I’ve been looking forward to writing this post for so long! I’ve always enjoyed travelling, but I’ve definitely been more inspired to travel since spending a year studying in the United States. I also met my boyfriend there, who is very passionate about seeing the world. So when he comes to visit me, we try to get somewhere in continental Europe together; obviously it’s much easier to get to from here than from America!
Last January we went to Paris, and this year it was Prague’s turn! We chose Prague mostly because of recommendations from friends, and also because of how cheap it is. It’s the first country we’ve travelled to both having never been before and where neither of us could speak the language (we picked up some essentials from this guy on YouTube!). We were there for four nights, three full days and two “half”/travelling days, but managed to squash so much in that this is going to be part one of two! I’m hoping this will be helpful to anyone thinking of visiting the city; enjoy!
Day 1 (Sunday January 3rd)
Having arrived at Stansted at 4am for our 6:40am Ryanair flight (never again; even easyJet was better!) we were pretty knackered once we landed in Prague at 10am. So the first thing we did was decidedly un-European: got a McDonald’s! But at least that gave us fuel for finding the apartment, because transport into the city centre had us a bit muddled! My boyfriend went to get us 3-day transport passes (only available at select metro stations but also at tourist information points; there was one of these in the airport’s arrivals area). They cost 310Kč (approx. £8.60/$12.50) but we ended up getting “Airport Express” (a private service, not public transport) tickets too, as we thought they took us directly into the city centre. Actually, they kind of did, but had two stops: one to connect to the B metro line (passes work for all forms of Prague’s public transport: trams; buses; subway/underground) and one to the A metro line. Therefore that was a bit of a waste of money - although only about £7 - because the public bus does exactly the same thing, just a little slower! We also didn’t know how to get to the metro from the bus stop, but found it after several wrong turns! I’ll talk more about transport later but the long and short of it is: Prague’s public transport is amazing and I want every city to follow their lead!
Our apartment was absolutely gorgeous; we found it via Airbnb, which I use regularly. It was a perfect size and everything we needed, especially as we wanted to be able to self-cater to keep costs down. After a quick nap, we headed out to do a food shop - getting an incredible amount of stuff for around £14/$20! Prague has Tesco supermarkets, and while I know it’s a bit of a cop-out, it was nice to have something so familiar and (somewhat!) easy to navigate in amongst all the foreign-ness.
By that time it was time for dinner; I’d used Yelp! to find a couple of local, authentic restaurants that wouldn’t break the bank, but the first one we got to had an hour’s wait so we quickly moved onto the one slightly further away: Restaurace Mincovna. This was meant to be because we had an incredible meal there; we loved it so much we visited again on our last night! It was just off Old Town Square (a popular area/neighbourhood in the centre of Prague) but not packed with tourists and with very reasonable prices. We shared a veal tartare to start, and then I had veal schnitzel with a potato salad, and my boyfriend had the “knee of roast piglets”. The name was a bit off-putting but it was possibly one of the best things I’ve ever tasted; so tender, literally falling off the bone! With a glass of wine for me and a half-litre of tank beer for him, the meal came to 1000Kč with tip - around £27/$40. We were floored by both the price and the quality, so I’d definitely recommend it! The staff were extremely friendly and - like most of the people we interacted with - fluent in English.
There were still Christmas stalls set up around the square (as well as the biggest Christmas tree I think I’ve ever seen!) so we wandered around a bit after dinner, and discovered an amazing traditional Slovak pastry: trdelník. This is rolled dough wrapped around a stick, then grilled and dipped in a sugar and walnut mix. Most places also offer it with Nutella spread inside; anything carb-loaded and dipped in sugar/Nutella/both is an absolute must for me. As it was pretty cold (around -3 degrees centigrade!) and we were still quite tired from travelling, we didn’t stay out for long, but it was great to see the square all lit up in the dark.
Day 2 (Monday January 4th)
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| View from the Charles Bridge |
We must have needed to sleep because we didn’t manage to drag ourselves out of bed until 11am on our first morning! I did feel a little guilty, but what’s a holiday if you can’t do exactly what you’d like?! In the end it was a perfect day; we wandered over the Charles Bridge* - five minutes walk from our accommodation - with snow falling! On the other side we visited the John Lennon Wall^; a tribute to the musician which was famously re-created each time Communist authorities whitewashed it. It’s full of paintings of Lennon, Beatles’ lyrics and quotes. My favourite was “may the best of your past be the worst of your future”, although this is apparently originally an old Irish saying!
Next, we headed to a museum we’d read about in our Lonely Planet Pocket Prague guide book, about a Czech man named Karel Zeman who was known for his contribution to film special effects. At 140Kč - or £4/$6 for a student ticket (always check for a student price as many places offer a discount as long as you have some kind of student ID!) it was perhaps a little smaller than other museums we visited in that price range, but nonetheless very interesting. I hadn’t heard of Zeman before but he really was a pioneer of special effects, and the exhibits showed you exactly how he created innovative footage. There were also lots of hands-on, interactive things to get involved with (fetchingly modelled here by my boyfriend), which broke up the reading and made the experience fun and memorable!
Now I don’t know about anyone else but my boyfriend needs to eat around four to six times a day, so by this time a refuel was needed! In another twist of fate, we failed to find the nearby cafe I’d found on Yelp, and headed back towards the Charles Bridge. On the way we chanced upon Pekařstvi Karmelitské± - a lovely Czech café/bar/bakery where we gorged on sandwiches, crepes, and pastries washed down with a French press of coffee for around £5/$3 each! Again, the woman behind the counter was very helpful and it was a great place to sit and catch our breath; we both read and my boyfriend journaled for a bit.
After wandering back over the Charles Bridge, we stopped off at the apartment to decide on a place for dinner. We ended up at the Globe Bookstore and Café - an English language bookshop with a pub-cum-restaurant-cum-bar in the back. Unfortunately the store - one of the main reasons we’d gone - closed whilst we were still eating; when we’d looked at the website the “opening hours” displayed were 10am-midnight but it seems this must have been just for the café. Regardless, we had a good meal and mega cheap cocktails, so it wasn’t the worst thing to happen!
So that’s days 1 and 2 - I hope you enjoyed it; part two (days 3, 4, and 5) will come later on this week. And if you've been to Prague, please let me know in the comments!
*Charles Bridge - Karlův Most, 110 00 Praha 1
^John Lennon Wall - Velkopřevorské Náměstí, 100 00 Praha 1
±Pekařstvi Karmelitské - I couldn't find a website for this but it's address is next to/very near to Karmelitská 268/26, 118 00 Praha 1!
