Prague, Czech Republic - Day 1

Location: Hostel U Melounu - outside our dorm.

Hello from Prague! This place is absolutely scenic. And I think we haven't even seen the best part yet! Looking forward to our next two days here, and hopefully they'll be better than today!


Anyway, we reached Prague around 1330, after a short stopover at Brno (these Czechs seem to find vowels redundant!). Had nice breakfast on the bus - delicious methi thepla, from Krupa's Aunt, with yoghurt! And 'mullu thengozhal'/முள்ளு தேங்கோழல் and other snacks from Neela. And the hot chocolate and other drinks which were really good. Had a good rest too so we were all refreshed for the next part of our journey.

Unfortunately the rain followed us all the way from Vienna so the weather was quite gloomy when we reached. Also, it's quite a long walk in from the metro station to our hostel and we got lost a little, so walking with our heavy backpacks in the rain was not a pleasant experience! People we met on the way did try to help but they didn't really know where the hostel was. Finally we understood the numbering system of the apartments on the street and found our hostel. The sign was barely visible! And it seemed slightly cramped when we went in. So basically my first impression of Prague wasn't too great.

However, the receptionist was nice and though she wasn't particularly enthusiastic, she did answer all our questions nicely and patiently! So I thought that maybe Czech people are generally nice but they don't really show their emotions so readily. She informed us that there was a computer with free internet - much to our glee - and that they would lend us towels. Both firsts on our trip so far!

Our room's quite nice. It's a 7-bed dorm.

Neela and I in our dorm

Our room was empty when we went up. We quickly locked our bags up and left for lunch, after finding out, to our delight, that there's an Indian restaurant that's walking distance from here!!

Inside the restaurant! They refused to pose or smile

Had a very filling thali which cost 88 Kc (8 SGD). It consisted of rice, rajma, PANEER!, raita, soup/kesari and salad and we couldn't even finish everything. Paneer in Prague! So I immediately had to call home and tell them heheh. Then we made our way back to the hostel to refresh and dress up for the evening - a show at the Black Light Theatre!

We met one of our dormmates when we went in this time - a Brazilian dude who looked 26. He was very keen to tag along with us as he was backpacking all alone. We spent about 20 minutes insisting that he'd feel bored as we were planning to go shopping and for a concert (made it sound very artsy and as girly as possible) so he was crestfallen. We tried to tell him nicely but I don't think he understood us very well so he might've been hurt! I hope not. We have to stay with him for 2 more days. But anyway, we changed to really nice, pretty dresses and looked non-backpacker-ish so he should've gotten the hint. So we said byee to him and told him to have fun and left.

Took a 'free' tram to the city centre and got off at the National Theatre. It's a beautiful building. But we didn't have time to take photos as we had to rush and buy tickets for the show. Anyway, we'll be going there tomorrow as well so I'll take some photos then. But I managed to take a general Prague street photo anyway..

A typical street in Prague

Once we oriented ourselves, we went to Lanterna Magika to get tickets. Unfortunately, we learnt that the show that was on today wasn't really making use of Black Light and was more the circus kind. So we went to the other place recommended in our guidebook and luckily this was what we wanted. But on the way there, we were kinda followed, and that was a bit unnerving. Thankfully it was only 7pm and still daytime. He was a shabby-looking oldish man who walked when we did and stopped when we did. And of course we caught on to that so we walked very briskly to the theatre and made sure we lost him on the way. Quite an experience!


And of course my impression of Prague just worsened then. We were also rather dressed up as compared to many others so everyone was staring at us and this was not doing us any good either! We thought it could be coz of the severe lack of Indians in Prague (we had yet to see any! Even the Indian restaurant had none!) and girls with black dots on their foreheads probably looked exotic to them :P


Went for a bit of shopping to kill time till 8pm and I bought myself nice slippers! Neela was so close to buying herself a pair but the crazy shopkeeper practically kicked us out as it was 2 minutes after closing time! She'd rather go home early than make a sale. Nut. So we walked back to the theatre early and took photos heh.

Before the show started!

A scene from the show

The show was amazing. I've never seen anything like that before. It had a story which revolved around life and death but more important was the talents of the 6-person crew and 2-person cast. The whole show took place in black light and made use of fluorescent props that glow in the dark, like in the above photo. These props seem to move about on their own when actually the black-clad crew, which is completely invisible to us, is responsible for it. The motion is so perfect that it was very hard to imagine anyone behind it! I think my explanation doesn't do it justice. If any of you get a chance to watch something like this, I highly recommend it!

After that, we left for our hostel. And it was nighttime (9ish) and after our earlier experience, I was a bit worried. But of course, nothing happened. The hostel's in a very residential area I think, so it was rather quiet. We got back safely, and met our other dormmates - a Canadian couple and a British guy. They're all nice and decent and all around our age. And Brazilian guy didn't look angry with us. So it's all good.

Oh and the bathrooms are all shared among lots of people and okayishly clean. BUT! There's a crazy system which they employ here which makes use of light sensors. So just now while showering, the lights went off suddenly! And I waved around madly until they came back on. And this happened a few times! Crazy nutters. So I don't like these bathrooms at night. Ok I'm off to sleep now! Terezin day-trip tomorrow. Goodnight.