Picture-perfect Prague

In Prague, New Year’s Eve (or Silvestr as the Czech would say) is a major celebratory holiday. With three days to experience Prague and see in 2012, my main concern was that I’d become one of the many that are inevitably frustrated by, or caught in, the tourist trap that Prague is famed for being. However, in a city that is over-run with visitors 365 days of the year, this is difficult to avoid – particularly over the New Year period. In the final couple of days leading up to the countdown, Prague is extraordinarily animated with an air of anticipation settling over the city.

The best way to see Prague and soak in the ambience is to walk the entire city, spending a day on each side of the river Vltava, breaking each day up with stops at any of Prague’s abundant cafés and coffeehouses to people-watch. In fact, you could blow almost all of your holiday budget on coffee and still see most of Prague worth seeing. The cafés in Prague are definitely worth dedicating some time to. One that is popular largely among internationals is the Globe Coffeehouse; a regular haunt of exchange students, ex-pats and longtime travellers, the coffeehouse doubles as an English-language book shop. Café Slavia is another famous watering hole, and this one holds the distinguished claim of being the oldest café in Prague. Due to its proximity to the National Theatre, one can usually spot a D-list Czech celebrity or two sipping on their cappucinos here. Indeed, it was a favourite of Kafka’s himself.

“…Prague Castle, lit up stunningly and looking not unlike a Walt Disney creation…”

Public transport in Prague is cheap, but unnecessary for anyone halfway fit and mobile; the real beauty of Prague is in its architecture – something best seen on foot. The city’s legacy of buildings and landmarks manage to touch on almost every architectural style of the last thousand years from gothic, through baroque to cubism. Old Town Square seems to be home to buildings spanning all of these styles, from the reknowned Astronomical Clock to St. Nicholas’ Church.

Fancy a stroll across Charles Bridge? No problem – as long as you don’t mind a view of the backs of hundreds of people (especially if you’re as vertically challenged as myself) for the entirety of the half an hour it will take to crawl across the bridge. There is no time of year that Prague doesn’t draw thousands of tourists, artists, entertainers, and vendors to grace its arguably most famous landmark. So when to take full advantage of the breathtaking views of Prague’s landscape offered from the vantage point of Charles Bridge? For those of you willing to make the effort, waking up before dawn ought to guarantee you’ll have to share the bridge with only a very small number of other keen tourists. For lazier travellers more akin to myself, late evening (although not on New Year’s Eve!) makes for just a slightly busier but more romantic picture of Prague Castle, lit up stunningly and looking not unlike a Walt Disney creation.

At the northern end of Charles Bridge is a stairway leading down to Kampa Island, which is the site of Prague’s contemporary art museum. It is also home to many small pubs and eateries selling authentic Czech food and beer. Whilst spending my first afternoon wandering around the island, I accidentally stumbled upon a ‘lovelock bridge’ – a phenomenon that is fast becoming popular in Europe. For anyone else as fascinated by these universal declarations of love as I am, this one is found very near to the John Lennon wall on Kampa Island – something else worth a visit.

Prague Castle itself is where I was at the start of the New Year – and I don’t believe there was a better place for it. Firework displays, all beautifully synchronised, could be seen right across the city from Charles Bridge below to Petrin Hill above. The backdrop of the castle lent the night a magical touch, and the atmosphere among the assembled revellers was relaxed and fun. Walking back to our hotel post-festivities led us through the city’s other major gathering points on New Year’s Eve. Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square were evidently the livelier places to see in midnight – even with champagne bottles smashing and fireworks going off mere inches from our faces, we were only catching the tail-end of Prague’s most raucous celebrations.

The morning after, the clean-up operation starts early; but for the odd few stacks of bottles and cans haphazardly left on street corners, by midday the city looks just as it would any other day of the year. Most businesses begin trading at their usual hours. The first day of a new year is a slow one, but one sight worth getting a head start on other eager tourists for is Petrin Hill. The arduous hike (okay, slight abuse of artistic license there) to the summit of this hill, which stands at 1043 feet tall, is accordingly rewarded by the panoramic views of Prague from the top. One’s final moments in Prague are well spent just quietly observing from here, and reflecting on the year that has passed, and the year to come.