Written January 1, 2007.
New Years Eve in Prague was magical. While many of the major sights were closed for the holiday, we enjoyed the day’s BEAUTIFUL weather as the best of our vacation. With clear blue skies, only slight wind and a warmish temperature, we explored the city’s Old Town, Castle Quarter and bits of the New Town before enjoying fireworks from the Charles Bridge (the bridge that links the Old Town to the Castle Quarter) at midnight.
We’ve celebrated New Years in a few great places: Montreal (K), New York’s Times Square (G), London, the Bahamas, and now Prague — and Prague was by far the favorite. Europeans always seem a bit more “liberal” with certain rights — like the citizens’ right to ignite large fireworks in public without a license. This held true for New Year’s as we enjoyed the “show” from a very uncrowded (by London and New York standards) Charles Bridge from 10PM until well beyond midnight (though the official fireworks lasted only 10-15 minutes just after the strike of 12). At times this was a bit scary (like the time that a “posse” of drunken folks rolled onto our section of the bridge with a massive box of fireworks and proceeded to ignite the wayward works amidst the crowds gathered OR when a REALLY burly drunken brut joined a neighboring group but was so intoxicated that he couldn’t speak — he could only grunt to acknowledge folks. It was clear that his bottle did not contain only the Pepsi advertised.), but overall a very enjoyable night.
The amazing thing about Prague is that every view is incredibly beautiful… every corner exposes a more extraordinary view than the last and photos just can’t compete with the real thing. The city’s beauty is overwhelming to the scale of other favorites like The Cinque Terre, Venice, Vaison la Romaine, and the Amalfi Coast. See additional photos from Prague.