Pretty in Prague

I have always dreamt of going to Prague, visiting the haunts of literary giants and seeing some of the world’s greatest art and architecture. Prague did not let me down, although the Lonely Planet summarised it pretty well when they said “so you’ve just arrived in Prague and you’re wondering why you bothered...” On first impression it looked like an amalgamation of every other central-eastern-European city that we’ve visited, only with higher prices. We were saying things like “sure the main square is lovely but it’s no Krakow...”

But after a couple of days Prague had weaselled its way into our hearts. It is just so gorgeous, and very well preserved due to the Czech’s apparent habit of surrendering to every army who passed by. We were entertained by the Czech’s bluntness and wry sense of humour, impressed by humankind’s ability to think of every detail at the museum of torture (sawing someone in half? Why not hang them upside down so that the blood rushes to their head and they are conscious for longer?), and bemused by an unusual Dali exhibition. I really, really wish that we could have smelt the Dali perfume. I’m going to spend the rest of my life wondering what a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order smells like, argh! 

My favourite pastime of all was visiting Prague’s grand old cafe’s which are deeply entwined in the city’s literary history. They have been regularly frequented by people such as Franz Kafka and Allan Ginsberg and are spaces in which masterpieces have been written and new philosophies thrashed out. It is entirely possible that I have sat in the chair that Albert Einstein was occupying when he had a ‘Eureka!’ moment!



On our walking tour we discovered cute buildings, avant-garde fashion and a cool monument to the famous writer Kafka... inspired by a dream of his where a man wandered the streets of Prague on the shoulders of a headless man.

The astronomical clock in the centre of the old town, every hour the clock treats viewers to a magical display... but I'll leave that for you to discover.

A handsome guy, overlooking a pretty canal, next to some horrific torture... ouch.

The John Lennon wall, we were a bit surprised actually... we imagined a different Lenin for some reason.

We heard about a little chapel filled with thousands of human bones and couldn't resist a visit. Even from the outside Sedlec Ossuary was ominous...

Mmm coffee... and cake... we spent a lot of our time here... 

Once you go Krakow you’ll never go back OW!

We spent a lot of our time in Krakow learning about Poland’s rich Jewish history. It’s sort of unavoidable – it seemed as though everywhere we went had Jewish significance. Museums are located inside abandoned synagogues, the best bars in town are located in the abandoned Jewish quarter... if you look to your right you will see Oskar Schindler’s factory and if you look to your left there are some remnants of the wall which once enclosed the Jewish ghetto... it is staggering. The nearby Auschwitz Concentration Camp is the reason why these spaces are museums and bars today. Unsurprisingly the majority of the survivors chose not to return to their former Polish homes, to the extent that today only one of Krakow’s 300 synagogues is used for religious purposes.

We learnt many things that made us sad, and I just about broke my heart looking at the piles of abandoned possessions at Auschwitz. Somehow knowing what happened does not prepare you for seeing an enormous room filled to the brim with the shoes of the victims. Or the enormous room filled with their suitcases. Or the one with their hair. Or the one with...

Despite its incredibly traumatic history Krakow is a place of life and vitality and FUN – it has unbelievably gorgeous locals who dress to kill, a choice of creamy or tangy herrings and an insane nightlife (my favourite place was a bar where we climbed through wardrobes to move between rooms). Many of the backpackers that we met there went to Krakow purely to party and our 12 bed dorm was fairly evenly divided between those who slept at night and those who “slept” during the day, oblivious of the ringing of their cell phone right next to their head...

It’s just magic. It is my favourite place in Europe so far.

And – it’s incredibly beautiful too... cue Dan!



A bit like Dubrovnik in style, but no doubt its in-land position helps to prevent it from becoming swamped by cruise ships... preventing the inevitable take-over by tourist trinket shops and large people with cankles.


Once again we jumped on a free city tour, this one taking us through the important Jewish parts of town. I thought this memorial of chairs was especially powerful. It recalls a moment in the war when all the old furniture was thrown out onto the Umschlagplatz at the Podgorze Ghetto, as the inhabitants of the ghetto were finally assembled by the German SS to be sent to death.

Our day at Auschwitz was chilling, and eye-opening. It made me see another side of the Nazi's... that they weren't just driven by hatred to mass extermination... but also profit. Every part of the Jews that were sent to these camps were taken from them, not just their worldly possessions but absolutely anything the Nazi's could profit from. Including their hair which they made into rope.

A tiny portion of these possessions were recovered when the camps were taken by the allies.

This was a typical block at part two of the camp.


On a much more light-hearted day out, we visited another famous place in Krakow... the Salt mines.

Worked for over 900 years, mining salt was very profitable business (the medieval equivalent to oil). Huge chambers including this massive chapel were carved out by the miners... everything you see is made from the rock salt, and held together by massive wooden logs.

It really is quite hard to show the scale and variety of this place with a few photographs... well worth the visit.