As an organization that sends thousands of students abroad each year, CEA has captured a list of local secrets - a collection of discoveries from our students, resident staff, as well as other locals - that make this city unique. We hope you will find the information helpful and, at the every least, an interesting read.
Vltava River Cruise
A dinner cruise through the heart of Prague on the Vltava river is a great way to treat yourself! As dusk descends, watch the silhouette of Prague Castle & Charles Bridge light up on the dark city skyline. After dark, the view from the top deck of the boat is incredible, the whole city looks magical. There is a buffet dinner with local Czech specialties and a live local band who serenade you through the evening. Doesn't get any better than this!
English-Language Media
The Prague Post is the local English language newspaper published weekly. It features world and local news and cultural information, as well as classifieds, restaurant reviews and excursion ideas. It is an excellent source of local information, especially at the beginning of your CEA program. Business focused students might prefer to gain an insight into Czech society through reading economic and political news in The Czech Business Weekly. Online, there is also the space-unlimited www.prague.tv, which will informatively guide you round the city sharing with you many useful and well-tested tips. A good idea would be to become a temporary free subscriber to the daily Fleet Sheet´s Final Word – simply send a message to subscribe@fsfinalword.com.
Czech World War II Resistance Memorial
While in Prague you should not miss this sobering site at the Church of Cyril and Metodej on Resslova street in Prague 2; it commemorates the brave if suicidal and somewhat desperate act of anti-Nazi resistance masterminded by the Czechoslovak exiled government in London. A group of trained parachutists were sent to the homeland to assassinate one of the top Nazi representatives, then Deputy Reich Protector of Czechoslovakia, Reinhard Heydrich, who had convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin to coordinate the Final Solution in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe and the Soviet Union, an estimated 11,000,000 persons. It was he who established a Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt. On May 27, 1942, the free agents shot and managed to kill Heydrich. As a reprisal for his death though, thousands of people were murdered including a small Czech mining village of Lidice completely liquidated. The Czech fighters were hiding and died at the mentioned church, betrayed by a fellow man. The American movie Operation Day Break is a fair account of this particular history.
Make a Wish on Charles Bridge
When you cross Charles Bridge, do not forget to pause at the statue of St John of Nepomuk (the saint holding a cross, with a halo of five stars above his head), touch it (the shiniest speck) and make a wish. St John is said to make one´s wishes true.
Free-entry Museum Days
Prague has many excellent museums, sights and galleries. The good news is that a lot of them have a free-entry day every month. Here´s a list of some of them: The National Museum (1st Monday of month), The Museum of Music (1st Thursday of month), The Lobkowitz Palace (1st Wednesday of month), The Naprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures (1st Friday of month), Museum of Prague (1st Thursday of month for CZK 1).
Operas at the Estates Theater
Plan on spending an evening at the world-famous Estates Theater, where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself conducted the Marriage of Figaro in spring 1787 and where he returned in the fall of the same year to conduct the world premiere of his very own Don Giovanni. The opera is still running today, over 200 years later. Don't miss it!
Give Peace a Chance
The John Lennon wall is located near the Anglo-American University in the Baroque Mala Strana quarter of Prague. After Lennon's assassination in 1980, the pacifist youth movement of the Czech Republic dedicated this wall to him. During the Communist era, heavily influenced by Lennon's lyrics of love, peace and freedom, the young people of Prague came to the wall to draw and write about their dissatisfaction with the oppressive regime, running the risk of police arrest. Today, the mural is still covered in John Lennon-inspired graffiti and is a popular meeting place for the city's youth. The Anglo-American University student newspaper is aptly named, "At the John Lennon Wall"
Keeping Fit in Prague
The World Class Health Academy, a Swedish fitness chain, boasts high-end equipment, personal trainers, pool, spa and sauna. They have 3 locations in Prague and they recently won the Prague - fitness club of the year - award. Parks are few and far between in downtown Prague, so you may have to take public transportation to the suburbs where there a quite a few good parks for jogging. The Podoli swimming pool complex in Prague-4 has both indoor and outdoor pools and is open all year round.
Shopping
The Novy Smichov mega-mall near Andel metro has all the stores you could ever dream of including the French hypermarket Carrefour, where you will find everything from notebooks and stationery to clothes and groceries. There is also a great food court on the upper level!
Czech Beer
The Czech Republic drinks the highest number of beers per capita in the world - an impressive 160 liters! Traditional beerhouses throughout the city serve up the most well-known Czech brews such as Budvar and Pilsner Urquell. One popular New Town pub serves up traditional and newfangled beers including versions made with coffee, sour cherries, eucalyptus and stinging nettles, not to mention excellent Czech cuisine. To accompany one of the many great beers try the beer cheese (utopenci)! Pivovarsky Dum, Lipova 15, Prague 2.
Breakfast and Lunch American-Style
Czech food is wholesome and tasty, but after a while you may find yourself craving for some American-style food. Bohemian Bagel is a chain restaurant which specializes in inexpensive breakfasts and lunches. There's a great choice of soups, desserts and bagel sandwiches, just like back home. Try the bagel sandwich with egg and bacon - it's excellent! There's a great ambiance and the staff is very friendly. You can sit outside when the weather is nice. Let's not forget the drinks. For a small extra fee, you can get unlimited refills on soda and coffee, quite a revolution in the Czech Republic!
The Black Madonna Cubist Café
Nowhere else in the world except in Prague can you see cubism transposed into architecture. The House of the Black Madonna near Staromestske namesti is probably the finest example of it. Inside, there is a unique gallery as well as a café where even the sweet pastry will comply with the cubist aesthetics (kubistický venecek). Check it out. On a summer day, you will find your sipping coffee or tea on the narrow balcony overlooking the busy street below and listening to live piano music very soothing.
Cheap Lunches
Provided you take liking to Czech dishes (rajska omacka s knedliky or francouzske brambory and the like), you can save a lot of money by eating out in one of the local luncheonettes where prices for a whole meal range from CZK 50 to 80 (USD 2-3.5). Perhaps the paragon of such a fast food place in a Czech style is Peklo (Hell, literally) by the movie theater Svetozor - open from 11am-3pm.
Skiing Resort Ještěd
If you love downhill skiing or cross-country skiing, you will be thrilled to know that one winter sports resort, Ještěd, is just within 2.5 hours from Prague (excellent bus and tram connection). Although busy traveling all around Europe, you can still find time to visit the Jizerske Mountains just for a day trip. It will host the 2009 World Championship of Cross-Country Skiing.There are eight slopes to choose from. It´s easy to rent ski, snowboard, etc., onsite, with the prices starting from a couple hundred crowns per day. One day skipass is CZK 550 (approx. USD 30). The season usually starts mid-November and ends in March. Ještěd (also the highest peak) is one of the few top-notch skiing resorts in the Czech Republic.
Prague International Marathon
As a standing homage to the all-time best Czech athlete and four-time Olympics gold medalist Emil Zátopek, Prague is the venue of 3 major running events during the year. In late April, there is a Half-Marathon. In May, a Marathon. Also, an open air music festival accompanies the sport event. In the fall season, there is the Grand Prix. In all three events, you can match your stamina against one of the top world runners who flock to the city, or you can simply enjoy the view of Prague from a different perspective.
English-speaking theater group
Although modest in scope, this local English language theater company is often on the lookout for actors and volunteers. You can find out more at www.pragueplayhouse.com. Apart from this company, every year the former Charles University lecturer John Martlew organizes a group of students to present one of Shakespeare´s plays. Most of the cast comes from the Charles University department of English and American studies and so this is a convenient way to make Czech friends.
The Prague Post Playwriting Contest (spring program only)
If acting or writing specifically is your cup of tea, this is the right thing for you. The weekly launched the first annual in 2006 in an attempt to jolt back to life English language theater in Prague. The contest provides some long awaited theatre entertainment for the ex-pat community and it also helps galvanize local writers, actors, producers and directors. Three 20-minute plays are selected from among submissions, and are then performed in March. One of our Spring 07 students went for an audition and got a part in the new play called Stevie The Stoic by Taso Dirlis.
The Poetry Day Festival (fall program only)
The festival actually lasts longer than its name would suggest. The activities run for as long as two weeks, and a number of outstanding European poets take part in this event in November every year, some of them English-speaking authors. The great Czech romantic poet, Karel Hynek Macha, who was born in 1810 and died in November 1836, just 26 years old, inspired the organizers.
You can appreciate here the opening lines of his very well known lyrical epic of love and death Maj [May]:
Late evening, on the first of May-
The twilit May-the time of love.
Meltingly called the turtle-dove,
Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay.
Whispered of love the mosses frail,
The flowering tree as sweetly lied,
The rose's fragrant sigh replied
To love-songs of the nightingale.
In shadowy woods the burnished lake
Darkly complained a secret pain,
By circling shores embraced again;
And heaven's clear sun leaned down to take
A road astray in azure deeps,
Like burning tears the lover weeps.
