Day 9 - Prague

Today's mileage and total mileage still the same. No driving today!

Today we headed out from our campsite to explore Prague.

Before that though, it would be wrong not to mention the tiny frogs that covered the ground at said campsite. When we got there last night we were lucky to get a space, the campsite being one of the only ones near Prague and certainly the only one in any of the campsite guidebooks we have with us and it was explicitly recommended for it's "European-style" toilets. We were allocated pitch 143, which seemed pretty nice, shady, nice view across a field etc. However after parking up and getting out the van, we noticed the ground seemed to be moving...it was, it was jumping up and down and literally covered in tiny frogs. I suggested they were probably frightened of us and would soon move away, but Jojo was having none of it. She high-leg marched back to reception and 5 minutes, and a couple of frog impressions later we had been reallocated a different frog-free pitch.

So into Prague. We caught a bus and a tram into the city centre and headed straight to our first planned stop - The Museum of Communism. This was a fairly small museum with a few exhibitions and quite a lot of written information. I was unsure whether it was going to presented simply as a nostalgic look back at a former life showing some of the artefacts and history, or whether it was going to be more political and look into the struggles to break away from communism etc. It quickly became apparent that it was very much focussed on the political aspects, and probably more interesting and shocking for it. No trendy hammer and sickle T-shirts in the gift shop here.

The museum followed a timeline from World War 2 and the Soviet seizure of power through to the Velvet Revolution. Memorable exhibits were the mocked up interrogation room showing how the secret police worked, the propaganda posters explaining how well the state and the workers were doing (even as they hung outside empty shops) and a documentary video with footage of the protests in 1989 & 1990 and the savage behaviour of the police trying to repress them. It was a very interesting museum and a somber counter point to the rising commodification of Sovietism as a brand. It opened my naive eyes a little more to the brutality of life in a communist state.

After the museum we went to a place called CountryLife for lunch. A vegan buffet attached to a health food store. Loads of choice and some great food.

Next was to wander through some of the old squares and see some of the famous architecture. Prague is undeniably a beautiful city and Wenceslas Square et al lived up to expectations. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (a skipping cd?) the number of tourists was truly staggering. Some of the squares were almost impossible to walk through - think Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon - simply due to the mass of tour groups congregating. The sights were impressive, but nothing felt very alive, it very much felt like tourists had taken over and we were looking at long abandoned relics whereas Prague's citizens were lurking somewhere else. I think we would need to explore some of the areas not in the guidebooks to get a proper feel for the city.

By this point the heat and humidity were reaching their customary oppressive levels and Jojo and I decided to head back to the frog-less shade of our campsite. Besides, I'd read all the warnings in our guidebook, campsite signs & official tourist guide about pickpockets in Prague, and by this point my keys, wallet, phone, passport and money were all beginning to chafe my feet a little...