Seeing the World | Prague, CZ

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Now, it's been a while since my last post, but since coming back to the UK from the States I've just been working and preparing for my upcoming trips. The first of which was Prague in the Czech Republic. The idea of going here was for my brother's bachelor (stag) party, so I didn't really expect to see the city, however, I did get to see more than I thought.

As I arrived into Prague, I was originally underwhelmed by what I saw, as the airport seems to be out in the sticks; but the closer you get into the city, the more beautiful it gets. All the streets in the centre are old stone cobbles and the buildings are all magnificent structures that you can't help but stare in awe at; it's almost like stepping back into a much more beautiful and bohemian time, with the odd souvenir and ice cream store. The city is built upon the river Vltava, the longest river in the Czech Republic, which is home to the infamous Charles Bridge. As you cross the bridge, you are greeting by a lot of vendors selling souvenirs, painting and caricatures, among several other things. I love seeing this as I believe it's people and places like this that give the city life and show something real from Prague.

As a tourist in Prague, you stand out a mile and this sets you up as a target for people promoting for clubs and bars; it's a budding destination for bachelor parties and getaways so there are bars everywhere. This can be a bit of a nuisance as the majority of events promoters are trying to get you into a strip/sex club and as we were there in a big group of guys, we were magnets to these people. Personally, strip clubs aren't really my scene, I much prefer going for a dance somewhere but you don't really get promoters for just dance clubs in Prague. The clubs we did go in however, were awesome! Each club had their own theme or gimmick, from the James Dean bar which was decked out like old New York, to Karlovy Lazne, a five-story mega club with an ice-bar and a different theme on every floor. In a place like Karlovy Lazne, you don't need to put up with your friends annoying taste in music, you can choose what genre you wanna dance to and go to that floor and with 38Kč (£1.25) beers, you know you're in for a good night!

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As we were on a bachelor party, the best man had arranged some killer activities for us to take part in during the day, starting with the beer bike. After meeting with our rep we made our way into Prague 7 (kinda like Camden town, LDN) and met with a young couple who were going to take us on the tour. If you don't know what a beer bike is, it's a table on wheels that we pedal to make it move, with a beer keg, holding 30 litres of beer. The bike was controlled by a really nice guy, who took us through the 'real', less touristy part of Prague. The ride lasted about 70 minutes, but about 30 minutes in we reached the top of Prague in Letná Park. From here you could see the whole city in all it's beauty, and it was DEFINITELY beautiful. Shortly after, we arrived at the Stalin Monument; this used to be a huge granite statue honoring Joseph Stalin but was demolished in 1962, since then, it's been replaced by a massive metronome, but the communist architecture is still there in the surroundings.

Our next event was shooting. I don't think I'd ever held a gun before this, let alone shoot one, but I turned out to be better than expected (blowing my own trumpet a little). We met with our rep and headed out on the hour journey to the shooting range. Clapham (best man) had arranged for us to shoot an AK-47, an Uzi and a shotgun, however the roster changed a little when we got there and we ended up shooting the AK, a glock, a pump action shotgun and a double barrel shotgun (BONUS!). Each of us had a certain amount of bullets and we were talked through the use and history of each weapon by the instructor. One by one, we then took our shots at the target, paper targets for the AK and the glock, and metal, collapsible targets for the shotguns. After claiming 4 headshots with the AK-47, I dropped all the targets with every bullet of both shotguns, so if there's ever a zombie apocalypse, you know who to come to!

On the final day, we weren't scheduled to be picked up to go the airport until 7pm, so we had the whole day to 'see the sights', however this was short lived as some of the guys were a bit hungover and just wanted to chill, but we managed to take a walk across the Charles bridge and through the small streets of Prague city centre. We decided to have a small breakfast in a pub, before grabbing ourselves a nutella donut-cone ice-cream (I'm sure you've seen these on instagram). This is something you do have to try in Prague, however I wasn't too impressed with mine, but I guess that's due to where I got it from, as there are so many, some are better than others.

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My time in Prague was insane, I had so much fun and I'm glad that my brother had a great time, however I really want to revisit Prague in the near future, as I feel like I didn't get to see enough of the city. I didn't expect to do much sightseeing, so I wasn't disappointed, but I feel like I need to go and see as much as I can of what I already know to be a magnificent place. There is so much beauty yet to be seen in the Czech Republic, but for now, I'm looking towards my next adventure.