So for New Year’s we were in Prague in the Czech Republic. I (Chris) spent a semester on University exchange there 8 years ago so it was exciting to come back for the first time in so long and to show Larry around! But for now, we’re here to chat about how crazy Prague gets on New Year’s Eve! And we’ve got video to show you.
Czechs love their fireworks and from what we saw and were told by locals, there aren’t really any restrictions on their use. So to be in Prague for New Year’s Eve is an absolute firework lover’s dream!
People start shooting off fireworks from 4:30pm, pretty much as soon as the sun goes down. The whole night you’ll rarely get a break from seeing or hearing them popping off somewhere but unlike most cities, you can fire them off from literally ANYWHERE.
On streets, in squares, parks, on the river, everywhere.
People hold the fireworks themselves, not just roman candles and sparklers, but the large exploding ones as well! With the odd partaker shooting at buildings and even each other.
Midnight doesn’t really matter to be honest. They start going full blast in peak levels from 11:30 pm and relentlessly continues for an hour straight (Even though they still have a countdown at 12 which doesn’t seem to affect the firework levels).
The most crowded to areas for concentrated fireworks are in Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square and on Charles Bridge. But we were lucky enough to make some local friends at a bar and wound up following them to Riegrovy Sady Park, a park on a hill that overlooks the entire city allowing all attendees to see most of the city all at once, including being surrounded by a ton of fireworks that everyone had brought of their own accord.
The city literally exploded all around us to the point that it actually looked like it was on FIRE!
But seriously, it pretty much WAS.
Without your average western restrictions fireworks were left to fall over, exploding and bouncing along the ground into entire crowds, Chinese lanterns floated into and got stuck in trees, it was mania. Luckily we didn’t seem to witness or here of anyone being seriously hurt, but holy crap was it ever fun and absolutely incredible to watch.
Albeit we definitely had to keep an eye out for wayward fireworks meandering our way.
As a CITY organised fireworks, it wasn’t the biggest we’ve seen, HOWEVER, as a collective across the entire city, everyone doing their part to add to the inferno that is Prague on New Year’s Eve, it was by far the biggest show we’d ever witnessed.
And would you believe, they actually do it all again on New Year’s Day??
Watch a short clip of it below!
Have a great start to 2018 everyone!
Much Love,
Chris and Larry
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