Seesea Travel Blog

Travel Location: Prague,Czech-Republic

Unfortunately our experience with Prague is tainted by our difficulties navigating the city. Upon arriving around 9, we took the subway to the stop to which our hostel directed us and walked around for about two hours until we finally got a cab to take us there. It turns out the hostel was down an alley, marked by a somewhat inconspicuous sign “hostel” at the narrow alley’s opening. Despite our hostel being advertised as in the old town square, we did not find the square until the morning we left Prague. It was, yes, down another alley.

It’s interesting that Prague has become such a well-touristed locale because it is quite different from other cities I’ve visited in western europe, and I think one feels more like an outsider here. The language is consonant heavy with a few accent marks, and not all signs are in English. Regardless of whether everyone should speak and write in english, it is still alienating to enter a new place and not be able to understand anything. We could only remember/pronounce two phrases (and for some reason, my book did not include the phrase “do you speak english”). The people also just looked different. Women of all ages wore funky haircuts and had their hair dyed Purple and unnatural while many men wore long ponytails and styled themselves in death metal fashion. We didn’t try to talk to any locals, but they didn’t seem amenable to talking to us if we had taken the chance. Perhaps they are just introverted. But despite our inability to connet with the general population, the service staff at all of the places we went were warm, friendly and helpful.

Prague is a beautiful city, and I think one would be better served by a more leisurely visit than ours. The things we most enjoyed about the city–such as the cramped basement which hosted live jazz ever night–were often stumbled upon and never explicitly searched for. And maybe the city’s population just takes some time to warm up to. Who knows; we were only there for two days.