Trip to Prague, Czech Republic - 6th to 8th November 2007

Football trips are great. Spending 3 days away does mean that, even if you are unlucky enough to see the most boring match in history, at least there is something else to remember from the overall experience. A large group of us met at Gatwick Airport the day before the game, bound for a few days of drinking in Prague. Given the destination, this was a pretty popular trip, so there were a good 1,500 or so Gooners due to be there.

After checking into the hotel there (and after a minor but expected rip off from the taxi driver from the airport - some things in Prague never change), we decided to do the decent thing and go for a beer. The first meeting point was the height of unadventurous behaviour, an Irish pub on Wenceslas Square, where beer cost 70 crowns (about £1.80) a pint - criminally expensive by Czech standards. After a couple there, a few of our group got bored, and went in search of something a little off the beaten track, more authentically Czech, and less profiteeringly expensive. Whilst some mates went and paid £25 each for a steak, we went for a "traditional Czech feast", with more than you could eat for a fiver.

Then it was on to beer, and our first stop was a tiny bar, with a man standing behind a single Pilsner Urquell beer pump. The place sold only 2 drinks, large Pilsner Urquell, or small Pilsner Urquell. They also sold fags, and sausages with bread and mustard - a true locals only place. We had a beer there, talking through the hazy cigarette smoke, which was a strange reminder of the days before the smoking ban in the UK. We went to a similar place that sold only Budvar (my favourite Czech beer by far), and a couple more interesting bars. Sadly, in one bar, we were able to watch Liverpool's 8-0 win over Besiktas, and Chelsea's amazingly lucky and undeserved 0-0 draw at Schalke - all most depressing indeed.

On the morning of the game, a few of us went for some sightseeing around the castle, in the freezing cold and rain. Up on the hill near the castle, it was very, very windy indeed, and horribly cold. All this meant that the sightseeing didn't last too long, we quickly retreated to a pub for some beer and pork for lunch. I had a baked pork knee, on a skewer, like in the picture here - more meat than you could shake a stick at, for £6, washed down by beer for less than £1 a pint. Of course, this was a Czech place, so it was a slight disappointment that they tried to con us when the bill arrived - by charging for mystery things that weren't ordered, and trying to tell us that it was a Czech tradition to tip 15% (which it is not). I am a fan of going for local establishments rather than identikit Irish pubs and chain restaurants, but if they are going to try to rip people off, they really don't do themselves any favours. Stop it!

The less said about the game the better, but we were all settled into a bar by 11:30pm afterwards. Sadly, much of the evening was punctuated by encounters with horrible, horrible English people, which really put me off a return visit (knowing that Prague is chav stag do central). Wenceslas Square in particular was a really nasty place to be, with idiotic English people, dodgy Nigerians trying to drag you into strip clubs, and general characters on the streets, up to no good.

Pretty much everybody we saw on Wenceslas Square was an example of anti-social behaviour in action, and I was really ashamed that most of it was the fault of my fellow countrymen. In a late night McDonalds, there were Scousers looking for a fight, Arsenal fans being drunk and obnoxious, people asking the 20-year-old, minimum wage workers if sexual favours were available, or just shouting at them to get their food quicker. Czechs must absolutely hate English people, and it is hard to blame them. Along with huge groups of teenage students, English beer trippers have utterly ruined this city - and unlike Amsterdam, Prague seems to be putting up with it and taking the money. A real shame, and I'll think twice about going back.