Day 17: Prague
Welcome
Yesterday we left Austria and travelled North into a country that is an automotive industry powerhouse, the largest vinyl record producer in the world, the highest beer consumer per capita in the world, and is in the top ten list for average internet speed.
Breakfast was at the hotel café, and on this occasion, I had a slice of buttered bread covered in finely sliced chives.
The first part of the drive was through Northern Austria and the landscapes that we are getting very used to by now, wind turbines littered around vast green fields that lead up into rolling wooded hills.
Soon we crossed the border into the Czech Republic and the farms became interspersed with old villages, vineyards, and tall apartment buildings.
We pulled up outside the venue half an hour early and got quickly on with the business of the day, loading everything into a huge freight elevator to be lowered down into the underground cellar that was our venue, Underdogs.
This collection of rooms seemed like it dated back at least a few hundred years with the walls giving evidence to a number of construction methods with their odd sized bricks and other materials.
Jonathan Pearce provides this walk-through of the venue giving a glimpse into the size and layout of this brick and stone labyrinth dungeon.
One of the highlights of the night was discovering homemade food in the green room that was prepared by our promotor Jakub’s mother. We felt very overwhelmed by the incredible hospitality shown to us here.
It was a Saturday night show and it seemed that everyone had a good time, bands and audience alike. Everyone we met was unbelievably friendly and after the show we spent a good hour chatting to people who seemed to have come from all over Europe.
The final part of the night brought a small amount of excitement as our hotel felt like The Shining meets Hotel Budapest. We walked through huge glitzy lobbies and down endless corridors to try and find our rooms only to find the elevators out of service, and then when we finally made it up the stairs all the hallways were pitch black. We did find our rooms eventually and we are still alive today, and I can report that this is the biggest hotel room I have ever been inside, probably as large as 2.5 standard hotel rooms or 4 Paris hotel rooms.
The lobby fountain
This photo is taken in the pitch black stairwell right after our accent.
Some of the features of our hotel. Sadly the restaurants and bars are no longer open.
