Ice Ice… Maybe?

We’re not charting new territory here. Eastern Europe is not part of the developing world. Stable electricity, clean drinking water on tap, and high-speed Internet are a given. With those things in mind, and with temperatures here (in Prague) approaching the 90s, there are a couple of things that are notably absent. The first is air conditioning. I’m going to just say that it’s nonexistent here. The places that claim to have it, well, sorry, they just don’t. I/We have just kind of taken that in stride though… like, maybe it’s like New England where they’re better geared to deal with cold weather than hot. In the southern U.S., frosty aircon is ubiquitous. But we’ve noticed one other thing that is noticeably absent or scarce here: ice and (truly) cold beverages.

I know I’m not the first to take issue with this. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I expect the “bring your own container day” for Slurpies at 7-11 to be recognized as a holiday here. It’s just that, in a region known as a seat of so much culture, I would’ve expected the simple pleasure of a cold drink on a hot day to be appreciated and accessible. Rather, what you get here is room temperature tap (or tiny bottled) water at restaurants and a quizzical look at a request for ice. You may not get any. Stores will have drinks in the typical open, lighted refrigerated cases, but the cooling will be turned off or so low that the drinks are barely below room temperature. It is rare indeed to get a drink that creates any condensation on the outside. What option does that leave you on a hot day? I’ll tell you what option: McDonalds. McDonalds, where you’ll still have to request ice in your drink. They may still tell you “we don’t have ice” (true story).

We knew that Europeans didn’t share the same expectation of ice in beverages, but none us appreciated just how lousy luke-warm drinks (and soda! C’mon!) are on a hot day. Somebody needs to export the Japanese drink vending business concept to Europe. Seriously. With all of that said, if you can just stay hydrated, Prague is an incredibly lovely city. The biggest tourist locations (like Prague castle) still remain sleepy and charming. There are no touts, scammers, or aggressive shopkeepers to be seen. Even the beggars seem polite, just quietly sitting prostrated with head down and arms out with a cup.

So, after our cozy train ride in from Berlin, we checked into our apartment and got ready for the evening out. We booked a visit to a place called “Mind Maze” that has puzzle-based escape rooms. Basically you get locked in a room with clues about how find a special item that is your ticket out of the room. We completed the alchemy-themed room in 45 out of the allotted 60 minutes and had a really great time. These kinds of games are popping up in a number of cities but it is our understanding that they originated here in Prague. I definitely recommend trying it out with a group on a visit here. It’s very fun seeing how everybody works together. We also had a very fancy dinner at a Michelin-starred place called La Degustation. Below is a gallery of the dinner there.

The 11-course meal with bonuses and encores was enough to warrant it’s own gallery:

We got up early after our first night in Prague and caught a train to Kutna Hora. The trains here are comfy and have run on time for us. No overbooking like the cattle car we rode in from Berlin. We visited the Sedilic Ossuary, which is basically a church decorated with the bones from around 40,000 people. It was a pretty interesting spectacle. For the evening and the next day we strolled through old town, Prague castle, Wenceslas square and some other spots around town. Altogether we had a really great time. We’ll figure the whole ice thing out. Right now I’m writing from a nicely air-conditioned private sleeper car on an overnight train to Krakow. There were hordes of backpackers swarming the regular seat cars, so it’s gonna be a pretty miserable night for some. I’m so, so glad to have this private car. This is how you picnic on a train 🙂