The most common complaint we get from our coffee-loving Australian guests is that they went on for weeks without a nice cup of flat white. What is "flat white"? Well, it's basically a cappuccino with a double shot of coffee, usually served in a short glass. We think it might be called a "latte" in Australia but here "latte" means a coffee drink with a single shot of coffee, milk and milk foam. To be honest, Jan had a flat white a few weeks ago for the first time, having heard about it so much on the tours, and is a complete convert. There is no going back.
Prague souvenirs: Terry Posters
This is another episode of our ongoing series about the souvenirs we would recommend you buy in Prague. We have a different take on Prague souvenirs, though: instead of something that would shout "Prague", we recommend things that are not directly souvenirs per se; they are, rather, things we grew up with, things that really are a reflection on the country and on the times we live in or used to live in not that long ago. Today, we will suggest a souvenir for those who love movies. The filmmaking business in the Communist era did, to some extent, flourish, although it was heavily regulated. Instead of a competition between producers and production team, there were basically a few production centres in the Czech Republic producing movies subject to approval of regime censors. Some of the movies were genuinely good, especially the movies of the "new wave" of Czech cinema in the 1960s, while other movies were not that great, just like in any other country.
What was unique was the way filmmaking was funded in Communist Czechoslovakia. In addition to government funding, the Czech moviemaking business had another, perhaps surprising, source of income: sales of US and Western movies. You see, people craved Western things, including movies, and the Czech films importer, as a government-owned monopoly, could make good use of that. With no legal competition to speak of, the monopoly distributor could really dictate the terms on which the rights to the movies were bought to be shown in Czechoslovakia. And they were tough. The Czech importer would always offer a low, fixed sum, e.g. USD 20,000 for a movie, take it or leave it. And many Western producers decided to take it, simply because it was better than nothing. Therefore, the monopoly importer made incredible amounts of money from the ticket sales, having just paid a ridiculous amount for the rights. And this money was later used to fund production of new Czechoslovak movies.
However, there was one caveat: the movies did not come with their original posters. The Czech distributors thus had to make their own posters, very different from the originals displayed elsewhere, with some of them true pieces of modern art and graphic design. And that's our souvenir tip today: Terry Posters, a shop run by Union Film Ltd and the people behind the Aero and Svetozor, two art cinemas based in Prague, that sells these old, Communist posters. Mind you, these are not copies or reprints: these are the very originals, often with visible folds. That is why some of the posters shown in the online shop (yes, they do have an online shop, too) are not for sale: they only have one poster of that kind in their collection.
Therefore, we recommend that you visit the Svetozor art cinema (which is where the Terry Posters shop is located at), see a movie and buy a poster for a movie you love, but a poster with a clear twist.
Cinema Světozor
Vodičkova 41, Prague 1
Opening times
(as of June 2013): Mon to Fri 10-20, Sat 12-5
(The poster shown above: Twelve Angry Men, source)
Source of the featured picture (Critters)
Vegetarian restaurants in Prague
Being a vegetarian in the Czech Republic used to be tough. Some ten years ago, restaurants would have only two "vegetarian" options on the menu: fried cheese, and fried cheese... with ham (really). While things have gotten better recently and vegetarians do have many options to choose from (at least in Prague), for many restaurants that also cook meat, vegetarian dishes remain a mere afterthought, while their focus is clearly elsewhere. You may notice we tend to be quite critical of the local vegetarian scene. Don't get us wrong: we love vegetarian cooking (even Jan) for the variety and richness of flavors. However, some of the older Czech vegetarian dishes are stuck on the practice of basically cooking meaty dishes with meat substitutes. In our eyes, this makes no sense. Goulash with tofu, anyone? Soy "a la beef steak"? Why does Czech vegetarian cooking of the yesteryear try so hard to mimic meat? We don't know. That is why we still tend to think that while some of the choices in Prague are good, they will have a hard time matching some of their counterparts abroad (establishments like Ottolenghi in London, or De Kas in Amsterdam).
The smartest Prague food tours. Cool rental apartment. Awesome pocket wifi device. We’ll turn your Prague trip up to eleven.
Book a tour Get the guide Rent the apartment Rent the pocket wifiIf you are a vegetarian, you can still taste some Czech classic dishes, though. Of course, fried cheese remains a classic, although that dish probably betrays the whole idea that vegetarian cooking should be healthy. Other options include Kulajda, a typical Czech soup with dill, potatoes, mushrooms and a poached egg. Dill sauce or lentils with a hard-boiled egg are also quite common. In addition, we should not forget the staple of Czech cuisine: hot sweet main meals. These include dumplings filled with fruits (usually plums or strawberries), or "sisky" (similar to gnocchi) with poppy seeds.
Anyway, without further ado, here is a selection of vegetarian restaurants in Prague:
Lehká Hlava (Borsov 280/2, Prague 1) Probably the best-known vegetarian restaurant in town. Reservation is definitely recommended. In our opinion, Lehka hlava is clearly superior to its sister restaurant, Maitrea, although the latter is very popular, too. Both restaurants' menus include dishes that makes little sense to us: meaty dishes without the meat (things like fake roast with red cabbage and dumplings, or vegetable sausages). Maitrea also serves "Czech specials", so you are eating Czech dishes, originally based on meat, with meat substitutes, listening to wind chimes and flutes. Maybe it's just us. If you have to choose between the two, choose Lehka hlava. It is good but we think it's nothing to write home about in international context.
Bio Zahrada (Belgicka 33, Prague 2) A small café/bistro/shop in the heart of the Vinohrady district where local come to collect the farmers' produce they ordered. This restaurant focuses on organic and gluten-free lunches. A nice place with a small outdoor seating area with a nice selection of cakes and sandwiches.
Estrella (Opatovicka 17, Prague 1) A relatively recent entry on the Prague vegetarian scene, this place is a bit hidden but really worth a look. The daily specials are tasty, and you can see the food is made with love. Very helpful, young staff.
Secret of Raw (Seifertova 13, Prague 3) Recently opened, this small place made big waves in online circles when it opened as the first raw food eatery in Prague. A confession: we have not been there yet but a look at the menu raises suspicions: avocados, coconut and other ingredients really make it impossible to call this restaurant's food either seasonal or local. Although raw cuisine may in theory include meat, this is a vegetarian place.
Plevel (Krymska 126/6, Prague 10) Opened just a few days ago, Plevel is a new vegetarian eatery in the hipster heaven that is the Krymska street near the Grebovka vineyard on the border of the Vinohrady and Vrsovice districts. As the name of the restaurant ("weeds" in English) implies, the owners have a humorous take on the whole vegetarian scene.
Mama Coffee (Vodickova 6, Prague 1) A great place enjoyed by local crowds and families, a flagship store of the Mama Coffee coffee roasters that supplies fair trade coffee to many Prague cafes. The cafe offers vegetarian lunches and snacks that cannot deny their Middle-Eastern influence (like hummus and tabouleh dishes, bagels and sandwiches).
Mlsná Kafka (Sokolovska 29, Prague 8) Great for vegetarian Sunday brunches from 11am to 3pm, which give kids the opportunity to prepare some vegetarian food, too. The menu looks very interesting and may be appealing even for carnivores.
Beas Dhaba This North Indian eatery with self-service lunches offers good value for the money. Out of the five branches in Prague, the most convenient and the nicest is the one at Tynska street, which sports a nice summer garden. Free tap water, price is paid per weight. You should expect vegetables, legumes and rice.
Govinda One of the first vegetarian restaurants in the centre of Prague, now sporting two branches. The atmosphere is certainly oriental, with meditative soundtrack playing in the background. Again, food is paid based on weight.
Country Life We are including this in the list just because we would get lots of mail if we didn't. This chain of organic food stores is a good choice for buying groceries but we are not convinced by the food. We saw them serve "svickova with tofu and dumplings". Yes, it makes no sense. (Just that you understand: "svickova" is normally a typical Czech beef dish).
Kidó (Smeralova 22, Prague 7) This quite recently bistro quickly became a local favorite in the Letna district. Great interiors and helpful staff help building a local feel of the place. Kido serves a vegetarian lunch menu every day, allowing you to choose from a buffet of about five daily dishes, or combine them to your liking.
Have a group that includes carnivores and vegetarians who want to eat together? It's still pretty tricky to find a place that would truly satisfy both but we do have two suggestions:
Dish (Rimska 29, Prague 2) A burger joint in a list of vegetarian restaurants? Yes. The wildly popular upscale burger bistro offers two veggie burgers: caponata and falafel. We have enjoyed the former more than the latter. And the regular burgers are awesome. Coming for dinner without a reservation? Forget it.
Pizza Nuova (Revolucni 1, Prague 1) The all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta restaurant is full every evening, and for good reason. The dishes are great and the menu includes meaty and vegetarian dishes. Vegetarians may opt for the all-you-can-eat salad bar that offers many nice Italian vegetarian cold dishes, or you can choose a single dish a la carte.
Sisters (Dlouha 39, Prague 1) Since it opened in March 2014, this bistro that focuses on the modern interpretation of the Czech "chlebicky" (traditional open-faced sandwiches) has become incredibly popular among the locals. Apart from the classic ham on potato salad and steak tartare chebicek, they serve vegetarian options, too: red beet puree with goat cheese, radishes and cream cheese or celery remoulade are the favorites.
Lendl : Mucha
This post will be dedicated to two Czech greats that have been attracting lots of spotlight in the past months and weeks here in Prague. We are talking about Ivan Lendl and Alfons Mucha.
Ivan Lendl was one of the best tennis players of all time. Born in 1960 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, he began to dominate the world of tennis at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, helping Czechoslovakia win the 1980 Davis Cup. A great video showing his early years can be found here. After some disagreements with the Communist government (Lendl applied for the type of Czechosloval passport that would allow him to reside permanently in the USA to train all year but did not get it), he escaped to the US in 1986, becoming a US citizen six years later. We can still remember this (Jan used to play lots of tennis when he was young).
Tennis in the 1980s had a huge following here in Communist Czechoslovakia, also because it allowed you to travel to the West on a regular basis. Unfortunately, Czechoslovak TV did not cover any of the major tournaments mostly because the coverage would alway include two renegades, two famous athletes that fled from Czechoslovakia to the West: Martina Navratilova and Ivan Lendl. And when a celebrity fled to the West, it would never be heard of again; therefore, no coverage of major tennis tournaments in Czechoslovakia, with only bare results shown on the back pages of the sports section in the newspaper.
The lack of information on one hand and apparent stardom on the other lead to the creation of many myths: myths about Lendl's alleged lack of talent, which obviously was untrue - you can't be the World No. 1 for five years without talent - although Lendl himself did confess that he did not possess the talent of Boris Becker or John McEnroe and had to work that much harder. His "hitting hot" style ushered in the era of power tennis we see on the circuits today. Currently, he is coaching the Scot Andy Murray, World no. 3 player at the moment.
In 1982, Lendl met Jiri Mucha, the journalist and writer son of the famous Czech illustrator and painter, Alfons Mucha. Inspired by this encounter, Lendl, assisted by the help of Jack Rennert, the US expert on Belle Epoque posters and the author of a book about Mucha, began to collect Mucha's posters and panels. He achieved to collect 116 out of the 119 posters on record (the two remaining ones form parts of collections held by national museums, and one apparently does not exist anymore in print), thus becoming the largest and best collector of Mucha in the world. Lendl apparently took all the passion he dedicated to tennis and put it in the effort to collect the comprehensive works of Mucha.
Why are we writing about this? Because Lendl's collection will now be shown, for the first time ever, to the public in its complete form! Starting from 10 April, you can see the exhibition in the Municipal House in Prague (the most appropriate place for this, as Alfons Mucha did participate in the decoration of the Art Nuveau building). We think this is a great opportunity to see the complete poster works of one of the most famous Czech artists in the world.
For more details, please see the website of the exhibition here. The entry costs CZK 180 (EUR 7, USD 9) and the exhibition will close on 31 July 2013. See you there!
Jewelry Design in Prague
Today on the tour, we had two nice guests, Khobe and David, and Khobe runs a great jewelry studio in California. As huge fans of Czech jewelry, we thought we could share some tips with Khobe, David and with you all. Just like Czech glass, Czech jewelry’s always been sought after. The tradition is really long and almost any traveller visiting Prague knows about garnets and amber. We admit garnet jewelry (please look for stores selling genuine pieces) is very elegant, but if your exploration of Czech jewelry stops there, you’ll be missing out.
The growth of modern Czech design is apparent, and young Czech jewelers creating unusual, award-wining designs, shine with special brightness. Let’s have a look at some of our favorites (clicking on the title takes you to designers' websites detailing where you can buy their jewelry in Prague).
The Zorya label, the result of fruitful cooperation between jewelry maker Zdeněk Vacek and designer Daniel Pošta, has already made its mark since its inception in 2011. The winners of the Designblok '11 Editors Award for the best collection of jewelry create high-quality, hand-made pieces that are unusual, yet elegant.
The popular designer transforms dreams, fantasies, and visions into the form of wearable jewelry. Věra Nováková uses traditional techniques and materials, but chooses less traditional procedures to produce comfortable, wearable pieces.
As the designer, Markéta Dlouhá-Marová admits, her pieces occupy the space somewhere between punk and luxury. The designer hand picks river pearls and combines them with precious metals to create visually startling creations.
You can see that the person behind the simple geometric creations is an architect. Jana Hamrová uses the minimalist approach to jewelry making. Her preferred material is silver, at times combined with less precious materials such as plastics.
This family run business collaborates with many young Czech designers to create an extensive portfolio of jewelry with prices ranging from very reasonable to… well, less reasonable. They use silver and gold, but also titanium, steel and plastics. We also like their little, cool showroom at Mikulandská Street near the National Theater.
Jewelry by this Serbian-born designer is extravagant and bold. Inspired by her wild dreams, the creations often borrow from the world of animals. Her last collection, Superpowers, earned her a nomination for the Czech Grand Design award in the jewelry category. Together with another great young designer Nastassia Aleinikava, they created the praised Lure collection.
Inspired by organic and inorganic structures, Markéta Richterová creates hi-tech jewelry from materials like corian, perpex or carbon. Although her creations have a precise, industrial feel, each piece is hand-made with lots of handcraft. Joining forces with fellow designer Zbyněk Krulich, she crated the Blueberries line of jewelry made entirely on a 3D printer. Both her collections were nominated for the Czech Grand Design award in the jewelry category.
One half of the Belka fashion label, Martina Malá also creates highly ornamented jewelry designs. Her pieces are very colorful and feminine.
St Matthew's Fair Is Here Again!
Matejska pout, or St Mathhew's Fair, is a cultural institution here in Prague that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. This annual spring fun fair attracts enormous crowds every single year, especially on weekends if the weather is nice. The fair has everything: plenty of rides (from modern to very old ones), food stands with cotton and hard candy, sausages and beer. We think it's a great venue when you have kids, and not only just because of St Matthew's Fair: the surroundings offer plenty of activities, too.
The fair is held each year on the old Holesovice Fair Grounds, just a short tram ride from the centre. The centre of the grounds is occupied by the old Fair Palace, one half of which burned down sadly a few years ago when someone forgot to put the kettle off during a dentistry trade show. The grounds also include an ice-hockey arena, a swimming pool and a famous fountain. The grounds are fairly empty throughout the year, only to come alive during St Matthew's Fair.
After you've enjoyed the rides, we recommend that you leave the fair and have a stroll in the adjacent Stromovka park, the biggest public park near the centre of Prague. It's one of our most favorite walks in Prague: you start from the fair grounds and walk into the park past the observatory to the "central circle" with a pond, benches and many joggers, families and lovers. We recommend you walk under the train tracks towards the river and cross it using the elevated bridge.
You enter Cisarsky ostrov, a lovely island in the river that accommodates an equestrian centre with a parkour pitch and stables. Parkour competitions sometimes take place there. From there, walk to the other side of the river using the pedestrian bridge and turn left. In about five minutes, you will enter the Troja Chateau - a big villa that dates back to the late 17th century with an impressive garden. Take a few snapshots and walk past the villa on the left. There, you have two choices: either the Prague Zoo, said to be one of the top ten zoos in the world by many, or the Botanical garden above it, which includes the Santa Clara winery: one of the best wineries in Prague that offers its visitors the chance to taste local wines.
We think this walk can create a wonderful afternoon that will bring many memories to kids and their parents alike. The whole walk should not take more than an hour, depending on your pace. If you don't feel like walking back the entire route, you can take the bus from the ZOO to the Holesovicke nadrazi subway stop and follow from there to the centre. St Matthew's Fair opened on 2 March and ends on 21 April. Enjoy!
Show the Stromovka walk on a larger map.
Shopping in Prague: Koh-i-noor pencils
If you are following this blog, you know that we have already written about the Kooh-i-Noor mechanical pencils here, so you can read all about the history of this famous Czech brand and the awesome wonder of the mechanical pencils in that post. Unfortunately, the Botas 66 concept store closed down about a month ago (we think the high rent must have played a role in that) so we have lost our most favorite place to get these awesome mechanical pencils and one of the best places, in our opinion, to do some great shopping in Prague.
What to do in Prague: Prague views
One of the things that make Prague so great in our opinion are the hills that surround the centre. Prague is often compared to Vienna in terms of atmosphere but we think the hills give Prague a clear edge over Vienna (of course). You can simply walk up, get away from the crowds in the centre and enjoy some lovely vistas. In this post, we bring you a few tips for great views of Prague. If you connect them, they will create a really nice walk around the entire centre, allowing you to see the central parts of Prague from all possible angles.
Czech Oscar Winners
With this year's Oscar ceremony behind us, the time is ripe to do two things: first, to congratulate the winners (we loved Argo, and we thoroughly enjoyed Ms Lawrence's Mr Waltz's performances in Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained (we have not seen Lincoln and Les Miserables), and, second, to recollect the Czech and Czechoslovak movies who that won the Best Foreign Language Film category in the past. The Czech cinematography has a very long tradition, booming especially in the 1960s with the filmmakers of the "New Wave" (when the Poles want to say that something is confusing, they say "it's like a Czech movie"). All in all, despite the Iron Curtain and all, three Czech(oslovak) movies managed to win the Oscar Best Foreign Language Film award. All these films can be bought on DVDs here in Prague, with English subtitles.
Things to do in Prague... During a Snow Storm
Ahh, we love snow storms. There are so many things to do in Prague that locals truly enjoy. You can, for instance, shovel your way out of your family house to get the newspaper, or spend good fifteen, twenty minutes rescuing your car from under four inches of snow, just to do the very same thing two hours later... Anyway, if you're a traveler visiting Prague, you don't have to do any of these things, lucky you! If you find yourself in the middle of a snow storm in Prague, we have a few tips that can make your stay truly enjoyable... (unless you want to shovel our way from our house!)