Friday 29th July

Time to leave Vienna. I was looking forward to Prague since I was going to meeting a friend there, so I was looking forward to seeing a familiar face after such a long time!

I came down for breakfast, all packed up and ready to go only to find the kitchen in the hostel was closed for cleaning. Who closes a kitchen at breakfast time?? That was so frustrating since I had to wait a good half an hour, sitting and tapping my foot, until it was open again and I could finish my milk and cereal. By the by, as mentioned before, I found cooking in hostels challenging. Like, I didn’t want to buy something like a bottle of oil to use it a couple of times and carry with me everywhere I went. I wanted to buy stuff that I could finish at the hostel itself! That usually meant asking to use other people’s oil though…

Anyhow, I finished my breakfast and headed out of the hostel towards Wien HBF. The hostel seemed great on the surface, but there were inconvenient timings and strict rules and extortionate laundry service which didn’t help my opinion of them…

I found myself a seat on the train in the quiet carriage (there were no set seats like I had in Spain/France/Italy/Austria!). I had downloaded a film, Top Gun, and so I watched that as the train headed it’s way out of Vienna and started heading north towards Czechia. Top Gun is just such a good film. But also, half of their makeup budget must have gone towards fake sweat. Like seriously. How to make a film more macho? Just add sweat. Anyway, small comments aside, the train was going to be heading towards Brno before veering west towards Prague. I was sitting beside a girl who was reading a very large textbook about ADHD in adults and kept looking across, annoyed, at a chatting couple. Fair enough in my mind, it was the quiet coach!

Something funny happened though. Throughout all of my time in Europe thus far, every single country has had a mask policy for public transport, as in everyone was meant to wear a facemask by law on trains, metros and buses. However, as soon as the train conductor came over the tannoy saying that we had just entered into Czechia then every single person in one motion took their masks off since Czechia had no policy! I mean, that just negated wearing the mask for the last couple hours!

The train sped through the peaceful Czech countryside. When I looked out the window, I saw red tiled roofs on flat golden fields, water towers and church steeples in small villages and a black, damp, fertile earth. The blue sky held the bright sun and all seemed quite sleepy and tranquil.

I arrived into Praha Hlavní nádraží (Prague main station) and stepped off the train. I needed to find some cash and then find my way to my hostel. Czechia had a different currency from the Euro and I would now be having to divide by roughly thirty to figure out what it was in pounds. With the Euro, I had just been finding five sixths (5/6’s) in my head thus far to convert. A fun mental maths exercise as I was out and about. I found some cash easily enough, but finding my way to the hostel was going to be a lot harder. So far, every country has had similar languages. Spanish, French and Italian were all close cousins, and I knew German quite well already from GCSE. However, Czech was a completely different ball game. Completely different! I had to navigate by constantly translating words on my phone, stopping and squinting at signs as people rushed past me in all directions.

I found my way to the metro, watching what people did in order to buy a ticket, before copying them. I then checked and then double checked I was going to be getting on the correct train to the correct stop before hopping on. It was nerve-wracking, it was like travelling in a big city like London again for the first time!

I made it to the hostel safely enough and happily checked in. First priority? Food. I went out and found a supermarket, Billa, and bought myself something quite cheap. At least, the number in Koruna looked massive, but converting it in my head made everything better. I sat in a park, eating, whilst I read my book before I headed back to my hostel. This was when I met my new roommates:

• There was a quiet, grey-haired Russian lady who slept above me and didn’t talk to any of us at all. So never found out anything, or interacted with her.
• Saiko (28, pronounced like “psycho” – good omens…) was a dance choreographer and videographer, born in Egypt but now lived in Hanover. Apparently, Prague was an easy place to come for the weekend and everyone flocked there to do exactly that. He was super extroverted, touching people constantly and laughing easily and wanting to spend as much time partying as possible. He had a whole bag full of colognes and aftershaves.
• Kat (18) was inter-railing for a couple weeks before heading to dance school in September. She had met Saiko and they had spent the afternoon doing some dance shoots with some of Saiko’s friends. It was good experience apparently for an aspiring dancer and she had enjoyed the company of professional dancers.

They both encouraged me to go out with them that night, and I reluctantly agreed. Peer pressure which I bowed in to. Agh. They were in the process of getting ready themselves and the room stank with aftershave. Quick etiquette suggestion, if you are ever in a hostel, please don’t take spray-on deodorant. We three caught an Uber into town where we found ourselves at a place called Moonclub at just past 23:00. It was fun for, like, five minutes before I started thinking of leaving. Yeah, nah, not for me. I shouldn’t of headed out in the first place. Bowed to peer pressure like a rookie. My idea of a fun evening out is a jazz club, comedy club or time spent with friends. Not this clubbing business. No thank you.

Therefore, before long, I was looking at leaving as Saiko had disappeared into the crowds and towards the dance floor. Kat was also feeling uncomfortable it seems and so we left together. No thanks, not for me. We caught the tram home and before long I was in bed, asleep.

Saturday 30th July

Saiko got back at 07:00. Yeah, nah, no thanks, not my lifestyle. This hostel was brilliant though because they served breakfast for only 160cz but it was buffet style, meaning I could literally eat as much as I wanted. It was good food as well. I literally ate as much as I could.

It was raining (forecast for only the morning) and so I cancelled my morning free walking tour, rescheduling it for the afternoon instead. I mean, it was free, I wasn’t really cancelling anything. I still wanted to do stuff though so I caught the tram to the castle on the west side of the river Vltava. I got off and started wandering around in my blue rain jacket. I stumbled across the impressive senate. The showery rain had left the beautiful, fresh smell of petrichor. The senate gardens were full of beautiful bronze statues and water features and the most amazing artificial dripstone wall! It was a hidden jewel that I had really just stumbled upon.

I made my way through the senate before continuing on and towards the castle (or palace, I think it is interchangeable). Google maps was being useless, wanting me to walk through some private gardens and up some weird-looking back streets which didn’t seem to exist. Therefore, I turned back to the traditional way of navigating: looking at where I was going and using road signs. Revolutionary, I know. There were two guys behind me who also seemed to be as lost as I was and so we all started heading the same direction together. They, too, were British. Their names were Alex (who had just graduated with a degree in maths) and Ben (who had also just graduated with a degree in chemical engineering). They were inter-railing together and were actually leaving later that day, heading towards Slovakia and Hungary. But for now, they were visiting the castle with me.

We climbed up the steep hill all the way to the top (stumbling across a statue of Winston Churchill… Unexpected). There were so many steps to the top of this hill. But as we climbed then we were being presented with a beautiful view across the city until we emerged in front of the palace complex. It was so large! There were guards, a bit like the Beefeaters in front of Buckingham Palace, standing rigidly in front of the main gates to the palace complex. We entered through the side, passing through some metal detectors under the eye of some stern looking officials. We poked around, having a look inside the St. Vitus’ Cathedral (Katedrála Sv. Víta) and a couple of the other buildings. We were mainly chatting though and before long we were walking out the other end of the palace complex. The views from this end of the palace were just incredible. Just a sea of red roofs all the way down to the river. It was a different red to the terracotta tiles in Italy as well, more of a bolder red. Alex and Ben were heading to the train station and so I walked with them in towards the middle of town, crossing the Charles Bridge. This was an ancient, gothic bridge across the Vltava, stained black with age. There were statues of revered saints on both sides of the bridge, creating an aisle of frozen figures. There were peddlers on both sides, sketch artists and bands (there was even a guy playing the washboard in one band!). Tourists were swarming everywhere, gathered around these bands and we had to wriggle our way through the crowds.

I parted ways with Alex and Ben at the eastern end of the Charles Bridge, heading into the Katedrála Sv. Klimenita (I think) on a whim, seeing that there was a classical music concert on tonight. I needed to cleanse myself of the Moonclub Saiko took us to the night before! I bought a ticket for later that day before I turned to my personal quest, finding the memorials to Chopin and Liszt in this city! I told you that you would hear more about them! And I’m not apologising.

The Liszt bust wasn’t hard to find, it was fairly close by. Liszt had lived in Prague for a small while with a friend in this house whilst he was on his extraordinary concert tour. He gave some ridiculous number of concerts, something that was equivalent to like one concert every three days for several years continuously. There’s a rumour of him hurting one of his fingers before the concert. For a pianist, this is serious news (concert pianists have hand insurance, fun fact), but Liszt refused to cancel and instead changed the ingrained fingering for his concert that evening, playing with effectively nine fingers for the entire thing. That is just stupendous, like, inconceivable (insert GIF of the Princess Bride here). There is a reason why he is considered the greatest pianist to have ever lived!

Anyway, having gloried in that for a small while, I then headed to the Chopin bust. It was attached to the side of a bank where there once stood a house that Chopin had lived in from 1829 to 1830. Again, this probably interests no one, but I loved this sorta thing! Additionally, his house must have looked over the gothic old city gates, the Powder Tower (Prašná brána)! How amazing would that have been!?

OK, I had geeked out enough for the time being, and so I went and got myself some lunch at one of the multiple cafés around before going to the free walking tour which I had reorganised for this afternoon. I had to pass by the old town square on the way to the start point, the Rudolfinum down by the river. Here, I saw the yellow umbrellas of the free tour. There was also a court setup for the world championships for 3×3 basketball! It was literally half a basketball court, with each team trying to slot as many hoops in like 15 minutes or something. I watched a bit of that whilst I waited for the tour to start. China’s women team were playing Sweden. There were cheerleaders, cameras, and a crammed out set of seating. Really quite official looking! On the steps of the Rudolfinum were a tonne of other teams, warming up and stretching and doing photo shoots.

The tour was about to start though. The group was so large that the group was split in two. I had a guide called Mike. He was an aspiring author and was currently making money by doing free tours whilst he finished his book. Something on the history of a certain time period in Prague I think. There was another Brit (who I didn’t catch the name of, but he was an aero engineering student) and an American (Hannah, who was doing her PhD in chemistry in Germany) who I ended chatting with for the majority of the tour, whilst we were moving from place to place. Hannah fully recommended doing a PhD, even more so whilst abroad. I quizzed her on PhD stuff whilst we were walking between sites.

Mike showed us plenty of things, and talked about a lot more. We chatted about the Hussites (who threw people out of towers during religious debates and the reason that atheism in the majority religion in Czechia), the rise and fall of Communism in Czechia (cold war especially. The jangling of keys is a national symbol of the downfall of communism), the Jewish quarter (bit grim that), Emperor Charles IV (who apparently was a perfect leader. The only quirk he had was that he made people do jousting inside in the palace halls during the winter. That’s who the Charles Bridge is named after) and told us many jokes and facts. Apparently, Czechia drinks the most beer in the world on average. We saw many places too, including the famous astronomical clock. Impressive for when it was made for sure, but kinda amped up and anticlimactic. Apparently this is the third most disappointing monument in Europe, after the Mona Lisa and the Manneken Pis, according to Mike.

It was a good tour, very long for sure, a touch over three hours. You could tell that he had studied History and Politics though since that was predominantly what was talked about… which makes sense for a tour of the old city. I still find Spyros’ tour in Genoa the best so far. He did reveal that his father was actually one of the main leaders in the rebellion and later worked as a diplomat overseas in the new government after the cold war. That was a cool connection for sure.

I got myself some dinner at a restaurant suggested by Mike where I met an Aussie lady who had also done the same tour, except with the other tour guide. We ended up chatting, with her laughing a lot. I never caught her name. She told me some of her horror stories of hostels which she had had so far. If you listened to her, I don’t think you would ever consider choosing to stay in a hostel. I find them perfectly fine though, haven’t had any horror experiences yet – she had had a far worse time than me clearly! However, I couldn’t stay forever since I had a concert to get to, cleanse my musical palette, at that church beside the Charles Bridge.

The concert was good. Very relaxing. It was a weird trio though, a soprano, a trumpet and the organ. Fun though, I enjoyed it. The organist in particular was incredibly good and played pretty much every piece. That was a nice hour or so. I headed back to the hostel and headed to sleep. Saiko had already headed out, partying and dancing no doubt.

Sunday 31st July

And this time, Saiko got back at 06:00! Weaker effort than the previous night! Haha, but who am I to judge? Today was gonna be a good day, I was going to be meeting my good friend Miška and she was going to be showing me around town. I was excited! It is always nice to see a friendly face, especially whilst travelling.

But first, breakfast. I admit, it was a late start to the day but I was still in time to get to the buffet breakfast in time before I headed into town on the tram. We were going to be meeting for lunch and so I had a couple of hours to fill. Therefore, I chilled out. I got a couple postcards and then found a park to sit in and read for a little while. The book I was reading was quite good, but not sure I would recommend them to anyone…

Lunchtime came round. Miška had chosen a vegetarian restaurant for us, Maitrea, that she knew was quite good and close to the middle of town. I headed there via the busy town square, passing the astronomical clock once more, the crowds as big as they were the day before, and were probably going to be the next day too. I got us a table and before long, Miška joined me. We had such a lovely lunch. The restaurant had made lots of substitutes for the meat that was in traditional Czech dishes and therefore I got to try out the flavours and tastes of her culture! Such a good lunch and a wonderful catch up. She was working three jobs this summer! One with the health ministry, another with a start-up and the third was a casual job at a festival. Miška wasn’t actually from Prague, but rather Ostrava, in the east of Czechia. However, the offices for one of her jobs was in Prague so she was here overnight and was going to be going into the office the next morning. I am always amazed by people who work a couple jobs at the same time, never mind three!

Such a great lunch. Guiltily, it’s also useful having her translate for me. I think I thoroughly embarrassed (or just made her laugh) her with my attempts at speaking Czech. Honestly, I only ever managed to say “thank you” successfully: “Děkuji”. Miška then took me around town. We headed back to the palace, crossing the Vltava via the bridge which wasn’t the touristy Charles Bridge. This was the one all the locals took apparently. We caught the tram up to the castle. This time, she knew the better way up which provided a tonne of good views over Prague instead of the backstreet, twisty windy, “Google can’t manage” route that I took the day before.

The views were amazing, it was like a sea of red roofs. It was one of those days with large fluffy clouds in the sky which occasionally blotted out the sun, and so there were different patches of red across the city. We headed into the cathedral, and then she recommended I went into the Strahov Library which was beautiful. No photos allowed to be taken though unless you paid like 100cz! Miška sat outside whilst I was inside – she had been plenty of times already!

We then headed down the most aesthetically pleasing neighbourhood Nový Svět, hidden right beside the castle, towards one of her favourite cafés. However, when we got there, we discovered that it was shut which was a shame. Bit of a bummer. There was also a Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler monument here as well as a Johannes Kepler school right behind. This is because Brahe and Kepler both worked in Prague, at the invitation of the then emperor. I think they were the Official Imperial Astronomers. This actually turned Prague into the astronomical capital of Europe at the beginning of the 17^th century with a tonne of science coming from here. Kepler’s Laws and first year astrophysics!

We then caught the tram down to near the river where we could get ice cream. There was a specific place that Miška wanted to take me to since they served rice flavoured ice cream. Yep, you read that right, rice ice cream! And it was incredibly nice! Nice rice ice cream. We were eating them, walking up the hill into the Petřin Gardens, the ice cream dripping down our cones in the summer heat whilst we were distracted chatting, ending with our hands all sticky. Summer memories, right?

The Petřin Gardens were on a hill and as we climbed up, we started emerging above the city, once again providing us with a stunning view over one of the most beautiful cities I have been to. Prague had a different type of beauty than those cities in the Mediterranean for sure, but beautiful it undoubtedly was. At the top of these Gardens was a mini Eiffel Tower, the Petřinská rozhledna. Miška stayed at the bottom and phoned her mother whilst I climbed all the way to the top. No time for elevators by the way, always climb the stairs. Good for the fitness. I practically ran up them, taking the steps two at a time, the spiral slowly getting tighter and tighter as I got closer to the top. I got to the first observation deck but I pushed on up to the top, not wanting to get a premature view. And it was worth it. I got to the very top and boy, Prague just opened up beneath me. Climbing towers like this gives you a glimpse of what the world would look like from the point of view of a bird. I can understand why people dream of flying with views like this! I guess that is what pilot licenses are for though. Just stunning. I think I stayed up there for a good half an hour, my head by a small window, my chin resting on my folded hands, breathing some wonderful fresh air as the breeze ruffled my hair, gazing down at Prague. I watched the tour boats float up and down the river and the trams chime along their tracks in the heart of this red sea.

I came down eventually, passing a terrified lady, clinging to the side of the stairwell (I guess she didn’t like heights) before finding and then sitting beside Miška, reading, whilst she finished her chat with her mother. We found another café, hidden away. It was cute, a small roughly cobbled yard with yellow tables and red umbrellas covering them. Fairy lights were strung up and it was just incredibly pleasant. Miška suggested I try something new instead of my usual cup of Earl Grey (shock and horror), and specifically she suggested an Espresso Tonic. I enjoyed it for sure, but also, I will be sticking with my Earl Grey in the future. Too British, whoops. I also tried a Czech cake, called a Miša dort. Absolutely delicious. I am actually meaning to try and make one myself when I get my own permanent residence after I finish travelling. It won’t ever be as good as this one was of course, but I can still try.

Miška was staying with a family friend way out of the centre of town. She had stored her suitcase at the train station whilst she spent the afternoon with me and so we caught the metro to the station, before finding somewhere quiet to have dinner. She had a favourite Vietnamese restaurant, and so we headed over there, slightly out of town, closer to where my hostel was really. I then left, heading back to my hostel, whilst she waited for her family friend to pick her up.

But this wasn’t the end of my night! I was actually going to be heading out to a jazz club with Kat. Therefore, I jumped on a tram straight away again after ditching my bag at the hostel. However, when I arrived at the jazz club, I couldn’t find either a seat, or Kat and her friends (which she said she was bringing along despite only having just met them. Inter-railing goals, making friends everywhere you go). Therefore, I left, and soon located them all sitting around the table with the remains of a meal between them. Not bothering with the jazz club, I pulled up a seat and we all chatted the evening away. There was Lillard and Emily as well as Kat. We headed to a bar before long and had such a fun evening. Kat and I got back to the hostel and our dorm room a little late, at a time that my parents wouldn’t approve of. Still, Saiko was not there, so clearly it wasn’t that late…

Monday 1st August

And indeed, Saiko got back at 05:30 this morning. Weak. His stamina is running out, rookie moves. Both Saiko and Kat were leaving today, so after breakfast, I said goodbye to Kat. Saiko wasn’t up yet, and I wasn’t fussed with saying goodbye to him in all honesty. She was off to Munich to see some family friends before heading back to Hamburg. This was the end of her short inter-rail trip. Good to meet her nonetheless!

Miška was in meetings all morning, being a responsible person with a job, unlike me. Therefore, I walked around the Stromovka Gardens before I found a place to sit and read in a lazy pool of sunshine. Again, it was quite late in the morning at this point and lunch wasn’t far off. I wrote and sent the postcards that I had bought the day before as well. That was an experience actually, trying to communicate with the lady at the post office, her in broken English and me with a worried expression on my face as I tried to understand. It worked out though. I think.

We met at Forky’s, another vegetarian restaurant. Part of their decoration was a large mural on the wall with all the famous vegetarians and vegans throughout history. We sat outside, out the back as we ate our food. I made mistake though, ordering a burger, since we all know that restaurant served burgers are bigger than you can actually fit into your mouth, and as a result, it will inevitably spill out and go everywhere, making a mess of yourself. Yep, that happened. Ah well. As I say, I think I manage to successfully embarrass myself at least once a day. I’m immune to it now! Hahaha

After lunch, Miška was back off home to Ostrava, catching the tram to the train station. She was actually off on holiday with her parents as soon as she got home. First to a national park in Poland, before jetting off to Bulgaria with her mother. She was super excited, and I was glad for her! I actually wasn’t sure when (or if!) I would be seeing her again. Still, it was incredibly kind of her to meet me in Prague and show me around. Thanks Miška!

I also caught the tram, but back to my hostel. I had some laundry to do, so I sat beside those revolving drums, doing sod all but reading, as my clothes got themselves dizzy. This evening I was going to go to the jazz club! I was actually going to be meeting Emily and Lillard from the previous evening since they were both keen as well. I had myself a dinner at Maitrea again, the first restaurant Miška took me to (what can I say, the food was excellent and she gave me a recommendation for when next tried some Czech food!), before heading to the jazz club.

It was an underground club called the Jazz Republic. I met Lillard there (Emily didn’t show/got lost) and we got some seats. It was a great evening! There were exposed lightbulbs with cymbals as shades, hanging from the exposed brick ceiling. Cold condensation ran down the side of my ginger beer in the warm basement. The band was a bit funky at times. The pianist bobbed up and down like he was sitting on a hotplate and the saxophonist kept going up and down, like one of those thirsty, dippy birds which are common desk decorations. You know the ones, they are filled with water and will go up and down seemingly forever. The funky bit was when the saxophonist tried starting to layer multiple musical threads using some electronic trickery. It just didn’t sound great honestly, more like out of tune whale song. Still, it was an interesting experience. We left before long, the evening went from fun jazz and just started getting more funky during the second set.

I said goodbye to Lillard, and caught the tram back to the hostel. A new roommate was there, but I didn’t talk to him much. I was much more interested in my bed. I was going to be heading out of Czechia in the morning, off to Munich next! It was starting to feel close to the end of my inter-rail trip! Eek!

Impressions

One of the most beautiful cities in the world with a lively night life and a complicated political history. I loved Prague so much, definitely one of the highlights from this trip.

Some Random Facts and Stats from Al

• Days spent: 4
• Bakeries and cafés visited: 4 I think.
• Jazz clubs: 1, it was good for the first set, funky for the second set.
• Number of things that went wrong: Not much really. Got peer pressured into a night out at a club. That shouldn’t have happened.
• Memorable moment: Every meal with Miška. Or climbing the tower to look over city. Or eating rice ice cream, climbing the hill in the summer heat.
• Music suggestion based off of the city: Colours, Thunder Jackson
• Postcards sent: 2! Oh yeah, check me.
• Composers seen: busts of Chopin and Liszt. Additional points for seeing two pioneering astronomers.
• Czech food is full of meat but I got shown two vegetarian restaurants. A lot of it is meat in some sauce with a sort of “dumpling” style bread to eat it with.
• Burnt-o-meter: 4/10. Honestly, I have been doing well so far. The suncream travels around with me
• Items lost: yeah, still 3
• Hostel rating: 8/10. Amazing breakfast, location was a bit far out.