Prague Christmas Market

              Hello there!

         Last night I went to my first Prague Christmas Market and it was such fun. There were a lot of people there so it got a bit crowded, but we managed to see most of the stuff, drank some punch and went to a restaurant in order to have a steak... haha.

          There was a lot of food, including gingerbread hearts and other shapes, sausages, ham, fried...stuff.. like potato pancakes and all kinds of (deep) fried food that people here like to eat at fests. Or this is what I noticed.
Also, there were clothes for sale and homemade decorations and toys... but the prices are for tourists. If you are on vacation here you can spend that much on anything cause it's a token, a souvenir, a memory but most of the items were definitely overpriced.
           However, the drinks were the cheapest, I guess... haha. And quite good, at least the punch was nice, kinda sweet but not too sweet for me. Well, I like sweet drinks so I enjoyed it but my friends though it was a bit too sweet for them.
            I felt quite comfortable with all the security, some people said it was too much, but there were many people there and accidents...can happen, not terrorist shit but I don't know, it's a big event, with many tourists and there have to be some people there to offer medical help and security.

            I also took some photos :) (click)

First Impression

Hello there, people!

           I've just decided to write about my Prague experience, maybe it will help you or my adventures will amuse you.

           I had wanted to leave my native country for quite some time and this was like a dream come true. I will mention the reasons why I wanted to leave and also post some comparison between the places but not now. This post is about some of my first impressions of various aspects of living here or just visiting.

           So, I've been in Prague for about two weeks now and before moving here for good, I spent a 10-day vacation, trying to visit as much as I could and I fell in love with the city's beauty. I had also been to Český Krumlov (photo =>), which is an amazing small city in the South Bohemian Region.

For now I am just going to make a short review-like post of pros and cons of what I had discovered so far.

I'm going to start with the good aspects and just make a list, which I'm going to extend in my next posts and include more details then.


- Lots of parks - I love trees and green spaces and there are plenty of those here! You can just go for a walk, take photos or just read and relax in one of the many parks in all Prague. I have two large ones within a 5-minute walk from my apartment.


- Public Transport - It's always on time, there are schedules of every line in every station and you know when the next one is coming. Also, you get the same ticket for all the means of public transport, including the subway but it's based on the time you need to get from one place to another, so you can get a ticket for 30 minutes or for an hour and a half or for a full 24h (I don't know if these are the exact types, it's just an approximation for you to get the idea). Also, there are monthly passes and yearly passes which come quite cheap if you think about it. Well, for example, it's about half the price I had to pay in Bucharest for all public transport per year.


- Amazing architecture - You'll just have to google some images or wait for me to post more...haha.. I don't know what to say about this aspect, it's just beautiful to walk around the city and look all around you... but be careful, cause even though there are not many cars on the streets, the tramways are everywhere!


- Good food and beer - There is a bar or a restaurant at every corner and I'm not exaggerating. Most of them have lager beer but also other kinds and mostly good food, especially the Chinese restaurants. I love Chinese food so this is just perfect for me. I also had one of the biggest burgers ever, here, at a bar near my apartment.


- Lots of museums, castles and exhibitions to visit (not only in Prague but in the whole Czech Republic) - But it's best to avoid the overly-crowded periods with lost of tourists and also, you'll have to go quite early as some of these aren't open until about 5-6 p.m. (which is kinda' stupid cause there are a lot of people who don't know that or who can't go early, but that's it...).


  - No Religion - Coming from a christian (orthodox) environment with lots of Church's business' and control, this is a breath of fresh air for me.



As for the negative part...


Health care system - It's a mess. It's quite hard to manage to get an appointment if you are a foreigner. There are some clinics where they speak English or German but there are also a lot of insurance companies so you'll have to make a lot of calls and send a lot of e-mails in order to get a medical exam and see if your insurance covers it or if they will reimburse the costs. And then you find out that the earliest appointment possible could be a month later and you can't get tests for another month...and so on. I don't want to think that this happens often, maybe it's just my bad luck... but it was a looot of bad luck, some money spent, a lot of time and patience... and this also caused me some work issues as I haven't been able to sign the contract and start working. However, now I just hope I'm healthy and everything else will be solved.


This is the most negative aspect I had to deal with within these two weeks, so it's not that bad... haha.