SMICHOV - relatively interesting


It's Tuesday, Easter is finally over and if you have ever celebrated Easter in Poland then you will have a better understanding of how I am feeling right now. To fit it in a nutshell, it was like Christmas day with all the trimmings for 4 days. Throw in a hard boiled egg eating competition, large amounts of meat and vodka of which the aunties embarrassingly drunk me under the table and you have some idea of how my internal organs are feeling today, though I just would like to make clear that it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience in the company of my SVG and her family, even with the language barrier and room full of warm patient people, whose English is slightly better than my Polish.

This weeks addition comes from Smichov and although we visited it last week and were proud of how organised we were being because of our impending trip to Poland, we still managed to forget most of the important photos to complete the blog, so I am very sorry that this week's reviews will not be complete as all the places of interest, but on a more positive note we have changed the blog address. This is because in the future we hope to set up a website and we want the names to be similar so in the future you will be able to read the blog at


We wanted it to be livincity.blogspot.com but sadly it was already taken. So back to Smichov,
what do we know, well I suppose most people know that there is a train station there and as with most areas around train stations it is not the most beautiful part of the city but that does not mean that it lacked in places of interest as you will see later on this week unfortunately but you will see some of the places that we found very interesting and we were pleasantly surprised and so will you.

The most commonly known facts about this area are that it is home to the Staropramen brewery, it was also a very industrial area with factories manufacturing and producing goods such as gloves, furniture and bricks, and there is a man made beach on the water front. The more lesser known facts are that Albert Einstein used to live here and the name derives from the word laugh (n) so in my roughly translated Czech, mit Smichov means to have a laugh.

Review no. 1


This was an interesting place if all truth be said, mainly because it is like a jack of all trades. A bar, restaurant, cocktail bar and cafe. Initially we tried the cocktail bar door which was closed and were just about to head off when I noticed a smashed up BMW around the corner and was pointing it out to my son when I noticed another door, which was open for business as a restaurant on the river front and the view from the window was a big plus.
So we went inside, not knowing anything apart from what I had mentioned and to be honest the decor did look a bit plush and we were preparing ourselves for a very pricey lunch, but we were wrong as it turned out though it wasn't the cheapest either but the food was good and the portions were generous as you can see in the photos and we had the run of the place as we were the only people there.

My daughter had the svickova and as you can see it was a generous portion and she did well in nearly finishing it. I had the steak and I am never sure about the translation when it comes to steak but they translated it as sirloin yet I am sure that it was rump, anyway it was disappointing as I was hoping for a nice tender medium rare steak but I got chunks of slightly chewy well done steak with burnt onions. The Czech dishes were well made and presented and to be fair you have to be prepared to pay more that 400czk for a good steak and mine was 250czk. If I had been more adventurous with my budget I would have gone for the pricier beefsteak which I hope would have been a nice cut of fillet, but maybe next time.

To summarize the view and the atmosphere were very nice, the prices pretty good for its location and the food was average and the portions above average. As we were leaving we noticed that the cocktail bar was now open and that the drinks were cheaper than in the restaurant, so I imagine that if you wanted a nice view and a few drinks it would be a nice place to meet friends before going on to somewhere else.


                                             www.tongal.cz

Other places of interest


Beer emergency                                       Italian wine and food
www.pivnipohotovost.cz                            www.winemarket.cz

 
Golf equipment                                         Botel Vodnik
www.amgolf.cz                                         www.botel.cz
 

Pilot Shop                                  Army Shop
www.hits.cz                                ul. Svornosti 30


Comments