prague metro roulette: invalidovna

so, i think i mostly have the general prague thing pretty under control by now. i adore a stroll over the charles bridge (at anytime of year! at anytime of day!) and a wander through the winding streets of old town, and i think i always will, but sometimes it’s time to get creative to really get to know the city outside of the fairy tale center.

enter: prague metro roulette. i choose a metro stop at random that i have either never gone to (or just once before) that i feel like i wouldn’t know the area above it if i was there. then, i go there, document it, and walk the neighborhood, getting to know the feel and the character of it a little better, whether aesthetically pleasing or not, exiting through the same metro tunnel from which i entered. it’s not about finding the beautiful, it’s just about knowing what’s there in a journalistic sense. the truth; what my camera lens picks up. i also am seeking to show readers what else prague is about besides just what you see in old town.

i have always been curious about that strange and mysterious pocket of prague between křižíkova

and vysočanska (where i had lived for a month during my TEFL course). the geography is quite strange: tall, green tree-covered hills breaking up the otherwise general flatness of the north-central area. riding a tram home to kolbenova street once had me completely baffled! which is why i chose invalidovna as my first metro roulette stop.

right after we exited, we found ourselves in the middle of a housing development, or

sídliště

in czech.

then, i turned west in the direction of a big pretty pink building and led me to a beautiful neighborhood park, called kaizlovy sady.

and what’s that through the trees? an absolutely stunning building? yes, i think i’ll head that way. (lovely hybešova street)

oh-ho… i spy another stunning building! i then found myself on lyčkovo náměsti. i marched up to the building to discover it was a základní škola (primary school). one should be so lucky to attend there!

cute little karlínská pivnice, a restaurant and brewery on a nearby corner was almost begging for a sit on the terrace! but, as dinner plans were already decided, forge onward we did.

spotted: human walking their dog wearing a full on two-tone onesie with hood. so, that happened.

next, looping back east again via sokolovska, i noticed a very large business park that seemed shiny and new, and a bit hip with fun sculptures sitting in pools near the entrances.