PragueBuzz!

From Monday 24 to Monday 31st of December, public transportation follows different schedule.

If you understand Czech or can guess, please use this page from Prague Public Transit.

For English, check out AbcPrague’s short but useful post about operating hours for metro, tram and buses.

On Christmas Eve the metro will go until 19:00 according to timetables for Saturday. From 19:00 it will run in intervals of 20 minutes. The number of trams will be cut down from 16:30, between 18:00 and 19:00 the trams will start to follow timetables at night (until 7:00 the next day). On 25th and 26th December the public transport will follow timetables for Sunday. From 27th to 29th December the metro and trams will follow timetables for holidays. On New Year�s Eve metro will go according to the timetables for Saturday, trams and buses for Sunday. Some buses will end between 20:00 and 21:00. From 20:00 to 01:30 the metro will run in intervals of 20 minutes.

[AbcPrague]

Bored by the city and looking for something new? A-Tout Prague compiles an interesting list of activities you can do during this holiday.

• Krivokl�t Krivokl�t Castle
  

• Traditional early Christmas celebrations in the courtyard, large craft market, advent concerts and masses, theater and puppet performances, Christmas music, jugglers, dancers, etc. The Krivokl�t Nativity Scene.

• Folk Christmas, exhibition, Ginger Bread decoration, singing and painting

• Jesus is Born In Bethlehem - Christmas exhibition. Showcasing traditionally decorated rustic houses, nativity scenes and various Christmas tree decorations.
• St. Nicholas Caroling and Train Ride
• Christmas Production - cooking and folk crafts program 16 Dec.
• Christmas Eve traditions - feather plucking, spinning wool, baking Christmas cookies, discussions on Christmas

• Christmas in a Miners` Home and Presents in the Prokopska Adit - a 19th century home of a family of miners decorated with Christmas items, nativity scenes carved out of wood, production and decoration of Christmas decorations, pouring hot lead in water, preparation of Christmas meals and caroling; ride the small mine train through the decorated Prokopska Adit, tour to the historical underground spaces, Christmas traditions and customs of miners.

• Open: year-round except Mon. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., in December - daily 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. . Children will have the opportunity to purchase Christmas presents here. 

• The Karlstejn Royal Nativity Scene. The largest Czech puppet nativity scene covering 80 m2. It is composed of 46 wooden puppets dressed in period costumes. Gingerbread nativity scenes. Freshly baked gingerbread nativity scenes.
• Gingerbread tale: Gingerbread fairy tale characters.
• Permanent exhibition: 50 nativity scenes, some of them over 200 years old. Most of them are carved from wood, but some are made out of bread, sugar or paper. Included are also unique miniatures - small nativity scenes in hazelnut, walnut and coconut shells.
• V�clav Havel`s presidential nativity scene

[AToutPrague]

Effective last Thursday, November 22nd of 2008, public riders can send text SMS from within Prague (P zone) to buy tickets.

How to buy tickets by SMS

1. Write SMS with the text “DPT“
2. Send to this number 902 06 20 (902 06 26 after January 1st as the price per ticket increases to 26 CZK)

Within 2 minutes, you will receive an SMS ticket which looks like the following:

Pros
Convenient in situations where vending machines are not nearby, ticket kiosks are closed for the holiday, you forgot to buy tickets when already in the trams and metros (tickets not sold there) or you don’t have enough changes.

Cons
People can still cheat by texting for tickets only when they spots ticket conductors. I’m not sure how Prague’s Transport System will minimize this doing.

Remark
Please don’t cheat by sending these SMS to your friends because the conductor can validate if it was sent from the cellphone shown to him by using the special code at the end of the message, “YrQPtMKs7 /12345″. Anyway, it’s not worth it.

[Link]

Too busy to take a long vacation? Or simply don’t have the money? Doesn’t matter. Student Agency (the colossal yellow bus) offerers attractive weekend trips to many European cities for quite decent prices.

Some of the girls at work were planning to Athena for the weekend but then changed their minds because the city was too far and it would cost them a fortune. But is this too good to be true?

Trip to Athena - 3184 CZK (Feb. 7 to May. 20 2008)
Include: airport and service fee, 2 night accommodation  in 2* hotel w/ breakfast (double), return ticket with SkyEurope

[Link]