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| | | | How to do Prague on the cheap
From the Mail on Sunday
There aren't many capitals where a pint of beer costs just 50p, a hearty meal less than £2 and a trip from the airport to the city centre 25p.
But Prague is one - as long as you know where to look...
GETTING THERE
Low-cost airline Go (http://www.go-fly.com tel: 0870 607 6543) flies to Prague from Stansted and from Bristol and East Midlands airports.
Bus 119 will take you from Prague airport (buy tickets at the arrivals hall transport desk) to the end of the metro line, then it's just a few stops to the city centre. Total journey time 40-60 minutes, total cost 25p.
If you have lots of bags, a Cedaz minibus takes one to four passengers right to your hotel for £7.50.
GETTING AROUND
Within the city centre, you'll only need your feet. However, a ride on the efficient Russian-built metro or the trams costs only 15p-25p, a 24-hour pass £1.50. You must buy tickets/passes in advance.
The most useful tram is 22, which takes you up to Prague Castle. If you take a cab, watch out for overcharging.
Travel guide: Czech Republic
Drowned but not out
Floods? What floods? Czechs are not cocky, so they would not be quite so flourishing in their statements.
But two months after the Czech capital was devastated by floods, the city is not just back on its feet but ready to party.
Relaxed faces line the streets. Teenagers jabber into mobiles. Couples kiss in doorways. Even the policemen are smiling.
It is not quite business as usual. At the aptly named C'est La Vie restaurant on the banks of the Vltava river, a workman is repairing a badly damaged wall.
'How long till you open again?' 'Maybe Christmas.' As with all such natural disasters, there is a lingering sense of unfairness.
One souvenir shop, 18in above the high watermark of August, is doing a roaring trade; another 50 yards away is closed until further notice. C'est la vie indeed.
As the Vltava glides serenely under Charles Bridge, it is hard to imagine it bursting its banks with such ferocity. Only the smell gives the game away.
As you near the river, the stench of silt, damp walls and burst sandbags blends with the other, more seductive aromas of the city: bakeries; freshly brewed coffee; the hint of goulash.
In the low-lying Jewish quarter, Josefov - one of the most fascinating in the whole city and home to Prague's Jewish community since the 13th century - the damage is particularly extensive.
The Jewish museum and cemetery are closed, and in the beautiful 13th-century synagogue the extractor fans are on full blast, drying the sodden walls.
But the area is still wonderfully atmospheric.
Travel guide: Czech Republic
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| | | | Where to stay and eat
WHERE TO STAY
Good-quality budget accommodation is hard to find. For somewhere appealing bank on spending at least £70 a night B&B for a double in high season (April to November).
Book well in advance for the following hotels, which are small and very popular. Rates are for B&B in a double room this summer. Add the prefix 0042 02 to phone numbers.
Dum U Velke Boty, Vlasska 30 (http://www.volweb.cz/rippl/ tel: 575 33 234), £69-£84. The 17th Century house has eight lovely bedrooms, excellent breakfasts, caring staff and a quiet position under the castle. My favourite.
Pension Dientzenhofer, Nosticova 2 (tel: 573 11 319), £73. Tucked away in a peaceful corner near Charles Bridge, this quaint 16th Century house has spacious bedrooms with modern furniture.
U Suteru, Palackeho 4 (249 48 235), £69-£81. A medieval/Baroque pub-with-rooms in the new town, not far from Wenceslas Square. Bedrooms are large and stylish.
Excellent, cheap Czech grub fills the pub with locals.
Pension Unitas, Bartolomejska 9 (http://www.unitas.cz tel: 242 11 020), £41. If you don't mind sharing a bathroom, stay in this former prison. Basement rooms were once the cells, and many - including Vaclav Havel's - still have iron doors.
BEST PUBS AND CAFES
To eat cheaply, go to a beer hall. In the old town, at U Medvidku (Na Perstyne 7) a plateful of goulash and dumplings costs £2, and half a litre of Budvar beer is 50p.
In Mala Strana, Baracnicka Rychta (Trziste 23) is a cosy hideaway where sausages in a beery sauce cost £1.20.
If you want just a beer, find a space at one of the packed communal tables at U Zlateho tygra (Husova 17).
Even the trendiest of Prague's cafes are affordable. At Barock (Parizska 24) in the old Jewish quarter, a bowl of spinach and smoked salmon soup at lunchtime, amid photos of models in various states of undress, costs £3.
The city also has several grand Viennese-style coffee houses, including Kavarna Obecni dum (Namesti Republiky 5); Slavia, opposite the National Theatre, and the Ebel Coffee House on Tyn, the old town's prettiest courtyard.
Explosion of life and colour
The subway system will not re-open for months and some tram routes are also suspended. But Prague is a city for walkers, and with most of its principal attractions on high ground, it is as accessible as ever.
Prague is in the high mainstream of European culture - a perpetual monument to centuries of gracious living.
You could not fail to be exhilarated by the Baroque buildings ringed around Old Town Square, with their soaring spires and painted shop-fronts - an explosion of life and colour.
Charles Bridge, the principal bridge across the Vltava, is adorned by fine statues and looks particularly splendid in a dawn mist.
Prague is such good value, too. In what other A-list European city could two people enjoy a night at the opera, in the best seats, have a two-course dinner with wine and still get change from £40?
We stumbled out of a glorious production of Rigoletto, found a pretty restaurant in the Old Town and were bombarded with so much good food we stayed bombarded till breakfast.
The Czech Republic does not hold with petite salads. Its chefs just kill an animal, cook a generous portion of it in about a pint of cream, then pile high the rest of the plate with carbohydrates.
Such gastronomic excesses will not suit everybody, of course, but are typical of a feel-good city where over-indulging may be a sin but under-indulging is a crime.
Post-Cold War Prague, exulting in its new-found capitalist freedom, is not wholly attractive.
It was dismaying to see a McDonald's within 50 yards of the statue of King Wenceslas in Wenceslas Square, scene of historic demonstrations during the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
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| | | | Sightseeing and entertainment
SIGHTSEEING
The Prague Card (£11.50 from the tourist office on Old Town Square) gives unlimited use of public transport and entry to 40 museums and sights over three days. Note, however, that some major attractions are not covered.
Best free attractions: With its buskers, artists and statues, you can't beat a stroll across Charles Bridge.
Access to much of the castle - including Golden Lane (the row of cute cottages where Kafka once lived) - is free. Don't miss the changing of the guard at noon.
Avoiding the crowds: The castle and the Jewish Museum are best visited first thing in the morning, at lunchtime or teatime. At nights the castle takes on the moodiness that must have inspired Kafka.
The Foreign Office warns that pickpocketing is common at the main tourist attractions.
ENTERTAINMENT
To find out what's on, get Bohemia Ticket International's monthly programme; its office is at Male Namesti 13 in the old town.
The year's big cultural event is the Prague Spring, a music festival (http://www.festival.cz).
The Prague Post, a weekly English-language newspaper, has a useful listings section or look at http://www.praguepost.com
Relaxed good humour
Now, henna-haired prostitutes patrol the other side of the square next to seemingly endless arcades of slot machines.
Was this what the Czechs were fighting for?
But elsewhere in the city, Prague past and present enjoy a symbiotic relationship marked by relaxed good humour.
As good a starting point as any is the recently opened Museum of Communism in the city centre.
'Cash, credit cards and blatant backhanded bribes accepted at our gift shop', reads the tongue-in-cheek poster at the entrance.
It is characteristic of a beautifully crafted exhibition in which the lunacies of the Communist period - the Marxist propaganda, the dreary grocery stores, the bugging devices, the ludicrous statues of Stalin - are viewed with wry amusement.
What were almost 50 years of madness in the life of a great city?
When in Prague, visitors have a sense of so much to do, so little time. Culture vultures will be in heaven, whether they are over-dosing on the Baroque architecture, checking out hip art galleries or listening to an organ concert in a medieval church.
But in cultural terms, there is no compulsion to 'do' anything.
Just to wander the cobbled streets - following your nose towards a hidden gem of a restaurant, or your ears towards a beer cellar throbbing to the sound of jazz, or your eyes towards a breathtaking view across the river - is to share in a vibrant community.
If September 11 proved anything, it was that great cities recover from great disasters. So dry your tears and pack away your wellies. There has probably never been a better time to visit Prague.
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