Bitcoin Traveler

Day 1, January 13, Prague

I slept well tonight although a little bit longer than I wanted to: it’s 12 noon already. Time to get lunch. I look on coinmap.org and find a place called “U3trojek” not too far away.

So, I walk to the location marked on my map. I’m a bit surprised not to find a “Bitcoin accepted” sign in the window near all the other payment methods, but I go in anyway. The owner is sitting in front of his laptop, and I ask him if he accepts Bitcoin. He looks at me and starts laughing: “Bitcoin? No, no, you cannot pay with Bitcoin here.”

Apparently I suck at reading maps: turns out I walked into the wrong restaurant. The owner points me to the other side of the street. “But I’m sure you cannot pay with Bitcoin over there either. If you can, you’ll get a free coffee on me.” But sure enough, in the other restaurant the sign is there. I’d like to ask the staff why they accept Bitcoin and since when, but unfortunately nobody speaks English. But with awkward gestures I’m still able to order and pay for the very first Bitcoin meal on my trip: pasta with mushroom sauce and spinach.

Afterwards I go back to the first restaurant, “MON AMI”, to claim my free coffee. Verdran, the owner, has already checked the website of U3trojek so he knows what I’ve come back for. But I also offer to buy some pancakes from him if he’s willing to take Bitcoin. Soon I’m explaining to him how to set up a Bitcoin wallet, and in less than 2 minutes he installs Breadwallet on his iPhone and receives the first Bitcoin payment for the pancakes. He is astonished at how fast it is and calls it “a historical moment”. Thank you, Verdran – your pancakes rock!

I continue my journey and visit some of the common sightseeing places here in Prague. It is definitely a very pretty city. I walk over the Charles Bridge (Karlův most). On the bridge there is a painter who draws caricatures. I always wanted to have one of me, but he doesn’t speak English and I have to pay him in Euro.

Finally I walk uptown towards Prague Castle where I enjoy a beautiful view of the whole city. Later I take the tram to the Paralelni Polis where the weekly Bitcoin meetup has already begun.

Around 30–40 people listen to the speaker whose talk is about different forms of money and how Bitcoin fits in. Unfortunately for me it’s in Czech, but the colored slides are still fun to watch.

Later that night I meet Slush, one of the creators of the Trezor. The Trezor is the first Bitcoin hardware wallet. One attendee wants to buy himself a Trezor. What a good coincidence: I need some cash in the form of CZK and he needs BTC to buy the Trezor. We agree to trade at the current market rate of around 5,500 CZK per BTC. I don’t think I’ve ever traded Bitcoin so cheaply before…

Even later that night I went to a club called CrossClub and partied a bit with a guy I met there called Michal. The DJ was okay, but the club’s decoration is definitely worth a visit.