Shopping

Hard de Core is an ideal place for interesting “souvenirs” from Prague, and heaven for those like me – who enjoy a salt shaker in the shape of a zeppelin or earrings that look more like light bulbs.

You can find here original Czech design in the form of fashion, accessories, ceramics, interior decorations, notebooks and jewelry. You find pieces by well-known names like Maxim Velčovský and there is also plenty of stuff from newly established designers and artists.

What they share is an unusual idea, originality, and cleverness in the final design. No matter what is it made of – porcelain, glass, metal, plastic or textile – you choose and your taste is the arbiter. Have a look at their gallery. But better is to go in yourselves.This shop is small in size but has some great things on offer. It is an art workshop, design studio and a boutique. Hard-de-Core also offers weekend art classes for adults and classes for kids from the age of 2.

I love photography and I try to reserve some of my time for it even now when school consumes practically all of it. Whenever I need anything related to this hobby, I can be sure to find it here.

FotoŠkoda is a unique place not only because of the building it is located in but mostly because of its conception – five floors full of photography – a huge store selling both new and used equipment and all kinds of material, repair service, studio, printing department and more services including photography courses and exhibitions. All of this under one roof and situated in the very centre of Prague – right by Wenceslas square.

Even though buying stuff online and having it shipped to our homes is a normal thing to do I still like to go into such stores where I can see the goods in real, try them out or ask the seller in person. The staff here is professional and really helpful, they were always nice to me even when I annoyed them with my questions for a half-hour and ended up not buying the product

If you run out of film, need a passport photo, your camera gets broken or you just want to buy some photography books, this is the place I recommend.

You will not only find bars and cafés at Újezd. On the corner, there is also a shop you might not have seen before. In Czech, this kind of shop is called “vetešnictví” (literally “junk-shop”) and they were quite popular some hundred years ago. There are not many left these days and that makes this one even more special (I bet it has been there for at least a century)

In this shop you can get just about anything. Old postcards, sewing machines, musical instruments, books, maps, dishes, coffee pots, beer bottles – to start with. Everyone will probably find their sort of thing and won’t leave bare-handed. The prices are naturally very low, although perhaps if you start speaking some other language than Czech, you might get a mark-up.

When you come in, it feels like another world. The room is very dark and crowded with all kinds of stuff. However, they have very short and somewhat irregular opening hours so just try your luck when passing by. Oh, and if you are really broke, you can sell some stuff too…

Do you see the ties on the picture? This is what second-hand looks like. You can imagine any type of clothing, ties, shirts, trousers, T-shirts, dresses, and in this second-hand store you will always find many of those, so you will be amazed. This second-hand store offers the vintage clothes you can also find in the center of the city, but for a lower price.

The lower price is balanced by the effort you have to invest in searching. As I mentioned there are many pieces of one type of clothing. And not all of them are really tempting. But I found a wonderful shirt from the 50′s, a dress from the 70′s and let’s not speak about the 80′s and 90′s, because I found a jacket even Vanilla Ice would not be ashamed of.

The second-hand is located out of the center and I suggest you save some time to visit it. The connection can be found on this website – the final station is ‘Stare Namesti’. While walking to the shop you will pass a prison (who passes prison on a tourist visit??). The price is per piece or per kilogram and I suggest to negotiate when the piece is a little broken.

This spot is really for second-hand lovers. I like to relax here – I am being  honest, because I had two beers in Kulovy Blesk (check the Kulovy Blesk article) and I wished I had time to visit the shop right away.

If you want to bring home some real Czech made design, simply piece of well done work, visit the stationery shop Papelote. They call themselves ‘new’ but they truly represent the workmanship of the centuries. Papelote is a shop where you will find things manufactured mostly from paper. It sounds boring, but you would be surprised.

I love the way Papelote was founded, how it works now and what this manufacturer has achieved. And most of all I love the designs and products, which are both usable and beautiful. Papelote was first of all a dissertation of a graphic designer and illustrator Katerina Sachova, and later was developed into a living project and shop. Papelote works with paper and offers many kinds of notebooks, planners, cases and last but not least its famous binders. To have the gift unique, you can wrap it in the original wrapping paper. All products you will bring home are Czech made and from ecological materials.

Just as an interesting fact I wanted to mention that Papelote was awarded as Store of the Year on Czech Grand Design Awards 2011.