Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 9: Prague

Rain got in the way of doing much for a big chunk of the day.  Now, before you call me a wuss (which is totally fair), I’m not just talking rain – I’m talking heavy, flooding rain for hours on end.  I have a sassy little travel umbrella and some waterproof shoes, but this would’ve defeated both of them.

So, I chilled in the room for the morning, which is not a bad thing.  The bed is supremely comfortable, the terrace has a big umbrella allowing me to go out occasionally, and the nice touches and amenities abound.  The room has a mini-bar, fridge, safe, coffee maker, plush robes, a Bose speaker, art, books (mine had a shelf dedicated to Martina Navritolova), bottles water, and much more.  The bathroom is spacious and while there is a glass panel between it and the bedroom, it is made of “smart glass.”  Flick a switch and it becomes opaque.  Cool.  There was even a bottle of champagne waiting for me upon my arrival, on the house.  All this for about $225 a night and I got one of the more expensive rooms.

For lunch, I braved the rain for a block and made it to Gran Fierro, an Argentinian grill that I pretty much had all to myself.  The staff seemed surprised when I walked through the door.  Maybe it was how wet I was despite the umbrella.

Lunch consisted of three empanadas – Caprese with mozzarella, tomato, and basil; beef with spring onions; and Argentinian sausage and cheese.  They were perfectly baked in soft, fluffy pastry and I probably could’ve just stopped there but added in a homemade grilled sausage with tomato-onion sautee and quail eggs.  Everything was divine.

I worked most of the afternoon while it rained and when it finally let up – the rain, not the work – it was too late to do what I had planned for the day, so I decided to do some more wandering to see what I could find.  Turns out it was quite a lot.

I stumbled upon a small gay bar that had been recommenced – Q Café.  It was cute, small, friendly.  Ordered a Madras and that took some explaining, but it does in America, too.

I saw a sign for something called the Illusion Art Museum, which made me leery at first.  Most of the time these are designed solely for people to get selfies while it looks like they are a tiny person sitting in a giant chair or hanging upside down.

This was different, though.  It focuses on actual art that is designed to trick the eye into seeing something that isn’t there, or only there when you view it from a certain perspective.  There sculptures, paintings, and electronic visual bits of trickery and it was all flat out amazing.  The photos show you what it looks like when viewed from the right spot and then what it looks like when it isn’t.

As I was leaving, I noticed a sign in the window advertising their sister exhibition, the Steel Art Museum.

Intrigued, I headed that way and snapped a few more “wow that’s pretty” pictures and theb noticed a sign that said “Casino.”  Those who know me should not be surprised that I went to check it out.

Casinos in Prague are not like Vegas.  First, to get in you have to pay about $5 (at least at this one), have your passport scanned, provide your full address and phone number, have your picture taken, sign a bunch of stuff, and submit your medical records and last colonoscopy results.  I’m kidding about the last part, but the rest is true.

Once inside, there are no slot machines.  They were outlawed a few years ago.  But they had about a dozen table games – roulette, blackjack, Texas Hold’em, and a couple of others.  I blew 100 Euros on a few spins of the roulette wheel and a few hands of blackjack and moved on.

The Steel Art Museum is, unsurprisingly, full of sculptures made entirely of recycled metal.  The works are incredible and detailed beyond belief.  There were life-sized replicas of cars, cartoon and movie characters, celebrities, and a lot more.  It was all stunningly rendered and almost hard to believe that it was all made by hand and not forged in some factory somewhere.

Right across the street is a restaurant called Staromstsky Pivovar u Supa, billed as the oldest brewery and inn in Prague.  A glance at the streetside menu convinced me because they had meatloaf, which sounded amazing.

Unfortunately, the menu inside didn’t have that – bummer – so I went for the Prague ham with mashed potatoes and bacon shavings.  It wasn’t meatloaf, but it was still a darned good meal.

On the way back to the hotel, I passed the place where I got the strawberries drenched in melted dark chocolate quite by accident.  No, you don’t need to check my Google Maps history.  I’m telling the truth.  And since I was there, I figured it would be rude of me not to get more.  Ate ‘em all on the way back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is my final full day in Prague, and I intend to make up for the rainy day by having fun while storming the castle.  Until then.