Prague

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

A big part of me is just so excited to be back and writing again! I’m slightly worried about missing loads of information, if any of you are planning to go to any of the places I will be writing about in the next few posts, drop me a message, comment or something and I’ll try my best to help!

For the longest time I had no idea how to write about this trip, three long weeks, 3 different countries, over 27 hours on buses, 6 hours in the air and many metro changes after, I’ve just decided to have three separate ones for each country/city. I’ll go through them in an order, Prague, Budapest and Madrid.

Annnnd so I give you Prague!

In order to get to Prague from Gdansk I booked myself a ticket for a bus(Polski Bus). I knew it won’t be an easy trip- I had almost 17 hours of travel ahead of me. I’m so used to just getting on a plane…I’m spoiled! The trip however started off not too shabby. I was looking forward to seeing Poland through the window and admiring the beauty I was seeing and passing quickly. The ride took a few hours longer than expected, and by the 17th hour I just wanted my bed.

Nicole and Dominika were there already and I was in a rush to join them, not wanting to miss all the gossip. I was also terrified of getting off the bus with a massive backpack in a foreign land. A taxi sent by our hotel was supposed to be waiting for me. It wasn’t. You can imagine my panic haha, now it’s a funny anecdote but at the time I was scared shitless. After asking numerous people, including a man at a tourist information centre with a scary squint who was halfway through eating a burger, I finally asked the right people; a group of students around my age, the guy from their group turned out be my guardian angel and helped me get a taxi and explained to the driver where I have to be taken.

The moment I sat down in that taxi tears appeared in my eyes and questions doubting my ability to travel. Loneliness and a feeling of strange failure set in and that’s when I looked up and out of the window. Right in front me this beautiful city appeared, it was dark and there is nothing more beautiful than a city like Prague at night.

It took my breath away. After this the trip went upwards, thankfully! Quick shower, unpacking and we were ready to go out for a much needed drink. We decided to head to the Town Square and unknowingly sat right opposite the historical astronomical clock which we never quite managed to photograph.
The next three days were filled with sightseeing, walking, eating Italian food only(sorry with an exception of some kebab) and loads of laughs. And to be perfectly honest- scary amounts of complaints from all of us “hungry”, “sore feet” “miss home” “miss my boyfriend” “my stomach is sore” “I’m tired” that accompanied us all throughout our trip, some days in small or bigger doses.

I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself on this trip but more about it in the last post.

There are many breathtaking places to see in Prague, one of the biggest advantages was that the city centre is fairly small so we were able to walk everywhere, get lost in the tiny but lovely streets and see and feel the city. Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the 15th largest in the EU. Luckily for us everything we wanted to see was located in the centre. We never even realised it was so big.

Prague is home to a number of famous cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include the Prague Castle, which we admired from outside, looking at tourists posing in front of it(funniest thing ever). The Charles Bridge which absolutely incredible but we passed through it about a million times and got even slightly sick of the beautiful view of the city and river. There are also Jewish Quarters which can be visited, Petrin hill and Vysehrad.

I’m proud of us as we went to few exhibitions such as one of Dali, Warhol and my personal favourite, Amy Arbus. My Dad found it for us and I was set on going, to no disappointment. Her photographs were great, it was a fairly small exhibition but all the same enjoyable. We also wanted to do a jazz boat cruise but all tickets were sold out. Something to come back for.

Prague is a fairly cheap city, although we did feel our purses getting thinner and thinner.

A very big downfall about Prague is that people are far from being nice. We had few unpleasant situations and that definitely made our few days there a lot less fun. We were eager to get to Budapest!

Tips:

• Most restaurants charge for service- be careful to check and not double tip. Or just be warned your bill will be higher than you think.

• Don’t expect people to smile at you, they won’t. I don’t one Czech person smiled at me; Dom said it could be because. I’m Polish- but hey ho we mostly spoke English! I’m sure there are many nice Czech people but we certainly got unlucky in Prague.

• Count your change.

• If you’re going in the summer season be warned, people will be literally everywhere.

Thanks for reading guys! Any questions? Give me a shout.

Joanna x