All stories about "Prague"

Internet sexomofication update: since we first mentioned it back in 2005, Prague's online brothel Big Sister has continued to thrive with its no-pay-for-play model. As before, men willing to sign over net broadcast rights to their sexual shenanigans can boink the brother's staff, free of charge. Their sessions then go out over the Big Sister website, which charges net pervs to watch the videos. (I particularly like the themed rooms, such as the "icecap" room complete with roaring polar bear.) Supposedly, over 15,000 dudes have done the deed on camera so far. "This is National Geographic for adults," says their marketing manager, coining a surprisingly rich malapropism. [LAT]

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Here's a fantastically detailed map of beer prices in Prague. Costs are given for each venue -- sometimes for multiple brands -- and the map even has a shaded layer to indicate pricing trends citywide. A few charts also list average and lowest beer prices by brand, with currency conversions. [Nelso]

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This video shows ITN reporter Chris Rogers thoroughly PWNing a bunch of Czech sex traffickers. Rogers posed as the owner of a British brothel and went to Prague with a hidden camera to investigate how women in the Czech Republic are bought and sold as sex slaves. In order to dupe the Czech gangsters, Rogers set up a website for the fake brothel. The site has now been taken down and replaced with a message to the criminals: ""gotcha!!!!!!" Rogers also had "experts" advise him on how to dress like a British pimp, which apparently involves lots of hair gel, gold jewelry, and a tacky half-buttoned collared shirt. [CNN]

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The World Taximeter is a simple tool to estimate taxi fare in a variety of cities. Currently covering Barcelona, London, Madrid, New York, Prague, Rome, and San Francisco, the fares seem pretty accurate for a coupe New York tests -- though it seems to have difficulty locating simple street addresses for start and endpoints, preferring to map with preprogrammed local points of interest. Now show me taxi fare from Times Square to Ghirardelli Square. [World Taximeter]

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Meet the Blob, a.k.a. the Czech National Library in Prague, a.k.a. the winner of a competition that actually featured other less completely insane renderings. There's a bit of a rumpus surrounding the blob announcement earlier this year, and both Prague's mayor and the Czech president have professed their dislike of the design. This structure will be the largest building project since the country split with Slovakia in 1993, and over 350 architects entered submissions. But the board selected Czech architect Jan Kaplicky's octopus-like gob structure, and over 12,000 Czech citizens signed a petition in October making sure it gets built. What's the appeal of this cross between a melted McDonaldland Grimace and the Blob of horror movie fame?

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We last rounded up grassroots Google Mapping courtesy of the then-new My Maps back at the end of April, when citizen efforts were still pretty thin on the ground. Since then, we've launched our own map-crazed format, and others have followed suit. User-generated maps have exploded, increasing dramatically in both quality and quantity. As always, the best resources for checking out what's new are Google Maps Mania and Ongopongo. Full roundup after the jump, from Bushwick ghosts to the Prague subway to the mysterious alphabet of Brooke Shields.

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One of Prague's most popular expat hives, Fraktal Bar Restaurace in Letna serves authentic Czech cuisine such as the "breakfast enchilada." (They were also one of the first establishments to go along with the smoking ban.) However, if there's one thing every traveler has time to test, it's the quality of the expat burger. To that end, Czech Please compares and contrasts one of the Fraktal burgers with another local favorite, and gives it a thumbs up in toto. Otherwise, Fraktal serves a pretty typical menu of pubbish grub, along with a roster of drinks (try to scam an outdoor table in warm weather).

Fraktal Bar Restaurace [via Czech Please]

-- Chris Mohney

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Famously frequented by the likes of Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka, Prague's Cafe Louvre was shut down when the city was run by commies. It's flourishing once again, though its brightened interior seems weirdly jarring for such a Czech institution. The food is nothing special, mixing general cafe classics with local favorites. Particular favorites are the coffee, mint tea, and absurdly thick hot chocolate. And if you're patient enough, you can spend an evening shooting pool in the back.

Cafe Louvre [via Czech Please]

-- Chris Mohney

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Prague is a largely unsung capital of new-wave hotel design, especially when it comes to the European minimalism so popular throughout the Continent. Though they have their share of such properties, the Czechs also revere several modern hotels installed in centuries-old historic buildings -- especially convents and monasteries. You won't have to live like a nun or monk, as these hotels are tricked out with the latest comforts and tech toys. After the jump, our roundup of the best places to lay your head in Praha.

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The first post on this English-language blog about Prague dining concerns a Greek deli, and it contains this photo of marinated octopus. I have never advocated the consumption of tentacles, and I'm not about to start now, but I felt the photo was worth sharing. Perhaps as a cautionary measure. I mean, there's calamari, and then there's the Kraken.

Olympia Delicastesy a Vina [Czech Please]

-- Chris Mohney

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Prague gets a good broadside writeup in this week's "36 Hours" column for the New York Times, particularly notable for the newish venues described therein. One of these is the Blind Eye bar in Zizkov, a speakeasy gone legit. Their specialty cocktail -- "20 ounces of vodka, gin, tequila and white rum" -- has a name the NYT cannot see fit to print. Author Evan Rail tells us that the dainty bev goes by the subtle moniker of "Adios, Motherfucker." And vaya con dios.

36 Hours in Prague [NYT]

-- Chris Mohney

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Berlin, Kiev, Phnom Penh, Krakow and Belgrade have all laid claim as the "next Prague." But Prague isn't fading into obsolescence yet. As far as Prague's concerned, the rest are just poseurs. Prague is the old Prague. Prague is the now Prague and Prague is the new Prague. In fact, right now, the arts and theater scene in the city is thriving with new plays in English and more installation arts; restaurants are becoming more diverse with offerings of Asian and South American cuisine; and the music scene is expanding to include excellent rock and jazz in addition to the established classical music. With help from Dave Faries, the restaurant reviewer for the Prague Post and Ilya Marritz Gridskipper's greatest friend and Prague expert, we've found all the hot new places that make Prague the number one comeback city in the world. Of course, don't call it a comeback since it's been there for years.

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In this week's NYT travel section Stuart Emmrich visits Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. He writes, "[A]fter a few days in this city, you notice that Phnom Penh has something of a "next Prague" vibe about it -- a place where many young people from around the world, heady with excitement and the thrill of the unknown, are coming to reinvent themselves." That puts Phnom Penh beside Kiev, Cracow and Belgrade as spots designated as the "next Prague" by the Times. We've taken some of Stuart's suggestions and a couple more by in-house expert Megan Kludt who just returned from a year-long stint teaching English there to find out just what makes Phnom Penh the next Prague, or Kiev or Belgrade.

Faded aristocracy, drunken foreigners and oases after the jump.

Forbes came out with their list of the best new bid'ness hotels for 2006 last week, and there were some surprises. Actually, that's a lie. Few things about business hotels are surprising, unless you count the inclusion the James Hotel in Chicago on the list, as business travelers are undoubtedly huge fans of the paper thin walls there. Also, interesting to see the London NYC made the cut--would you stay in a hotel if you knew Gordon Ramsay could be on the premises at the same time?

There are some bright spots, specifically the inclusion of the newly opened Mandarin Oriental in Prague. This hotel was needed in Prague, where the luxe hotel situation was dire. There was the stalwart Four Seasons, but they cater to more of a "send toilet paper ahead of time for the trip" kind of crowd. For visitors who wanted something sleeker with similarly good service (the failing of many up-market Czech hotels, especially the Aria), the Mandarin hits the spot. Unfortunately, the flat-screen TVs they have in every room are not of much use now that the naked weather forecast is no longer shown Czech television every day. It is missed.

Best New Business Hotels of 2006 [Forbes.com]
Mandarin Oriental Prague [Official Site]
Four Seasons Prague [Official Site]
London NYC [Official Site]
James Hotel in Chicago [Official Site]
NSFW Naked Weather Archive [Nova TV]

[Alexander Basek]

Prague. The people are gorgeous, the buildings are amazing, and the exchange rate lets you live like royalty. Example: on the West side of Wenceslas Square there's this way upscale Asian fusion restaurant named Hot. They've got a quite comfortable patio, while the inside is this expansive, modernistic room. Live music, white table clothes, and extravagant architecture all share the space about equally. The food mixes in traditional Czech styles with whatever it is the chef feels you need to experience. Hot's criminally good pan fried tiger prawns are covered with this very, very thin mustard sauce and cost 595Kc (US$30).

HOT

[Text: Omri Ceren]

Previously: Deus Sex Machina in Prague, Kafka Maps Kafka-esque, Prague's Radost F/X, Odes To Prague's Common Rooms, Chef Favorites in Prague

It's nice to know cockrings and breast clamps are nothing new, kind of. Prague's Sex Machine Museum is stuffed with the iron, steel, latex, wood, copper gizmos our species have felt the need to attach to their erogenous zones. My personal favorite is the hand operated vibrator from early 20th century Germany. But it's not all just fun and games. Among the more than 300 objects, quite a few reflect a staunch opposition to pleasure, specifically self-pleasure. One sad device connects to a boy's penis, when he gets an erection, a bell goes off in his parent's room. The Pavlovian implications there are astounding, the Freudian implications horrific and the Lacanian? Don't even get me started. The museum also houses a large collection of vintage erotic film which one might think would be dated and tame by now but, in fact, is as hardcore as Dirt Pipe Milkshakes 2. No one under 18 is permitted, obviously.

Sex Machine Museum
More Pics [via Attu World

[Photo: Ahsoon]

Previously: Kafka Maps Kafka-esque, Prague Gets Admired, Mapped, Punned On, Prague's Radost F/X, Ode to Prague's Common Rooms

Such a thoughtful soul as Franz Kafka surely would be chuffed by such a well-executed map of his life by Czech photog Jan Jindra. The project, entitled Journeys of Franz Kafka charts Prague's greatest son's life from moment of birth to moment of death. Included with each site are beautiful b&w Kafka-esque shots. We see where Pappy Kafka worked, the asbestos factory Kafka partly owned, the rooms in which he and his girlfriendo stayed in Berlin and even the wall in Prague that inspired The Great Wall of China. All that is missing are grody up-close shots of cockroaches that surely must have inspired the Metamorphosis. For that, you'll have to turn to UMass Dept. of Biology's adorably dorky Cockroach homepage

Journeys with Kafka

Previously: Prague's Radost F/X, Chef Favorites in Prague, Obligatory Prague Post: Interactive Strip Club, Ode to Prague's Common Rooms

You'd think people might get sick of subjecting Prague to the rampant paronomasia of for which it begs (Czech you later; Czech please, It's A Prague-ative, Prague Rock), but in a recent Telegraph article, Prague becomes the regal "Bohemian Rhapsody" (a pun much used over the years). The article is worth reading for the few finds it offers (like the Hergetova Cihelna restaurant) but don't expect any window into where the locals hang out. They do however provide this useful tip:

The Golden Star [a B&B] (£94) is up under the castle walls. Dating from the 14th century, the building has been given a tasteful modern makeover. Ask for a room ending with numbers 3, 4 or 5 for a superb view over the city.

Prague has also recently been welcomed to the Google Map Mashupiverse with Prague-spot.com's Google map mashup. As any nascent mashup, the map lacks a multitude of markers but, like teeth, they'll grow in soon enough.

A Blissful Bohemian Rhapsody [Telegraph]
Prague Spot [via GoogleMapsMania]

Previously: Prague's Radost F/X, Chef Favorites in Prague, Obligatory Prague Post: Interactive Strip Club, Ode to Prague's Common Rooms

Each week, we sieve the sands of the media for nuggets of urban gold in a feature we like to call "Roundup Roundup."

Berlin
The Best of Fall Art [Denver Post]

Boston
24 Hours in... [MSNBC]

Budapest
24 Hours in... [Independent]

Grand Rapids, Mich
36 Hours in... [NYT]

London
Best Luxe Cinemas [Times]

Milwaukee
48 Hours in... [NatGeo Traveler]

Panama City
Best Nightlife [Chicago Tribune]

Pancakes
Best Pancakes in the USA [Flyertalk]

Portland, ME
Best Restaurants [WaPo]

Prague
Best Restaurants [BTO via CNN]

Races
Bizarre Races of the World (As in derbies, not pygmies) [Guardian]

Toronto
"Favourite" Restaurants [Economist]

Previous Roundup Roundups: #35, #34, #33, #32, #31, #30,#29, #28

If you could find a good hiding spot (behind a banquet or underneath a table) chances are you'd never have to leave Prague's Radost F/X. During the day, Cafe Radost F/X has some of the best brunch in town and certainly vies for best vegetarian in the former Eastern Bloc. A menu of waffles, salads, homemade foccacia and pasta draws a young urbane clientele prone to long animated discussions that, if I had to guess, concern the state of the world at large, post-Kafka gender anthropomorphization, or who's better: Plastic People of the Universe or Iva Bittova. At night, you could sneak your way into the nightclub (or pay the US$5 cover) to sweatily gyrate to the soul/hiphop/house music spun by live djs in the subterranean cavernous club or take it easy in the lounge upstairs.

Radost F/X [Official site]

Previously: Odes to Prague's Common Rooms, Chef Favorites in Prague, Prague's Boulder Bar, Solidni Nejistota For Hookups and Soup, Miss Sophie's, Hotel Yasmin

Prague's Hotel Neruda is a happy midpoint between Hotel Josef's ubermodern design and the blandish Four Seasons. As noted in a recent Telegraph article, the hotel is housed in a
"converted convent that dates from 1348" The 20 room hotel will be doubling in size by March 2007 but hopefully will retain its intimate unconventional setting. Offering most of the mod-cons plus the tantalizing "possibility of the internet" the hotel combines a modest amount of modernity while still maintaining its cloistered feel. Rooms, according to the Telegraph are €120 per double when booked online.

Where To Stay in Prague [Telegraph]
Hotel Neruda [Official site]
Hotel Neruda [Cheaper Internet rates]

Previously: Maximilian Hotel, Hotel U Prince, Chef Favorites in Prague, Hotel Yasmin, Going Back to Praha

The Prague Post recently ran an interesting article on the hard-life of Prague's chefs. Though the city is a bit of a culinary "backwater" (indeed, one chef prefers to travel to London than sample his colleagues' cuisines) due to decades of Communist gruel, there are a few gems. And from whom better to take your cues than the taste-makers themselves? Here's where chefs eat when they're not busy with their cheffin'.

Brasserie M: A French brasserie with a humongo menu and exhaustive wine list, helmed by a vrai Parisien Jean Paul Manzac. Specializes in meat and seafood. Entrees around US$13-17

La Veranda: Headed by chef Radek David, La Veranda offers generic though delicious international cuisine in an upscale setting. One of the nicest restaurants in Praha. The "Sexy Menu" which consists of prawns, salmon, black pepper, chocolate, cherries, nuts, "quakamole" and other aphrode\isiacs will run you a hard-on reducing US$61.

Rybí Trh: One of Prague's best fish restaurants, Rybi Trh is a fish lovers paradise. An ornate display of freshly caught fish chill in the center of the dining room as diners gesticulate wildly indicating which one is to be theirs. Whole fish from US$13 for trout to US$67 for a geriatric lobster. Since the fish come in daily, not all fish are available all the time.

RIP: A tipster in Prague informed us of the Boulder Bar's recent passing into oblivion. Not to fear, check out our other Prague listings here

In Prague beer goes with everything, including intense physical exertion. At the Boulder Bar, a chummy tight-knit hangout for Prague's bouldering community, climbers scale the bouldering walls in a back room, and then move up front to throw back Budvars and compare the muscle striations in their forearms. The bar's kind of like a reverse mullet: party in the front, business in the back. United around something other than inebriation, the clientele is very friendly. I went alone but after a few hours bouldering and Budvar-ing, I felt like I had been a local for years.

BoulderBar [in Czech]
V Jame 6/1263, Nove Mesto, Prague 1
Tel: +420 222 231 244

Previously: Solidni Nejistota for Hookups and Soup, Miss Sophies, Hotel Yasmin,

$198 Houston to NYC: To hype their new Houston-JFK route, JetBlue is offering flights thereon at $99 each way to start. If you're feeling masochistic enough to endure a JFK transfer, you can go from there to various other northeastern cities at no extra charge (Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, etc.). Book by July 18 for travel September 7 to October 31.

$300 Canada from East Coast: Air Canada has a very short-term sale flogging all routes from East Coast cities to four cities in Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax), charging $150 each way. Departures include New York, Baltimore, Boston, Miami, and others. You must book by June 29 for travel through September 10.

An unrepentant meat market, Solidni Nejistota ("Solid Uncertainty") at Pštrosova 21 exists as a medium for locals and a few expats to cheerfully frottage to the music before heading elsewhere for a final precoital nightcap (drinks here are a little small and pricey). Depending on crowd levels, door attitude can seem well out of proportion for such a diminutive dancefloor. But then again, the house also insists that "maybe you'll never find another place in Prague where they make better soup." As one visitor notes:

I would guess 90% of the people who go to Solidni never thought twice about ordering the soup of the day. The other ten percent are those who were reading the bar listings thinking, "I really need to find a bar/nightclub where I can eat soup while grinding my crotch against a bottle blonde's hotpanted ass." I'm guessing that last sentence probably sold it to a lot of you ...

Prague: Solidni Nejistota [Virtual Tourist]
Solidni Nejistota [Official site]

Previously: Boozin' Tallinn, The Art of the Whiz, Obligatory Prague Post: Interactive Strip Club, Going Back to Praha, Prague: The Dublin of the East?

Rough Guides has culled restaurant and bar profiles from their Directions guidebooks and distilled 'em into free downloadable guides for iPods. Ten such PodScrolls are available so far, each one complete with a scattering of photos as well. No idea how comprehensive they are since I don't have a color iPod, but whaddaya want, it's free.

Free iPod Travel Guides [PimpWiz]
PodScrolls [Rough Guides]

Previously: Zurnet iPod Subway Guide, Zoom and Go, TuneBuckle, PodDater, Cute iPod Nano Sarcophagus

$123+ Delta Sale: Delta's running a pretty comprehensive sale via Travelocity on domestic and international routes, knocking down most fares to a notch above their lowest ebb, but still not bad. The trick is that you have to book by today -- June 7 -- but given widespread availability, I have my doubts that deadline will be enforced. Sample roundtrip fares include $123 Washington DC to New York, $343 Los Angeles to Honolulu, and $575 Boston to Sao Paulo.

$769 6-Night Budapest & Prague Air+Hotel: This seemingly natural combo doesn't come up that often. The package includes round-trip air from New York, three nights in each city at typically crap hotels, plus rail travel connection. The $769 price is for departure dates in January 2007; other dates, departure cities, and better hotels are available for price bumps.

$915+ 5-Night Buenos Aires Air+Hotel: This isn't a bad BA package, though it throws in some largely pointless french-fry items to fill out the price tag (gauchos, tango). The meat of it is round-trip airfare from Miami and five nights' hotel in Buenos Aires, plus an eminently skippable half-day tour. Departure's less than $50 more to leave from new York, and about another $100 to leave from Los Angeles. Beyond that, you can upgrade your hotel, but there's only three hotel choices total. Book by June 30.

Fly Round-Trip From $123+ [Travelocity]
8 Day Budapest & Prague by Rail [Gate1]
Buenos Aires Deluxe [LatinAmerica4Less]
Top 25 [Shermans Travel]

Miss Sophie's in New Town is a prime exemplar of the minimalist hotel trend -- not just minimalist in decor, but also verging on hostel-level economies of simplicity (Andrea Boudreaux calls Sophie's a "hostelle" on Josh Spear's site). The place does indeed sport hostel-style dorm rooms, but it also has more typical singles, doubles, and triples with en suite bathrooms. No restaurant, but there is a community kitchen; Sophie's is also that rare marvel, a smoke -free environment in the Czech Republic. Rates begin at 900 Kc per night.

Miss Sophie's: Prague [Josh Spear]
Miss Sophie's [Official site]

Previously: Hotel Yasmin, Hotel Josef, Maximilian Hotel, Hotel U Prince, Andel's Hotel

The Roundup Roundup collects recent "roundup" articles or general material about cities and city travel worldwide.

Bangkok
Bangkok Barometer VII: malls vs. markets [Bangkokrecorder]
Bangkok Barometer VIII: Restaurants vs. Street stalls [Bangkokrecorder]

Berlin
At Cup, beer runneth over [Washington Times]

Chicago
Great American cities: Chicago [Chicago Tribune]

Guides
Real Holiday Reports [Official site]
TravBuddy [Official site]

Istanbul
Breakfast in Beyoglu [Metblog Istanbul]

London
In the Club [Urban Junkies]
Cheap State [Daily Candy]
London's top ten veggie restaurants [Times]

New York
Place of Inebriation [Proceed at Your Own Risk]

Nightlife
PBR, Strippers, and Kitsch [Men's Style]

Paris
The best of Paris [MSNBC]
Serial thriller [Guardian]
Your pass to the new Paris [Sunday Times]
The perfect room [Telegraph]

Prague
Pace yourself in Prague [Telegraph]

Sacramento
See What Sacramento has to Offer With This In Depth Travelogue [Frommer's]

San Francisco
Hookers Prey on Guests at the W [HotelChatter]
Going To: San Francisco [NYT]

Shop
The genuine article [Guardian]

Vancouver
Where to Stay [Telegraph]

Washington DC
A power trip in Washington DC [Sunday Times]

First up, filial filthmeister Fleshbot is sponsoring a contest with a hott prize -- "a role in Hustler's upcoming 'Joanna Angel's Fuckin' Guide to Fucking,'" to be filmed in New York. No sex for you, at least not on-camera, but you get to talk and everything. I imagine you'll be Delivery Boy #2, i.e. the one who has to go back and sit in the truck while Delivery Boy #1 satisfies the horny housewife. See rules and guidelines here, then send your statement to fleshbotcontests@gmail.com in 25 words or less explaining why you'd be perfect for the part.

If you see yourself as more of a an auteur, perhaps you'd rather spend time behind the camera. You're in luck, if you're in Prague, as Porn Academy (June 3-4) will reveal all the sacred mysteries of pornographic production. You'll chat up pros from all sides of the biz, then get a chance to actually film & photographic real live porno people in action during various workshop sessions. All for only €750, not including flight, hotel, or casting couch privileges.

Fleshbot Contest: So You Want To Be A Porn Star ... [Fleshbot]
Porn Academy [Thrillist]
Porn Academy [Official site]

Previously: Her Eyes, They Never Stop Accusing, Torture Garden Fetish Weekend, DNP: The New Baku?, Public Transit in Hungary... Orgasmic?, I Want to Hire Your Sexy Bicycle