Divoka Sarka

By Jennifer Page

The summer I was in Prague was one of the hottest ones on record. Although I was excited about being in Europe, the heat can start to get to you.  In cities, there is usually a lack of swimming pools and if you find one, so has two hundred other grumpy, sweaty people. So, I was happy to take a forty-five minute tram ride to the far west side of Prague to the Divoka Sarka park.  On the tram there were people in their bathing suits, so I knew I was going the right way, as it can be confusing to be on a new tram line.  At the entrance of the park, there is a big McDonald’s, so its easy to spot what stop to get off of (also the stop is called Divoka Sarka). The trail at the entrance goes down into a valley that is surrounded on either side by craggy cliffs and pine trees.  Not really knowing where to go, I followed the stream that flows beside the lower of the two trails. This turned out to be the right way, as I soon found people walking to the pool.  Divoka Sarka is more untamed than the city parks and the ten minute walk to the pool was a nice hike through cliffs and trees. The pool itself is not big, but uncrowned and clean. There is a small entrance fee, but the water is well worth it.  Most of the adults were lying out, not swimming, so it was no problem to jump in when the sun got too hot.  Behind the pool, there is a large and hilly complex of trails and campsites where there were families hiking to and from.  By the entrance of the park, there is also a lake called Dzban that has a trail around it and a swimming area on one side by the restaurant. There were no tourists when I was there, and the pool didn’t start getting crowded until around 5pm when people were getting off of work.