Europe, Post 7: New Year's Eve in Prague

Hello again! We've just arrived at our guesthouse in Tennenbronn, in Germany's Black Forest, so I'll continue from where we last left you... leaving Dresden en route to Prague on the afternoon of the 31st...

Our first proper glimpse of snow was just before we reached the Czech border, up in the mountains of Germany. At the border, we parked the car and jumped around excitedly in the snow a bit, and then Ben went to buy a 7-day highway pass for the Czech Republic. He came back with a 1-month pass as they were all sold out of 7-day passes... presumably they had been purchased by all the people who had booked up all the accommodation in Prague, because at that point we still had nowhere to stay that night or the next!!!

As we drove on further, the snow got thicker – although it wasn't actually snowing, and the roads were clear. There was snow on the distant mountains, on the rolling hills nearby, half-covering clods of black soil in the ploughed paddocks, heaped up beside the road, resting on the steeply-sloping roofs of houses, and sitting heavily on the boughs of green fir trees (“Christmas trees”)! It's very difficult to take decent photos of this from a car window, so you'll just have to take my word that it was very very beautiful and we were oohing and ahhing all over the place!

When we arrived in Prague, there was no snow actually in the city. It was fast approaching 5pm and we still had nowhere to stay, but one of the accommodation agencies had said to visit their office when we arrived, and they would find us something. We parked illegally in a busy part of the city, where people wandering the streets were already wearing conical party hats and gearing up for the huge New Year's Eve celebrations. With quite a bit of luck, we managed to find the aforementioned office and ring the bell until a guy came downstairs and let us in.

Well, he was the only person there and had been entertaining himself by playing computer Solitaire, but he found us somewhere to stay!!! He reckoned we got the last double room in the city... :P Anyway, he gave us maps, tram info and advice, and sent us on our way to the Sport Hotel. It was a few kms out of the city centre, where the festivities would be kicking off at 8pm, and where, he said, 400 000 people were to congregate that evening (not sure if that's just visitors, or everyone). He advised us to travel around on the trams, as visitors were not allowed to park anywhere in the city centre.

So, when we got to the Sport Hotel, we discovered that this accommodation, the most expensive of the trip due to economics of supply and demand in Prague over New Year, was also the most dodgy. However, we were very glad to have found somewhere to stay, so never mind that the shared shower rooms had no doors on the cubicles!!! We even had free WiFi in the ground floor restaurant.

The hotel was on the side of a hill and we could see and hear fireworks going off all around as backyard pyrotechnicians counted down towards midnight. We relaxed for a couple of hours, and then at about 9pm we set off for Wenceslas Square, the official centre of Prague's New Year celebrations.

Well, there was a tram stop about a 10 minute walk down the hill from the hotel, but the problem was that we first needed to buy 24-hour tram tickets from a shop, servo, hotel etc, and our hotel didn't have them. These needed to be “validated” by sticking them into a machine that would stamp them with the time and date as soon as we got on a tram. So, we started following the tram tracks towards the city centre, stopping at potential tram-ticket-selling establishments but not having much luck.

Along the way, we frequently heard crackers exploding nearby as someone walking along the footpath dropped them in their wake. We also saw someone setting off fireworks from their third-floor apartment window, exploding them against the building across the street! Eventually, when we had walked about half the distance anyway, we found a large tram interchange in a nice shopping area and got some tickets, and then waited in the cold for the next number 9.

When it arrived, we squeezed into it along with the rest of the 400 000 visitors, and made our way into Wenceslas Square, enjoying the in-tram entertainment of loud and enthusiastic Czech (I suppose) singing by a group of young men.

Well. Wenceslas Square on New Year's Eve. What. An. Event!!!

It was about a quarter past 11 by the time we arrived, and the square (more like a wide street) was packed with thousands of people. In the hour or so we were there, we wouldn't have moved more than 10 metres from where we got off the tram! Young people made up the vast majority of the crowd – we saw only a few older people, and about one kid, which was quite understandable when we saw how Prague celebrates the New Year!!!

In a nutshell, the main event was fireworks. However, these were not the well-organised type you get at the local show in Australia!!! No, these were fireworks that had been on sale in grocery shops during the weeks leading up to New Year's, fireworks in bundles sticking out of the backpacks of people walking past, fireworks set off in an open clearing of the intersection a few metres in front of the crowd, fireworks thrown by the crowd into the open area, and fireworks set off by people holding their arm above the head of the person in front!!!!

We positioned ourselves so we were as protected as possible by a concession stand on the street corner, and the crowd in front. However, we, along with the rest of the crowd, still had to duck as glowing embers came flying past from occasional starbursts erupting at ground level about 15 metres away. Other people got showers of sparks landing on their head as the person behind them set off a wand-like firework that failed to shoot properly into the air. Fireworks exploded against tram windows and whizzed around the power cables above them as they passed along the tracks in the middle of the clearing. The ground at our feet was littered with fireworks packaging, and, post-midnight, empty champagne bottles and corks rolling around every few metres. Compared to this, I felt positively safe at the Lewes Bonfire Night! I promise I'm not even slightly exaggerating because there is no need to!!!

Anyway, a little while after midnight, we decided we would head down the street to the next tram stop while we still had four whole eyes between us! It turned out to be a very cold, hour-long wait before the next tram came along, and in that time the fireworks a block away showed little sign of abating. And about five ambulances sped past us during that time!! Due to a bit more waiting when we had to change trams, plus the walk back up the hill to our hotel, it was at least 3am when we finally got to bed after our very unique (and alarming) New Year experience!

Well, I was going to tell you about our New Year's Day in Prague as well, but that will have to wait until next time! Goodnight!