Has anyone been to the Czech Republic?

[Engage]

Thinking of Eastern European countries for next summer vacation. Maybe stay for a year or two?
Who knows. Currently in the US. Wondering what anyone can tel me about Czechland?

Any good books I can read or websites you can suggest?

Thanks.

 

[malakaix]

Yes.

I spent a couple of weeks in the capital Prague, it's a very beautiful city.. often compared to a fairytale, the inner section of Old Town is paved with cobblestones and most of the inner walk-way's are pedestrian only so you get the real sense of walking through a time-warp. That's if you can ignore the hordes of tourists, the city is tourist dense.. and this heavy influx of tourists can make locals less friendly, however Czech beer is by far my favourite beer in the world.. they have a world-renown status for some of the best beers you'll ever try.. it's becoming more expensive, but czech republic is still relativley cheap compared to western europeon countries. I havn't travelled much elsewhere in the country.. i spent a short amount of time in Kutna'Hora (1 hour from Prague) and i've been told by many that Cesky Krumlov is like visiting a time-locked town.

I lived for a year in Budapest, Hungary.. this is about a 7 hour bus ride from Prague. I've travelled all over Eastern Europe and for me personally this city hits all the right spots. Stunning architecture, incredible bar life (there's a couple of bars here rated among the top in the world), cheap, beautiful women, very expat/student like and the layout of the city is easy to navigate.. plus the surrounding countryside is amazing, that and i find the Hungarian language strangely fascinating. The city itself doesn't feel as tourist-centric as Prague.. although it still does fill out in the summer months, but due to the layout of the city there's much less congestion. I would say it's on par with Czech in terms of price, maybe a bit cheaper.

For travelling in EE i would highly recommend visiting the Balkan Region (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro etc..) the people here are extremely friendly, i hitch-hiked through this whole region and it never took me longer then 25 mins to get a ride.. very accommodating and passionate people. You'll quickly find yourself been offered Rakija where-ever you go (home-made spirit) and lots of Borek.

Not sure on what to suggest in terms of reading material, you could check out the Lonely Planet book on Eastern Europe.

 

[thujone]

^- agreed. Budapest is like a second home for me so maybe I'm biased but some of the best food and drink in the region you'll find there at good prices. It's an affordable city to rent a place in for a few months and just live. Prague in extremely beautiful but it's a tourist trap. Going out is expensive, plus you get slapped with a mandatory tip surcharge everywhere, so service with a smile is rarely part of the bargain. A lot of the natives have clearly been pushed beyond their lifetime allotment of fucks to give and I wouldn't blame them given the amount of belligerent tourists they have to deal with. On the flipside, the city is small so you can cover it entirely on foot in a weekend, plus there are affordable hotel rooms and most of the things worth seeing are open and public so while you get gouged on dining costs the city makes up for it just by being accessible. In summary, it's a great city to visit for a weekend and definitely earns its "fairy tale" reputation but living there would be a major pain given that tourist season lasts 365 days a year.

Ex-pat blogs are IMHO the best source of intel, they give you some of the local perspective with entertaining anecdotes related to culture shock and life in general.