Prague
After about a month of waiting for everyone to reply on the group chat, my friends and I finally booked out first holiday together (minus Rach :( ). We decided on a 3-night trip to Prague in early April 2019 and began searching for an Air BnB.
Our Air BnB was perfect. It was situated in Prague 7 – surrounded by cafes, restaurants and bars and only a 20-minute walk from the city centre. It was beautifully decorated, with high ceilings and large windows (incredible lighting for doing our makeup). There was a fully functioning kitchen, toilet, bath AND a shower that didn’t go cold after the first 3 people used it *heart eyes*. There was a bedroom with a double bed, another one with 2 single beds and a pretty comfy sofa bed for Matt and Jamie. Our host spent around 20 minutes giving us loads of information about our stay and Prague and left us to it.
Our plan was to spend the first day being tourists – visit all the places of interest that Prague had to offer – and spend the final two days chilling. So, with this in mind, we set out early and headed to Prague’s main square on day one. On the way to the city centre, we passed a church. I’m not sure of the name of this church but its handsome, gothic exterior drew us in and the inside didn’t disappoint; it was extremely grand due to its intricate details and gold ornaments.
Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the astronomical clock. In all honesty, it was a little underwhelming, but made for some classic tourist pictures! There was also an Easter market on the square which was only 5 minutes from Prague’s high street. You can guess what happened here… We gave up on being tourists and went shopping. Why does spending money on holiday feel like you’re spending Monopoly money?! Saying this, though, the food and alcohol in Prague is extremely cheap, so treating myself to a skirt from Zara didn’t feel too cheeky.
After our little shop on day 1, we headed up a short hill (which felt like miles in the first above-13-degrees temperature of 2019) to Letná Zahradní; a beer garden with a view. We ate fried cheese, drank apple cider and met like 12 dogs!!! We chilled here until the sun started to set and headed back to the flat to get ready for the 80s night that we promised Jamie. Prague’s night life is quite good, but going in the week, I don’t think we saw the best of it. We spent one night in a club under a restaurant that was playing disco music (no complaints) and another night taking advantage of happy hour in an Irish bar. The food and alcohol in Prague is extremely cheap compared to many other European capitals and the quality was high, too. We went to one restaurant on a boat on the river which seemed extremely fancy and it barely made a dent in our wallets.
So, day 2… A.K.A the day we crammed all the sight-seeing into 6 hours, saw us trecking about 3 miles up a huge hill to visit Prague Castle. The pay-off was there, though. The architecture was beautiful, with a plethora of different style buildings – cathedrals, palaces and more; it looked a lot like the set of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We spent about 10 minutes getting out pictures taken (at this point, Ed was fed up of orchestrating photoshoots) and headed to the palace.
The enormous palace was accompanied by a majestic cathedral, which we paid 150Kr to enter. Honestly, I don’t know what we thought we were gonna see but we didn’t think it would be nothing but a spiral staircase for 15 minutes straight. I swear it felt like an hour that we were walking round and round and round and round until finally… we made it to the top. The view was phenomenal. We could see basically the whole city! For me, the view made me forget about my elevated heart rate. Wish I could say the same for Beth.
We also visited the famous John Lennon Wall and Charles Bridge. The John Lennon Wall is a small section of a wall that has lots of John Lennon/The Beatles themed graffiti all over it. When we went, there was a busker who was playing songs by The Beatles on an acoustic guitar, at one point everyone was singing Hey, Jude which was really nice – I literally nearly started crying because I’m an emotional wreck. Charles Bridge is a bridge that crosses the Vltava river where many local artists set up shop. You can’t walk more than 10 steps without seeing something creative and unique.
Prague is a beautiful city and is perfect for anyone who wants a cheap city break that still has lots to do! I would definitely go again, and I don’t think I’d do anything differently! If you go, make sure you grab a drink at Letná Zahradní!.
Thanks for reading,
Ella X
