Oh boy, it seems that the weekends now seem to get busier than the weekdays, with all the events happening in Prague on a regular basis. Sure, we know it’s the summer season but can’t we all just go on a cleanse one weekend this summer or something? And this very Saturday will not be different. We wanted to get some work done today, but heck - these events simply won’t let us. Here’s where you’ll meet us today, trying to stuff our faces to forget we should have been sitting at home behind our laptops.

Another weekend, another failed attempt to roam the city and try everything Prague has to offer in two days, while getting some rest after a busy week. Oh well. That's life. But the summer is nearly here and the weather is getting better, so we just have to power through this and we’ll sleep at work later on. Sounds like a plan!

We bring you an overview of events that caught our eye for the weekend ahead. We will try to see them all, but we can’t make any promises. Especially mixing beer and Prosecco wines could be a pretty dangerous mix, but with the food and the culture you get along the way, we think we could keep it civilized. See you there!

Now, we were not really planning on it when we wrote last week's post about upcoming events in Prague, but it seems that events and happenings of all kinds are blossoming in Prague and the summer ahead of us will be a busy one if you like to eat, shop... and socialize. We bring you a recap of Prague spring events that are coming up this week. Let's just hope the weather will cooperate and you get to see them all. Gosh, we wish we could. Have fun!

As a guest of our yesterday’s food tour said, May is a great time to visit Prague: the trees are blossoming, the weather is great and everything is green. But it’s not just the nature that wakes up after a half-year hiatus. The social life seems to start blossoming in May, too, and with a few interesting events taking place mid to late May, you can tap into that scene, too. We bring you a short last-minute overview of the events coming up the next week, the associated venues, and - of course - the eateries nearby. Because let’s be honest: it’s all nice and all to look at buildings, design or listening to music, but when you’re hungry, you’re hungry, okay?

OK, let’s face it. The Ice-Hockey World Championships are really a Tier II championship. It’s a tournament of the best ice-hockey players who play for teams that got kicked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs already. Also, early and mid May is not the time of the year you would associate with ice-hockey - or ice for that matter - but let’s not worry about that. The hockey is still good and the Czechs love the tournament, and this year it is held in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic! 

Where should you watch the games? How should you behave? What to look for? Where to eat? Read on.

The first of May is a very special day in the Czech calendar. You can be sure that certain things will simply happen on the first May day. The Communists will have a rally, again. The few Neo-Nazis and Anarchists we have will try to beat each other somewhere (although that is sooo 90s). And couples in Prague will kiss each other under the blossoming Cherry or Cherry Blossom trees in the Petrin park.

We make a point of having a glass of wine on our tours. We have figured you will have the beer anyway. It’s cheaper than tap water in many restaurants here, and it’s so ubiquitous we would not believe you if you said you did not have one in Prague. But wines? No. Czech wine production is tiny and exports are rare, so most foreign visitors do not associate Prague with wine.

Well, we think that’s a mistake and that’s why we are trying hard to change that perception. Luckily, we are not alone. Far from it. There are other people in Prague working hard on the same thing. Take the good people of Veltlin, the wonderful local wine bar in the heart of the Karlin district. Mr Bogdan Trojak and his colleagues have long focused on the “natural” wines of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. (You can see the Empire painted on the wall that dominates the bar.) 

The very same people have decided this year to organize the second installment of Prague Drinks Wine, a festival of natural wines from the former empire in Prague, to be held on 6 and 7 June. The festival tries to follow on the long-forgotten tradition of meetings of Empire winemakers held before WWI. The festival will host about 50 Central European winemakers offering about 400 samples of wine. 

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way at the beginning: visiting Prague for one day only is not, ehm, the ideal scenario. Prague has so much to offer that you will definitely wish you’d stay longer. You’ll see. That said, we are well aware that we get far less vacation time than we all deserve, and sometimes you want to try to see as much as possible. 

Inspired by guests who have recently stayed in our rental apartment, we have prepared an emergency, one-day, try-to-see-it-all-in itinerary for Prague. Setting up an itinerary like this is about compromises. But we have tried our best to create an itinerary that will mix the local with the famous, and throw in some great bites on the way, of course. Just remember: Prague is a bit hilly and the streets are cobblestoned, so wear comfortable shoes and prepare mentally for a long walk. You’re in for a looong walk, but hey: you brought it on yourself. Visiting Prague in one day? Crazy.

A beautiful crystal chandelier? A larger-than-life painting of the Prague Castle? A 4-feet Moser vase? No. None of these are great gifts when you want to bring a cheap, fun souvenir from Prague to your colleagues, classmates or friends in your chess team. But some classic Czech sweets, candies and chocolate bars? That’s an entirely different story: they are cheap, fun and also unique to the Czech environment. Not something you’d give your loved one for Valentine’s Days, sure, but they are lots of fun for the right person.

Now, of course, you can go very, very wrong with choosing the right kind. Not all of classic Czech sweets taste great or - more importantly - have a story behind them. Because let’s be honest: story sells. Even gifts. You want a sweet or a bar that has a rich history, something that has a track record behind it, something that was the primary cause behind our first cavities, drilled without anesthesia when the whole school went to the dentist like we used to do in the last years of Communism (but that’s an entirely different story). You want some sweets we grew up with. You want sweets like those listed in this post.

The posts on this blog come from many inspirations: the food we eat, the countries we travel and, many times, the guests of our Prague food tours. While the itineraries might be similar in many cases, every tour is different… simply because the guests are. On one tour, we may talk about food exclusively, on others, the main topic can be travel, and on many more than you would have thought, sports. Yes, if you ranked the topics we discuss on the tours based on frequency, sports would end up fairly high. And, just like food, they are also a reflection of the society.