During my childhood we use to ask our friends to spell “Czechoslovakia”, one of the difficult words in English. All I knew during that time was that it was a country in Europe. Later the country was split into two and they also divided the name of their country!! The two countries were “Czech” and “Slovakia”!! Prague, the capital city became part of Czech Republic.
 |
| Prague castle |
Well, this was a post long overdue. I visited Prague in April this year. But the New Zealand trip and monsoon travels took most of my time in writing. Before I forget, I thought that I must put this in writing.
 |
| Charles bridge |
During my official visit to Netherlands, I had a weekend to spare. Prague was in my backlog for sometime. The cheaper tickets to Prague helped to quickly decide on the destination. It was an early morning flight from Eindhoven on Saturday and late evening flight to Amsterdam on Sunday. Indeed it was a very short visit and I utilized every possible minute of my stay in Prague.
 |
| Church of Our Lady before Týn |
Here are some of tips with resect to time utilization and budget.
- No check-in luggage. Saved time in both Prague and in Amsterdam. Directly head to exit after getting down the plane.
- Euro is not the currency of Czech Republic. Exchange centers in airports offer very bad rates. It makes sense to just exchange what is required for using public transport to the center of the city. There are many exchange centers in the town that provides competitive rates. Just ensure that the currency you get is legal!!
- There is no need to use taxis in Prague. Public transport is very efficient.
- Prague has 30 and 90 minutes, 1 and 3 day pass that gives access to all forms of public transport. For me two day pass would have been ideal but it was not available.
- I purchased 24 hour pass on the first day at airport. I decided to visit Prague castle for the second day and reached the castle before the 24 hour expiry. Prague castle takes a long time to see. So, on the second day, I just used 90 minute pass to travel from the center to the airport.
 |
| Ticket counter at airport |
- There is no direct metro from Airport to center. You need to take a bus (No. 119) that drops to a metro station. Works very well.
- Be prepared to walk. I walked more than 30 km in two days. The city is too beautiful.
- Food was not a problem in Prague. I am a vegetarian and I could find many Vegan restaurants. Vegan restaurants were expensive when compared to fast food chain.
- Trdelník is a sweet roll found at many places. One must eat it though it can be very heavy for stomach!! Rolled dough is grilled and topped with sugar and walnut mix.
- For the first time, I stayed in AirBnB apartment. It was near to a metro station and very convenient. It had a kitchen where I cooked noodles in the morning.
 |
| Area where I stayed |
- Only place where you need to pass security is Prague castle. The wait can be frustrating. More on that in later posts.
- Language is not a problem though the official language is Czech as Prague is very touristy place.
- Summer gives a longer time to see the city. On the flip side, you need to wait for a long time for evening or night photography.
Let me try to put some details on the places I visited in the next posts.
R Niranjan Das
Pretty frames.
aravindgj
Thanks Niranjan.