Czech Republic - Austria - Germany

28 January 2011 Travel time: with 03 May 2009 on 10 May 2009
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Advantages of the hotel:

- price compared to others;

- spacious rooms;

- regular cleaning and change of towels;

- location in a very quiet area, nothing disturbs sleep.

Hotel cons:

- unimportant plumbing;

- distance from the city center;

- tea for breakfast leaves much to be desired, coffee is generally better not to try;

- soundproofing - as in most hotels.

Greetings to all dear lovers of tourism!

Last Sunday, my girlfriend and I returned (by the way, by the next report about Spain, France and Andorra, she will already be my wife) from a trip to Prague (we were there from 3.05. 09 to 10.05. 09). I want to tell you about this trip.

We got to Prague without any problems, except that the flight from Vnukovo was very early (7:30 in the morning), so we thought the day before, either go to bed early and set an alarm for 3 a. m. , or not go to bed at all (in the end chose the 1st option). We flew by SKY EXPRESS on a Boeing 737.


It seems nothing like that, but the food there is quite modest. However, they didn’t call it lunch, but “light breakfast”. I don’t know whether this is a characteristic feature of the company, or the consequences of the crisis, but when in the summer of 2005 I flew to Tunisia with the Saira (see my corresponding report), also in the morning, although a little later, they were fed exactly hearty (well, relatively) LUNCH.

ABOUT CURRENCY EXCHANGE

Right at the Pardubice airport, while standing in line for passport control, some employee persistently offered everyone to exchange dollars and Jews for Czech crowns at a local improvised exchanger (a table with a computer and a box for money, and an employee is sitting at the table), arguing his proposal the profitability of the exchange rate (though only for those who exchange large amounts - from 300 Jews or dollars), as well as the fact that on Sundays in the Czech Republic all exchangers are closed.

As it turned out later, the rate really turned out to be quite profitable, although in the city it was possible to find even more profitable ones (for 300 Jews at the airport they gave 7785 kroons (25.95 each), in the city the next day we exchanged euros in one of the exchangers at the rate of 26 crowns for a Jew; for comparison - in a hotel for 1 Jew they gave 24 crowns).

Yes, I want to warn you right away about exchangers: do not be fooled by the favorable rate indicated on the plate, because many banks also have a hidden commission, which is sometimes significant. Therefore, before exchanging money in an exchanger, just ask how many crowns they give, for example, for 100 Jews or bucks. In general, 300 Jews were exchanged there for crowns.

Yes, I will continue to indicate all prices in Czech crowns, so to convert them into Jews, divide by about 26, into dollars - by about 19, and into rubles - multiply by about 1.7.

ABOUT TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS

In the same place at the airport, we were also offered IP-telephony cards.


We bought one for 150 crowns (this is about 45 minutes of conversation with Moscow if you call a landline phone). On the card, by the way, info is given in English and Russian. To call it, you just need to dial the provider’s phone number (from any machine - it’s free, but it’s strongly not recommended to dial from the hotel, because they charge “for connection” there), then dial the pin code, then 007, the area code and actual number. You can also call a mobile phone, but it is not recommended, because it turns out to be much more expensive.

The road from the airport to the Dum hotel took 1.5 hours, and our hotel was the first. Check-in to the hotel is only from 14:00. They say they can check in earlier, “if there are free rooms, ” but we were not lucky. I can’t even tell if they speak Russian at the reception, because I spoke with them in Czech, which I had the idea to learn about a month before the trip.

No, there is no such need at all - many people there speak Russian to one degree or another (though only in tourist areas), and they seem to be friends with English (and sometimes they know Italian and Spanish, because native speakers of the corresponding languages ​ ​ ​ ​ in Prague also there were quite a few).

I just like learning foreign languages. Of course, it’s impossible to really learn a language in a month, and even without speaking practice, however, I have some experience in learning foreign languages ​ ​ ​ ​ (including independent) (including at the end of 2007 and at the beginning of 2008 for several months studied Polish), so that it was more or less tolerable to communicate with the local population in his native language.

In general, after filling out the cards, leaving luggage at the hotel, and finding out where to buy transport tickets (such a ticket in Czech is called jizdenka - stress on the first syllable), we went for a walk around the city.

By the way, we bought tickets right there in the hotel - there is one shop there where the Vietnamese (who, by the way, are quite a lot in Prague) sell souvenirs (by the way, I never thought before that I would ever have to communicate with the Vietnamese in Czech: -D). We have already written about using public transport and paying for travel in Prague, but just in case, I will repeat.

ABOUT URBAN TRANSPORT


Tickets there, in addition to Vietnamese souvenir shops, are sold at tobacco shops (TRAFIKA), at kiosks at some bus stops, at subway ticket offices, as well as at numerous vending machines located at subway entrances and at many bus and tram stops. Entering the public transport salon (or before entering the subway), the ticket must be put into the hole of one of the many special yellow boxes, where it will be automatically validated with a characteristic sound.

There is a stamp on the ticket with the date, time and some other crap.

Tickets are of the following types:

- for 18 kroons - valid for 20 minutes (from the moment of composting) in land transport and does not give the right to transfer; in the metro, such a ticket is valid for 30 minutes, but you can travel no more than 5 stops on it; by the way, within the metro he gives the right to transfer, but each transfer is considered one stop;

- for 26 kroons - valid for 75 minutes from the moment of composting, and during this time with such a ticket you can transfer as many times as you like to any type of public transport (except taxis, of course) and travel as many stops as you like;

- for 100 kroons - in principle the same as in the previous paragraph, only it is valid for 24 hours from the moment of composting.

You can also buy tickets there for both 3 days and 5, but it's simply not profitable, so I don't even know why they were invented.

On the very first day, we witnessed the scene of one such bully chasing some guy (who almost knocked us down), and this chase was even crowned with success. The fine for ticketless travel is 950 kroons, but if it is paid on the spot, then “only” 700 kroons (“total” - compared with a fine in Moscow transport, which is more than 10 times cheaper).

On the first day, we decided to buy 2 tickets for 100 kroons, although, as it turned out later, it would be more profitable to buy 26 (two or three pairs of such tickets would cost two).

There is also a bus (tram) schedule at each stop, and transport arrives strictly on schedule. On weekends, however, transport runs at large intervals (10-20 minutes), which should be taken into account in order not to be late for the starting point of the excursions (for us, such a place was the square in front of the Powder Tower).


...We reached the center in 45 minutes (about half the time by bus and the remaining half by metro), because it was Sunday and the intervals for buses and metro trains were increased (on weekdays they reached 30-35 minutes).

While still on the bus, looking at a map of the center of Prague given to us by a guide right at the airport, I noticed on it the trading house Bila Labut' (translated as "White Swan" - please do not confuse it with the Russian colony of the same name: D), which was mentioned in the soviet textbook Czech language.

In general, we looked around this department store, but we didn’t find anything interesting there: cheap things are completely ge, and decent ones in Moscow are cheaper.

True, on the way to this trading house we also went to a small shoe store (the coordinates of the ladies, if anyone is interested), where I bought myself very good leather shoes, very comfortable and quite decent in appearance, for only 399 kroons.

The saleswoman there was still from Ukraine, and therefore she speaks Russian (such saleswomen are found there in many stores). Then we walked a little more and went to the hotel, because the check-in time was already approaching.

This time we were given 2 room keys in the form of magnetic cards and explained (in Czech) on which floor the room is, where the elevator is, where they serve breakfast and what time (from 7 to 10 in the morning). I had to drag the suitcase to the room myself, as in Greece (see my report about Crete from 2007).

Now I will describe the number itself, which turned out to be quite unusual. The fact is that in all sorts of resort hotels in different countries I met rooms that were approximately the same in terms of layout, but different in terms of “glamour”, as they say now. : D


Here, lovers of “glamour” have nothing to do: the room resembles a one-room soviet apartment in a standard 9-story building of the 70s, however, the kitchen there is replaced by a second room (quite spacious) with a sofa, wardrobe, bedside table with a set of bed linen, a table, two chairs with armrests and a DAEWOO brand TV (for some reason this TV didn’t work, but since we don’t particularly like television, especially during foreign trips, we decided to simply score on this matter).

In the second room (even more spacious) there were 2 beds pushed one to the other, with a set of white and clean bed linen. There was also a wardrobe and 2 bedside tables with lamps. In the hallway, there was a hanger on the wall, and in the other corner there was a shelf on which there was a code safe, and under the shelf there was a refrigerator, as it turned out later, rumbling - hello, the Scoop is called. However, we did not have any nostalgia for Sovok, because

behind the closed door of the room, the rumbling of the refrigerator was not audible.

I wanted to immediately put valuables in the chest, following the instructions, duplicated in several languages ​ ​ (without Russian), but no such luck: the chest stubbornly refused to close. I then went down to the reception and explained the problem. There I was told that for this I need to rent a special chip (50 kroons, regardless of the time of stay, + 100 kroons of a deposit), which I did. Only later did I notice on the back of the chest door inscriptions in Czech and English that it needed this same chip.

The bathroom there, by the way, is separate and, in the best soviet traditions, is located next to the room, in place of which the kitchen is usually located in soviet houses. The bath there is metal and “standing” (with low edges, more like a large sink than a bath), there are separate mixers for the bath and sink, both single-lever (which I love).

But the shower holder was broken off, so you had to hold it with your hand. Toilet bowl - with a plastic tank, into which water was poured rather slowly. However, after a few simple manipulations with the tank, it began to pour faster, although it is still far from modern plumbing.

There were also exits to the balconies in both rooms, however, the doors were a little skewed, so it took some effort to open them.

In general, the "glamor" is offset by space. Yes, I also want to note that the towels there were changed every day for us.


Finally, having changed clothes (the weather was hot that day, and we were wearing jackets, because it was cool at night in Moscow), we again went to the center - to Wenceslas Square in order to see local sights and visit some some beer (the latter is a bad idea, because prices are usually higher in tourist zones).

After walking around the square and buying a book about the good soldier Š vejk in Czech (and for exactly the same price as I bought the boots, i. e. for 399 crowns), we began to look for a suitable pub in the nearby alleys.

Moving away from the square by 100 meters, we found a cafe called “Na blbym miste”, the translation of which is rather strange - “In an idiotic (stupid) place”. Of course, I know Czech far from perfect, and perhaps it means something else, but I did not find a more interesting translation in the dictionary.

The institution itself, however, turned out to be quite decent, there is also an open terrace, decorated as a garden with flowers and trees, it is even called zahrada (i. e. garden). They brought a menu in Czech with a translation into English (in many establishments, especially well-known or located in tourist zones, they give menus in Russian, compiled with varying degrees of literacy).

We decided to order a couple of salads (from salmon and tuna - 151 kroons each), an appetizer of chopped beef (99 kroons), a national Czech dish - a baked pork knee (223 kroons), which we have repeatedly read about in other reviews, and, of course , beer, the choice of which was, however, small: Pilsner (aka Pilsner), Kozlik, light and dark, and some other first step towards a rubber woman (that is, non-alcoholic: D). Beer there was 37 crowns.

To begin with, we took a light and dark Kozlik (by the way, in Czech I called this beer “goat”): light is not bad, but nothing special, but dark is a THING! Even my girlfriend liked it, although before that she did not like dark beer. Then they took another Pilsensky - complete garbage, you can even drink such beer in Moscow (the same applies to Gambrinus, which we tried a little later in another institution). Okay, I'll get back to the "beer" topic.

Then they brought salads, beef and knee.


Mom dear, what huge portions there! You don’t need to order a lot there at once, it’s better to gradually. However, everything was delicious, and we all finished. I especially liked this very knee, and then we ordered it a couple more times in other establishments (at Fleck's brewery, the portion was, however, smaller).

Such a dinner cost us 846 crowns, so you can figure out how much beer we took there : D.

Well, now, as promised, I will make a small "lyrical digression" and tell you about my impressions of beer.

In this regard, unfortunately, we were disappointed: I expected that the choice of beer in the Czech Republic would be much larger. However, in an average brewery there will be only 2-3 varieties of it: Pilsenskoe (this is a must), Kozlik light and dark (almost everywhere), Gambrinus and Krusovice (quite common), Staropramen and Budweiser (less common). Even in the restaurant "At the Czech Pans" we tried the beer "Granat".

Pretty good, but costs 90 CZK for 0.4L (the rest of the beer there costs about 35-40 CZK for 0.5L, but be careful: in some places the price of beer can reach up to 80 CZK, while the menu on display includes drinks do not include - only food). I once asked one of the waiters why there are so few good beers in Prague, he said that I expected more, that there would be many varieties. He answered me that it is simply unprofitable to sell many types of beer. Here is such a business.

Our guide also marked us on the map 4 breweries where there can be good beer.

We came to one place called "At Fleck's" - what can I say, the situation there is so peculiar: there are tables with benches in a row, at which visitors sit down (it turns out something like a common feast), waiters scurry past, many of which they speak Russian, with trays on which some have dark beer, others have Becherovka, and they offer these drinks to everyone in a row. There is also an accordion player who approaches groups of visitors and plays them something from Russian folk songs, if


these are Russians, or the once popular song “Azzurro” performed by Celentano, if they are Italians (representatives of other nationalities did not seem to be in the hall then). In general, for emigrants exhausted by nostalgia for their homeland, this may be suitable, but for tourists who, on the contrary, want to take a break from their country, it is unlikely. Yes, one more feature - the ceiling lamps of the chandeliers are made in the form of beer mugs.

Originality, so to speak. The beer there, by the way, is not bad, but the food is quite expensive and not to say that it is tasty. And the portions are somehow microscopic compared to other establishments, at least those in which we were.

We went to the second brewery (“Novomnestsky” on Vodichkova Street), but left immediately, because they didn’t give us places at good tables, like everything was occupied; although the tables were free, they were simply not cleared. Instead, they offered to go downstairs. We went down to the bar, where all the tables were occupied. We returned and tried to insist on good seats at the entrance, but we were stubbornly escorted down. Well, we went down even lower - to the part that was behind the kitchen and where you could feel all the "flavors" from this very kitchen.

They probably have some kind of ventilation system. What is the essence of such a system, we did not understand, so we decided to leave this gas chamber.

Yes, the further you go deep into this cesspool, the more miserable the environment becomes (there are soft sofas at the entrance, but we reached the stools and decided to return, although the descent continued down, because this, so to speak, brewery is located somewhere underground).

However, as another female guide later told us, we did the right thing not to stay there, because the institution is quite hyped, and therefore impudent and frankly hacking. Yes, and this also applies to the first place (At Fleck).

But the third place (Pivnoy Dom) turned out to be decent. True, there was not much beer there either: “Czech classic”, light and dark, - good. And then there were some "perversions": coffee beer, banana, wheat, cherry and nettle. It was even possible to order a full set of 100 ml samplers of such beer. We did not order them, but simply ordered a glass of nettle, cherry and coffee. The crap is complete.


My girlfriend also ordered herself something like "beer champagne. " She says she liked it (it will probably taste like a cocktail of beer and semi-sweet champagne). For a snack, we ordered a “hunter's plate” there - pieces of various game (335 kroons). Tasty.

We never got to the fourth place (Staropramen brewery).

As a result, we liked the beer the most… the German Franciscaner, which we drank during our trip to Dresden (see below). I liked both dark and light. Recently we bought a couple of bottles of light Franciscanner in Moscow for the sake of interest. As expected, it's not the same...

The next day we had a walking tour of Prague, which had to come to 9 am.

Let me tell you briefly about EXCURSIONS.

There, all our excursions began at the Powder Tower (or, as this place is also called, at the Powder Gate) at 9-00.

The only exception is, perhaps, the excursion to Vienna, which starts at 7-00 in the morning, which is quite logical, since the journey only one way takes 5 hours by bus. Our first excursion was one of those that were included in the price of the tour (however, we had to pay extra for a boat trip along the Vltava for 150 kroons).

It also included excursions to Hradcany and Prague Castle (on foot), to Karlovy Vary (by bus), as well as an excursion to the castle Hluboka nad Vltava (visiting the castle itself - another + 185 kroons per person) and to Cesky Krumlov (bus). Č eský Krumlov also offered a set lunch for an additional fee of 250 CZK (soup + second course (meat or fish) + 0.33 beer, or a glass of wine, or a glass of U-pee juice).

Excursions to Vienna and Dresden were also offered for an additional fee - 80 and 50 Jews per person, respectively.


At the same time, excursions are held there only on certain days, for example, on Wednesday - to Vienna (or, alternatively, to the Konopiste castle - 50 Jews), on Thursday - to Karlovy Vary, on Friday - to Dresden, on Saturday - to the castle Gluboka and Cesky Krumlov. Yes, one more important point: on excursions to other countries, you must definitely take your passports with you, because local garbage, despite the "Schengen brotherhood", like to check buses with foreign numbers. If at least one of the tourists does not have a passport with him, they can delay the entire bus. It is also strongly recommended that you always carry a medical insurance with you.

Before the tour, we went for breakfast at the hotel (in my opinion, only breakfast is included in all hotels there).

For breakfast, they offered chopped fried sausages with sweet mustard, something like dumplings (we still didn’t understand what they were with), hard-boiled eggs, some kind of soup (not bad, by the way), cheese, sausage, ham, butter , jam (of unknown origin, but sweet), yoghurts and something like a cake. There were also drinks similar to coffee (very remotely, especially in taste), tea (tastes like Turkish tea of ​ ​ the Late Sovok - Early Post-Soviet era (I think many people remember) only Turkish had a better color) and cocoa (did not try ). There were also some cereal and milk.

Having reached the Powder Gate and met with the guide, we went on a walking tour of the center of Prague. But the weather let us down: if the day before it was hot and sunny, then on that day it was the other way around, everyone went with umbrellas. The guide told something, but in such weather it was somehow not up to it. But during this excursion we bought excursions to Vienna and Dresden from her.

This place is located on a hill with a magnificent view of Prague. The entrance to the gardens there, however, is paid (80 crowns per person).

Even in the center of Prague there are a lot of cabbies with carriages (in Vienna and Dresden they are also like uncut dogs), offering a tour of the center. You can also make such a tour on your own - in an antique-styled car, which are often offered for rent in the same center (in my opinion, this business costs 1200 kroons per hour).

On the 4th day of our stay, we went to the capital of Austria - the most beautiful city in Europe, famous for its opera, repeatedly sung in many literary works ...I will tell you just one of them, a short one:

Two junkies are talking:

- Oh, I would like to go to Paris now ...

- And I would like to go to Vienna...: D


I had to get up very early, because, as I already wrote, it was necessary to drive up to the Powder Gate by 7 in the morning.

During the trip to the coffee and opera city, there was only one “technical” (or “sanitary”) stop, so lovers of a hangover in the morning with beer and / or something stronger need to keep this in mind. : D No, if it's too tight, they will, of course, make a stop, but with great reluctance.

By the way…

Since my previous review was criticized to the nines for being too detailed on this topic, I will only touch on it briefly. There are quite a few latrines in Prague, but almost all of them are paid (mostly 5 kroons each, somewhere around 10), even in the popular network of free toilets in Russia called McDonald's in Prague, the entrance to the latrine costs 5 kroons (in Vienna He, by the way, is also paid). There are also automatic booths - also 5 kroons each.

The bus, on the other hand, makes “sanitary” stops, as a rule, at gas stations and at eateries (such as the same McDonald’s), where toilets are both paid and free.

But the best toilet in Prague is located, perhaps, in the Palladium shopping center: everything there is chic-shine, and at the same time it is absolutely free. Well, in principle, if 5-10 kroons is really a pity, then you can go to one of the many cafes where there are many visitors (but this is only in the center, because even a short distance from the center the cafes are empty ).

In general, we arrived in Vienna around noon and went on a walking tour of the city center. A beautiful city with a lot to see. True, there will not be enough time for this (only 5 hours). Lovers of Viennese coffee and chocolate will probably have enough to try, but connoisseurs of opera and painting (see below) will have to come there for a longer time. There is also one characteristic meteorological feature there: the wind of one degree or another of intensity constantly blows. And for some reason, there are quite a lot of cops wandering around in the center of the city.


We also dined there in a restaurant for 50 Jews (with beer). They took there, including the Wiener schnitzel and fried sausages. Nothing, pretty tasty. True, such sausages can be bought in some Russian tent, but this will already be somehow “undignified”. : D But the beer is so, nothing special.

As for the Austrian language, I once also studied it, but then abandoned it, so I could not communicate in it. Therefore, I spoke with the waiter in English, which he owned more than adequately.

They took there in another candy shop and some kind of liquor, which they “persuaded” on the way back (or rather, I alone “persuaded” almost the entire bottle of 0.5 l: D).

We returned to Prague only at 11 o'clock in the evening.

On the 5th day we had a trip to Karlovy Vary. We arrived by bus in about 2.5 hours without much adventure. The guide during the trip told us about the history of the city, about its mineral springs, etc.

We even saw a souvenir plate with an inscription in Russian there, which, perhaps, is already too much.

Even that day we were very lucky with the weather, it was sunny, so the pictures turned out just great.

6th day – trip to Dresden. The journey there also takes about 2.5 hours. This time, the travel agency cheated a little by providing us with a bus with several broken seats, and I got one of them. As a result, the neighbor behind also “got it, ” because “my” seat all the time gradually fell right into her lap, and I did not always have time to raise it in time with the help of a special button. However, they didn't seem to fight her. And they didn't even fight. : )

During the trip, we were shown a film on the theme of the horrors of World War II - about the destruction of Dresden by the British Air Force, and with savoring of individual details.

I think this event should have been only briefly mentioned, and the film should have been shown about something more positive - for example, about the history of the same gallery. Or, at worst, about local pubs. : D


We liked the center of Dresden itself, despite the fact that repairs are being carried out everywhere, as a result of which everything is torn up (in the central parts of Prague and Vienna, this phenomenon also occurs, by the way). We visited the main pride of the city there - an art gallery (the entrance ticket costs a chirp). The guide told us that this gallery is relatively small compared to the Vienna one. However, it will take about an hour to get around it and at least look at the paintings a little, not to mention the subtle connoisseurs of painting. This is how much, interestingly, it will take time to get around the Vienna Gallery (a rhetorical question).

And, of course, they drank Franciscaner there, as I already wrote about.

Regarding dinner, she asked everyone who would take what: meat or fish. At the same time, two types of fish were offered: trout (I like it) and carp (I don’t like it). However, the trout there was also not offered in the best possible way, but the meat turned out to be quite tasty.

As it turned out, the castle is located on top of a hill, so I had to "climb". Persons suffering from diseases of the legs, respiratory organs, heart and blood vessels, as well as nerves should keep this in mind.

In the castle itself, we were given a guide girl who did not speak Russian, but wore a tape recorder around her neck with a recording of the tour in Russian. After another tirade, an acoustic signal is heard, signaling that it is time to move to another room of the castle. Sometimes these tirades did not correspond to the situation (they simply repeated), which that girl, who did not speak Russian, did not cut through, but the tourists immediately made it clear to her, and she “changed the record”.

This guide also made sure that no one took pictures, and those who did, explained in English that taking pictures in the castle is prohibited. Well, why, pray tell, visit some places of interest where you can’t take pictures? Of course, everyone continued to take pictures, though not so openly. In one of the halls, some kind of pretzel even came and began to persistently ask everyone in Russian not only not to take pictures, but also to put the cameras in their cases in general. Everyone did this, but after he left, they did the same in reverse order. I, perhaps, will not describe the rooms in this castle - those who are interested can read about it in the corresponding guidebook.

Then there was the city of Cesky Krumlov, which was not even remembered by anything special - just another small Czech town, where we ate a set lunch, walked, took pictures, drank another beer, and then went home.


In Prague, we went to a cafe called “The End of the End” (Konec koncu), but instead of beer we decided to order wine there (although no, I still ate a half-liter mug of a dark Goat before that), because before that the guide told us that there are many vineyards in the Czech Republic, which provide a lot of raw materials for wine, and this wine is produced so much that it is exported. We took half a liter of Lambrusco red sparkling wine, and we liked it so much that we decided to take the same amount.

It was almost the last day of our stay in the Czech Republic, because by 3:40 in the morning we had to pack up with things in order to catch the transfer to the airport.

In conclusion, after a few days, I can say that I really enjoyed the trip, despite some disappointment in terms of beer. And the girl, upon arrival at the Vnukovo airport, generally said: “I don’t want to go home, I want to go back to Prague! »

Yes, this city seems to enchant with something.

To be honest, I would still stay there for a day or two, because we never visited the fourth brewery! : D

Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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