In my last post I walked you through when I arrived in Prague and my first impressions. Here we go a bit deeper into the city and its history with Prague Castle – the biggest castle in Europe!

Guided tour and River Cruise

The next day I went across to the other side of the river to the main island. The Hostel was in the Lesser town of Prague which is the smaller part next to Kampar island. 

On Google Maps I found a really great cafe for breakfast with great reviews. This was Bond Cafe which was in a kind of side road closer to residential areas rather than the main square or tourist areas. You can probably imagine my snap of my coffee, “I’ll have my coffee stirred, not shaken”. 

I had a lovely breakfast with omelettes and a vegan bread with salad which was really delicious and refreshing. The cafe itself was really comfortable with all the James Bond style portraits and pictures. It was a great cafe which I recommend visiting.

On the day I actually booked myself onto a guided tour and a small river cruise. My tour guide was I think Jenna who was lovely and very knowledgeable. She gave us the history of the Lesser Town area in Prague. 

Some key highlights of the tour included the John Lennon wall which was a wall with graffiti. This was art by the way, not graffiti as you’d see in vandalism. This was initially a protest movement against communism but the wall has had many versions over the years the most recent being two years ago. 

The last part of the wall relates to the Ukraine war with a painting of Ukrainian soldiers having victory over a Russian tank. I really loved this. I’m a creative person myself and I love Art and even more so the messages that people try to say behind them. The John Lennon wall is about freedom and liberation. It’s about Europe’s struggles and victory over communism to a much more liberated life for its people. I love this and I think it’s so important that people remember and celebrate this whether through Art, festivals, songs or writings.

It’s now illegal to write on the wall but Jenna said people still do it. The law isn’t really enforced and people have been seen to write their names on some parts of the wall. I’m sure that at some point it will have a new drawing, maybe perhaps when Donald Trump comes into power again(!) (NOTE: The time of writing this was early 2024 before the US Election). 

I’m not sure but I would assume that this would need to be organised rather than people effectively breaking the law to modify the wall again. As far as I’m concerned it is still an artwork in development and probably will remain like that for its life which is a fantastic thing.

In Prague by the river on each side, you will see these metal like slabs on the ground which stretch for miles. At first I just thought maybe they were some types of pipes like water or gas pipes. However I learnt on the guided tour that after the floods in 2002, these were actually flood defences. 

These are effectively 8ft walls that can be raised in a half hour if ever the river starts to get flooded again which causes a risk to life and/or property. I thought about this and the genius of engineering and resilience that people have in the face of tragedies. 

Prague is now more prepared for these floods and I was just amazed and inspired after learning about this. Jenna showed us some markings on the wall where you have a blue line across the middle of a house or building. This was where the water reached up to in the floods which was astonishing. It was so high and I can’t imagine that and what it must have felt like for the city.

We also visited a few churches and monasteries and learned about them. One interesting one was a church run by the Knights Templar which was effectively a religious military order that was designed in its early history to protect the church and monarchy. 

I find history quite fascinating and love learning about this. Another interesting fact that we were told was that Charles University in Prague is completely free of tuition fees for anyone in the world that is able to speak fluent Czech. This was amazing and maybe something to keep in mind if you have children!

Following Jenna’s tour it was time for the short 40 minute river cruise. I thanked Jenna and everyone said goodbye. I’m still yet to give her a review, but I need to find the QR code she provided in order to do so but she was a really good tour guide. 

The river cruise was good and quite relaxing. I didn’t have the best seats, if I’m being honest, so I couldn’t see much of the river without an obstructed view. We had an English guide through some headphones which was useful somewhat but I generally just sat back enjoying a drink that they offer as part of the cruise in a plastic cup. 

After the tour you can use the boat ticket to visit the Charles Bridge museum. This is a small museum which gives the history of how the bridge was built and the historical life around it. It was worth visiting especially if it’s free!

I had a relaxing evening that day. I just went to Kempa Park and listened to a podcast episode of the Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett. It was just nice to wind down a bit in the park and have a sit down on the benches. 

The park itself was lovely and very green. There were tourists around but you could find some quiet spaces. There were also Czechs that were out jogging and cycling so you had to be careful not to bump into them accidentally. I also found a nice quiet restaurant that evening for dinner which was away from the crowds. 

It was nice just to have a dinner in peace on a relaxing evening. I can’t remember exactly what I ordered, but it was a pretty decent meal.  The waiter was lovely and we had a talk about Prague vs London. 

He’d been to London and we made comparisons on that, especially about the price of food and going out. FYI – it’s relatively pretty much the same now. Pounds in the UK typically buy you the same things and amounts across Europe today I feel.

Prague Castle

The main event for the next day was Prague Castle. Prague castle is the biggest castle in Europe. So much so that it doesn’t actually feel and look like a castle walking around inside but more of a gated guarded small town. 

It was so busy and full of tourists I think. It is only a 15 minute walk from my hostel but as it’s at a raised location, you need to walk up a lot of steps before you get to the entrance. It does have some stunning views over Prague so it’s worth the hike if you’re there and just want the views.

There are a number of sites within the complex and the gardens are just so lovely. Key highlights were the Old Royal Palace, St. Vitus Cathedral and St George’s Basilica. I purchased entry tickets to the entire castle but as with the Vatican Museums, if you do go please buy a guided tour in advance. I’m not sure why I never learnt from this, but I think up to the run up of my holiday I didn’t spend too much time on planning beyond just getting there.

St Vitus Cathedral is so big and so in your face. It had beautiful architecture and was mesmerising. I do like churches and old cathedrals and I always visit one or two at the very least in my holidays. 

I just like the old architecture and designs and I really like that most of them are free and welcoming to everyone. I am always a bit hesitant about doing that in the UK in my home town just to avoid raising any questions from my community who like to gossip and talk. So when abroad I always take the opportunity to visit churches and cathedrals, I love them.

I don’t think I saw everything at Prague castle and this was because I didn’t have a guide but it was enjoyable and I had a great visit on my own. Among the main parts I also visited the servants’ dorms which to be honest are pretty much the same as some rooms I rented in London. 

That night back in the hostel everyone in the room played a card game. It lasted for about an hour and we all got talking. The guys were leaving early tomorrow morning. I didn’t bring my hearing aids on holiday and it was at this point that it really became evident to me that I needed them. 

Everyone just sounded really quiet and faint. I did already ask them to speak up as I am a hearing aid user but obviously in a general conversation, you’re just going to speak your natural tone which was quite difficult for me and I couldn’t really follow the conversation. 

But it was a lovely evening just to hang out casually with some other travellers. I was by far the oldest person in the room and I did think about whether hostels are still appropriate for me to stay in or should I be using airbnb instead? I’m not sure but it’s just that in all the hostels I stayed I was typically the oldest person.

I went out at night for the first time in Prague over the Charles Bridge as it was my last night. The river and bridge at nightfall is absolutely beautiful and I would encourage everyone to see it at night if you can. I took a few photos and then made my way back for a morning flight the next day to Bucharest.

I loved my time in Prague. The Hostel I stayed at was lovely. It was pretty basic but an amazing location and I was very fortunate to have met some amazing people. I think the one thing perhaps with the hostel was that it wasn’t very social and didn’t have any social activities as part of my trip. But this was absolutely fine. 

Final Thoughts on Prague

Some observations I did make when I woke up in the morning is that literally everyone else in the room was on their phone. That seemed like the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning. It was a bit shocking how consistent this was that they were just on the phone. There was no Good morning or how was your sleep or nothing like this. 

I have adhered to a rule that I set for myself a little while ago, that I would avoid looking at my phone when I wake up. I find that when I do this it gives me a lot more energy to do stuff in the morning. I can get up, take a shower and get out the door. I can do this very quickly if I don’t look at my phone. But the minute I look at my phone in the morning it just sucks all of that momentum and I’m just lying in bed scrolling through the news or seeing what’s happening. It just sucks the life out of you and that is exactly what I seemed to have observed with these young people in the hostel room. We need to get off these phones honestly. 

There’s only a few things I didn’t like too much about Prague. The first and major thing is that everything is absolutely paid for. For example there are no free public toilets, you do have to pay to use a toilet for anything. This may be something like £1 but being a tourist you might use your card a lot more than carrying cash. Just something to be aware of and maybe grab some money as soon as you can as you will need it. 

I mentioned before it can be challenging for a vegetarian to get a decent meal and I did really feel this but I managed. There are also some parts of Prague like some famous squares where on Google it will be listed as a tourist attraction, but once you get there it’s kind of like ok what am I looking at? It’s just a town centre with shops so it doesn’t really look like a big deal. 

One regret that I did have was that I never experienced much of the nightlife as I didn’t go out after the sun went down. But I do think the nightlife in Prague is really alive based on what I hear. I think being a solo traveller who can’t see very well in the dark, it’s just probably not that comfortable for me to be out at night but maybe I can develop this confidence a bit more.

If you’re enjoying reading this blog stay tuned for my next post when I head to Romania. There were some good parts like the hostel and meeting new friends as well as parts I would do differently next time (more my fault than anything). Stay tuned and please do share this blog and help me to keep it running! You’re awesome!!