A Break From Writing and My Trip To Prague

I took a bit of a break from writing since I last spoke to you. I turned in my latest manuscript to my editor, CRUEL & BITTER THINGS, jumped on a plane and traveled out to the Czech Republic. Prague, to be more specific.

If you haven’t been there, you should go. Prague is a stunning city with castles and cathedrals around every corner. Cross the Charles Bridge and climb the steep hill to see the St. Vitus cathedral and the Prague Castle. There’s the apartment where Franz Kafka stayed while working there, and where he wrote one of his books. See the first Bible translated into Czech and all written by hand. When you’re done getting your fill of history, there’s an amazing brewery called U Dvou Slunco nearby that brews its own style of Czech beers and serves traditional Czech food.

Walk around the historic Old Town Square and wait with the crowd for the Astronomical Clock to chime. Sample the sausages, potato pancakes and ham shoulder that is slow cooked over a coal fire. Have a Czech beer to wash it all down and then stroll over to Wenceslas Square and the National Museum.

My favorite beer halls were U Rudolfina and U Pinkasu, both Pilsner tank pour pubs. U Pinkasu has the tap that served the first Pilsner Urquell and it also has a Gothic beer garden. We had a tremendously filling meal consisting of duck, sausages served in dark beer gravy sauce, red cabbage, sauerkraut, potato and bread dumplings, and toasted garlic bread with beer cheese. And all of this was washed down with many tank poured Pilsners. The price of all this for the three of us was roughly fifty dollars.

Prague is beautiful, clean and gorgeous. It is the safest city I’ve ever traveled around in. The people there are genuine and nice, and the architecture stunning to behold. Even more impressive is how inexpensive everything was. The hotel in the center of the city cost $80 a night for the three of us.

Now that I’m refreshed and renewed, it’s time to return to my next manuscript.

Safe travels!

Best,

Joe