Divorce". Not so velvet for me.
Since January 1, 1993, I have been trying to patiently teach everyone outside the country to learn to love the sound of "Czech Republic" and "Slovak Republic". I know, I know. It doesn't quite come out as easily but please, don't make me suffer any longer.
See what I ...Where on Earth Week 20: Adr?pach-Teplice Rocks - Czech Republic
Aug 24th, 2007 at 1:00PM:
Well done neil_metblogs. You covered absolutely all the bases to give a correct answer. The "Rock Towns" of Adršpach and Teplice in Northern Bohemia aren't as well known as the similar sandstone formations further west in the Cesky Raj region of the Czech Republic, but for my money they're actually more spectacular.
While researching the latest edition of Lonely Planet's Czech & Slovak ...Prague Pub Crawl: 4 Blocks, 20 Pubs, 20 Beers, $20 Spent
Aug 22nd, 2007 at 2:50PM: In the last few years, much of Prague's nightlife has shifted from the center (too expensive, too many tourists) to the neighborhood of Zizkov in the Prague 3 working class district. Consequently, Zizkov is my favorite neighborhood for going out. Let me be clear, there ain't many martini bars to be found here, although a few have popped up. Rather, you will find old school pubs still selling beer ...Free Visa Entry In Exchange for US Missile Shield in Europe?
Jul 23rd, 2007 at 9:48AM: The Czech Republic is one of 13 countries trying to renegotiate its visa-requirement for traveling to the US. Currently, Americans do not need visa when traveling to the C.R. but Czechs do when traveling to the US. The unfair visa requirement is a source of much bitterness toward Americans in those countries.
Now, Czechs have a new negotiation tool on their hands. The US wants to build an ...Photo of the Day (7/9/07)
Jul 8th, 2007 at 11:31PM:
By the time the Western Hemiphere has woken up today, Prague's famous Charles Bridge will be over 650 years old.
Holy Roman Emperor and Czech King Charles IV laid the first stones himself at the exact time of this post, 650 years ago: 5:31am (GMT +1), 9 July 1357.
By the way, the statues on the bridge, like the one above, came much, much later. Many were placed in the 1700 and 1800s. This one ...Photo of the Day (7/2/07)
Jul 2nd, 2007 at 10:00AM:
Wow. There's just something about the Czech Republic that gives you that "sweet light" near the sunset. And there's nothing quite like it on the red rooftops of Prague. But here's a shot that takes the breath away, from a town in southern Bohemia, called Telc (pronounced "telch").
The town center is a UNESCO World Heritage site of colorful, picturesque 14th century buildings that can be seen ...The Birthplace of the Dollar
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:30AM: Not many people know this, but the "dollar" (and lager beer, but that's another story) had it's origins in the lands of what is now the Czech Republic. The word "dollar" is actually from the German word "taler." The taler was the official currency in the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-16th century until the mid-19th century, and spread throughout the world, getting adopted as currency as far as ...Looking for Value: Three Options
May 19th, 2007 at 5:10PM: When I saw "Value Vacations" at Kiplinger.com, I thought that meant cheap. Nope. What that meant was vacations that were less expensive than others. Three of these not cheap vacations caught my attention as future possibilities for my own overseas destinations.
The price tag on the Prague trip for two was $5,100 for 6 nights. That included the airfare from Chicago, a overnights in an inn and ...Literary Gadling: Goethe's Spa Romance
Jan 5th, 2007 at 7:37AM: As another tip in my irregular series of literary travel destinations, I suggest visiting Marianske Lazne (aka Marienbad, in German), a spa town in Western Bohemia (Czech Republic), which Johann Wolfgang Goethe used to frequent in the 1820's.
Goethe, a German poet and novelist, most famous for "Faust", used to come here to relax ...although some sources say that he actually came here to get ...The Consequences of Drinking Tourism
Nov 23rd, 2006 at 8:01AM: I had to laugh at a recent article regarding the grueling work of the British Embassy, helping tourists after misfortunes. With the recent glut of cheap flights to Prague, there's been a rise in "beer tourism," whereby punters come to Prague to enjoy gallons of excellent, but cheap, Czech beer. (Stag parties alone account for 10% of the 650,000+ British tourists to Prague.) This travel is not ...Photo of the Day (11/20/06)
Nov 20th, 2006 at 7:00PM:
This is a photo my friend took of the Zelena Hora (green mountain) church in Zdar nad Sazavou, Czech Republic. It's a recently restored, early 18th century church by architect Jan Blazej Santini Aichl. Seen from above, the baroque-Gothic church makes a fantastic, symmetrical 9-pointed star. It's been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994, for reasons apparent in the photo. ...Central Europe in Trouble?
Sep 24th, 2006 at 2:22PM: If you missed 1989, now is a good opportunity to sample the "revolutionary, yet peaceful" spirit of Central Europe once again. Head over to Budapest.
Hungarian students have been protesting the new socialist government of the Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány for a week now. Last weekend, he admitted to the nation, that his party lied about the real state of the Hungarian economy in order to ...Flights within Europe for $50
Sep 12th, 2006 at 11:30AM: At one point, Europe had more than one hundred budget airlines. Not all of them made it through the turbulent few years, but those who remained (some fifty) are pretty solid. You know the spiel - you can book one-way tickets without penalty, there is no free food on board, usually no assigned seats, you are only allowed to carry on 1 bag and check 1 bag, otherwise you pay. That is after all, how ...
