Czech Us Out

So we're just fresh back from a week in the Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and we loved it! Here is a play by play of our week!

Day 1: Christmas Eve

We flew out of Dublin to Prague, and then got a train to Brno, Czechia's second-largest city, a Wellington sized type of place. Brno is a provincial capital of Moravia, while Prague is in Bohemia.

Something we didn't realise was that in Europe their main celebration day for Christmas is Christmas Eve. We arrived at Prague train station and went to get some food, but Subway closed in our face. We settled for Burger King.

Tourist trap: Do not withdraw money from ATMs at train stations - they take a €35 fee and give a shit exchange rate.

The trains in Czechia are delightful! We paid for a cabin, and nearly had the whole thing to ourselves, with the exception of a French woman who was coming from Berlin. Dark fell as we whisked our way passed desolate fields, tiny towns and picture-perfect water ways.

We arrived in Brno about 6pm, and walked the 20 minutes from the station to our hotel pleased for a stretch of the legs. I had feared that things wouldn't be open Christmas day, but as we walked through the deserted streets, I realised my fears should've extended to Christmas Eve as well. I had bought a croissant on the train, and we shared that and some shortbread for dinner. Nothing else was open. There were no signs of life.

Day 2: Christmas Day - the first day of Christmas

Both of us had a lot of sleep to catch up on, so most of our days on holiday, we surfaced about midday. This worked out well, as after some research, I discovered that three out of four Christmas markets in Brno were still in full swing, and definitely open on Christmas Day, from midday on.

Christmas Tree made out of bee boxes

One of many pretty churches in Brno. This is the church of St Thomas.

The closest we got to snow - skud off the ice rink

Grog... because... why not?

Inside St James' Church

We started our market adventures with Bombardino at Liberty Square - similar to eggnog, with a lot of brandy or whiskey in it. It was warm and creamy and one cup full was very potent. We moved on to other stands where we tried mulled wine, an amazing drink called strudel which is hot apple juice with cinnamon liquer and raisins for good measure, and also foooood - giant potato pancakes, grilled cheese with garlic and jam (he looked as us weirdly when we wanted those on separate bits of cheese, not together).

Bombardino!

Please see the variety of hot alcholic beverages available to numb you to the 1 degree temperatures.

We found other markets slightly further up the hill, with even more offerings of grog, fruit punch, mulled wine and jagermeister. After admiring the life sized wooden nativity scene,  we went through the council building complex and ascended a nearby hill to Spilberk Castle.

Cabbage Market Square

The castle itself was closed, but the grounds were open, and the view out over the city was breathtaking - although that might've just been from climbing the hill. We were serenaded at the top by bells playing Christmas carols from inside the main courtyard.

Spilberk Castle was used as a prison for a long time

St Peter and Paul's Cathedral from Spilberk Castle

Even the doors are pretty!

We headed back to the city just before sunset, and found our new favourite place with a dessert cabinet to die for. It became our mission to try as many of these delicacies as possible during our stay, starting with the windmill cake - basically a cake version of a coffee eclair. We quickly learned the Czech word for cake - dort.

Statue in Market Square that celebrates the Trinity

DORT!!

After a feast acquired from the markets we relaxed in our hotel room watching movies.

A very interesting chocolate stand

Chocolate peni? Brilliant souvenir...

Devilled sausages, potatoes and gnocchi - rich and delicious Christmas dinner

Day 3: Out and about around Brno - Dec 26 - the second day of Christmas

We decided we should go on a proper adventure and that this would start with the zoo, knowing that it would at least be open. The day was cold and bleak, but clear, as we caught a tram to the North West of the city on the delightfully frequent, cheap and easy to use trams.

We arrived about 11am, greeted at the first enclosure we saw by a tiger, who was looking rather fed up with his cage, and it already sported some cracks in the glass, so we moved on quickly.

We happened upon the polar bear, who appeared to have fallen asleep in the door way.

Not sure if hibernating or....???

The arctic wolves were out and lounging on top of some rocks.

The owls were out and awake, as was the bald eagle and the sea hawks, but there were a number of enclosures that were empty or had animals cowering from the cold.

I was intrigued by the Siberian camels, with their thick fur and seeing a bison up close as a sight to behold.

We even found a Kea from New Zealand!

After a lot of walking in the cold, we were hungry and sought food at the cafe, back by the tigers, but they'd just closed the kitchen as we arrived, so we ambled over to KFC and got a small but expensive feast.

Returning to Brno city, we decided to indulge in the Advent Ferris wheel which was adjacent to the tram stop where we disembarked. It was surprisingly high, and we could see out a long way to the Brno city limits. A delightful end to the day.

Advent Wheel

Day 4: Dec 27

We started the day with a walking tour that Jared found online. We missioned across town to commence the tour and found ourselves with a spritely septuagenarian, and us her sole clients. Her English was good but she seemed to be translating from Czech to German, then from German to English, as she asked us a number of times if we knew this or that German word.

Just a casual hotel lobby of glorious beauty

Parnas Fountain in Market Square

Quirky workmanship - protest at the City not paying the craftsman properly

She told us about what Brno was like in the middle ages, through the Austro-Hungarian Empire, how it was affected by the first and second World Wars, and what it was like to live through Communism. Her love for local architecture was self-evident, and she gushed over the Baroque and Renaissance buildings. She told us the intriguing story of why there's a Brno midday at 11am.

Gift from the Egyptian Pharaoh 

St Peter's and Paul's Cathedral

We walked up to St Peter's and Paul's cathedral which dominates the Brno skyline and can be seen from nearly any point in the city. They happened to be playing the organ while we were in there, so it was a special treat.

She told us about a number of underground attractions - the Labyrinth under Cabbage market square, Zelny Trh, the City Mint, under the City Council buildings, and we concluded the tour by St James' Ossuary which was only discovered at the turn of this century and is the second largest collection of human remains in a crypt, only slightly smaller than the catacombs in Paris.

I was fascinated by these underground storage places, and we started exploring with the St James' Ossuary. It was the single creepiest thing I've ever witnessed. There were hundreds, probably thousands of people's worth of bones in the underground cellar, and the exhibits explained that when they found it, it was so densely packed that it was floor to ceiling in an area about equivalent to St James' church. It still is in some places, but it has all been artistically stylised to make a stair case and some funky wall patterns and a giant pillar that appears to actually have a structural element. Bones are one thing, but knowing that a) there used to be even more bones here, and b) they've been moved to make decorative wall features I think took the level of creepy to a whole new level for me. Most of the bones were from the deaths that happened during the plague, which saw all of Europe decline in population by a third.

We then went to the underground mint at Zelnry Trh, and it was underwhelming to say the least. Half of the exhibit was about a church that had been torn down to make way for one of the roads. There are a small group of passionate history zealots who condemn the city for demolishing the church and are wanting it to be fully restored. Later that night we found another church that looked nearly identical to it in a different part of the town, so that compounded my uncultured ideas of generally not understanding what the big deal is about one not-all-that-pretty church being demolished.

Tourist trap: there's a pass that lets you go to all of the underground things for a cheaper price, we only found this after we'd already been to 2 out of 3 of them. It can be bought at the Labyrinth under Market Square.

I had spied some cool second hand shops on the way to the walking tour that morning, so we went back to look at what they had on offer. I found a really great full length turtleneck dress, and a cute navy dress which had its inaugural outing that night.

We treated ourselves to more mulled wine from the markets on our way home to get ready for our evening out.

I'd booked a dinner for Christmas day and then been told they weren't actually open Christmas day and to reschedule, so Dec 27 we had a beautiful 4 course meal with our own personal waiter as we had the entire restaurant in a wine cellar to ourselves. We were even treated to our own live musician! It was a delightful evening and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Moravian wine is gooooooooood

Day 5: Dec 28

Most of the time we were there, the temperature was floating between 0-3 degrees C. This particular morning, it was frosty, clear and sunny. But there was snow in the air, which was thoroughly perplexing, due to the lack of clouds. However, we enjoyed snow in the air for about 3 hours, until it warmed up a little around midday.

We continued our tradition of cake and coffee for breakfast, then went on a tour through the 1km aptly called the Labyrinth under Zelnry Trh. It featured an underground storage system for the above-ground market stalls in the square, an underground pub, a well, the water table, a prison which doubled as a torture chamber, and another pub.

Underground metal smelting

Underground pub

She touched the butt!

At 3pm we headed across town to our first ice hockey game. The only tickets we could get were ones where you stand in the end zone behind the goal, and they were packed! We were at the end where the Brno equivalent of the Wellington Phoenix' Yellow Fever would sit, and they were pumped!

The local team is good, nearly top of the table, and they were fresh off a win two days earlier. There were giant flags, drums and constant chants from our arrival 5 mins before the start of the game until after the victory lap, the bows, the encore victory laps from the goal scorers and general continued merriment, about 30 mins after the game finished. We'd never seen celebrations on this level - even after the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup!

I managed to record one of the goals from the local team:

We finished the day by dining at the hotel restaurant where I got to break out my Lao knowledge and language, and realised... how much I'd forgotten haha.


Day 6: Dec 29 - Brno to Prague

After trying another couple of cakes from our now usual place for coffee and cake for breakfast, we boarded the bus that would take us to Prague. (We have concluded that trains win for loveliness of journey.)

We oriented ourselves in Prague with a walking tour. Free walking tours are my favourite way to get to know a city - cool guides, nice and cheap, and get some exercise in.

Our pint-sized guide started by showing us Wenceslas Square, then led us to the astronomical clock in Old Town Square, showed us a few good local pubs, churches, to the Jewish Quarter and finally along the river, to a view of Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge at sunset.

Little to no idea of how to read this but apparently it has normal time, seasons, phases of the moon and zodiac phases. Here's a bit more of an explanation

Another pretty church in Old Town Square

Medicinal local liquor

Inside another pretty church

Oldest Jewish Synagogue in Prague, and Europe.

Prague Castle at Sunset

Prague Castle up a bit closer

The entrance to the Charles Bridge

We obviously went to get more warm alcoholic beverages at the Old Town Square Markets, then spent a titillating couple of hours in a sex toy museum we stumbled upon.

Day 7: Dec 30 - Prague

We started the day with lunch in an underground bar. Apparently this dungeon of a place used to be at street level, but as time went by, the street level has gotten higher and higher, and the bar has remained in the same place, and now requires one to go down 2 flights of stairs. Their food was positively delicious, and their decor delightful.

Mulled wine to warm the cockles of your 'eart

Beautiful venison

We booked a tour to Prague Castle, because although you can 'just turn up', it is actually easier, and cheaper, to do it with a tour guide. The time between Christmas and New Years is their busiest time of the year, and so there were throngs of people everywhere, and most of them seemed to be at the Castle.

Prior to the tour starting we went to get some much needed coffee, and found a concert hall and a stunningly beautiful art gallery. I love that architecture is an art form in Czechia.

Our tour was supposed to start at 2:30, but actually commenced about 3:30 by the time 3 buses actually made it up the hill. We got through the Cathedral just before they closed it for the day, and then went to various courtyards to learn about the history of each.

Neo-gothic cathedral that took 600 years to finish - finished in 1929

Main Entrance

Government Quarters and Chapel

School for girls created by Maria Theresa

Some more pretty buildings and also some more Christmas Markets

We descended down through the 'Golden Mile' where a whole bunch of really old homes existed that once housed alchemists and people who worked at the Castle, and now house tourist shops.

Just casually some canons hanging out

Looking out over Prague

The tour went underneath the Charles Bridge to the Peace Wall, inspired by John Lennon, and we, of course, dined at more Christmas Markets before going to a church close by for an evening concert.

The only problem with that was that there are two churches by that name, and the link in maps from the tickets had taken us to the wrong one.

So we hoofed it across town to the right one, and made it just as the doors were closing.

Chandelier that was swaying ominously at St Nicholas' church

Chandeliers are a big feature in an building in Prague. Czechia is known for its crystal and their chandeliers are renowned the world over. This church was no exception. We had an engaging hour of orchestral music, with solo oboe players, violinists, and singers, all while watching the gargantuan chandelier rock back and forth in the cross-breeze and praying that all the wires that were holding it up would continue to do so.

Given it would be our last opportunity, the remainder of our Czech money was spent at the Old Town Square markets, downing more bombardino and mulled wine.

Day 8: Home

Our flight was at 8am, and we left at 5am just to be sure we got their in ample time. It turns out that security at Prague airport is next to each gate, so this was grossly unnecessary, and just resulted in us losing more sleep than we had to, but better to be safe than sorry.

We enjoyed New Year's Eve in Dublin with our friends at Charlotte Quay, with a 5 course tasting meal augmented by cocktails and fireworks, and were safely home by 1am.

Hanging out at Charlotte Quay

Grand Canal Dock on NYE

Nearly every building in Czechia is like a work of art. The whole place is beautiful, colourful and bespoke. They take great pride in this, and coming back to Dublin, even our Georgian street seemed drab and boring in comparison.

It was pretty easy to find people that spoke English in Prague, but Brno was a little more challenging.

Traditional Czech food is delicious - definitely get your chops around some beef goulash, and there's another one that involves venison which should definitely also be on your to do list.

So our mission to have a white Christmas was kind of successful, but definitely lovely.