Job Discussion Forums

[ITTP]

Cities often have more and less expensive places to hang out and eat/party, etc. Here is an example using the price of a beer and a meal: In a bar on the Old Town Square or Wenceslav Square, or any of the streets off from the Squares, you can expect to pay anywhere up to 200CZK for 1 beer and around 500 CZK for a meal in a not so fancy restaurant. At the same time, Prague is full of offices and office workers and also locals who live in apartments in the center and they know where to get a beer for around 20 CZK and a meal for around 70 CZK. There are many restaurants in Prague 1 which offer daily menus for example and it should be a priority for you to locate these places and save money by eating and drinking where the locals do. The Daily Menu in Czech is written �Denni Menu� and is either chalked on a board outside the restaurant or is on an added piece of paper on the inside of the usual restaurant menu. The daily menu changes every day and typically offers a soup for under 20 CZK and a main meal from 50-80 CZK.

I did the leg work for our Trainees and made a list of some restaurants in our immediate local area of Mustek/Narodni Prague 1, which offer the daily menu (just a small sample from the many to be found in Prague 1) :

- Komorni Kino Restaurant (28 Narodni Street)
- Dietni Jidelna - a branch of MENSA specializing in very affordable healthy and diet-orientated meals (12 Spalena Street)
- U Kotvy (11 Spalena Street)
- U Novaka (2 V Jircharich Street)
- Pub/restaurant - Hostinec U Rotundy (Karoliny Svetle Street)
- U Ampezonu (12 Konvikstka Street)
- There is also an excellent canteen on Havelska Street.
- My personal fav is on Jindrisska Street, just by the tower (Restaurace U Vez).

In terms of watering places, the Cerny Kun is located on a side street (Anenska Street) between Liliova Street and the river and this is a lovely place to sit and drink Bernard on the tap for about 25 CZK - just a few minute's stroll to the Charles Bridge.
They also do a selection of very affordable veggie food.
When you get tired of Cerny Kun you can always head to the very accommodating Duende bar, located on Karoliny Svetle Street.

Enjoy and TEFL LOVE

Neville

ITTP
Prague 1

Btw, Chris you wanna meet Tuesday?
Send me a mail if you have the time!

[mr tree]

yeah yeah Neville, you WOULD say that, you're just trying to sell your course aren't you

[ITTP]

Btw, I had lunch today at U Ampezonu.
The attached pub sell Gambrinus for just 21 CZK on the tap BUT the restaurant sell Plzen for 35 CZK.
I had the Svickova, which cost 82 CZK.
It was one of the best I have had but for some odd reason was missing the lemon slice and cranberry sauce (!!!).
Soup was 22 CZK but I wasn't really in the mood for tripe soup or even vegetable soup (had just stuffed my face at the bakers on my walk from Staromestska metro station to Narodni).

This place comes highly recommended (U Ampezonu).
The person opposite me ordered the baked rabbit with potatoes and spinach (just 82 CZK also), and it looked amazing!

Neville
ITTP
Prague 1

[mr tree]

i had 24kc beers in a pub a stone's throw from Vaclavske Namesti (which i hope will satisfy Aussie Chick's "Prague 1" criteria), as well as a cheeky 35kc snack (i forget the name - sausage - not Utoponec... Parecky?)

well, actually, it was all free, cos my ex-student paid for the pleasure of practising English conversation with me now THERE's a bargain!

[Aussie Chick]

[Arab Strap]

Aussie Chick,

You seem a right wee miserable chook, my question is why have you hung around Praha for so long when you seem to have little positive to say about the place?

I have lived in both CR and Australia and I can assure you that Ozzies can be just as grumpy and two-faced especially when it comes to the 'whinging pomes' (which I am not).

I didn't like working in Prague, not because of the locals but due to the amount of ex-pats and backpacking unqualified teachers who the the 'fake' Czechs seem keen employ.

You'll never get to know the locals unless you learn their language, those you do manage to converse with in English usually have a different agenda, often free English lessons, and are not representative of your average Czech.

[spiral78]

Yeah, I have to chime in here as well- I agree that Czechs are generally reserved and that it takes time to make Czech friends, but I've never experienced any 'fakeness' in any way -

I don't hang out with the hip crowd in Prague - I think the young, fast generation is probably prone to what I'd perceive as 'fake' behavior EVERYWHERE, regardless of nationality.

I strongly object to any blanket characterization of Czechs this way.

Anyway, I certainly don't feel like an outsider and I haven't been taken advantage of. But it's also true that I've built up relationships over the long-term (11+ years) and outside of the big city.

If you're here for the short term, the characteristics Aussie Chick and Arab Strap mention may well apply, especially if you're in a big city environment. But I'd strongly object to the idea that it's the norm in the country

[ITTP]

[guty]

Sweeping generalisations are always wrong and never ever do any good.

Anybody who has ever made a sweeping generalisation knows nothing.

[Arab Strap]

Guty,

We can discuss this in more detail in Ostrava.

Why are there more mullets and lurid shellsuits per-head of population in Ostrava than any other city?

........I have photographic evidence to back up this sweeping generalisation.

AS

[guty]

Arab,
you havenae been in tae many sink estates recently, or havenae been watchin Jeremy Kyle if ya think that there is a lack of shell suits in ol blighty.

As fae the other see here, czech this evidence ...

Vidal's failures

Ah the return to the big O, looking forward to it. If we get lucky, we may even get taken advantage of by some local holky!

[Aussie Chick]

[spiral78]

I wasn't married to a Czech my first two years - and I WAS living in Prague at that time.

Nope, I just think that Czechs in general ARE reserved and don't make friends quickly (it's my sweeping generalization and I'll stick by it), but once they do make friends, they are definitely not fakes.

[Aussie Chick]

[spiral78]

Yeah, I agree. But I also dont' think this is 'Czechs' in general - I really think this behavior is limited to the young, fast set. And I think this group of people behave similarly everywhere. Heaven knows, those were the exact characteristics of many high schoolers in the US that I knew

It has never been true of any Czech I know.