Prague is often referred to as "the most beautiful capital in Europe". Nestled on the banks of the Vltava River, it offers stunning natural beauty and the architectural ensembles that have been brought to it by millennia of history, from Romanesque rotunda to Gothic towers, from Renaissance palaces to Baroque cathedrals, from Art Nouveau cafes to Cubist apartment blocks... It's all-encompassing.
It is often said that Prague's location is right in Prague, the crossroads of Europe, where various ideological trends and cultures meet and collide, thousands of years ago. The British historian Derek Sayer spent his life studying bohemian history, and in his book "Prague: The Crossroads of Europe", he combed and reviewed the complex thousand-year history of Prague, detailed the stories behind those beautiful buildings, and also detailed the café and beer hall culture of Prague's deep characteristics and historical precipitation.
Beer is a proud specialty of the Czechs, and their per capita beer consumption has been the highest in the world for many years. Beer halls are all over the streets of Prague, and with the permission of the publishing house, we have excerpted the fourteenth chapter of the book, "Beer is really a syrup!" "And see how fanatical Prague people (including British tourists who come to Prague for weekends) can be for a beer.
Prague: The Crossroads of Europe; derek Thayer/by Derek Thayer; Jin Tian/Translation; Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House; 2021-11
If A Prague café isn't your favorite, the Prague Pub, known locally as hospoda or pivnice, may have an appetite. When it comes to drinking beer, the Czechs are the world champions. According to the Statistics of Kylin Beer University, the per capita drinking (beer) volume in the Czech Republic has led the world for 23 consecutive years. In 2015, the Czech Republic consumed more than 140 litres of beer per capita, nearly 30 litres more than the second-ranked Republic of Seychelles in South Africa. Germany is in third place, with 105 litres of beer per capita per year. In the United States (ranked twentieth) and Australia (ranked twenty-second), the figures were seventy-five and seventy-two liters, respectively. In contrast, the Beer Lovers of the United Kingdom (ranked twenty-seventh) drink sixty-eight liters of beer per capita per year, less than half of the per capita consumption in the Czech Republic.
There is a scene in Mozart's Italian opera Don Juan, which depicts the charming protagonist, the Spanish love St. Don Juan, holding up a glass of champagne and offering a congratulatory message: "Let us drink bitterly, let us rejoice." （“Finch’han dal vinocalda la testa.” But to celebrate a good wine with music, it takes the best Czech composer to add to the heat, and Bedrih Smetana's The Betrayed Bride is a great example of this – with the opening of the second act, the people in the village tavern chant in unison: "This beer is a jelly!" "It can be described as a sound and dust.
Premiered in 1866 at a makeshift theatre in Prague, The Betrayed Bride tells the story of a young couple (Yenik and Marenka) who are obsessed with marrying their daughter's debts and goetzel, a greedy matchmaker who obstructs them. Criticized for his first opera, The Brandenburger of Bohemia, Smetana was determined to be disgraced to prove that he could also "control small musical works with ease" and "preserve the original national style in all repertoire".
Smetana's transformation from grand historical dramas to happy country stories has achieved unprecedented success, making the three-act comedy opera "The Bride Who Was Betrayed" not only the cornerstone of modern Czech musicals, but also the world's classic operas, widely circulated and often performed" .
Although in Western society it is customary to call Die verkaufte Braut in German, it does not change the fact that it is universally recognized as a "Czech national opera". Smetana weaves a web of extremely emotional Czech elements (Czech villages, Czech girls and Czech folk songs) that envelops the deepest patriotism of Czechs, at least those during the National Revival: What could inspire a sense of national identity more than the best Czech beer? Beer is the national wine of the Czechs and belongs to the vast number of Czech people.
The Golden Tiger Bar in Prague's Old Town is popular
When Czechs create art, whether they are praising or self-deprecating, they prefer to borrow the east wind of beer, which further consolidates the important position of beer in the eyes of the people. For example, Leosh Janacek's comedy opera The Journey of Mr. Brucek (1920). The comedy opera is adapted from the satirical novel of Swatopoluk Cech, the protagonist of which is a fat Prague landowner named Bruček. This confused Mr. Bruček has traveled through time and space, first to the moon, and then back to the fifteenth century, which is very funny.
The opera began in 1888 on a dimly lit night, when Bruček, drunk with beer, staggered out of vikárka's tavern in the Prague Heights and fell asleep because he was so drunk. When he woke up, Bruchek was already on the moon, where the inhabitants were self-conscious and dust-free, and naturally felt that Bruchek, who did not know the fragrance of flowers, but sought to eat meat, was like a reckless man and impatient. By the second act, Bruček returns to Prague's Old Town Square in 1420. As soon as the Battle of Mount Witte was over, Bruček, who was Catholic, spoke with a strong German accent, and was so timid and afraid that he was on the verge of escaping, was sentenced to death by the Hussites, who said they would burn him alive in a wooden barrel. The historical Hussian peasant army did, after winning the battle (in the presence of the defeated Sigismund Jihad army), loaded sixteen prisoners of war into barrels and burned them at the stake.
Just as the flames outside the barrel were burning, Bruczek woke up violently, only to find himself planted in a beer barrel outside the priest's tavern, unharmed. In the castle district of today's Prague, there is indeed a "priest's tavern" that still stands, and it is not known whether the cellar there is the prototype of the place where Bruček fell asleep drunk.
The legend of Czech beer continues. In 2006, Plzeňsk prazdroj launched a series of television commercials that swept the country. According to the head of the company, Peter Pollack, the series of advertisements is humorously "linking the homegrown Pilsen brand to glorious moments and important events in Czech history". For example, a firefighter looked at the ruins of the National Theater, which was shrouded in gray smoke after the fire was extinguished, and was depressed, and when someone handed him a Pilsner beer, he took a drink and shouted: "Come again (a cup)!" When he looked up at the theater, the firefighter was blessed: "Yes, it is time to come again!" As soon as the camera pans, people in taverns around the world are generously donating money and filling beer glasses with coins. At this point a line appeared on the screen: "This is the beginning of the fundraising [for the reconstruction of the theater]. Then the voiceover sounded: "Pilsen original wheat beer, inspiring taste!" In this series of advertisements for the same brand, Pilsen Original Wheat Beer also "inspired" Smetana to write "My Motherland", "witnessed" Franzišek Janacek build the first motorcycle in the Czech Republic, "encouraged" Emile Khorub to go on an ethnographic expedition to Africa, "spurred" Afons Musha to create the group painting "Slavic Epic"... The most important thing is this advertisement: Joseph Romman, who is fighting for the revitalization of the Czech language, is cold everywhere, but in discouragement, he regains his confidence by drinking the famous Pilsen barrel beer, and gives an inspiring speech in Czech with the encouragement of his friends. But when the waiter served the second (Pilsen) beer, Rongman thanked him in German without hesitation, causing the audience to fall into an embarrassing silence.
Although flaunted in the name of patriotism, the original "Pilsen Wheat" was brewed by Germans and Czechs who were dissatisfied with the taste of the local beer (1842). The "inspiring taste" of this beer was carefully prepared by Bavarian brewer Joseph Grohl, and its secret recipe is said to be used to this day. Today, the Pilsen Brewery has been merged with Japan's Asahi Beer, and the commercial for Pilsen's original wheat series is directed by award-winning Belgian Xavier Meyer Hayes.
Equally encouraging was the reopening of Prague's doors to the world in 1989. As a result, Prague, the preferred holiday destination for Britons, is more popular than Spain's Costa Brava and the debt-ridden Greek islands.
Who makes cheap airline tickets, cheap beer, and cheap sex really hook people. Prostitution is legal in the Czech Republic today, so the capital, Prague, is home to strip clubs, massage parlors, and pornography. The Czech Tourist Board has declared that on weekends, one in five crimes in Prague is committed by drunken Britons who throw farewell stag parties (2004). According to the data released by the British Foreign Office, although the number of British people who go to the Czech Republic for vacation is only one-third of the former compared to Greece, the number of passports lost is far more than the former. Although Tallinn and Riga are the most recent in today, Prague is no longer the only "drunken capital" in Europe, and the abundance of Irish pubs is still a major feature of Prague, including Dubliners, O'Reilly's Bar, Paddy's Bar, O'Brien's Bar, Murphy's "Molly Malone" Bar, and the Caffrey Sports Bar on Old Town Square.
In the 1990s, cocktail bars rose rapidly in Prague. In the first decade of the 21st century, the wine bar and craft beer bar, which had been popular during the Czechoslovak Republic, also made a comeback. The Zl asy bar in the New Lamp House is said to be "the birthplace of Prague beer culture", with forty-eight relatively niche local cask beers to choose from. The same is true of the "beer geeks" of the Royal Vineyards, the "Nota Bene" of the New Town, the "Pivovarsk klub" of Charles Town, and the "Zubat pes" of Tim Chi flange. In addition to the beautiful red roof overlooking the Old Town, T-anker, the rooftop bar at Anchor Mall (Kotva), offers nine types of draft beers and more than 100 bottled beers.
Despite its wide range of alcohol, in the era of mass tourism, young people's drinking and lifestyle are different from the past, not to mention that the "Ban on Smoking in Indoor Public Places" implemented since 2017 has had a great impact on the traditional beer houses in the Czech Republic, making it difficult for them to survive, at least in Prague's historic district. Opened in 1499, U Flek's Bar has "eight halls and a garden that can accommodate more than 1,200 customers," but today it welcomes mostly foreign tourists who come here by long-distance bus.
The U Vejvod bar on St. George's Street is a humble little, homely pavilion that was once the most popular meeting place for members of the Restored Old Prague Club, and has been renovated to become the "four unlikes" of "accordion players stepping to the table from time to time, and old Bohemian bands occasionally performing". In contrast, the U Medvídk, on the corner of Perštejn Street, does a great job of maintaining its traditional character, with long table seats by the beer pump reserved for old patrons year-round. Open since 1466, "Little Bear" is known for its crisp Budweiser beer and authentic Czech cuisine – the Budweis region of the Czech Republic is home to Budweizer, and Czechs believe that only beer from there qualifies to be called "Budweiser".
Bars in the centre that retain their former appearance and continue to attract locals include the Slate Bar and Rudolf Bar in the Old Town, the U Jelínk bar on Charvátova in the New Town, the U Kocoura on Neruda Street in the Lesser Town, and the Black Bull Bar in Loreto Square in the Castle District. And the success of most Czech pubs depends on their transformation into gourmet bars, as the acclaimed "Lokál" tried to do – the sprawling chain of taverns on Dlouhá is worth a try; the Vinohradsk parlament bar is equally outstanding, and its homemade fries with garlic sour cream sauce are not to be missed.
Czech beers and bars are legendary, as are Czech literati. During his visit to Prague (1994), Bill Clinton made a request to President Václav Havel to meet with Bohumir Hrabar, the greatest Czech writer of the late twentieth century. Javier took the conversation to him, and Hrabar listened and said to him, "You know where to find me." So Javier led the president of the United States to the U Zlatého tygra on Huss Street in the Old Town. Known as "Czech Joyce", Hrabar excelled at stream-of-consciousness writing, and his style was truly similar to that of rambling bar conversations. Unless he leaves Prague for a vacation in the countryside, Hrabar, who has lived in the suburban town of Ren'ai, will go to his beloved Golden Tiger Bar every day, rain or shine.
Frescoes by Tatiana Swatosheva: "Herabal Wall" outside Bohumir Hrabar's house, Na Hrázi, The Town of Ren'ai.
In the late 1980s, Hrabar's former home in The Town of Ren'ai was about to be demolished for the sake of a bus stop (the Hrabars had moved into a high-rise apartment building in LumaFang in 1974). In 1990, czech artist Tatiana Swatosheva painted a mural on the site of her former home in Hrabar, titled "Hlabar Wall". Seven years later, Hrabar fell to his death from the fifth-floor window of the Bull Hospital in Renai, another suspicious Prague window-throwing incident – Hrabar is said to have stumbled behind him when he wanted to feed the pigeons; but he wrote many years ago in The Magic Flute (1989): "How many times have I wanted to jump like this and jump down from the window on the fifth floor... But my guardian angels always saved me at the last minute. Hrabar often mentions the Golden Tiger Bar in his works, and "The Magic Flute" is one of them.
The Golden Tiger Bar is still the same, it is neither fashionable nor kitsch. If you want to have a seat as soon as you enter the door, it's always right to arrive early, usually people will wait in line to wait for the bar to open (open every day from 3 pm, all year round). Golden Tiger's signature "pivní s r" (Beer Cheese) is truly unforgettable, mixing the cheese with butter, onions, mustard and paprika, smearing it on the finest rye bread, taking a big bite, and paired with Prague's finest Pilsen original wheat beer, it is truly a rare and top treat.