Europe Travel Diary: Prague

Our Europe Travel Diary is an informal rundown of our day-to-day activities while backpacking Europe, starting with Madrid. This travel diary entry is based on our four nights in Prague. If you are after recommendations for Prague instead, we have a Prague travel guide coming soon!

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Day 41: Krakow to Prague

13/11/21

After a long journey, we finally made it to Prague! The bus driver dropped us off on the side of the road, roughly 100m from the train station. Unfortunately, our hostel wasn’t really that walkable so we decided it was best to get the metro. Thankfully we got off at the right stop and walked just five minutes to our hostel. The journey was very different compared to previous places as we navigated cobbled streets and jumped over tramlines; we even walked past a local Tesco!

As we were super hungry, we dumped our bags and headed to the Pho Noodle bar across the road. As usual, my food was waaaay better than Alex’s and he was pretty jealous!

We then ventured back to our hostel for an early night and introduced ourselves to our only other dorm mate who was from Paris. It was a very quiet hostel and we were surprised to only meet one other traveller in an eight-bed dorm!

Day 42: Prague

_14/11/21

I, unfortunately, had an awful night’s sleep. Although I was feeling a lot better, I was still suffering from a pretty bad cough. As I was tired, I passed off my usual responsibility of finding breakfast to Alex. This turned out to be a huge mistake as he managed to find potentially the poshest breakfast in Prague. Despite this, it was really nice and was actually quite affordable for the quality. Alex got to try a Czech breakfast which consisted of sausages; scrambled eggs; a croissant; ham; cheese; bread and a cake, very random, but extremely yummy! We then stopped off at the pharmacy to get some soothers for my sore throat. Whilst the cough sweets were absolutely vile, they did seem to do the trick.

We then went for a wander over the bridge to do some sightseeing. The walk over the Most Legii through the gardens was absolutely beautiful. We walked along the river and up towards Prague Castle in search of some views. Having accidentally walked past the Czech Parliament, located on some very narrow roads, we took the mountain of steps up to Prague Castle.

Once we reached the castle, we took a moment to catch our breath. Whilst entrance was free, you have to pay to go into the majority of the buildings. I wanted to go up the castle to see the pretty views from the city’s highest point so we both got a ticket. It turns out the view from the top was not included in our ticket and we had to buy another one. We only realised this having already bought the original ticket and after having looked around most of the other exhibits. Instead of paying for two again, I volunteered for Alex to walk up as I wouldn’t survive all the steps. Thankfully he took loads of pictures as the views were incredible; I was very jealous.

After watching the sun start to set over the castle, we started to walk down the hill towards our hostel. We then fell for a classic tourist trap; one I don’t regret but Alex probably does. On the way down we came past a man holding an owl and as I absolutely love owls, I wanted a photo. Unfortunately, he wanted some money for food for the owl and we only had 10 euros. Quite expensive for a photo but hopefully he got some good snacks!

As we were pretty worn out from the walking, we decided to take our first tram. It was surprisingly pretty easy to work out and we managed to get to the Tesco near our hostel. Here we bought some food to cook for dinner to save ourselves some money.

As we were eating in, we then decided to treat ourselves and go for our own mini bar crawl. Our first stop was called Anonymous Bar, and yes they wore the famous masks. It was a really cool place and we’d definitely recommend it. They even had a secret menu that we only discovered after ordering our one and only drink. Top tip: you need a blue light to see it. When serving one particular drink, they turned off all of the lights and proceeded to pour blue flames from one tin to another.

The next stop was a student bar where the ciders were £1.30 EACH, bargain! We then accidentally stumbled into a rooftop bar with really cool views over the main square. It was then onto an underground bar called Black Angel’s where it was so hush-hush, that you couldn’t take pictures of anything. Pretty cool and really nice cocktails.

After ending up in a merry state, we wandered back to the hostel for some well-earned rest. I then spent the rest of the evening chatting the ear off the poor French guy in our room. He was very nice and invited us to a bar crawl in a few days time.

Day 43: Prague

_15/11/21

We had a bit of a lie-in after last night’s exploits as we definitely needed to catch up on some sleep. We then wandered around to a waffle place which I’d found online which had gluten-free waffles! As you can imagine, I was super excited. Unfortunately, we had to wait for a table as it was a small cafe but definitely worth the wait.

We were completely unaware but today was actually Czech Republic’s Independence Day which meant huge crowds around the city. Our hostel was located on Narodni Trivia which housed the Nove Mesto memorial. Understandably, the street was very very busy and this included national film crews and armed police. Nevertheless, we did our best to avoid the crowds where possible, mainly to evade Covid.

We meandered through to the town square and managed to sneak a peek at the clock tower through the crowds. After our legs got tired, we made out way back to the hostel to watch the anti-Covid parade below. It was definitely quite an experience and we were very glad to be watching it from a safe distance.

Before visiting Prague, we’d been strongly recommended by a friend to try pork knuckle so today was the day Alex was going to try it. Whilst we had our eyes set on a particular restaurant, we ended up at a more local establishment. Alex ordered his pork knuckle whilst I choose beef with sides of spinach, potato and green beans. I was warned by the waitress that my choices “didn’t go well with the beef” but I ordered them anyway.

The food arrived and Alex’s pork knuckle turned out as big as my head. He concluded that whilst the meat was VERY nice, it still had the cartilage included which was quite off-putting. Nonetheless, the food was definitely 10/10 and we were left rather full.

What was slightly amusing yet frustrating was when attempting to pay, the restaurant only took cash. This meant Alex had to embark on trek de la Prague in search of a working cashpoint. Quite an inconvenience and something we wish we were informed of before.

It was then back for an early night where we watched more of the commotion before it was eventually mopped up by the police.

What was also very beautiful was that in front of the memorial, people lit and left candles in memory of those that lost their lives in the Velvet Revolution. As the street was dimly lit, the candles made for a beautiful scene.

Day 44: Prague

_16/11/21

We woke up at a good time today and went in search of some street food. Alex had it stuck in his head that we were after a hotdog and absolutely nothing else! We walked to the main square and we were pretty hungry so immediately bought the first thing we found. As it was in the main square, this was a big mistake. Alex had a plain sausage with some weird potato things and I was pretty positive this wouldn’t be gluten-free so I settled for a bit of roast ham. Unfortunately, it was quite odd and I didn’t fancy it so I gave it to Alex.

We then went for another long walk and bumped into a very cheap hotdog stand which left me in hysterics and Alex grumpy. He definitely would’ve rather had this hotdog than the plain sausage and leftover ham he just ate. Alex then grabbed a coffee to perk up his grumpy self but accidentally picked up someone else’s coffee. He immediately apologised and sheepishly put it back just before he emptied his sugar packet.

We then found another bridge which was a lot more touristy and very pretty. It views were beautiful in the shadows of Prague Castle and overlooking the river.

Just around the corner was the Lennon Wall which while very cool, I found quite cringy queuing up and posing for photos. This was mainly a result of a lot of people getting frustrated at their poor boyfriends/photographers. Alex eventually managed to convince me to get a photo with him and although embarrassing, I’m glad now that we did as they turned out quite cute.

We wandered a bit more and then ended up back at the main square for some mulled wine and a cider. We were soon joined by our English couple friends from Krakow, who we got on really well with. After taking some time to catch up, we finished our drinks before heading to the rooftop bar to show them the sights. It was also ridiculously expensive, £3 for a pint of beer, ridiculous!

We then went back to the hostel to make ourselves dinner where we’d cobbled together from ingredients we had left from the night before; hostel life isn’t luxurious at all.

We then got ready to go out and met our English friends in their hostel (literally two doors down) to pre-drink before the two-hour all-you-can-drink event; which only cost us 200 CZK or (£6.66). The hostel pre-drinks had quite a weird atmosphere so we were quite relieved to leave.

We all then made our way to the club at 10pm for the unlimited drinks. You could either have beer, which was horrible, wine, which was even worse, or sangria. We opted for the sangria even though it was not as good as the stuff in Spain. Unfortunately, you can only order 1 drink per person at any one time. Therefore, once Alex ordered his drink, he’d proceed to down them very quickly before going to the next bartender for another round. We left before the two hours were up as they’d run out of sangria; disappointed but not bad for £3 each.

We then headed back to Narodni Trivia and were introduced to another club, the Dog Bar, which absolutely blew our minds.

Firstly, you would only know about this club through word of mouth as it isn’t even advertised on google; it’s just a picture of a coffee shop. Secondly, you had to pay cash which would then get transferred onto a card which you allowed to pay for everything.

Thirdly, the club was essentially a labyrinth of different rooms basically underneath the street and our hostel above. It had at least two bars, four different music rooms, two mini cinemas and a foosball room. This included the numerous walkways with ladders and makeshift seating areas. However, by far the coolest bit was the hot dog stand. This meant you could stay in the club for days without having to leave. It was by far the weirdest and most wacky club we’ve been to. I can assure you our description doesn’t do it justice.

We eventually stumbled out at 3am where we had a grand total of a two-minute walk to our hostel. Before going to bed we had to finish packing and hoped in bed for a five-hour kip, ready for a 10:30am train in the morning. Such fun.

Day 45: Prague to Berlin

_17/11/21

It barely felt like our heads had hit the pillow before we had to wake up. For some reason, we both woke around 7am (four hours of sleep at this point) before internally groaning that we only had one hour left before having to get up. We both went back to sleep before getting up at 8am and switching on autopilot to be out of the hostel door at 8:30am.

Anyway, despite being fairly hungover, and more overtired, we got two metro’s arriving at the main station. We then set up camp in the Burger King, had a 9am burger (gross I know) and got ourselves together before jumping on our train.

Alex did mess up quite a bit and caused a lot of unnecessary stress. He unknowingly plonked us in 1st class (the seats were too comfy and there was a suspicious amount of legroom) before the ticket inspector informed us. Whilst the train was moving and with 4 bags to carry/wheel, we walked through the moving train, past two old ladies eating in the restaurant, and through the scary train connectors before eventually finding a spare train carriage. It is safe to say we were not feeling fresh.

Prague Summary

Reflecting on our time in Prague, it is clear we had a very good time! Prague is a city with so much to offer I feel like anyone could visit for a weekend, do completely different activities and still have the best time!

When we visit Prague again, we’d definitely make sure to explore even more restaurant options. We’ve since come across this easy guide to Vegan Restaurants in Prague and we wished found it before we visited. If you want to try something new or enjoy eating Vegan food, definitely check out this great guide!

Highlights of our time in Prague were definitely meeting up with our friends again that we had initially met in Krakow and obviously visiting a lot of the city’s coolest bars.

We would definitely like to revisit Prague, maybe in time for Christmas as I have heard, it looks absolutely beautiful!