Ireland/Czech - Day 9

Today was our last day in Prague as well as the final day of the conference. I woke up early to use another Breakfast Voucher at the hotel, then spent the morning at the conference. By lunch time, the conference had wound down and I had one more thing I wanted to do in Prague before we left.

Final Day in Prague - beautiful weather!

On our tour, Ross did a nice job explaining how the Munich Agreement of 1938 led to the execution of Operation Anthropoid by the government in exile following the Nazi invasion. I had spent a couple days reading up on this bit of history, since I was a little too American in this area, and I was glad that I did. During my Wikipedia scouring, I discovered that the church where the Nazis finally tracked down and killed the operatives that assassinated Richard Heydrich had a small museum worth visiting. The St. Cyriland St. Methodius Cathedral is a 10 minute walk from my favorite metro station (I.P. Pavlova = “Eee-Pay Paf-Low-Fah”), an area of town we really hadn’t explored yet. I had planned to get lunch at Café Amandine, a French restaurant with outstanding reviews, but we really didn’t have time to stop by – next visit! Instead, I had another Clif Bar lunch – easy to eat on the go.

Outside of the Church - obviously the right spot.

When we arrived at the Cathedral, it was relatively obvious that we were in the right place. The only window to the Church’s crypt is scarred with machine gun fire and a large plaque (in Czech – blast!) as well as a smattering of tourists. Downstairs, there is a small museum that contains a variety of artifacts from the Operation. I particularly liked the area that explained the amount of training and preparation for each soldier. Since they trained with the British (in Scotland), the official records that were posted in the museum were in English and only partially translated in Czech, so it was finally an advantage to be an English speaker! A sad part of this section was the original copy of their wills (in Czech), a reminder that the soldiers knew they were essentially on a suicide mission. 

My favorite artifact in the museum - picker piece.

Finally, the crypt itself was very moving. Each operative had a small bronze bust and plaque about their career, and the whole place is riddled with gun fire. I appreciated seeing the entrance that the soldiers used to enter the crypt – basically just a hole in the ceiling. In total, definitely a very unique, interesting, and moving experience. Admission is 75 CZK / $3.75 USD per person.

The window (from inside the crypt).

Stairs the attackers discovered and used to finally enter the crypt.

Entrance the soldiers used to enter the crypt.

Although we thought we were running a bit late to make our ride back to the airport, we made a quick detour to see the Dancing House, which happens to be within spitting distance of the Cathedral. Although the Dancing House is somewhat controversial to Czechs, as it is an extremely non-traditional design by Frank Gehry that tends to clash with the very classic architecture of Prague, I had previously lived near and learned in a different Frank Gehry building (Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University), so it seemed like I at least needed to visit the building. The site itself was vacant as a result of the accidental bombing of Prague by the US at the end of World War II (apparently they mistook Prague for Dresden?). In any event, we quickly took some pictures and headed back to the metro. Our final stop in the area was a quick dash into the thrift store “Second Hand London”, where Lindsay picked up a purple tie and I laughed at seeing a hat from Cedar Point.

The Dancing House in all its "glory".

Although we thought we were going to be late getting back to our hotel, we made it basically right on time (2:30 PM). The guy from our car service was waiting for us, but this time he didn’t have a sign. He ended up following us around with his phone as we entered and then exited the hotel, eventually pulling up our name and asking if he was supposed to be picking us up. Although still nice, this guy was a little stranger than our first driver. First, he insisted that we put ALL luggage in the trunk – suitcases, laptops, everything – for “everyone’s safety” (?). When we arrived at the airport, I got out of the car, but he quickly requested that I don’t close the door – apparently his fancy Mercedes has the “no slam” doors and he didn’t want me to test them out for him. Either way, the car service itself was timely and affordable, so no real complaints with Prague Airport Transfers.

This building is across from the Dancing House. Lindsay said she really liked it, so I made her pose.

We flew Ryanair from Prague back to Dublin. Ryanair doesn’t open the ticket counter until they feel that you really need to check in, so we actually arrived about 30 minutes before the counter was even open. I took this opportunity to exchange the rest of our stockpiled Czech money back to USD - fortunately, not a giant ripoff. On the plane, Lindsay sat next to a Czech who was moving to Dublin. Although it was unclear if she had a job or even a plan in Ireland, she said she was moving because she was dissatisfied with the people in Prague. This was actually a fairly common sentiment that we encountered in Czech Republic. Actually, the first real Czech we met (our first car service guy) said, “Prague is great. Well, the city is great. The people – not so much.” I think maybe something is lost in translation. During our stay, we discovered that Czech people, in general, are not very warm. It’s not that they are rude or even sad, Czechs just generally seem to hold others at arms distance. This topic (the “Czech Mentality”) is actually discussed at length in a variety of places on the internet – check out expats.cz, this article, or just google if you are interested.

Ever since we left Dublin, Lindsay had been itching to visit Fitzsimons. On the first leg of our journey, we discovered (too late) that they have Irish Dancing to accompany traditional Irish music in the evenings. We took a bus into the city center (more on that later), dropped off our bags, and headed over to Temple Bar to get a seat at Fitzsimons. 

The traditional Irish duo at Fitzsimons!

The first thing I noticed is that we had become accustomed to prices in Czech. Although Prague wasn’t dirt cheap, it was high quality at a very affordable price – especially beer. It wasn’t uncommon in Prague to find beer for around 50 CZK, and some places offered a half liter of beer for as little as 25 CZK. My pint (that’s 0.47 L) of Guinness at Fitzsimons was €5.70 - about 160 CZK! Either way, we spent most of the evening enjoying the occasional Irish dancing that accompanied the traditional Irish music – this time a guitar and fiddle combination, which I preferred to the guitar and banjo. There were some cute Australian kids in the audience that had learned to Irish dance, so they invited them on stage to do a “reel” – one of the first Irish dances one learns. 

Some lively Irish folks playing in the street - including a penny whistle!

Another crowded Irish bar with music!

After we left Fitzsimons, we strolled around Temple Bar but didn’t find anything that particularly tickled our fancy. The major problem with touristy Irish pubs is that they all play the same 5 or 10 songs – we wished that they would branch out a bit! Lindsay has informed me that the bars outside of Dublin generally have a wider variety of pub songs -- we'll have to check it out next time we are in Ireland!