Tag: Czech Republic

I realize I am putting these out super slow, but the 12 days I spent in Europe had a lot of content and had/has even more pictures. So I’ll get to them all when I can OKAY?

Prague was part of country #6 (Czech Republic) out of the 8 I would visit during this whirlwind trip.

You know what’s great about Prague? After being in places like Switzerland and France – my Canadian dollars finally meant something. I went from spending $50/meal in Switzerland to barely spending $100 in two days in Prague. What a magical place.

January 3rd – I landed in Prague at about 10am and caught an Uber to the center, where my AirBnB was located. When I arrived the host was there to let me in just to drop my stuff, since check in wasn’t until like 1pm. This was fine with me because I didn’t care to actually hang out in the AirBnB, I just wanted to drop off my bags and go get some food and roam the streets like a real tourist.

The first thing I did was find food. Do you know how incredible it was to have a VERY heavy meal for only $8.00? It was a miracle after the super expensive countries I had just been in. This place had potato, cabbage and shredded duck. BIG WIN. The food was delicious and now I had my fuel for exploration.

I spent the first half of the day wandering in downtown Prague, trying to get myself acquainted with where certain things were located. I made it across the famous Charles Bridge, bought myself some magnets, ate a fancy ice cream and then went back to my AirBnB for a bit.

Definitely should mention, this AirBnB I had gotten was a ‘private room’ in an apartment and the room itself was larger than my entire apartment that I do have to myself in Toronto. I’ve been in hotel rooms that weren’t as big as this room that just had my bed and a closet in it. I loved this AirBnB so if you’re ever in Prague and want something cheap, big and with an awesome location? Click here.

At about 7pm I made my way to the incredible Christmas Market in Prague. I spent the first 30-minutes of this trek on WhatsApp video with my boyfriend and his work colleagues showing off the streets. They kept me virtual company, thanks guys! For as much as people rather do traveling to warm places during warm seasons (shit, me too) – I will say, traveling to see the Christmas Market in places like Prague is a heck of an experience. So beautiful. The food stands, the music, the crowds of people and did I mention, the food?

This lady was selling a warm apple drink with cinnamon and pear in it, fifty cents. I think I spent $4.00 just at her stand, that’s how amazing this drink was on a cold night. Also, I ended up purchasing an entire pork knuckle/knee/elbow? I can’t even remember which part of the pig I bought but it was massive and it came with spicy mustard, horseradish and bread. GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME. I stood in the cold ass weather and ate the pork body part and drank the delicious warm apple drink. You guys should have seeeeeen the faces people were making at me eating that pork alone, apparently usually a small group of people order that for themselves. Yikes. My long belly has no end, I guess.

Naturally, I followed up all this food with more food by getting the largest crepe filled with Nutella I’ve ever seen in my life. No complaints. Now that I had walked for three hours and eaten more than a small village, I returned back to my AirBnB to get some rest because the following day was going to be even busier.

January 4th – I woke up super late and loved every second of this phenomenon. Up to this point almost every morning I had been up either to catch an early flight or an early tour. Not this day, today I was going to take my time and enjoy being a lazy bum.

Made my way over to a breakfast place that was a three minute walk from the AirBnB, got some food in me, went back to bed. Not the most exciting vacation description I bet, right? But you know what, sometimes on vacation you also DO HAVE TO RELAX. I realize I don’t take my own advice, but even I get tired of just moving all the time.

I got back up at about 1:30pm (told you, SUPER LAZY) and made my way over to The Beer Spa which I had a 2pm reservation for made months ahead. Just in case you are wondering, yes, definitely make your reservation for your 1hr time slot as soon as you can. The day I went? Both of their location were booked up for every damn slot from open to close. They’re very popular.

For full disclosure – I actually don’t drink beer.

I wanted to do this because sitting in a tub of beer sounded really relaxing to me. I mean I’ve sat in all kinds of spas to this point, why not a beer one? Sure. When you get to the spa you are taken into your own room (whole room is yours) and the host lady will explain to you how much time you have and then she will mix the beer stuff into the tub for you. You get to see the whole process in front of you. Then she gives you like three massive empty jugs of beer and says, ‘you can have dark beer or light beer, drink all the beer you want for the hour.’ Basically you sit in a tub of beer, while drinking a bottomless amount of beer AND they give you beer bread. The bread was very good, FYI.

You can choose to go in the tub nekkid or not, I chose not to and was in my bikini instead because I wanted to get some good photos for the blog and IG on my tripod.

The woman left the room and there I was, sitting in my tub of beer, trying beer and eating beer bread. I feel like the beer was such a waste on someone like me who doesn’t enjoy it you know? I did try both the dark and light beer, I just didn’t like it. I really did try.

After your 30 minutes in the tub, the jets turn off and you have another 30 minutes of going to lay down in a straw bed, while continuing to drink your beer. Now the straw bed was….. interesting. I put down sheets on it and then covered myself with the blanket they gave me. For as weird as it was, it was oddly comfortable. As one of my Twitter followers noted, ‘if baby Jesus could lie in it, so can we.’ Can’t say I’ll be giving up my mattress for it just yet though.

The cost of the experience was about $100 Canadian. I’d recommend doing it once for the experience because the beer does make you feel super relaxed to sit in, but do you have to do it more than once? Probably not.

Also, while we are on the topic of substances, let’s talk about marijuana in Prague. Again, a total waste of an experience on me because I have never tried cannabis. I am pro the legalization of it, I love that in Ontario more people will have access to it now, it’s great. However, I don’t think I have EVER EVER EVER seen so much cannabis out in the open like I did in Prague. There was cannabis shampoo, cannabis toothpaste, cannabis vodka, cannabis food items and they even sold like ounces of kush next to the damn Twix. It was so out in the open that all I could think about was if Canada would let me import some chocolate for my friends. I didn’t risk it though, sorry guys, I’m not going to jail over a damn edible.

So I get home after my journey through the valley of beer and kush – it’s time to look nice. During this trip I had looked like a bum about 99% of the time. I traveled during winter with only a carry-on and I did laundry along the way. There wasn’t much space for ‘cute outfits’ and I brought very little makeup. Tonight I was going to experience something I had dreamed of since I was very small. I was going to see the ballet at the famous National Theater in Prague.

If you thought you had to buy tickets early for the Beer Spa? That shit has nothing on the ballet in Prague. I bought my ticket for this ballet back in August. AUGUST! It was now January. The day I purchased my ticket for this ballet, it was the last remaining one for the balcony seating. This is how early you need to try and get tickets for the fine arts in Prague. For the best seat ever, all I did was pay $50.00. I think in Toronto if I wanted nosebleed ballet tickets they might be $50? The price worked really well for me.

There isn’t much I can write about the actual experience because it’s truly indescribable. I saw the Nutcracker. The place was packed. They did have coat check. The dancers and the set design were breathtaking. That’s about it? If you have time to go experience this in Prague, 1000000% go.

You should go to Prague. It’s beautiful. It’s inexpensive. It has class and culture. It’s cannabis and alcohol-friendly. If you’re looking for a good, classy, turn up – this is definitely the place for you.

• Mirna