Having a real job is hard. It means that suddenly, I can’t just get on a plane and get away from it all. My previous behaviour of impulsively buying a flight somewhere has been suppressed for months, but eventually, your true self always comes out. Next thing I knew, I’d booked a three-day trip to Prague.
Eastern Europe is still a bit of an unknown area to me – apart from a uni trip to a Polish forest – so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. When I landed, I still didn’t know; it was late at night, it was dark, and I had no idea where I was going. I boarded a bus towards the city centre, but soon found myself standing alone in an empty bus depot. The quickfire session of “let’s learn Czech” on the plane had clearly not paid off. Another bus driver took pity on me and explained where I needed to go, and an hour later I finally stumbled into my hostel at about midnight.
Not one for wasting time on short trips, I dropped my bags in my (absolutely amazing, hammock-included-kind) dorm room, and headed downstairs to the hostel’s basement bar. My 75p beer was served to me by a kind Venezuelan bartender, I chatted casually to the Dutch-Spanish lad next to me, whilst we listened to the crooning voice of the singer on stage, brought in especially for 4th of July from Louisiana. After months in the countryside, a perfect introduction into, what I would learn to be, a very international city.
The next morning I ran into a friendly Canadian guy I’d briefly met the night before. Neither of us had any plans, and after the formal introductions had been made (“Canadian guy” is probably not a name to stick with), we decided to head towards Old Town. We explored some interesting art along the way, ran into the most intense toyshop I had seen in years (it had slides, and a butterfly garden, and a maze, and…) and eventually made our way to sit down by the river for a well-deserved drink. The city is stunning; the architecture is a mix of colours and styles and history seeps through the pores of every building. The tourist areas were unpleasantly busy (it is, after all, the high season), but once you veered off the main streets it was relaxing and quiet. We found a phenomenal vegetarian restaurant for lunch where we ate until we couldn’t move.
After lunch, we headed our separate ways I wanted to visit the zoo. Having heard many good things over the years, I was intrigued – was it really as progressive as people claimed? I spent a few hours wandering (or rather climbing, as the whole zoo is built on a hillside) around and I was impressed with what I saw. Modern exhibits, spacious enclosures, and non-stereotypic polar bears left me feeling like numerous English zoos could learn from this.
By the time evening came around, we met up again and decided to join the hostel’s “Beer and Bingo” night. They offered beer at an even cheaper price now and soon bingo was a highly competitive sport rather than an enjoyable game. We made friends with the Kiwis and Ozzies next to us, and an American couple from Utah. Although I didn’t get to yell Bingo, I did win the drawing competition through pure bribery, and I shared the shots I won with my new friends.
The next morning we headed out for a tour with my two roommates, from the States and Australia. But not any tour: a treasure hunt tour. A quick Google search the night before for a more original way to see the city led us to CityQuester, an interactive treasure hunt that would take us around the sights. We showed up at the start point, smartphone in hand, ready to go. The rules were explained: we had 150 minutes to finish the assignments and get to the finish. Through an app, we would be in touch with “The Spirit of Prague”, who’d be giving us assignments and tasks to get going. There were opportunities to win more time, and the tasks could be anything. Off we went…
It was incredibly fun. From the get-go, the tasks were easy enough to not be frustrating, but hard enough to make us think and get us running around. Some of the tasks were simply fun (we declared our love to wine, waddled like penguins, and sang our national anthems), whereas others taught us about the (often quite dark) history of the city. As time started to run out we scrambled for bonus points before getting to the finish point 155 minutes after we started – but with all our bonus points, we easily won and were rewarded with chocolate. Along the way we had stumbled across a tiny riverside restaurant, and we strolled back for a long lunch accompanied by a bottle of wine.
In the evening our new Californian friend took us to her favourite cocktail bar, where nothing was too extravagant. Mine, which was the “Christmas in Havana” (Havana Añejo, Koko Kanu, lemon cordial, mint water and dehydrated coconut) was served in a snowglobe, with a tiny stopper at the bottom which was removed to drink it. Shaking the globe made the coconut move like real snowflakes. Another (“Taste of the Forest”) was served on a bed of moss and lichen, with a sprig of spruce set on fire to make the room smell like forest. Eventually we made our way home, and my time in Prague was almost at an end.
A final breakfast later, enjoyed in the sunshine, and I was on my way. I wandered around the city centre for a bit longer, taking in some of the shops and grabbing a mandatory bottle of Becherovka to take home, and it was time to head to the airport. On my way home I remembered: I had come to Prague to see if I still had it in me, this whole backpacking thing. Staying in hostels, wandering around aimlessly – am I getting too old, to mature? Not a chance. The inspirational women I shared my room with showed me that backpacking has no age limit, and I found myself truly relax for the first time in ages wandering around without a goal, or a destination to get to. So I’ll be dusting off my pack and looking out for the next best flights; any suggestions are always welcome…
Faye Vogely 
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