While I had a month off before moving to London I decided it would be a shame not to make the most of still being in central Europe and popped over to the Czech Republic for a few days in Prague. It was a very last minute decision so four days was all a friend in Germany and I had to book our train tickets, accommodation and plan our itinerary. I can safely say that we successfully pulled it off and I had the most memorable three days in Prague. DAY 1 I arrived on Thursday night, checked into Sophie's Hostel and headed straight to the bar for happy hour with $1.50 beers. For a mere €2 I partook in the hostel's Czech Beer Tasting event where I tried six different beers. I was pleasantly surprised by how good Czech beers are, especially considering that they rarely cost more than €2. At the beer tasting I met a Kiwi who already lives in the area of London that I just moved to so I got the lowdown on how to survive the London life (especially readjusting to "expensive" food and drinks again).
I met up with my friend, Abby who had travelled from Germany, in the city later that evening but we quickly decided to head back to the hostel because it was only 6pm but already -10 degrees. We bought a couple of delicious doner kebabs from a nearby takeaway and took them back to our hostel. Like most of my hostel experiences it wasn't long until we found more Australians in the room and joined them at their table which also included an archaeologist from Melbourne, a couple of geology students from Argentina, and a nurse from South Korea. I was definitely one of the least accomplished and youngest in the room, but despite our differences we all got along just fine. DAY 3 We took it pretty easy because it was cold and we were both a bit tired from all of the socialisation from the night before. We headed straight into town and found a great little breakfast café. After a delicious breakfast we still had absolutely no plan for our day so just wandered around the Old Town centre for a little while. St. Nicholas Cathedral was gorgeous to marvel at and also did well to shield us from the cold wind for a quick minute so we headed in there. Eventually we had to head back out and brave the negative temps to go and see the Jewish Quarter but every now and again the sun came out and the fleeting moments of warmth were glorious! Another great escape from the cold was the lolly shop near the town square that sold "traditional Czech" Trdlo. Trdlo, also known as 'chimney cakes' are pastry coiled into a cone and filled with whipped cream, chocolate, and a strawberry (because there has to be some sort of nutritional aspect in there). It was actually quite sickening and not a treat I could ever see myself enjoying but the sugar rush did help to keep us warm for the next couple of hours while we wandered around the old town square some more. That night we joined our group from the night before for a pub crawl which ended up being rather disappointing. As it turns out, Czech nightlife at 10pm on a Saturday is almost non-existent which we only found out after making the half hour trek to the city centre. We managed to find one open bar which was full to the brim and charged an extortionate price for a beer so we didn't stay long. We did stay long enough to sneak into the equally as disappointing and overpriced nightclub downstairs, but that's a story for another day...
That night we were all exhausted so we grabbed some cheap but delicious burgers from an unexpectedly great burger shop around the corner. When we headed up to the dorm we came across our room-mates who had set up their own hairdressing salon in the bathroom - you're never short on entertainment when you stay in hostels, that's for sure!
Despite the freezing cold temperatures and the 18-hour travel time due to train delays, this weekend was well worth it and completely unforgettable. If you're ever in Europe make sure to take a couple of days to witness Prague's beauty for yourself!
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