Trip to Prague, Czech Republic

This year I spent one week of my well-deserved vacay in the sunny and amazing Prague, one of the oldest and the most beautiful European cities I’ve seen so far. Prague is filled with an impressive architecture, great places to just sit and forget about problems and really, but really cheap beer (screams*). Maybe you don’t actually need a full week to visit Prague but around 4 – 5 days are needed for sure. I was happy that during my stay, the weather was really nice and it only started raining a bit on my last day (ha! the same happened in Gothenburg), which was perfectly fine for me.

Even though people in Prague seem a bit unfriendly at first, they actually are super friendly once you start to know them more. I was surprised to see that Prague is more like an international city (well, after all, it is situated in the heart of Europe) and every time you go out you can hear up to 10 different languages spoken on the streets and not necessarily by tourists. I was also surprised to see how easy it is to find a job in Prague that doesn’t require Czech language, so if anyone intends to move to this perfect city it would be quite easy (hmmm should I? It is super tempting). 

Prague has many parks where you can relax for hours and drink beer (don’t do it in public though, it’s illegal but people do it anyway) and also the local food is quite delicious, especially the deserts. Prague is not so expensive if you know where to shop and sadly, since they have thousands of tourists coming every year, Prague is filled with the so called “tourist-scammers” that can easily trick you in changing money on the streets at a super good exchange rate (they are actually giving you Belorussian rubles which are worth nothing), so it is really important to be careful with the decisions you make. Also, talking about exchange rates, be super extra careful where you exchange/withdraw your money. Apparently Prague (including the airport zone) has many exchange legal places where they apply high hidden commissions and you will end up losing half of the money you are about to exchange. 

My advice is that if you’re planning a short or even a one week trip to Prague, don’t even bother to use cash. You can pay with card everywhere in Prague (shops, souvenir-shops, public transportation and yes, even public toilets). I survived in Prague only with my credit card and it was perfectly fine, unless you lose it. But don’t do that though. 😀  

But, to be completely honest, Prague is amazing and all but it also has some bad aspects in terms of public toilets, exchange rates which I already talked about and the fact that everything can be quite crowded by tourists. When you travel you will walk a lot and it is perfectly normal to have the need to use a toilet from time to time. It is quite tricky to find a free toilet in Prague and even if you do, it will be the dirtiest place you’ve seen in your life (totally avoid Palladium shopping mall toilet, yikes). You can find free toilets at the Town Hall and even some metro stations but that’s it, for the rest you gotta pay, which kind of sucks (hello, basic human nature?). Here are my top places to visit in Prague: 

• By far, my favorite place to chill after a full day of walking around Prague was Vyšehrad, which is a historic fort located just over 3 km southeast of Prague Castle, on the right bank of the Vltava River. It was built probably in the 10th century and you can see entire Prague from this place. The good news is that tourists barely know about this place, so it’s not crowded at all. You can grab a snack and chill here every single day. I was also fascinated by the cemetery they have on this hill where famous people like presidents, singers and actors are buried here. See pictures below. 

• Charles Bridge – one of the most famous places to see in Prague. This bridge crosses the Vltava river and it was built in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century, which makes it quite a wow thing to see for all the history lovers out there. The most fascinating thing about this bridge are the statues that you can find on it and also a place in the middle where you have to touch something and put a wish, I know, kind of cringy but eh, I did it anyways.   
• The Old Town – even though it is super crowded by tourists almost every hour (except morning, be there at 7), you will love it here. Historical building, a quite nice place to just put your map in the backpack and get lost and at one point decide to go back home. 
• Prague Castle – a great place to visit and to take lots of photos. The views from the castle are breathtaking and everything about it is perfect. It is the place where their infamous president lives and also, in the middle of it you can find the St. Vitus Cathedral which is amazing in terms of architecture but to visit the cathedral it is quite damn expensive, so instead I just took some photos and that’s it. There are also other small places near the castle to visit, so make sure you take your map in order to not miss a single damn thing. 

What I can recommend are night walks near the Vltava river, the lights and everything is quite breathtaking, I could walk for hours around it. Avoid buying food from the old-town because everything is overpriced and the smartest decision is to find a Lidl or their local shop called “Albert”, everything is quite cheap and affordable and you can save lots of money. While travelling, make sure you have an empty bottle with you so you can refill it whenever you find public fountains (a great wait to save some extra money). 

Prague was perfect and to be honest, I never thought it could be so amazing there. It’s a great place to spend your vacations and why not, to even live there for a while. My trip was amazing and with this occasion I want to thank the Honest Guide Prague for the perfect info that basically made my trip safe and worth it. You can watch his videos here if you’re planning to go to Prague. Enjoy the photos! 🙂 

Many Jews were deported from Prague. To mark their existence, you can find these symbolic tombs in front of their former houses. Be careful not to step on them.

The Czechs are so in love with their beer that they even decorated some of their trams with local beer brands.[/caption]

If you go down near the Vltava river, you will find lots of swans which you can actually feed. They do bite you though.[/caption]

The lady and the bag is everything.[/caption]

Yes, you can actually find Icelandic balls in Prague. Hungarian rolls and so on. Stay traditional though. Memorial site. This painting is everything.[/caption]

Small street in Prague.[/caption]

The stairs you need to climb to reach the castle.[/caption]

Mr. President lives here, thus it is super guarded.[/caption]

St. Vitus Cathedral.[/caption]

An actual tiny village near the castle. Loved it![/caption]

This quote though.[/caption]

Some of the statues on Charles bridge.[/caption]

Tomb in the Vyšehrad cemetery.[/caption]

Good night from Prague.[/caption]