Insta Friday: Café of Prague

This Friday I want to share some insta photos of Prague Cafes. Some of them are my favorite places and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

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Insta Friday: Prague Cathedral

For today’s Insta Friday post I have a collection of beautiful St Vitus Cathedral in Prague. It is the most important church in our country, the seat of Archibishop, roman catholic church. It was built from 1344 (first half started) to 1929 (second half finished) with lot of work done in between.
My most favorite part of the cathedral are the stained glass windows at the new part of the Cathedral, works of Czech artists Alfons Mucha and Max Švabinský. And in the gallery you can see why I like it so much.

Insta Friday: Baby Infant of Prague

One of the most famous religious places in Prague, the Church Of Our Lady Victorious, but more known as the church with Baby Infant Jesus. I call it Baby Barbie Jesus, as nuns are changing the dresses of little Jesus all year round, for Christmas leaving him “naked”. I make a picture always when I visit the church and I am really surprised how many dresses I have already seen. You can find them in the gallery bellow in my Insta Friday post.

Insta Friday: River

The life next to the river is just beautiful. Specially in Summer or Spring, but all the seasons are wonderful. The river that flows through Prague is Vltava (Moldau), and it is the longest river in the Czech Republic, and it flows only here, as it springs in the South in Šumava Mountains and it flows to Labe (Elbe)river about 20 km North from Prague. For this weeks Insta Friday I have a gallery of the life around Vltava in Prague. The most important inhabitants of it are swans :-).

Insta Friday: Nature in Prague

As the season started my posts on blog will slow dow, as I would not be able to spend my time at the computer. But I will do my best to keep the blog alive during summer at least with Insta Friday posts :-).

Spring – in fact the last days it is more summer – is coming to Prague and for my Insta Friday post I have selected couple of Instagram sights for sore eyes from Prague. Some of them are yet from winter but the others are bringing bloom to our life.

Up You Look (2) – Masaryk’s Waterfront

Masarykovo nábřeží (Masaryk’s Waterfront) is a waterfront on the right bank of Vltava River in Prague. It is bordered by the Jirásek’s and Legion bridges. Opposite from the waterfront you can find Slavic Island, you can read about it and see some pictures in recommendations section here.
The waterfront was named after our first president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (pres. 1918-1938), but it happened as late as in 1990 year. Before it was named after our first communistic president Klement Gottwald (pres. 1948-1953). And during the WWII it was called Reinhard Heydrich Ufer, as the whole waterfront of Vltava River.

Waterfront from the island.

The place is quite crowded with tram and car traffic. Up to 19th century this place was just a beach next to the river with mills and workmen “jirchář”, who were processing the leather there.

Waterfront from the Legion Bridge.

Now you will find quite beautiful buildings there, National Theater – this one deserves separated post, Goethe Institute building with fantastic sculpture decoration on the roof, Hlahol building built for Hlahol singing choir and being home of our first republic and later (1918-1942) movie stars; and we cannot forget water tower Šítkovská věž and modern building of Mánes House of artist above the river (between the embankment and the island).

Slavic Island (left) and Water Tower and Mánes House of artists.

The architect of the waterfront concept was František Sander, and we can see the frescoes of the works done on the building number 30 (in the gallery picture: nabrezi (15), the one with the knight, bellow him).

Gallery of the details above your head:

The author of former bank house, now Goethe Institut, was director or the Art school Jiří Stibral and the statues were done by Ladislav Šaloun (he is on plan to have his own post).

Goethe Institute.

One of the most important art nouveau houses is the Hlahol house, done by architect Josef Fanta (Main Train Station in Prague) with mosaic (Karel Klusáček).

Hlahol.

And if you need to go the bathroom (Toalety in Czech) after looking so much up, there is a nice place down 🙂 under the National Theatre (do not promise they are working).

Toalety above the river.

One more nice building on the waterfront.

Red house.

For you who needs a coffee after this tour, visit one of the most famous ones: Slavia cafe (surprisingly I do not have a picture, as I always forgot to make one) or Savoy cafe on the other side of the river.

Cafe Savoy, větrník is a must have.

Cozy Cafes of Prague (3) – Čajovna U Cesty

Explanation: Only I have started a set about cafes in Prague, I am going to do an exception. In Czech culture we distinguish Kavárna (cafe), where you go for a coffee, something sweet, even food. You can get a tea there as well, but it would be tea from a teabag, or ginger/mint tea. On the other side there are special places, called Čajovna (tearoom), where you can get the “real” tea, meaning loos teas such as Oolong, Chinese, Japanese and any other special types as Karkade or Rize. Also in such a tearoom you can get something to eat (not in every one), but it would be more oriental, such as pita bread, hummus or couscous. Even in a tearoom you can get a coffee, but do not ask for Espresso or Americano, you can get Arabic coffee with cardamom.

This is how it looks in the tearoom.

Interier of the tearoom in September 2004:

You see these two cultures are really separated here. But based on a comment in one of my previous Cozy Cafes posts, I decided to add a tearoom to this series. But it is not that easy, as I decided to write about the Tearoom On the Road (or more: By the Road) –Čajovna U Cesty. This tearoom doesn’t have any special “room”, but you can find it in a large tent at Prague Botanical Garden, and only at the weekends. And why this one? Because the owners are my friends, and we used to go to Botanical Garden once a month (at least) just to meet them. Since I have started to drink coffee, the visits slowed down, but still we like to drink tea and visit our friends :-).

Our first ever meeting with Pája a Týna, Botanical Garden 2003.

2003 year – garden flowers and view to Troja castle maze:

For this post we had to go Botanical Garden this weekend, to interview the owners. This weekend they were outside the Fata Morgana greenhouse, as there was an exhibition of butterflies (as every year).

Butterflies exhibition in Fata Morgana in 2005.

The owners are Týna a Pája, they drink and prepare tea from 1990s. They travel to Vietnam, India, to choose the best species of tea. They used to have their Tearoom at the Náprstek’s Museum and later next to the second Botanical Garden in Prague (just a coincidence). Finally 13 years ago they decided to leave the stable place (we were at the farewell party) and keep only the weekend tent at the Botanical Garden.

Special tea tasting afternoon with lecture about tea in October 2006 with Pája and Týna.

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The farewell party August 2005.

The farewell party, the crowds who attended are not on the pictures, but they were there.

Why this place and Your recommendation what to see or where to go in Prague
The answer for both these questions is the same, the garden is beautiful and there is always something on a program, from butterflies and bonsai exhibitions, to Halloween. That’s why you should visit and enjoy it, and you don’t have to drink only tea, but there is St Claire’s Vineyard with Vineyard chapel from 17th century. Next to the botanical garden there is famous Prague ZOO (currently the 5the best in the world) and Troja castle, and this triangle is really worth visiting.

Spring in the garden 2011.

Spring 2004:

Spring 2006:

Spring 2007:

Spring 2009:

Spring 2011

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Spring 2011:

2004 Halloween.

Halloween in the Garden 2004

Halloween in the Garden 2010

Halloween in the Garden 2011

What would you order from the menu:
The answer for this question got pretty complicated and I am not able to reproduce all the different teas, which belong to the special mood and weather, and season … So simply: tea, and preferably from the old(est) tea trees you can find hidden in the mountains :-).

2018, lot of Vietnamese teas.

You can also buy the tea to prepare it at home (2018):

Nice story:
And I do not have any nice story for you, as I have forgot to ask, mainly because it was really crowded and I was steeling the little talks in between the clients of the tearoom. Everytime we wanted to say goodbye, Pája had offered us another cup to taste, so we have spent there almost 3 hours. We have started with karkade, then got touareg, rize, arabic coffee with cardamom, gruzie tea and one more I forgot, the one with milk… masala! And I don’t know how much tea you can have, but I was shaking pretty much after the third cup. And this could be your funny story :-).

Tearoom tent and Honza (blue jacket) having another cup of tea.

Týna, she loves people 🙂 .

Combined gallery from August 2004 – Fata Morgana and Tearoom details:

Týna giving recommendations on tea in Summer 2005 .

Pája happy that someone is enjoying his tea in August 2011.

Museums Of Prague (2) – Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace

As the second museum for my blog I have chosen Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace. I am not sure if I can call it museum, as it is more empty – unfurbished, with some temporary exhibitions only. It is somewhere in between ages, between being used and being abandoned and I think it is really good time to visit it right now. After paying ridiculous entrance fee in amount of 1 CZK (5 cents) you can visit former apartments and beautifully decorated baroque hall, where some scenes for Amadeus movie were taken as well as it played the role of sleeping room in the TV set Maria Theresia.

If you had visited Prague, for sure you have walked by the palace, as it stands at the most crowded touristic street at the Old Town next to the entrance to Charles Bridge (Karlova street number 2), palace like a bridge over the tram line.

For the temporary exhibition you should pay some more, but we were interested only in the apartments. And here is what we have found:

Through the doors.

Small dining room and gallery (probably).

Wooden wall cladding and windows to the courtyard.

Ceramic heater and mirror room.

The main hall.

Ceiling.

Chandelier in the mirror.

Bear in watercolor.

After the visit of the Palace I recommend a walk through the house where Johannes Kepler wrote two of his three laws of planetary motion (the next building to the right from the palace, the shortcut is closed during night) to Anenské náměstí, where you can find nice cafe Tricafe and have a nice drink and rest from the crowds on the palace side of the block. Sitting at the cafe I always feel like in the living room of one of my student fellows in 1980s. The same furniture, plastic bear for honey. Just like in my childhood :-).

In front of Tricafe.

Insta Friday: Prague Light

I have discovered quite a lot of pictures on my Instagram, that I like and they are already rather old. I decided to make little collections from them, find some topic that joins the collection and create a post. Just photos with simple theme. And the first collection is here. Pictures of Prague (the notoriously famous places) with special light. And – of course – with Instagram effect added.

I hope you will enjoy it :-).

Cozy Cafes of Prague (2) – Kavárna pražírna Voznice

My second choice for Cozy Cafes series is family run Cafe Kavárna Pražírna Voznice , “kavárna” meaning cafe, “pražírna” is (bean-)roasting house and Voznice is a name of village, where the family comes from. To describe the cafe I can use just two words: pure friendliness; and wonderful coffee as well :-).

Entrance to YMCA, with the Cafe welcome sign (KAVÁRNA).

The cafe was opened in September 2015 when Jiřina and Petr Čermákovi (Čermák’s family) decided they want to roast their own coffee. The coffee was tested on friends and finally the idea of opening the cafe with perfect coffee was on the table. By coincidence (can you find a better way than coincidence? or is it “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”? in Czech we have very nice “Fortune favors the bold”) the place in YMCA palace (you can read more about it here) got available (being wine-bar previously) and that’s it.

The bar area.

For my post I am asking baristas couple of questions, which are:

1. why are you at this place, this cafe?

2. what would you get being a client in this cafe

3. your favorite place or recommendation what to see and where to go in Prague

4. nice story from the cafe

The answers for Kavárna Pražírna Voznice are:

Why this place:

Petr: I fell in love with the brick wall and the bar. When I first stood behind the bar I felt it immediately: here I belong. It was love at the first sight.

The Wall.

Jiřina: From the first moment I had a really good feelings about the place. I liked the floor and brass frames of windows and doors. Most of the furniture (tables, chairs) were left here from the previous wine bar and it gaves the place almost vintage atmosphere.

Marie: I like the building itself (YMCA, where the cafe is located), I love its first republic atmosphere (for Czech People the First Republic – period 1918-1938 – bares lot of nostalgic connotations, like “the good old times” when everything was nice, traditional, I love this atmosphere as well :-)), but also people from the company who takes care of the building are very friendly and helpful. Our cafe is in the city center, but not at the first sight, its a little bit hidden, that is what I like.

My perfect choice.

What would you order from the menu:

Not surprisingly – as we are at the specialized cafe (roasting beans by themselfs) – the top of the menu is coffee, namely espresso, therefore for Petr and Jiřina espresso was their choice from the menu, Marie has extended this choice :-).

Petr and Jiřina: Espresso.

Marie: Espresso and something sweet (as something sweet goes with coffee prefectly)

Katy (me): I usually get filter cafe and I love the cakes from Od Bobu that you can get here.

You have a really wide choice of coffee beans.

Your recommendation what to see or where to go in Prague:

Petr: I really like the Bank building just close to us. The building used to be a bank for legions and now it belongs to another bank. It is really beautiful.

Former Czech Legion bank in Rondocubistic style.

Unfortunately also in this building making of the photo is not allowed, but also in here I was able to steel some pictures for you.
Gallery

Jiřina: I used to work at Žofín palace in Slavic Island (Slovanský ostrov) and I really like this place. There are beautiful views to the river, National Theatre, even Prague Castle. Go there and see by yourself.

Žofín Palace from the back.

Gallery:

View to Prague Castle.

Marie: I like the area around our cafe, The Square of Republic (náměstí Republiky ). I like the brutalist (being the architectonic style) building of Kotva shopping center (from 1975 year), the Christmas and Easter Markets, and also the farmers markets. Being in the middle of the city and I can feel like in a village as well. This point is really good for starting the city adventure.

And I (Katy) add: In my opinion the area around náměstí Republiky is great for accommodation, as everything is close and in walkable distance, and what is not, is easily connected by public transport, as the square is perfect traffic hub.

Square of Republic with Kotva shopping mall at the background.

Gallery:

Nice story from the cafe:
We were not able to think about one nice story, because all of them are the small pleasures of everyday life. When the cafe was opened, all people going around in the passage looked in through the big windows, it felt like being inside of huge aquarium. And now people go to the cafe like going home, sometimes they forgot to pay (do not do this please) and then they come back, they forgot they are not in their kitchen, but at the cafe.

Jiřina a Petr.

Daughter Marie.

At the cafe you will also find little display where earrings, brooches, rings… all decorated with real coffee are for sale, made by dobrunda atelier. In fact during my very first visit I have purchased cufflinks for my husband and brooch for me :-).

Couple of picture of the cafe and photos that were not turned to watercolors yet

Gallery of my realized watercolors