Prague in a Nutshell – 28 Hours in the Beautiful City on The River with my Sister

As soon as we step out of our hostel and literally right onto Charles bridge, it is already too late. I am in love with this city that lies so charmingly in front of us. It is the blue hour, dawn is settling and slowly the city lights are being turned on. On the bridge itself is a magical athmosphere, just like in the rest of the town, as we discover when we slowly stroll through the crowded alleyways filled with hordes of people, mainly tourists. Normally a no-go for me, a reason to get away as fast as I can, here I don´t mind.

Happily we let ourselves be pulled along, past souvenir shops and thai massage salons in XXX to the Old Town Square with the astronomical tower. We try Trdelnik – a traditional fire-roasted yeast bakery roll with glazed sugar coating -  and sip hot cherry punch. We have no idea anyway what to see and where to go, so following the masses is just fine.

Later, we are hungry and cold and decide to venture back to a restaurant that we saw along the way. Finding it again proves trickier than we thought. Cold and hungry we finally catch the last free table in the restaurant and order whatever seems traditional on the menue, ending up with potato soup in a bread bowl and dumplings of various sorts. A specialty of the place seems to be to flambé liquors: Big-bellied wine glasses are filled with brandies and then set on fire. Halleluja, even from smelling those I´d probably get drunk. After, we don´t feel in the mood for a crazy party night (there´s a pub crawl on that´s supposed to be the biggest in Europe, and by word it probably is) so instead we just stroll back arm in arm along the river chatting about everything and nothing to our hostel and fall into bed with tired legs.

The next morning we decide to go for a traditional McDonalds breakfast (hehe, I just love egg mc muffins, sorry tchech breakfasts) and join the free walking tour. Jenna is our guide for the day. She´s unbelievably cute and we don´t understand a thing she says.

Slowly getting used to her accent, we follow her through old prague along the astronomical tower, the powder tower, newer Prague past the communist museum, through the Jewish Quarter and ending at the Spanish synagogue and the Kafka statue. We learn a lot of interesting things and the good thing is that everything is so close together. Prague really has a perfect size for a short trip: easy to grasp due to its manageable size and thus putting you immediately under its charm. Subway system is easy and fast (even the elevators! Better jump on and be prepared for a rollercoaster speed ride!) and the inner city is extremely beautiful… It´s amongst the ten most romantic holiday destinations in Europe for a reason.

Our last few hours before we are due to leave, we decide to try sweet tschech cuisine – my sister goes for strawberry knödel and I order plum jam ravioli that come in melted butter and roasted walnuts with mint leaves.  Afterwards, we cautiously creep up one of the many stairways in the old town that says Thai Massage on a sign, wanting to be pampered but fearing what might be done to you in those old historic upstairs rooms. Nothing of this sort happens, fortunately. We are being given the usual hilarious comic-patterned shorts and shirt for massage and the next half hour we are kneaded through like cake dough.

Ah, Prague. We didn’t even make it to the castle! Like always, you can see so much in such a short, time, getting a great idea of a city. There´s always more to do, but I had such a great time, and just knowing such a lovely city exists so close to Berlin makes my memory richer once again.

How to Rule Prague Cheaply

MeinFernbus cost us 18 EUR one way and takes 4,5 hrs from Berlin with a quick stopover in Dresden. If you go in low-season, hostels are incredibly cheap: we paid 6 EUR per night and person for a 12 bed dorm bed in totally fine and perfectly located Hostel Mango.