Author Archives: perfectusvarrus

About perfectusvarrus

I am an adventurer. The thrill of adventure and exploration keeps me strong; through rock climbing, backpacking, cycling, exploring, and trying new things, I love the rush of adventure.
Jul22

Letenska Park in Prague

Posted on by
Standard

Wednesday, 26-June-2024


On Wednesday, I headed up to the North of my apartment, aiming for the art museum that lay perched up on the hill above town. To get to it, though, I’d have to cross a river and scale the hill… And, most excitingly, take a walk through Letenska Park! I mean, okay. Full honesty – I hadn’t heard of the park before, and I’m not aware of anything that really makes it stand out in the grand scheme of things. But it’s a park, and I enjoy getting to walk underneath trees and around flowers, so… You know what? I’ll get excited about parks regardless of how widely known they happen to be.

After the Museum, I actually came back through the park to finish my exploration – I’d had a good time wandering through originally, and since my route home would take me around it anyways… It was a really nice diversion from the cityscape and the depths of the salt mines that I’d been growing accustomed to. Nice breezes, swaying trees, and countless citizens of Prague enjoying the summer warmth. There were swimming areas, tennis courts, playgrounds…

Something I’ve really enjoyed about Europe, if my readers will accommodate my diversion from the park itself, is that people seem to go out more often. I don’t mean to bars or restaurants, though that may well be the case. I mean to parks, to beaches, to meeting spots. This may just be my experience in Oregon, but I hadn’t found that people really “got together” that much anymore… yet here I see people sitting in the parks, watching the World Cup, or just playing lawn games together. It’s neat, and I’m excited to see how similarly Dubliners act.

Back to the park – it was beautiful, had a cool (yet creepy) playground with strangely-threatening quadrupeds, lots of flowers and open spaces, and some simply lovely views. 10/10, would stroll around again.

Jul22

St. Nicholas Church in Prague

Posted on by
Standard

Wednesday, 26-June-2024


Normally I’d end up mixing these photos in with some other larger post… perhaps the “Exploring Prague” one, or something about walking around in the city… but in this case, none of those quite feel right. It’s not that St. Nicholas Church stood out to me, especially, but it was very pretty. It was also one of the first spots I stopped into in Prague, which makes it at least a bit special, I guess?

Either way – St. Nicholas Church was beautiful. It was in the center of the Old Town of Prague, being one of two churches of the same name in the main city… though the other was a fair ways across the river. The one I visited it actually the less ornamented of the two, though looking at photos of the other I actually find that I prefer this one.

Regardless. Absolutely lovely, and a neat little stop in on my wanderings and explorings around the city.

Jul21

Exploring Prague

Posted on by
Standard

Tuesday, 25-June-2024, through Saturday, 29-June-2024


So I’m going to just come out and say it, straight up. I didn’t really like Prague. I’d say that it has the honor of being my least-favorite city of this trip. It’s not that it was horrible, by any means, but… it just wasn’t nearly as enjoyable to visit and explore as any of the other cities have been.

I think the crux of it was that the people I interacted with were a lot more on the extremes than I’ve experienced in other cities… most of the places I’ve been, interactions have been generally good. People aren’t extremely excited to take my order in restaurants, but… I wouldn’t expect them to be. They’re also not antagonistic to me sitting at their tables… which I also wouldn’t expect them to be.

In Prague, though, it was the opposite. I had two restaurants where people were incredibly excited to have me there, and a handful where I was clearly a burden that they’d prefer to avoid… one place actually went so far that I walked out almost immediately after ordering. And yes, I did tell the waiter to cancel my order. I’m not a barbarian.



All that being said, Prague was still a lovely city. Absolutely beautiful architecture, great parks, and a few really interesting interactions added to the adventures. Like this one time – I was out buying a new duffel bag since my old one broke (again), and a super cute goth lady made a point to tell me how awesome my dreads looked! Then we chatted a bit, she mentioned that her eyes hurt from all the pollen, and I helped her out with some A-grade USA-made eye drops (because obviously I have them in my satchel just in case). We then went our separate ways… but it was still a fun little interaction that made my day a little brighter.

Anyways, yeah. For me, Prague was a city of extremes… which can be fun, but simply isn’t really something I’m looking for right now.



Now then, food. What did I eat while adventuring in Prague, and where did I eat it? Well, let me fill you in…

  • San Man’s Tongue – Just about as American as you can get. Which is weird, since it was an Australian bar. But seriously – this place could have been copy and pasted from the place I used to get nachos in Wilsonville, Wanker’s Tavern. It was a little creepy how similar they were.
  • Cafe 11 – Not bad. Not good either, though, and this was the start of my experience with just how unhappy the wait staff could be at my mere presence. Seriously, pretty sure they’d have shanked me if they thought they could get away with it.
  • Pauseteria – I walked out. First, they ignored me waiting for a table… instead seating other people who walked in after me. I had to actively track down a waiter, who ignored me, then asked the bartender who finally got me a table. The waiter nearly smacked me with the menu, then was just an absolute dick about taking my order… so I got up, told him that I was leaving and not to worry about it, and left. He yelled something about “You’ll be back” as I left. Trivia fact: I did not go back.
  • POINT Cafe – I went here after Pauseteria, and holy crap my poor emotional whiplash. They were amazing, jumped up to seat me, and the wait staff were literally dancing to the playlist the bartender was playing. Happy, positive, and a complete 180 turn from the previous place. I stayed a while, and ordered extra.
  • Smetanaq – Amazing desserts for a midday snack, along with an excellent latte… and a return to some rather harsh servers who probably would have preferred if I’d just not been there. Not rude enough that I felt the need to leave… but there were still some undercurrents.
  • Hell Smoke – As is tradition, we give Ben emotional whiplash. Hell Smoke was a newer restaurant, from what I could tell, making smoked BBQ. It was absolutely amazing, simply delicious, with a great flight of Czech beers on offer (that I took full advantage of). The folks working there were excited to talk, even through the language barrier, and were just amazingly friendly.
  • Fat Cat Cafe – Finally a return to the middle ground. A simple comfort-food restaurant, with traditional options from a variety of countries. A tourist restaurant if I’ve ever been to one, specializing in getting people food from their various home countries. Simple and good.