Greetings neighbour from Krč. You are obviously a very intelligent and perceptive guy. The video is excellent as always. Thank you and please keep on going :-)
I am impressed. This is the first video from an expat that realistically describes living in Prague, that I have ever seen. :-) "Panelaks" are quite nice living. Warm, clean and when it is close to the subway, there is nothing to deal with. Sometime in the late 90s, as a teenager, I met a girl with a huge backpack in front of our house. She said she was from Colombia and was looking for her guesthouse. I knew what the problem was. She wasn't the first. There was probably a map error somewhere, probably from a travel agent. The guest house was a few stops closer to the center. I told her I would take her there because there were tears in her eyes. And at one point she looked around and asked, "Are we safe?" This surprised me a lot, because Prague is generally a very safe city. And "panelaks neighborhoods" are even safer than the center. :-)
Typing from a panelák... As someone who has lived in a panelák for 26 years (and continuing to do so) I really, really dislike when czech people are praising obvious failures and inconveniences. This is a tipical czech thing to do. Living in a panelák is not "good living", only someone who hasn't tried living elsewhere could say that. Honestly it's kind of sad that many Czechs are so used to paneláks that they consider them as a good place to live in. Unfortunately the buildings cannot be separated from the sad times they were build in and I persinally think building them was a insult to decency and human dignity. Not only those buildings look really unattractive from the outside but inside it's not much better: low ceiling, toilet without windows, and you can hear everything your neighbour is doing (legend says the communists build them on purpose like that so that people could spy on each other :) My friends say old houses closer to the city center have actually bigger walls (were built that way for heat retention) which help reduce the noise from neighbors. Overall in paneláks there is less noise from the outside, sure, but that's because of the low population density and traffic in a czech sídliště. I can hear my neighbors talk, laugh, having a shower, flush the toilet, watch TV, walk around the apartment.. unless they tip toe which is something sadly one must quickly learn when living in a panelák. All those little things limit your freedom and it's quite depressing if you realize you don't have the opportunity to move elsewhere. Regarding safety, I certainly disagree that here it's much safer than the city center. There are plenty of wierd, mentally ill or drug addicted people roaming around the metro station every day, which is usual to see in lower income neighborhoods like this. I'm not hating my country or anything like that and I understand that in the 80's people needed somewhere to live and that's okay, but I personally can't wait to move from my panelák to a much nicer place. I just with people were a little more honest about the situation of some neighborhoods of Prague. There are certainly much better places to live than Stodůlky :) Good job with your video. Keep it up :) I always enjoy your fresh takes on Prague and czech people :)
@@ZoldarMusic People are different. I grew up in panelak, now I live in an old family house in Prague. It's nice to have a garden, but right now, in early September, I'm running an electric heater. And the heat in the large bathroom with high ceilings escapes my heat. I fondly remember our warm little bathroom without a window in panelak. :-) My parents have a comfortable warmth in the panelak now even without heating. I'm not saying it's ideal living. I guess we can all imagine a luxurious new villa in Ořechovka. But really, it's not a bad place to live. It has its advantages and disadvantages.
@@kristynaberankova2703 Velmi hezky komentar, mate ve vsem pravdu. More sestra bydli na sidlisti Dablice uz 50!let v koupenem druzstevnim byte a jsou tam spokojeni. Byt je velmi hezky, I kdyz ma mensi mistnosti bez balkonu, je slunny a maji vytah. Pred par lety postavili dokonce ted Metro. Compliment on your amazing English. May I ask where and how long you had learned it? It amazes me every time how many Czech and Slowak people here in the comments are almost perfect in the written English language, 💝 Pozdravy from an expat born in Prag 4 Michle
@@danielahoti4109 It's funny, I'm also originally from Ďáblice. :-) I started learning English in high school, but like everyone else, I improved thanks to the internet. (And on the other hand, I lost most of my German :-)) Anyway thank you.
You have the best pronunciation of Czech words I have heard from non-native speaker. Words like Krč, Česká Pošta, or Žižkov are usually pretty hard for foreigns to pronounce, but your pronunciation is spot on. PS: Hůrka is a small Hora ( small mountain ). It is more of a dialect, or poetic way of saying "small mountain" rather than proper Czech. Another good vid !
I go through Kačerov every morning - will definitely check out the Balkan cheese and the farm eggs... thank you! BTW, after the vote for Brexit I sold my 4 bedroom house with garden in the UK, moved to Prague and bought a flat in a panelák. I've never been happier!
wow, that is exactly the life we all wanna get from here, that is really touching to read that. (ofc i mean its not so hot, but a little house with garden and a grill would be really nice).... people always look for what they dont have.
It is quite surreal experience to watch an expat giving tour of your periphery neighborhood in english like in some National Geographic documentary. 🙂 Thank you.
'Many Czech-Americans who live in America for over 50 years want to come back to Czechia and retire in Czechia with an option to return to the US for vacations. This is a great video to get idea how to live in Prague (and close to Prague) and start to feel at home again
This is such a great video. I’m from New Zealand and likely moving to Prague with my partner who’s polish around June this year, so it’s great to see the different areas to live! Thank you
Hi, why do you want to move to the Czech Republic? Many people say that New Zealand is the best country in the world and a paradise on earth and dream of moving there
Great tour around the Prague. I am native Czech living in Prague for more than 5 years and your review might come handy in the future. You're killing the pronounciation of the neighborhoods and services. Great stuff!
This was a very interesting insight. I've been living in Prague for more than 10 years but I've never even been to most of the places you mentioned :-D For me, the best places to live in Prague are Vinohrady and Zizkov - they are very lively districts with great transportation options (frequent trams, metro, and the city center is easily reachable on foot), lots of green areas (Riegerovy sady, Parukarka, Vitkov...), the houses are old but very well maintained and the rents are reasonable.
My wife Sara and I lived in Prague from 2010-2013 and have been vising Prague every year since 1990 til 2019. Based on that experience, I think we experience the best quality living in Vinohrady, Zizkov, Bubenec and Modrany.
panelaky changed color because there is an insulation put on them and you have to paint them some color. And any color looks better than gray. Some are just a bit yellow or so, not every one is so rainbow colored :)
I lived in Prague for 2 years, I also lived in many places and I took the public transport to almost all neighborhoods, so I'm familiar with all or Prague. It makes me so happy that you experience that as well!
I've lived in panelák most of my life, 10 minute bus ride from Kačerov. I can't say I particularly enjoy it but I know it could be worse. Funny thing is that when my mother married an Englishman he freaked out regarding the "safety" in that area and had a thick safety door installed immediately. He never realized Czech paneláky are totally different from what he knows from growing up in London suburbs.
Thanks for this vlog. Very interesting observations. The format of your vlogs is great, too. You are a natural as a narrator and your tours are adding a dimension to the experience. Don't change a thing! I was hoping you'd make it to the left bank of Vltava, so thank you for the Hurka segment! My foreign wife loved living at Nove Butovice and hiking in Prokopske udoli, before we moved to Andel. She didn't complain there either. For me as a native, all places have some familiarity. The colors on panelaky always remind me of bee hives with their colors helping the bees to find their way home. Like a drunken 'trubec' finding his way home from a pub. I cannot escape that association, .
Thank you Paul (should I call you Paul or Pavel?). Glad to hear you like the format. Yes, living in and around Stodulky was actually really wonderful, and it felt like my most authentic experience of Prague. I would live there again, and I probably will once my current situation isn’t an option anymore.
And funny story. When a guy from England found out that panelaka were actually a safe neighborhood, he told me it would be great to buy an apartment here. Rent him, fly to Prague for parties ... I told him: go on. The price of the studio (25 square meters) begins (at 3.5 million, that is 138 000 euros). For some reason, he thought that apartments in panelaks are cheap. :-)
@@conceptalfa England is a broad concept. :-) If it is not possible to find an apartment 25 square meters in the whole of England for about 118460 pounds, it is difficult to say (I found many of them :-). The point is that he thought that an apartment in a block of flats in Prague would be cheap. Which it is not.
@@kristynaberankova2703 am not that familiar with England but heared living there is very expensive, maybe that's why the english guy thought this was "cheap" .....who knows....
Hi Brendan, paneláky are not the Czech or Soviet invention. The first panelak was built in the Netherlands after the Great War. This idea was later used by Le Corbusier, when the French government asked him to built a large block of flats in Marseille in 1946 to solve the lack of appartments after the WW2. Such block of flats were built later in Paris or Sweden, too, but they soon become a ghetto as many immigrants moved in. This is not the case in the CR. Věra Chytilová, the famous Czech movie director, made a film Panelstory about their construction in 1980s. And their quality differs - the older the better. The first ones from the 1960s were built on the architect' s design, later they begun to save materials and space so the ones from the 1980s are usually much worse.
I agree. I saw panelaky all over France and in west Berlin and I think people are complaining about them, because they think they are only east thing. One plus for panelaky is they were urban planed, so there is access to public transport, shops and free time activities. It's so much more comfortable than new satellite towns around Prague.
It's interesting for a person born in Prague to watch this. You've explored a lot of pretty weird places. I would never choose any of those neighbourhoods you lived, but I went to highschool in Hurka... I do not live in Prague anymore but in a nearby city of Cernosice which is really green and still 15-30 min from Prague.
I lived in that very same flat you did in 2022. The very same year you posted this video. The place is great. You have everything you need nearby. I rarely went to city centre,
I belive those panel houses were painted different colors mainly for differentiation (you could get lost pretty easily when everything looked the same) and also to break one monotonous gray color. Also, in Karlin there are many new buildings around simply because there were big floods in 2002 and whole area was damaged, some older buildings had to be torn down.
Oof feeling the nostalgia again! I lived in Krc near the Budejovicka metro for the first year, then moved to Vinohrady after I got a pay raise at the company I worked at...panelaks are not much to look at, but pretty nice inside. Indeed lots of expats in Vinohrady, but lots of bars, cafe's and restaurants and loved going out with my friends within close walking distance from my apartment.
Great vid, and very refreshing comments! I also jumped to a few different flats when I lived in Praha. My TEFL school assigned me to a pretty bleak one in industrial Vysočany, where I lived across from a noisy de-construction site focusing on taking down a World War II-era factory of some sort. (On the other hand, I had no TV there, so when I was not drawing up English lesson plans, watching the crew work *was* my entertainment.) My second flat (this time with four roommates) was in Nusle -- a down-at-heel neighborhood with beautiful Art Nouveau bones that will one day be a chic-yet-affordable Place to Be. But my fave apartment was in Prague 10, in a beautifully updated flat located in a 100-year-old building, just a few tram stops away from intimate Ďolíček Stadion. (Where I'd highly recommend taking in a couple football games. Go, Bohemians 1905!) I do wish I had been able to rent in a panelák. I did a story for an English-language, Czech family-owned business magazine about paneláky, and visited a few as part of the research process. You're right: Although they look kind of Cabrini-Green-esque from the outside, they are quite pleasant inside. During communism, they were considered great places to live, because they were quite new, compared to aging flats in many of the older neighborhoods.
@@radish9261 Yeh, sure. I would not mind, but back then, those were "králíkárny", and "sídliště" wasn´t exactly a good address to have. It was a necessity, def not a choice.
What I first loved about Prague (apart from my wife of course!) was the fact that all districts were an interesting mix of people - any given panelák would be home to doctors, labourers, lawyers, artists, teachers, young and old... Now it's being divided up into distinct areas: English-speaking ex-pats go to Žížkov or Vinohrady, hipsters live in Karlín, etc. It seems like a shame to me.
Panelaky were built mainly because of lack of any accomondation in Prague. It was basically masively produces Lego. There's always been problem with not enough apartmens which goes all the way back to Austria Hungary era. Panelaky solved the problem, at least for a while. I can recomend Sídliště Ďáblice. It's really neat place. It was built during 60s and 70s. Buildings there were actually designed by great czech architects and urbanists. It is on the hill in the north of Prague so there are great views on the city from the flat. There are huge entrance halls in every building with sculpture or mosaic. There are not any streets which goes through the place. Instead there is a huge park with nazi shooting range memorial. Entire district is barier free, so you don't have to use any stairs, all is in one level. The buldings are on pilons so there are passages through them so you don't have to go around them. Unfortunately in the 90s and 00s many of those art things were destroyed and buildings were covered covered under polystyren with random color on top of it. There was nice stone cladding around the entrance door which was unfortunately destroyed. Fortunatelly nowadays new reconstructions are made much better with better materials and they are finally designed by proffesionals.
In my opinion, best places to live in Prague can be found in Prague 6. Bořislavka, Veleslavín, Dejvice, Břevnov, Liboc, Petřiny, Hanspaulka and every other place there is just exceptional. Prague 6 is probably the cleanest, safest and most beautiful area to live in. You have parks and forests all around, its takes about 6-15 min by metro to city centre and its very close to an airport. You won't find much better places to live in Prague if you count all pros and cons. Biggest disadvantage is only the price...it tends to be more expensive comparing to other parts of Prague.
It's nice to see a foreigner who actually experienced living in a apartment block talking about them, they might look depressing at first sight but they're actually safe and in the case of the communist era neighborhoods very well planned (public transport, nearby shops, local school etc.) For most of my life i have lived in the Žižkov neighborhood, two different buildings but close to each other, few years ago we moved to the Řepy neighborhood and im quite happy living here, everything is so close even on foot : - 2 min to a bus stop where i can go to line 164 (local line) or 225 (8min bus to ride to Metro B or 15min bus ride to Metro A) - 3 min to Chinese Restaurant, Elementary school, grocery store and a health center. - 5 min to the local shopping center - 6 min to the tram stop (line 9, 10, 16) from where i can go to the city center in under 20mins - 7 min to bus stop where i can take like 180 and go to Zličín shopping center (Metro B) or Dejvická (metro line C) Sorry for the exhaustive list but might give insight into how everything is so accesible even without a car even tho Řepy is pretty much on the edge of Prague (two steps and you're out) Btw, forgot the most important commute time : 30mins to the pub where we meet with friends.
You have almost completely become a local, kudos! One of the last hurdles before you become a total local is that you start referring to metro lines not by their color but by their letter :D
Again very, very good video from you. I enjoy that completely different apporach of yours so much. It is a year old, are you still there - do you still like living in CZ / Prague?
Greetings from Poland :) another interesting video! In our country we have panelaks as well. It is called "wielka płyta". There are also colorful like those in Prague. One nice thing about those old residental areas is that there are quite well planed. Block are not to close to each other and there are some green areas, schools, kindergarten, shops etc. There was a bigger plan. I cannot say the same about the modern block of flats. I am wondering if you have the same problem in your country? :)
Hello Wojciech. I was travelling in Poland in Gdansk and there I saw probably the biggest complex of panelaky in my life :) Like 300 meters long? Must be crazy to send letters there :D How do you see it?
Great video. Very informative. We were there Oct '23 and now I'm a total Czech-0-phile. My Ancestors were/are Moravian. You should pan while you're walking so we can see what you see, instead of just your face.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 The main purpose was insulation, because before 1989 there was a great shortage of consumer goods, but they were very cheap energy. So no one cared how much the heating cost. That has changed. But in a way, you are right, even with that effort to express freedom. Renovations, which included thermal insulation of the building, were no longer done by the state (or the municipality), but by private owners who bought apartments from the state. And yes, they wanted the house to be happier, nicer ... I remember the debate in the owners' association, what color should our house be like :-)
@@kristynaberankova2703 many of those panels aready have polysteren layer inside, so it is actually very often just something to take money from EU grants and make it colorful :-)
Hůrka isn't a common czech word. It could be a name, however the only example of using it that I know is the translation of Wuthering Heights - Na větrné hůrce (probably something like On the windy hill). As far as paneláky were mentioned, one of my teachers (AUS) called them prefabs.
@@Richard-Vlk Btw., "horka" is another variant of the word "hůrka". Plural form can be "hůrky" or "horka" ("V Horkách" is a street name in Nusle), which can denote a hilly landscape. Originally, the word "gora" meant a forested hill, "horka" could also mean a grove or forest. "Horka" is also a homonym of "heat(s)", but this meaning has quite different ethymology, related to "hořký" (bitter).
I am half Czech American and still have cousins in Prague. I was there in May 1992 when I was 16 on exchange to Germany. My brother went to the University of Economics in Prague for a semester on exchange. My relatives fought against the Nazis in the Resistance and hid Allied pilots in their house in Hradiste Czech Republic and it is a National Monument because the Resistance operated out of it and there is a Memorial. My grandfather was in Bratsky Vestnik and knew Czechoslovakian President Edward Benes.
Beautiful video as always. I don’t really like the panel’s house because I am Cuban and we have some of them in there and look ugly to me but I have to said that I am being in those in praga and they very different inside anyway so thank you for your videos
6:30 HEy were you a student at the Threshold school???? I lived in the VERY SAME APARTMENT, with the record covers on the wall! I shared probably the very same room you did! It belonged to Jitka and Ladislav!!!!
Hi, very nice video. We are currently almost neighbors, I live in Kunratice. I also know the Kačerov metro station, Karlín, I worked there near Invalidovna, I am currently working in Karlín again in new office buildings near Florenc. In the past I worked at Vinohradská and then at Stodůlky, I walked to Hůrka after work to just walk after 6 hours sitting in the office. I have been in Prague for 14 years, but I have only moved once. I started in Opatov in "panelák" and now I live in the attic of a family house with a very quiet neighborhood. "Paneláky" are probably the worst housing I know. Annoying and noisy neighbors, I wouldn't even call some people.
I live about 100m from Kačerov metro and recently it feels like everyone moved in to this area :-D The big advantage of this specific place is that there is a dense jungle-like forest and several beautiful private commercial ponds two streets away.
I lived in Prague from 2007 till 2016. At different places, including noisy panelak at Barrandov, rather quiet Zelena street in Dejvice, another panelak (but with stunning view) at Semicka street, Modrany; very “alive” rooftop flat at Jezkova street, Zizkov and finaly my most favourite newly constructed and rather perfect flat at Prazska street in Hostivar. Next time, try to spend some time and Orechovka, Troja, Sterboholy, Barrandov or Jizni mesto - you’ll get yet another Prague experience… Take care & stay #negative
You lived in svitavy, cool.. Did you ever meet Adam Sodomka the Saxaphonist and tattoo guy, fantastic musician... I live by the old factory in Holesovice that built many of the panelling for the Panelak buildings, can give you a tour if you so wish.
Very accurate! I just moved from Podolí (near Krč) to the city center (Žižkov) and want to move back due to the noise, smell, air pollution and rent price!
Good video but I have to say I live in Karlín, on the exact street you walked along and the noise is not that bad. During the night it is completely silent and I live on the ground floor.
nice video as always! i don't live in prague but i have been living there 17. i have my favourite places there. i also incline to nové butovice, hůrka, lužiny. i like overall dispozition, i like nature here, very good connection, very good for shopping, there are gyms etc. but i have a lot of favourite neighborhood. every has its own spirit and pros. cons are quite subjective, sometime is something advantage for one and disadvantage for other one. everybody has his priorities and purpose where to live, if there are not other limitations. your knowledge of prague is remarkable and over the standard of most of foreigners. i can see my younger self which was also curious and always ready for another life lesson. good luck on your journey! btw i am not sure or i forgot it, what about some info about your yt channel name? not neccessary video dedicated only to this but just few centenses as part of any video...
Hello, great video to watch for a citizen of Prague like me 🙃 BTW The "Panelaky" are now painted in colours not because of a sign of freedom after comunism era but just because people think it is just more nice and not so grey and old-fashioned 👍
Good and interesting being a bit away from the youtubers Charles bridge or astronomical clock. Still, an idea: Would be nice and so much easier to follow if you made a map, or at least more a description added to your videos. "Budéjovická "red line, south of Vysherad". I guess not everyone coming here knows those places. (And don´t get me wrong but another guy coming here from abroad saying "nobody knows about" LOL) Keep up the good work!
Good point, I sort of assume that my audience is mostly Czech and know what I'm talking about when I mention these places...but I'll think about adding a map next time :)
@@Bo-tz4nw Actually, surprisingly enough, my RUclips analytics tell me that around 75% of my viewers are Czech. Seems unlikely, I know, but that's the truth.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 I would tend to believe that. We Czechs want to hear what others think about us, about our culture etc. It is interesting to see ourselves through the eyes of the foreigner and compare that with our own views.
Hey, @skeletonkeysprague21 thank you for your videos. I have watched every video with my girlfriend. We found I very refreshing and honest about Prague and people here. We just wondering are you still in Prague, Krč ?
Nice talking. If I should recommend two districts which are nice in my opinion; one is Strašnice (right side of Vltava) and the second Jinonice (left side of Vltava). Both are very green, calm, with low criminality but you are close to the city center, not like in Černý Most or Zličín. Jinonice is more like village although it is changing.
I'm looking forward to the work about Svitavy! I studied in the nearby town of Litomyšl and we went to Svitavy for "kalby" (parties). Svitavy paid for a rougher town than the sleek cultural Litomyšl. There was higher crime and it had its own drug scene. But they have their charm
Hi, Brendan, Ondřej here, the local. Of course you have words in english with three consonants within... like "awkward" (wkw)... As you know, the trams are operated in Prague since 1875. (Horse driven tram). But in 1960, the tram network was at its best coverage of all Prauge. But the communists wanted to get rid of trams, because they have been building a metro from late 1960's.) On many places, the tram was cancelled and it returned there. But the most "affected" Prague parts by the cancellation of tramways, where the track never returned, are 1) city center (Muzeum, Můstek, Na Příkopě) and 2) southeast part of Prague, like Ryšánka, Kačerov, Pankrác and Budějovická.' So the public transportation coverage of your flat is great thanks to the buses, but it could had been better, if the trams would had been operated there nowadays. Oh my, the tunnels, they look nice during days, but at nights I am sure there happen all the things you don't want to experience. In similar tunnel, Simona Monyová (czech writer) was assassinated by her jealous husband... Yeah, the paneláky were coloured after the communism fell... It means 1990 onwards. Stodůlky = little barns. Hůrka = little mountain. You should visit a Prague quarter called "Strašnice". A lot of greenery, much more than all places you have lived in Prague... Brendan, you closed the "project" of your Twich TV channel, where you were supposed to play every Sunday from 6PM to 10PM? Or did I miss 3 episodes, because they were postponed / moved to other date?
Hi Ondřej, yes, I stopped the Twitch streams because it was too much work to get the technology working, and I would have needed to spend a lot of money to get the right hardware to make it work properly. Plus, it was my friend's idea originally, and I'm not really a gamer myself so it didn't feel as authentic as I like to be.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 Thanks! Also wanted to ask you if Praha 4 felt like a major metropolitan area with tons of concrete buildings-or-does it have lots of trees, grass, open space, parks, etc. that give it more of a suburban look and feel? That's kinda what I'm looking for. Edit: Also, does Praha 4 feel crowded with people packed together like sardines? Or does it have a more suburb type of feel (like we are used to in the U.S.)?
Generally, public transport should cover all inhabited places, so no one needs a car unless he lives in a deserted solitude in the mountains. Prague 4 is a large area, so even there are places where you have a bus stop in front of the house, but also places where the walking distance is a kilometer. It also depends on whether you mean the "small" Prague 4 (only the self-governing city district) or the "big" Prague 4 (one of the 10 formal districts).
@@breznik1197 I guess I'm trying to figure out if there are "suburb" type areas in Prague 4 (quasi-similar to stereotypical American suburbs) or does the majority of Prague 4 (and entirety of Prague for that matter) have a more urban feel (with lots of buildings/etc) that's similar to Chicago?
@@tonyd7644 Real "suburbs" merged with Prague in the 1920s. Some of the villages and towns joined in the 1970s still retain some of their original village or small-town atmosphere (Zbraslav, Radotín, Horní Počernice) but from a transport point of view, Prague and its surroundings form a continuous complex. Many people don't even perceive the exact boundaries between neighborhoods - Nusle, Michle, Krč follow each other smoothly. Inside the neighborhoods there are various units, areas of family houses or areas of prefabricated panel houses, but I don't know whether any area could be compared to the Chicago suburbs. And nearby towns outside of Prague (Roztoky, Říčany, Brandýs, Kladno etc.) have their own identity too strong to be considered just suburbs. Gypsy quarters tend to have a specific character in Czechia, but they are not very significant in Prague - maybe, upper part of Koněvova street in Žižkov, but it is not some "no go zone".
Ano, Kačerov přestup z autobusu 193 (?) na metro C při vycházce během základní vojenské služby v Praze Kunraticích v (nyní již neexistujících) kasárnách nad rybníkem Šeberákem kolem roku 1989.
Life in communistic "paneláky" is actually pretty good, mostly people who never lived there hate it. You have hot water and heating water directly from heat plant etc...you don't have to care about anything and you have plenty of trees and other green places and ofcourse plenty of space which is something what people really don't have in center or in modern housing estates built by today developers. Also, kids have where to play there. And you really can't compare Czechoslovak and Soviet panel buildings, our are much better, soviets built some their poor paneláks here in their places where soviet army lived, but most of them are destroyed now, it just can't pass thru our safety regulations and laws and it can't be even easily reconstructed, it's just soviet way of construction, our paneláks at least respected some apartment building tradition inside, it's very different than paneláks in former USSR. BTW, you have many vowel less words in English, I think native English speakers just don't realize that, Krč is not more weird to pronounce than squirrel, English speakers compare only writting, but they absolutely forget about how it is pronounced, in English, many words are only written with vowels but they don't actually pronounce them. You see squirrel, I see SQRL :-D PS: train stop at Kačerova is new, it's there only few years, in the past, there was just locked metal door in underpasss with milions plates "no entry" :-D BTW2: Metro station is planned, there will be new metro line D near.
Well, i lived in south of Czech and not during communism, but still is generally the same crap (however the houses are fixed already and majority of apartments undergone significant reconstruction). I really have kinda bad memories of it.
@@scaramaxxx There are some bad known places like housing estate Máj in České Budějovice, in Prague it's really very different, also type of buildings is different, when I was in panel house in Neratovice, I was really shocked by small they have rooms and halls, I never saw such terrible panel building in Prague, it was more like soviet style. But panelák has one big advatage, almost all inside walls are just filling walls, it doesn't hold building, so you can remove them and change shape of rooms, which is big advantage over classic apartment buildings. I lived in old "činžáky" from 19th century and in many other types of buildings and paneláks were one of the best, I think the best was smaller communistic apartment building from 50s or 60s, only problem was unfriendly neighbors. Very good apartment buildings are also from first rebublic, but it very depends for whom it was constructed, you had rich and very poor people in that time, apartment where my grandparents live has even little room for maid so it was probably very luxury apartment.
@@Pidalin Can not confirm none of that. Maj is known ot be bad because of gypsies, not the housing - the buldings were cunstructed in 1988/9, it was the last vawe. The dispositions were similar all across. There are some exceptions (like some in Letnany with larger floor space), but anyway, still the same issue: low ceilings, dry air, poor noise insulation, poor overall insulation, dispositions. The part with majority of filling walls is interesting, however not true either.
I wouldn´t say that those pastel colours are symbolising something like freedom, most of them even they are renovated aren´t even in pastel colours. Of course they are not just grey now, but that colorfull is not a typical example ;)
Unfortunately, many of them looked better before "renovation" :-D maybe it's surprise for someone, but many of those paneláks had some art or decoration elements, long bar windows, etc...which were lost under tons of polystyren. I am not saying it was something extra pretty before, but put 20 cm of colorful polystyren doesn't look always better. Actually it's very refreshing see renovated panelák to original state + little modern improvement, it can look good. BTW, it was originaly more white then grey, grey is what we see after many years. This is how it should look after decent reconstruction. cdn.xsd.cz/original/c4996bd7974e3e1895275b43f29465d5.jpg
thats cool, i just moved to hurka, for an internship in prague. i liked it ok, but was a bit creeped out by the olden comunist vibe there was at night, witch was yesterday actualy. but nice to know you can get used to it. its a flatshare, and i was all alone here the first night, i think that was made it creepy. great channel btw. how old were you, when you moved here for the first time?
Thank you. That vibe was exactly what I liked about Hurka. As an American, it felt kind of exotic for me, but I never felt like I was in any danger or anything, because I’ve long since accepted that Prague is one of the safest cities in the world. And I moved to Prague about 2 years ago, at the age of 30.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 I've lived in multiple locations in Prague and Hurka/Luziny is hands down the best location for cheap living in traditional blocks of flats. It's tidy, amenities nearby, metro, central park with lake, plenty of parking spots, good for cycling outside of Prague, modern hospital Motol.
Hi, Skeleton Keys Prague..., Excellent video and very informative and "Thank you" for sharing the video ! ! You my friend..., have answered a question, that I have asked myself many times... * "Should I move to Prague ?" ..., because America has become so expensive and the ( cost-of-living ) has gone through the roof and is unaffordable for everything. I mean everything... Raising rent and going to the grocery store is a nightmare in the United States... My answer is..., "I will ( NOT ) be moving to Prague." * Looks like Southeast Asia.., (e.g., Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. ) Once again..., excellent video and very informative. "Semper Fi" Mike in Montana P.S.: The beauty of Southeast Asia and the ( low-cost-of-living ), including rent and the beautiful young ladies, including the delicious food options and cost of food ( grocery store, restaurants, and street food ) are the major factors in my decision on Southeast Asia... There is a ( big difference ) between Prague, the Czech Republic and the United States, and Southeast Asia... * Anthony Bourdain said.., "Vietnam has the best street food in the world." We all miss him and I most certainly do..., "RIP". :)
I am shocked to see such deserted streets! Where are the passersby? If the streets are that empty and deserted in this nice weather, they must look completely abandoned in winter! Ugh!!!
About facades, there was like one type of facade available during communist era - brizolit and it was used almost on everything, even some older panel houses, or they tried to mimic it at leas, up to certain time, then they had changed to plain concrete (perhaps during slow economic collapse during 80's). Despite attempts to colour this substance or even concrete itself, pigments used were dull and result was not good. As a child I have lived in one such building that was about 20 years old at the end of 90's. While school building with very old facade in "kaisergelb" had still quite intense colour despite all soot and dirt, colours on modern buildings just across street were already faded. So after fall of communist regime Czechs became crazy about coloured houses.
Greetings neighbour from Krč. You are obviously a very intelligent and perceptive guy. The video is excellent as always. Thank you and please keep on going :-)
Thank you very much for your kind words!
@@skeletonkeysprague21 Hey, read my comments!
I am impressed. This is the first video from an expat that realistically describes living in Prague, that I have ever seen. :-) "Panelaks" are quite nice living. Warm, clean and when it is close to the subway, there is nothing to deal with. Sometime in the late 90s, as a teenager, I met a girl with a huge backpack in front of our house. She said she was from Colombia and was looking for her guesthouse. I knew what the problem was. She wasn't the first. There was probably a map error somewhere, probably from a travel agent. The guest house was a few stops closer to the center. I told her I would take her there because there were tears in her eyes. And at one point she looked around and asked, "Are we safe?" This surprised me a lot, because Prague is generally a very safe city. And "panelaks neighborhoods" are even safer than the center. :-)
Thank you, interesting story. It's not surprising to me at all, given the stereotypes and misconceptions that I had when I arrived here.
Typing from a panelák... As someone who has lived in a panelák for 26 years (and continuing to do so) I really, really dislike when czech people are praising obvious failures and inconveniences. This is a tipical czech thing to do. Living in a panelák is not "good living", only someone who hasn't tried living elsewhere could say that. Honestly it's kind of sad that many Czechs are so used to paneláks that they consider them as a good place to live in. Unfortunately the buildings cannot be separated from the sad times they were build in and I persinally think building them was a insult to decency and human dignity. Not only those buildings look really unattractive from the outside but inside it's not much better: low ceiling, toilet without windows, and you can hear everything your neighbour is doing (legend says the communists build them on purpose like that so that people could spy on each other :)
My friends say old houses closer to the city center have actually bigger walls (were built that way for heat retention) which help reduce the noise from neighbors. Overall in paneláks there is less noise from the outside, sure, but that's because of the low population density and traffic in a czech sídliště. I can hear my neighbors talk, laugh, having a shower, flush the toilet, watch TV, walk around the apartment.. unless they tip toe which is something sadly one must quickly learn when living in a panelák. All those little things limit your freedom and it's quite depressing if you realize you don't have the opportunity to move elsewhere. Regarding safety, I certainly disagree that here it's much safer than the city center. There are plenty of wierd, mentally ill or drug addicted people roaming around the metro station every day, which is usual to see in lower income neighborhoods like this.
I'm not hating my country or anything like that and I understand that in the 80's people needed somewhere to live and that's okay, but I personally can't wait to move from my panelák to a much nicer place. I just with people were a little more honest about the situation of some neighborhoods of Prague. There are certainly much better places to live than Stodůlky :)
Good job with your video. Keep it up :) I always enjoy your fresh takes on Prague and czech people :)
@@ZoldarMusic People are different. I grew up in panelak, now I live in an old family house in Prague. It's nice to have a garden, but right now, in early September, I'm running an electric heater. And the heat in the large bathroom with high ceilings escapes my heat. I fondly remember our warm little bathroom without a window in panelak. :-) My parents have a comfortable warmth in the panelak now even without heating. I'm not saying it's ideal living. I guess we can all imagine a luxurious new villa in Ořechovka. But really, it's not a bad place to live. It has its advantages and disadvantages.
@@kristynaberankova2703 Velmi hezky komentar, mate ve vsem pravdu. More sestra bydli na sidlisti Dablice
uz 50!let v koupenem druzstevnim byte a jsou tam spokojeni. Byt je velmi hezky, I kdyz ma mensi mistnosti bez balkonu, je slunny a maji vytah. Pred par lety postavili dokonce ted Metro.
Compliment on your amazing English. May I ask where and how long you had learned it? It amazes me every time how many Czech and Slowak people here in the comments are almost perfect in the written English language, 💝
Pozdravy from an expat born in Prag 4 Michle
@@danielahoti4109 It's funny, I'm also originally from Ďáblice. :-) I started learning English in high school, but like everyone else, I improved thanks to the internet. (And on the other hand, I lost most of my German :-)) Anyway thank you.
You have the best pronunciation of Czech words I have heard from non-native speaker. Words like Krč, Česká Pošta, or Žižkov are usually pretty hard for foreigns to pronounce, but your pronunciation is spot on. PS: Hůrka is a small Hora ( small mountain ). It is more of a dialect, or poetic way of saying "small mountain" rather than proper Czech. Another good vid !
I go through Kačerov every morning - will definitely check out the Balkan cheese and the farm eggs... thank you! BTW, after the vote for Brexit I sold my 4 bedroom house with garden in the UK, moved to Prague and bought a flat in a panelák. I've never been happier!
wow, that is exactly the life we all wanna get from here, that is really touching to read that. (ofc i mean its not so hot, but a little house with garden and a grill would be really nice).... people always look for what they dont have.
It is quite surreal experience to watch an expat giving tour of your periphery neighborhood in english like in some National Geographic documentary. 🙂 Thank you.
I’m glad you enjoyed it :))
'Many Czech-Americans who live in America for over 50 years want to come back to Czechia and retire in Czechia with an option to return to the US for vacations. This is a great video to get idea how to live in Prague (and close to Prague) and start to feel at home again
This is such a great video. I’m from New Zealand and likely moving to Prague with my partner who’s polish around June this year, so it’s great to see the different areas to live! Thank you
Hi, why do you want to move to the Czech Republic? Many people say that New Zealand is the best country in the world and a paradise on earth and dream of moving there
Great tour around the Prague. I am native Czech living in Prague for more than 5 years and your review might come handy in the future. You're killing the pronounciation of the neighborhoods and services. Great stuff!
So great to see all these neighborhoods in Prague!! Thank you for your intelligent and articulate tour of where and how to live in Prague...
This was a very interesting insight. I've been living in Prague for more than 10 years but I've never even been to most of the places you mentioned :-D For me, the best places to live in Prague are Vinohrady and Zizkov - they are very lively districts with great transportation options (frequent trams, metro, and the city center is easily reachable on foot), lots of green areas (Riegerovy sady, Parukarka, Vitkov...), the houses are old but very well maintained and the rents are reasonable.
Moving to Prague next year. Your channel is golden
My wife Sara and I lived in Prague from 2010-2013 and have been vising Prague every year since 1990 til 2019. Based on that experience, I think we experience the best quality living in Vinohrady, Zizkov, Bubenec and Modrany.
panelaky changed color because there is an insulation put on them and you have to paint them some color. And any color looks better than gray. Some are just a bit yellow or so, not every one is so rainbow colored :)
In the Lord of the rings, there is a town called Bree, which in czech translation is also called Hůrka.
The novel Wuthering Heights is translated as Větrná hůrka.
I lived in Prague for 2 years, I also lived in many places and I took the public transport to almost all neighborhoods, so I'm familiar with all or Prague. It makes me so happy that you experience that as well!
I've lived in panelák most of my life, 10 minute bus ride from Kačerov. I can't say I particularly enjoy it but I know it could be worse. Funny thing is that when my mother married an Englishman he freaked out regarding the "safety" in that area and had a thick safety door installed immediately. He never realized Czech paneláky are totally different from what he knows from growing up in London suburbs.
Thanks for this vlog. Very interesting observations. The format of your vlogs is great, too. You are a natural as a narrator and your tours are adding a dimension to the experience. Don't change a thing!
I was hoping you'd make it to the left bank of Vltava, so thank you for the Hurka segment! My foreign wife loved living at Nove Butovice and hiking in Prokopske udoli, before we moved to Andel. She didn't complain there either. For me as a native, all places have some familiarity. The colors on panelaky always remind me of bee hives with their colors helping the bees to find their way home. Like a drunken 'trubec' finding his way home from a pub. I cannot escape that association, .
Thank you Paul (should I call you Paul or Pavel?). Glad to hear you like the format. Yes, living in and around Stodulky was actually really wonderful, and it felt like my most authentic experience of Prague. I would live there again, and I probably will once my current situation isn’t an option anymore.
And funny story. When a guy from England found out that panelaka were actually a safe neighborhood, he told me it would be great to buy an apartment here. Rent him, fly to Prague for parties ... I told him: go on. The price of the studio (25 square meters) begins (at 3.5 million, that is 138 000 euros). For some reason, he thought that apartments in panelaks are cheap. :-)
A garden shed in Prague would not be cheap... :))
The reason probably was that equivalent apartment in England, not speaking of London, would be much more expensive....
@@conceptalfa England is a broad concept. :-) If it is not possible to find an apartment 25 square meters in the whole of England for about 118460 pounds, it is difficult to say (I found many of them :-). The point is that he thought that an apartment in a block of flats in Prague would be cheap. Which it is not.
@@kristynaberankova2703 am not that familiar with England but heared living there is very expensive, maybe that's why the english guy thought this was "cheap" .....who knows....
As an expat, your videos are giving me so much ideas and point of views. I'm learning so many from you, thanx..
Hi Brendan, paneláky are not the Czech or Soviet invention. The first panelak was built in the Netherlands after the Great War. This idea was later used by Le Corbusier, when the French government asked him to built a large block of flats in Marseille in 1946 to solve the lack of appartments after the WW2. Such block of flats were built later in Paris or Sweden, too, but they soon become a ghetto as many immigrants moved in.
This is not the case in the CR. Věra Chytilová, the famous Czech movie director, made a film Panelstory about their construction in 1980s.
And their quality differs - the older the better. The first ones from the 1960s were built on the architect' s design, later they begun to save materials and space so the ones from the 1980s are usually much worse.
I agree. I saw panelaky all over France and in west Berlin and I think people are complaining about them, because they think they are only east thing. One plus for panelaky is they were urban planed, so there is access to public transport, shops and free time activities. It's so much more comfortable than new satellite towns around Prague.
It's interesting for a person born in Prague to watch this. You've explored a lot of pretty weird places. I would never choose any of those neighbourhoods you lived, but I went to highschool in Hurka... I do not live in Prague anymore but in a nearby city of Cernosice which is really green and still 15-30 min from Prague.
I lived in that very same flat you did in 2022. The very same year you posted this video. The place is great. You have everything you need nearby. I rarely went to city centre,
I belive those panel houses were painted different colors mainly for differentiation (you could get lost pretty easily when everything looked the same) and also to break one monotonous gray color. Also, in Karlin there are many new buildings around simply because there were big floods in 2002 and whole area was damaged, some older buildings had to be torn down.
Oof feeling the nostalgia again! I lived in Krc near the Budejovicka metro for the first year, then moved to Vinohrady after I got a pay raise at the company I worked at...panelaks are not much to look at, but pretty nice inside. Indeed lots of expats in Vinohrady, but lots of bars, cafe's and restaurants and loved going out with my friends within close walking distance from my apartment.
Great vid, and very refreshing comments! I also jumped to a few different flats when I lived in Praha. My TEFL school assigned me to a pretty bleak one in industrial Vysočany, where I lived across from a noisy de-construction site focusing on taking down a World War II-era factory of some sort. (On the other hand, I had no TV there, so when I was not drawing up English lesson plans, watching the crew work *was* my entertainment.) My second flat (this time with four roommates) was in Nusle -- a down-at-heel neighborhood with beautiful Art Nouveau bones that will one day be a chic-yet-affordable Place to Be. But my fave apartment was in Prague 10, in a beautifully updated flat located in a 100-year-old building, just a few tram stops away from intimate Ďolíček Stadion. (Where I'd highly recommend taking in a couple football games. Go, Bohemians 1905!)
I do wish I had been able to rent in a panelák. I did a story for an English-language, Czech family-owned business magazine about paneláky, and visited a few as part of the research process. You're right: Although they look kind of Cabrini-Green-esque from the outside, they are quite pleasant inside. During communism, they were considered great places to live, because they were quite new, compared to aging flats in many of the older neighborhoods.
So many cool places to live in Prague! Kind of makes me want to move again :))
BOHEMIANS 1905 DO TOHO
Oops.. You might be mistaken about panelaky flats before 1989. They were not considered to be a great place to live.
@@caroline4323 nowadays though, they can provide very comfortable live conditions
@@radish9261 Yeh, sure. I would not mind, but back then, those were "králíkárny", and "sídliště" wasn´t exactly a good address to have. It was a necessity, def not a choice.
What I first loved about Prague (apart from my wife of course!) was the fact that all districts were an interesting mix of people - any given panelák would be home to doctors, labourers, lawyers, artists, teachers, young and old... Now it's being divided up into distinct areas: English-speaking ex-pats go to Žížkov or Vinohrady, hipsters live in Karlín, etc. It seems like a shame to me.
Panelaky were built mainly because of lack of any accomondation in Prague. It was basically masively produces Lego. There's always been problem with not enough apartmens which goes all the way back to Austria Hungary era. Panelaky solved the problem, at least for a while.
I can recomend Sídliště Ďáblice. It's really neat place. It was built during 60s and 70s. Buildings there were actually designed by great czech architects and urbanists. It is on the hill in the north of Prague so there are great views on the city from the flat. There are huge entrance halls in every building with sculpture or mosaic. There are not any streets which goes through the place. Instead there is a huge park with nazi shooting range memorial. Entire district is barier free, so you don't have to use any stairs, all is in one level. The buldings are on pilons so there are passages through them so you don't have to go around them. Unfortunately in the 90s and 00s many of those art things were destroyed and buildings were covered covered under polystyren with random color on top of it. There was nice stone cladding around the entrance door which was unfortunately destroyed. Fortunatelly nowadays new reconstructions are made much better with better materials and they are finally designed by proffesionals.
Great recommendation, I'll check it out! Thank you.
I used to live in Luziny for a couple of years - the best time of my childhood life!
In my opinion, best places to live in Prague can be found in Prague 6. Bořislavka, Veleslavín, Dejvice, Břevnov, Liboc, Petřiny, Hanspaulka and every other place there is just exceptional. Prague 6 is probably the cleanest, safest and most beautiful area to live in. You have parks and forests all around, its takes about 6-15 min by metro to city centre and its very close to an airport. You won't find much better places to live in Prague if you count all pros and cons. Biggest disadvantage is only the price...it tends to be more expensive comparing to other parts of Prague.
I lived there for like 12 years, then moved to Zizkov this summer and was back to Dejvice in 6 months lol
It's nice to see a foreigner who actually experienced living in a apartment block talking about them, they might look depressing at first sight but they're actually safe and in the case of the communist era neighborhoods very well planned (public transport, nearby shops, local school etc.)
For most of my life i have lived in the Žižkov neighborhood, two different buildings but close to each other, few years ago we moved to the Řepy neighborhood and im quite happy living here, everything is so close even on foot :
- 2 min to a bus stop where i can go to line 164 (local line) or 225 (8min bus to ride to Metro B or 15min bus ride to Metro A)
- 3 min to Chinese Restaurant, Elementary school, grocery store and a health center.
- 5 min to the local shopping center
- 6 min to the tram stop (line 9, 10, 16) from where i can go to the city center in under 20mins
- 7 min to bus stop where i can take like 180 and go to Zličín shopping center (Metro B) or Dejvická (metro line C)
Sorry for the exhaustive list but might give insight into how everything is so accesible even without a car even tho Řepy is pretty much on the edge of Prague (two steps and you're out)
Btw, forgot the most important commute time : 30mins to the pub where we meet with friends.
You have almost completely become a local, kudos! One of the last hurdles before you become a total local is that you start referring to metro lines not by their color but by their letter :D
Yes, Hůrka means a small hill, more precisely a small mountain (Hora - Hůrka). :-)
Glad to hear my guess was correct :)
I’ve been living in Lužny, so I’m familiar with this area. I’m not native in Czech so your description in English makes me enjoyable, Díky !
Again very, very good video from you. I enjoy that completely different apporach of yours so much.
It is a year old, are you still there - do you still like living in CZ / Prague?
Greetings from Poland :) another interesting video! In our country we have panelaks as well. It is called "wielka płyta". There are also colorful like those in Prague. One nice thing about those old residental areas is that there are quite well planed. Block are not to close to each other and there are some green areas, schools, kindergarten, shops etc. There was a bigger plan. I cannot say the same about the modern block of flats.
I am wondering if you have the same problem in your country? :)
Hello Wojciech. I was travelling in Poland in Gdansk and there I saw probably the biggest complex of panelaky in my life :) Like 300 meters long? Must be crazy to send letters there :D How do you see it?
@@danielson_aard was it the one near the Kołobrzeska street, in Przymorze? That goes all the way to the beach?
@@eplv3432 Well, its already some years back, so dont recall where it was going, but huge uninterrupted line of panelaky in that street :)
Love this kind of video, it's so interesting to see the streets and places :)
So glad you enjoy my style :)
Do you have a newer channel exploring the place e your currently in?
I’m very much enjoying your Prague videos.
your right next to the busy road keep going i used to live on BAROVA STREET BUT NO BAR
Dude, you're doing very well, congratulations! Continuing to make videos as an expat with cultural differences comparison. Keep up your passion!
Love your videos!
Thank you!
You could sometimes visit the Vietnamese market SAPA. It's half hour by bus from Krč.
Several people have recommended this to me. I'll have to check it out, thank you!
Great video, really enjoyed visiting different, less known areas of Prague.
What a coincidence you lived in the VERY SAME flat I did while in Prague for one month doing the TESL at the Threshold School!!! Wow
Great video. Very informative. We were there Oct '23 and now I'm a total Czech-0-phile. My Ancestors were/are Moravian. You should pan while you're walking so we can see what you see, instead of just your face.
Yep. Panelaky were painted various colours after 1989.
Thank you for confirming!
@@skeletonkeysprague21 not so much to symbolize freedom, just a demand from locals to not have to look at ugly grey blocks :)
@@skeletonkeysprague21 The main purpose was insulation, because before 1989 there was a great shortage of consumer goods, but they were very cheap energy. So no one cared how much the heating cost. That has changed. But in a way, you are right, even with that effort to express freedom. Renovations, which included thermal insulation of the building, were no longer done by the state (or the municipality), but by private owners who bought apartments from the state. And yes, they wanted the house to be happier, nicer ... I remember the debate in the owners' association, what color should our house be like :-)
@@kristynaberankova2703 many of those panels aready have polysteren layer inside, so it is actually very often just something to take money from EU grants and make it colorful :-)
Hůrka isn't a common czech word. It could be a name, however the only example of using it that I know is the translation of Wuthering Heights - Na větrné hůrce (probably something like On the windy hill). As far as paneláky were mentioned, one of my teachers (AUS) called them prefabs.
Hůrka is an ancient czech word which went off common usage. But there are many hills with that name: cs.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hůrka
@@Richard-Vlk Yep. It could be a name, however no one would use it in the sentence otherwise.
@@Richard-Vlk Btw., "horka" is another variant of the word "hůrka". Plural form can be "hůrky" or "horka" ("V Horkách" is a street name in Nusle), which can denote a hilly landscape. Originally, the word "gora" meant a forested hill, "horka" could also mean a grove or forest.
"Horka" is also a homonym of "heat(s)", but this meaning has quite different ethymology, related to "hořký" (bitter).
Omg at 25:41 i can see the window of flat we moved to when I was nine 🥲
I am half Czech American and still have cousins in Prague. I was there in May 1992 when I was 16 on exchange to Germany. My brother went to the University of Economics in Prague for a semester on exchange. My relatives fought against the Nazis in the Resistance and hid Allied pilots in their house in Hradiste Czech Republic and it is a National Monument because the Resistance operated out of it and there is a Memorial. My grandfather was in Bratsky Vestnik and knew Czechoslovakian President Edward Benes.
I'm getting addicted to ur channel :)
I hope it’s a wholesome addiction. ;)
@@skeletonkeysprague21 i visited prague twice and it always been on my heart planing to go next year
Beautiful video as always. I don’t really like the panel’s house because I am Cuban and we have some of them in there and look ugly to me but I have to said that I am being in those in praga and they very different inside anyway so thank you for your videos
Thank you!
Ive been to this place many times. I lived in Zalesi. I miss Prague.
6:30 HEy were you a student at the Threshold school???? I lived in the VERY SAME APARTMENT, with the record covers on the wall! I shared probably the very same room you did! It belonged to Jitka and Ladislav!!!!
Hi, very nice video. We are currently almost neighbors, I live in Kunratice. I also know the Kačerov metro station, Karlín, I worked there near Invalidovna, I am currently working in Karlín again in new office buildings near Florenc. In the past I worked at Vinohradská and then at Stodůlky, I walked to Hůrka after work to just walk after 6 hours sitting in the office.
I have been in Prague for 14 years, but I have only moved once. I started in Opatov in "panelák" and now I live in the attic of a family house with a very quiet neighborhood.
"Paneláky" are probably the worst housing I know. Annoying and noisy neighbors, I wouldn't even call some people.
Thank you a lot for the video!!!
I live about 100m from Kačerov metro and recently it feels like everyone moved in to this area :-D The big advantage of this specific place is that there is a dense jungle-like forest and several beautiful private commercial ponds two streets away.
Another great episode!
I lived in Prague from 2007 till 2016. At different places, including noisy panelak at Barrandov, rather quiet Zelena street in Dejvice, another panelak (but with stunning view) at Semicka street, Modrany; very “alive” rooftop flat at Jezkova street, Zizkov and finaly my most favourite newly constructed and rather perfect flat at Prazska street in Hostivar. Next time, try to spend some time and Orechovka, Troja, Sterboholy, Barrandov or Jizni mesto - you’ll get yet another Prague experience… Take care & stay #negative
Thanks for the the recommendations. I'll need to move again next March or April, so it's nice to know about some other interesting neighborhoods.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 I do occasionally help my friends to find their new homes/flats, so maybe I could help you as well? If you’d like so 👍
You lived in svitavy, cool.. Did you ever meet Adam Sodomka the Saxaphonist and tattoo guy, fantastic musician... I live by the old factory in Holesovice that built many of the panelling for the Panelak buildings, can give you a tour if you so wish.
Never met him...but I'd love to take a tour of Holešovice! Hit me up on Instagram or Facebook.
I plan to come in a month or so, Is it a good time to come over ?
Very accurate! I just moved from Podolí (near Krč) to the city center (Žižkov) and want to move back due to the noise, smell, air pollution and rent price!
Good video but I have to say I live in Karlín, on the exact street you walked along and the noise is not that bad. During the night it is completely silent and I live on the ground floor.
nice video as always! i don't live in prague but i have been living there 17. i have my favourite places there. i also incline to nové butovice, hůrka, lužiny. i like overall dispozition, i like nature here, very good connection, very good for shopping, there are gyms etc. but i have a lot of favourite neighborhood. every has its own spirit and pros. cons are quite subjective, sometime is something advantage for one and disadvantage for other one. everybody has his priorities and purpose where to live, if there are not other limitations. your knowledge of prague is remarkable and over the standard of most of foreigners. i can see my younger self which was also curious and always ready for another life lesson. good luck on your journey! btw i am not sure or i forgot it, what about some info about your yt channel name? not neccessary video dedicated only to this but just few centenses as part of any video...
Hello, great video to watch for a citizen of Prague like me 🙃 BTW The "Panelaky" are now painted in colours not because of a sign of freedom after comunism era but just because people think it is just more nice and not so grey and old-fashioned 👍
Good and interesting being a bit away from the youtubers Charles bridge or astronomical clock.
Still, an idea: Would be nice and so much easier to follow if you made a map, or at least more a description added to your videos. "Budéjovická "red line, south of Vysherad".
I guess not everyone coming here knows those places.
(And don´t get me wrong but another guy coming here from abroad saying "nobody knows about" LOL)
Keep up the good work!
Good point, I sort of assume that my audience is mostly Czech and know what I'm talking about when I mention these places...but I'll think about adding a map next time :)
@@skeletonkeysprague21 No problem, but your viewers are mostly from abroad, probably not so much people living in Prague watching these videos....
@@Bo-tz4nw Actually, surprisingly enough, my RUclips analytics tell me that around 75% of my viewers are Czech. Seems unlikely, I know, but that's the truth.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 I would tend to believe that. We Czechs want to hear what others think about us, about our culture etc. It is interesting to see ourselves through the eyes of the foreigner and compare that with our own views.
Hey, @skeletonkeysprague21 thank you for your videos. I have watched every video with my girlfriend. We found I very refreshing and honest about Prague and people here. We just wondering are you still in Prague, Krč ?
Is prague safe for walks at night for woman? Love your videos!
Nice talking. If I should recommend two districts which are nice in my opinion; one is Strašnice (right side of Vltava) and the second Jinonice (left side of Vltava). Both are very green, calm, with low criminality but you are close to the city center, not like in Černý Most or Zličín. Jinonice is more like village although it is changing.
Will we get a new video? Please?
You make good points about noise
Balkan cheese is more close to bulgarian cheese then feta... and it is actually type of bulgarian cheese...
Did you leave Prague? It seems that all of your (excellent) videos are two years old. You were posting them regularly and then suddenly stopped.
I'm looking forward to the work about Svitavy! I studied in the nearby town of Litomyšl and we went to Svitavy for "kalby" (parties). Svitavy paid for a rougher town than the sleek cultural Litomyšl. There was higher crime and it had its own drug scene. But they have their charm
hahahahaha you got me with kalby
Thank you,great job !
Thank you!
Hi, Brendan,
Ondřej here, the local.
Of course you have words in english with three consonants within... like "awkward" (wkw)...
As you know, the trams are operated in Prague since 1875. (Horse driven tram). But in 1960, the tram network was at its best coverage of all Prauge. But the communists wanted to get rid of trams, because they have been building a metro from late 1960's.) On many places, the tram was cancelled and it returned there. But the most "affected" Prague parts by the cancellation of tramways, where the track never returned, are
1) city center (Muzeum, Můstek, Na Příkopě) and
2) southeast part of Prague, like Ryšánka, Kačerov, Pankrác and Budějovická.'
So the public transportation coverage of your flat is great thanks to the buses, but it could had been better, if the trams would had been operated there nowadays.
Oh my, the tunnels, they look nice during days, but at nights I am sure there happen all the things you don't want to experience. In similar tunnel, Simona Monyová (czech writer) was assassinated by her jealous husband...
Yeah, the paneláky were coloured after the communism fell... It means 1990 onwards.
Stodůlky = little barns.
Hůrka = little mountain.
You should visit a Prague quarter called "Strašnice". A lot of greenery, much more than all places you have lived in Prague...
Brendan, you closed the "project" of your Twich TV channel, where you were supposed to play every Sunday from 6PM to 10PM? Or did I miss 3 episodes, because they were postponed / moved to other date?
Hi Ondřej, yes, I stopped the Twitch streams because it was too much work to get the technology working, and I would have needed to spend a lot of money to get the right hardware to make it work properly. Plus, it was my friend's idea originally, and I'm not really a gamer myself so it didn't feel as authentic as I like to be.
Vinohrády forEVER.
Colors on Panelaky are moustly add by its renovation with colorfull termal isolation
near the hospital and branik and the pub in the woods
nice tour, thank you :-)
Thanks!
What Camera you using ?
It’s the Sony FDR X-3000.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 thank you
Is Krc located in Praha 4? And generally speaking is Praha 4 centrally located so that you don't need to buy a car?
Yes and yes.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 Thanks! Also wanted to ask you if Praha 4 felt like a major metropolitan area with tons of concrete buildings-or-does it have lots of trees, grass, open space, parks, etc. that give it more of a suburban look and feel? That's kinda what I'm looking for.
Edit: Also, does Praha 4 feel crowded with people packed together like sardines? Or does it have a more suburb type of feel (like we are used to in the U.S.)?
Generally, public transport should cover all inhabited places, so no one needs a car unless he lives in a deserted solitude in the mountains. Prague 4 is a large area, so even there are places where you have a bus stop in front of the house, but also places where the walking distance is a kilometer. It also depends on whether you mean the "small" Prague 4 (only the self-governing city district) or the "big" Prague 4 (one of the 10 formal districts).
@@breznik1197 I guess I'm trying to figure out if there are "suburb" type areas in Prague 4 (quasi-similar to stereotypical American suburbs) or does the majority of Prague 4 (and entirety of Prague for that matter) have a more urban feel (with lots of buildings/etc) that's similar to Chicago?
@@tonyd7644 Real "suburbs" merged with Prague in the 1920s. Some of the villages and towns joined in the 1970s still retain some of their original village or small-town atmosphere (Zbraslav, Radotín, Horní Počernice) but from a transport point of view, Prague and its surroundings form a continuous complex. Many people don't even perceive the exact boundaries between neighborhoods - Nusle, Michle, Krč follow each other smoothly. Inside the neighborhoods there are various units, areas of family houses or areas of prefabricated panel houses, but I don't know whether any area could be compared to the Chicago suburbs. And nearby towns outside of Prague (Roztoky, Říčany, Brandýs, Kladno etc.) have their own identity too strong to be considered just suburbs. Gypsy quarters tend to have a specific character in Czechia, but they are not very significant in Prague - maybe, upper part of Koněvova street in Žižkov, but it is not some "no go zone".
Ano, Kačerov přestup z autobusu 193 (?) na metro C při vycházce během základní vojenské služby v Praze Kunraticích v (nyní již neexistujících) kasárnách nad rybníkem Šeberákem kolem roku 1989.
Life in communistic "paneláky" is actually pretty good, mostly people who never lived there hate it. You have hot water and heating water directly from heat plant etc...you don't have to care about anything and you have plenty of trees and other green places and ofcourse plenty of space which is something what people really don't have in center or in modern housing estates built by today developers. Also, kids have where to play there.
And you really can't compare Czechoslovak and Soviet panel buildings, our are much better, soviets built some their poor paneláks here in their places where soviet army lived, but most of them are destroyed now, it just can't pass thru our safety regulations and laws and it can't be even easily reconstructed, it's just soviet way of construction, our paneláks at least respected some apartment building tradition inside, it's very different than paneláks in former USSR.
BTW, you have many vowel less words in English, I think native English speakers just don't realize that, Krč is not more weird to pronounce than squirrel, English speakers compare only writting, but they absolutely forget about how it is pronounced, in English, many words are only written with vowels but they don't actually pronounce them. You see squirrel, I see SQRL :-D
PS: train stop at Kačerova is new, it's there only few years, in the past, there was just locked metal door in underpasss with milions plates "no entry" :-D
BTW2: Metro station is planned, there will be new metro line D near.
I lived there and hate it...
@@scaramaxxx depends where exactly and in what time, today it's very different than in communism and in Prague it's different than in Ústí
Well, i lived in south of Czech and not during communism, but still is generally the same crap (however the houses are fixed already and majority of apartments undergone significant reconstruction). I really have kinda bad memories of it.
@@scaramaxxx There are some bad known places like housing estate Máj in České Budějovice, in Prague it's really very different, also type of buildings is different, when I was in panel house in Neratovice, I was really shocked by small they have rooms and halls, I never saw such terrible panel building in Prague, it was more like soviet style. But panelák has one big advatage, almost all inside walls are just filling walls, it doesn't hold building, so you can remove them and change shape of rooms, which is big advantage over classic apartment buildings. I lived in old "činžáky" from 19th century and in many other types of buildings and paneláks were one of the best, I think the best was smaller communistic apartment building from 50s or 60s, only problem was unfriendly neighbors.
Very good apartment buildings are also from first rebublic, but it very depends for whom it was constructed, you had rich and very poor people in that time, apartment where my grandparents live has even little room for maid so it was probably very luxury apartment.
@@Pidalin Can not confirm none of that. Maj is known ot be bad because of gypsies, not the housing - the buldings were cunstructed in 1988/9, it was the last vawe. The dispositions were similar all across. There are some exceptions (like some in Letnany with larger floor space), but anyway, still the same issue: low ceilings, dry air, poor noise insulation, poor overall insulation, dispositions. The part with majority of filling walls is interesting, however not true either.
I really like that you like that tunnel with graffiti cos I avoid those places' cos they shady :D
I don't blame you, but this particular one is pretty harmless, and fun to look at :)
This was mostly an official legal graffiti ordered by the administrator. :-)
Prague 6 is really nice.
Yeah, you are absolutely right, Hůrka means literally a little hill. ;)
Ben Davis!
Warren Central Grad here.
Great
This is first time I see somebudy from oversea to understand things he see. Also perfect english. I'm shocked that i can understand realy every word.
I wouldn´t say that those pastel colours are symbolising something like freedom, most of them even they are renovated aren´t even in pastel colours. Of course they are not just grey now, but that colorfull is not a typical example ;)
Unfortunately, many of them looked better before "renovation" :-D maybe it's surprise for someone, but many of those paneláks had some art or decoration elements, long bar windows, etc...which were lost under tons of polystyren. I am not saying it was something extra pretty before, but put 20 cm of colorful polystyren doesn't look always better. Actually it's very refreshing see renovated panelák to original state + little modern improvement, it can look good. BTW, it was originaly more white then grey, grey is what we see after many years. This is how it should look after decent reconstruction. cdn.xsd.cz/original/c4996bd7974e3e1895275b43f29465d5.jpg
thats cool, i just moved to hurka, for an internship in prague. i liked it ok, but was a bit creeped out by the olden comunist vibe there was at night, witch was yesterday actualy. but nice to know you can get used to it. its a flatshare, and i was all alone here the first night, i think that was made it creepy. great channel btw. how old were you, when you moved here for the first time?
Thank you. That vibe was exactly what I liked about Hurka. As an American, it felt kind of exotic for me, but I never felt like I was in any danger or anything, because I’ve long since accepted that Prague is one of the safest cities in the world.
And I moved to Prague about 2 years ago, at the age of 30.
@@skeletonkeysprague21 I've lived in multiple locations in Prague and Hurka/Luziny is hands down the best location for cheap living in traditional blocks of flats. It's tidy, amenities nearby, metro, central park with lake, plenty of parking spots, good for cycling outside of Prague, modern hospital Motol.
Hello Please, the name of the best place to live in Prague.
Hi, Skeleton Keys Prague..., Excellent video and very informative and "Thank you" for sharing the video ! ! You my friend..., have answered a question, that I have asked myself many times... * "Should I move to Prague ?" ..., because America has become so expensive and the ( cost-of-living ) has gone through the roof and is unaffordable for everything. I mean everything... Raising rent and going to the grocery store is a nightmare in the United States... My answer is..., "I will ( NOT ) be moving to Prague." * Looks like Southeast Asia.., (e.g., Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. ) Once again..., excellent video and very informative. "Semper Fi" Mike in Montana P.S.: The beauty of Southeast Asia and the ( low-cost-of-living ), including rent and the beautiful young ladies, including the delicious food options and cost of food ( grocery store, restaurants, and street food ) are the major factors in my decision on Southeast Asia... There is a ( big difference ) between Prague, the Czech Republic and the United States, and Southeast Asia... * Anthony Bourdain said.., "Vietnam has the best street food in the world." We all miss him and I most certainly do..., "RIP". :)
Great video❤️❤️❤️liked + subs❤️🙏❤️Thanks for sharing👍👍👍Greetings from Philippines 🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿
IMO nicest part of Prague for both EX-PAT’s and locals are Vinohrady Praha 2.
Except it's full of ex-pats. I suppose it depends what experience you're looking for.
Vinohrady Praha 3 and Vinohrady Praha 10 are not so nice? Vinohrady are divided to five districts. :-)
btw Kačerov = Kačer means duck male, female duck you say = Kachna ;)
I am shocked to see such deserted streets! Where are the passersby? If the streets are that empty and deserted in this nice weather, they must look completely abandoned in winter! Ugh!!!
Hurka means a small attic.
You prolly already know this tongue twister by now but if not, here goes: _'Strč prst skrz krk'_ \o/
About facades, there was like one type of facade available during communist era - brizolit and it was used almost on everything, even some older panel houses, or they tried to mimic it at leas, up to certain time, then they had changed to plain concrete (perhaps during slow economic collapse during 80's). Despite attempts to colour this substance or even concrete itself, pigments used were dull and result was not good. As a child I have lived in one such building that was about 20 years old at the end of 90's. While school building with very old facade in "kaisergelb" had still quite intense colour despite all soot and dirt, colours on modern buildings just across street were already faded. So after fall of communist regime Czechs became crazy about coloured houses.
The majority of Czechs do NOT live in panel buildings, you got it wrong.
Yeah, according to the 2018 statistics, only 27% of Czechs are living in "Panelaks"