Where Beer is Cheaper than Water: Czech Republic: Prague, Plzen, Ceske Budejovice

After an 8 hour train ride south bound from Krakow, Nathan and I arrived at the Czech Republic, where beer is cheaper than water. As an economics major, when good tasting beer costs less than water, you drink beer. So I drank beer basically at every meal we had. On that note though, due to the weak US dollar/ British Pound, everything else other than beer was not cheap, at least not anymore.

Prague

We first arrived at Prague, to what Nathan would refer to as the “Adult Disneyland”. It’s nothing sexual - it just refers to the castle up on the hill and the touristy-y feeling of the whole place. It’s as if the whole place was meant for just tourists. We didn’t like that. Nonetheless, it was a picture-perfect city, with a winding river flowing through the middle, arching bridges, and a medieval-esque atmosphere. Before we got there, we intended to do the generic pub crawl, but the cold weather just made it unappealing. Additionally, we talked to some fellow hostel-ers and they said that only 15 people went on their pub crawl, and half of that 15 was from their group. Sounded like a rip off at about 15 Euros.

Prague seemed like a good place to go back in the summer and just go out and enjoy the cheap beer.

Picture perfect Prague.

Astronomical clock where hordes of people gather every hour just to see a small gap open and figurines moving around. I’m not going to post the picture of it happening – don’t want to ruin the surprise and also, it’s not that exciting.

We went to a microbrewery called Pivovar u Bolovky (Pub Bolovky) in the suburbs, and these woman were next to us taking shots and drinking beer, basically outdoing Nathan and I. Made me feel little. On another note, the beer was phenomenal – go try some if you’re ever in Prague, even though it is a bit of a trek to the suburbs.

After Prague, Nathan and I had originally planned on going down self to a place called Cesky Krumlov, but found out last minute that the castle there was closed for the winter. Instead, we decided to go visit the breweries of the two most famous beers from Czech Republic: Pilsner Urquell in Plzen and Budweiser Budvar in Ceske Budejovice. Also Budweiser Budvar is the original Budweiser (the US company just stole the name), and tastes 10x better than Budweiser in the US – as much as I like my Bud lights.

Plzen and Ceske Budejovice

Since Nathan and I came to these small towns pretty much just for Pilsner Urquell and Budweiser Budvar. Everything in these towns was largely unexciting.

That’s right, a beer vending machine. They should have one at Georgetown.

The Pilsner Urquell bus…talk about corporate branding!

Person more important than our tour guide – he poured out the unfiltered/unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell for us. Delicious.

Brewery had a very corporate feel to it.

In contrast, Budweiser Budvar was quite obviously a state owned enterprise – uncharacteristic buildings.

Stacks and stacks of beer.

Budweiser Budvar was damn good – Budweiser USA should just give up its name.

Beer hall attached to the Budvar brewery where we spent an afternoon.

After 2 straight days of brewery tours, Nathan and I knew more than we needed to know of how beer is made. Superbly educational... they really don’t teach you everything you need to know in life at school.

Next up? Austria!