how to spend 24 hours in prague.

Every so often - usually when I get very bored during my lunch break and can't be bothered to fight the crowds to go to Pret in Westminster - I find myself looking for cheap holidays and then if I find one, even if I had no intention of booking, suddenly I'm clicking away and moving money around to just about afford it. It's a bit of a problem when the world is so big and there's so much to see, and an even bigger problem when cheap holidays exist and countries like the Czech Republic are cheap to get to and explore.

So me and a couple of friends made our way to Prague for a super short break to scratch another country off the scratch map and here's a few things we got up to.

Joined a walking tour

A lot of people think that going on a walking tour is a bit of a cheesy, crappy touristy way of seeing a city but it's something I pretty much always do when I first arrive in a new city. They're a great way to get your bearings in a new place and there were so many departing from the Old Town Square in Prague that we really had our pick of different tours at whatever time we fancied. Our guide was definitely an unusual woman, but she did take us to Prague's "creepiest church" where a dead man's arm is hanging from the wall. You can read the full story here, but I doubt it's something I would have found on my own, as I'm pretty bad at doing my research about a city before I go on one.  The great thing about these tours is that you can get free ones and pay what you think they're worth, meaning you never feel done in. 

Saw the Astronomical Clock

Yes, it was slightly underwhelming but it's also quite incredible that it's the oldest working clock of its type in existence. It's hard to work out, but once you do it's pretty awesome. I do recommend finding yourself nearby on the hour to watch it chime the hour, but you do have to pay attention to make sure you don't miss it - it's quite quick! 

Spent time in Old Town Square

Prague has two main squares: the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square, the latter of which meant that I had the Christmas carol stuck in my head for most of the trip. I was not a big fan of Wenceslas Square, which is a bit of a stag do hotspot with pretty crap architecture but Old Town Square was completely the opposite. The architecture was incredible and you could stand on the Square and just soak in the history. Make sure you pay particular attention to the Church of Our Lady before Týn and Old Town Hall - incredible buildings that I couldn't get enough of. 

Visited the Jewish Quarter

The Jewish Quarter in Prague, known as Josefov, is located between the Old Town Square and the Vltava River. It's one of the most preserved Jewish areas in Europe, partly because Hitler wanted to preserve it as a "museum of an extinct race" which is, of course, bloody vile but a big part of the history of the area. Take a look inside in the Spanish Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue (including its Holocaust memorial) and walk through the Old Jewish Cemetery. Don't forget to pay a visit to the statue of one of the area's most famous residents, Franz Kafka, on Dusni Street which depicts a man riding on another man's shoulders and originally appeared in Kafka's "Description of a Struggle". 

Drank

It's really hard to avoid beer in Prague - it's pretty much the only thing that many bars seem to serve and it's ridiculously cheap. There are quite a few varieties of beer, all among the same light theme which can keep you going for some time. Of course, we tried most of the popular local varieties, like Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen and Budvar. And at around £1.50 for a pint, it's pretty hard to say no. 

Walked uphill to Prague Castle

We walked into the Malá Strana district and started the uphill walk to Prague Castle. If you're not a big fan of hills, then there's plenty of shops, bars and squares to take a rest on the way up. It's worth it! When you arrive, if you ignore the random Starbucks at the top, you get some of the best views of the city that Prague has to offer. Prague Castle itself is a little underwhelming if you're expecting a traditional castle, it looks more like an old-school town hall, but honestly, the views and the atmosphere are definitely worth it. 

Walked across the Charles Bridge

It's a ten-minute walk from Old Town Square and another place in Prague to capture those incredible views of the city. The statues along the way are great to stop and look at along the walk across the bridge. It's absolutely full of tourists, so get there early if you want to be able to get across, or do like we did and head across when there was some rain which seemed to put a lot of the other tourists off! Once you've reached the other side, head to the left and visit the John Lennon wall, which was once a wall full of graffiti where young Czech's would complain about the Communist regime and is now more of a mural to "peace and love". 

If you ever get bored during one of your lunch breaks and find yourself looking for a quick and cheap city break to get away to, then you can't really go wrong with Prague. If you've got any ideas for any others, then do let me know!

how to spend 48 hours in lisbon.

So we'll have to excuse the film photos once again - I love them although I appreciate they're not the best quality for use on the internet. But seriously, isn't it nice to have a photo to hold once in a while, instead of hidden away inside your phone? The only issue is that I actually went to Lisbon nearly a year ago but never quite got around to getting them developed - and that really is one of the big problems of having film photos! 

Anyway, on to the matter at hand. Last year (!) I headed off to Lisbon for a little bit of time before heading off to Baleal in Portugal for a surfing trip. I'd been to Lisbon before, with my family, for a very short amount of time, but this was a little longer and this time I was with some friends and was over the legal drinking age which always makes a bit of difference when it comes to holidays I reckon.

48 hours probably isn't enough time to get to grips with all that Lisbon has to offer, but it is a great amount of time to get a taste for what the city has to offer. 

VISIT SAO JORGE CASTLE

We stayed in a little Airbnb pretty close by to the castle and so we made it one of our first stops. You can see it from pretty much anywhere in Lisbon, and it's perfect for walking along the towers and the ramparts to get a wicked view of the rest of Lisbon - and for checking out the view of the 25 de Abril Bridge across the River Tagus. It was quite busy when we arrived, but not overly so, and we paid the 8.50 euro fee to get inside so we could try and take photos of the peacocks which are everywhere inside the castle grounds.

EAT AT GRAPES AND BITES

Hidden away on Rua do Norte, this was one of our favourite places to grab some food while we were in Lisbon - to the point where I still think of it often even now. There was a wide range of petiscos - the Portuguese cousin to Spanish tapas - hot and cold, brilliantly presented and thousands of different wines to choose from too. The food was great, the service brilliant and best of all was that it wasn't too expensive either. 

EXPLORE HILLY STREETS

Even though it nearly killed me and my fat bum, exploring some of Lisbon's back streets was one of my favourite things to do while I was there. I never once managed to get my bearings and considered myself truly lost at most points of time, but you won't get much of a better work out walking up and down the thousands of steps that connect one street to the next. You won't get much better views either, which seem to sneak up on you when you least expect it. 

TAKE A RIDE ON TRAM 28

Most of Lisbon's trams have been replaced by more modern and efficient trains, but one line, the 28, still retains the trams which were commissioned in the 1930s. Not only that, but the route is one of the longest in Lisbon, meaning you get to see a whole lot of the city for a whole lot less than you would were you to pop on a double-decker tour bus. The only downside of doing this is that you have to put up with an absolutely massive queue that you just don't have to with other trams - but you just won't get the same level of charm exploring the city in any other way. When we were in Lisbon and it decided to rain one afternoon, this tram was a lifesaver and kept us dry while we explored for a bit. 

DRINK GINJINHA

I'd never even heard of ginijnha until a friend I was with in Lisbon decided we had to make our way to a little shop to pick up a shot. It's a thick sweet liqueur made from sour cherries, and it's apparently been around in Portugal for over 200 years. We picked ours up from A Ginjinha on Largo de Sao Domingos, where it cost around 1.4 euros. Personally, it's not a drink for me but I'm not one to turn down a shot if I can help it!

SNACK ON PASTEIS DE NATA

I think it's basically the truth that if you don't have at least a million of these little custard tarts when you're in Lisbon, then you have to question if you actually made it to Lisbon at all? You can pretty much get them everywhere, and could probably spend days looking for the best ones. Popular opinion seems to be that the best and most authentic tarts can be found at Pastéis de Belém but it's not too hard to find others to compare them to. 

LOOK OUT FOR TILES

This was seriously one of my favourite things to do in Lisbon, and I came home with more photos of tiles than I did of anything else. I didn't go quite as far as visiting Lisbon's tile museum, but to be honest, I came pretty close. They're a pretty important part of Lisbon's architecture and I was constantly surprised by the sheer range of tiles that there are - every single pattern and colour. It's a pretty big shame that at eye level a lot of the tiles are covered in graffiti - but I suppose that's a reminder to keep looking up!

Also worth a mention is to head to the Jerónimos Monastery. It's not something I personally did, but some of the friends I was with took a visit and really enjoyed it. I'm ashamed to say I passed thanks to a slightly sore head...

So that's my little guide to how to spend 48 hours in Lisbon. Had I had longer, I would have loved to have headed to Sintra, but maybe next time? I'm pretty sure I'll be back.

Have you been to Lisbon? Do you have any more tips?

Annie x

You might also like: a surfing break in baleal

a surfing break in baleal, portugal.

How amazing are film photos though? It's so nice to get them back from the developers and see what you've taken. It takes me right back to my childhood. We'll just ignore that I've had to crop my thumb out of the majority of these...

Anyway.

On to the matter at hand.

The one problem with taking photos of your holiday on only your film camera is that it will, at least if you're me, take you about a year to get them developed. I went on this holiday in May last year. I went with what can only be described as a ragtag bunch of friends - so much so it would almost be impossible to describe the relationship between us all - my ex-best friends University housemate and his current housemate would be a good start. Isn't it funny who you make friends with as you get older? I'm babbling again, sorry!

8 things no one ever tells you about living abroad.

When I was finishing my degree, at the grand old age of 21, I didn't feel ready to off into the real world. It wasn't because I felt I wasn't ready to find a job, move into the real world or anything like that, it's just that I didn't feel I'd finished studying. I was in the process of finishing a Law and Politics degree and although I'd adored the politics side, I'd hated the law side. Of course, the law side had been the majority of the degree. I wanted to learn more politics, it felt like my last chance and so I knew that doing a Masters degree was one of the ways I could fit in learning a bit more. 

Faced with not being able to afford to carry on in Cardiff to do a Masters degree, I made the choice to head abroad. I'd loved Holland on a small holiday when I was 18 and it kept cropping up as a choice. It was a relatively cheap choice (at £1,400 for a year's tuition compared to Cardiff's £5,000), was taught in English and did the course I wanted to do. Not only that, but it was only a 45-minute plane journey from Birmingham and from home. Of course, there was quite a lot of drama around the whole application process which meant that I found out I'd got into my University of choice only two weeks before I was due to start. If you've ever moved countries in two weeks, you might be able to guess at just how stressful that was. But it's how I ended up living in Leiden, the Netherlands, for a year of my life.

how to spend 24 hours in berlin.

I think one of the main overhangs from my family holidays when I was younger is that I always think I can fit seeing a whole city into one day. When I was growing up, we often went on cruises. I know, everyone thinks they're for old people and while I would be lying to you if I said they weren't jam packed full of old people, I always really enjoyed them. They're a great way of seeing a completely different country without having to worry about travelling between them. It meant I got to see most of Europe before I was twenty and I'll never let anyone trash talk a cruise. 

Having said that, you can't fully experience a city in a day. I know that deep down. But life gets in the way of travelling so much, with only around 25 days of annual leave a year you really have to pick and choose what's important to you. And you really can get a good sense of a city in one day even if you can't explore it all - for example, I know you'd have to pay me to go back to Constanța and I'm so glad I didn't waste annual leave on a longer trip. I like picking places in Europe to see quickly so you can make a decision on whether to go back. Berlin was one of those choices.

a must see in berlin: visiting the east side gallery.

On the top of my list of things I needed to do in Berlin was to head to the East Side Gallery. The East Side Gallery is possibly the largest open air gallery around and is a dedicated memorial for freedom. When the Berlin wall went up, the East side remained clear of graffiti, but on the free side of the West, it was covered in street art. In 1990, after the wall had come down in 1989, a group of artists from more than 20 countries came together and painted over 100 murals on a 1316 m long section of the Berlin Wall, stretching from Oberbaumbrücke to the Ostbahnhof, on Mühlenstraße in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, near the real border which was on the River Spree. 

6 things i want to do in prague.

The only thing I'm going to take away from booking this trip to Prague is that I shouldn't be allowed on the internet anymore. More specifically, I shouldn't be allowed on travel websites that have pretty good deals to go to countries that I've always wanted to go to. I think having a world scratch map doesn't help. All I can see every day are these big gaps of countries that need little spaces scratched off and I spend too much time thinking about how I'm going to do that. Poland is driving me nuts, it's so big and needs to be cleared off, Switzerland is even worse, stuck in the middle of other countries I've been to like the odd one out. At least I'll be able to deal with the little problem that is the Czech Republic soon!  

I've finally learnt that doing a teeny bit of research on a country before you go is never a bad idea and it worked out quite well for Berlin. So in the similar vein, I'm whacking out a post of things I want to do.

visiting bakewell. for a tart. or was it a pudding?

You know those horrible inbetweeny days in December, between Christmas and New Year? Those days when you're practically comatose from hitting the box of Roses too hard, you're not sure what day it is and you feel like you've eaten so many roast potatoes you may as well be one? Well this year, I just had to get out of the house. 

One of the benefits of coming from the Midlands is that you're never too far away from anything. Most places are a two hour drive away, which means you get a great level of choice on where to head off to. Funnily enough though, I don't think I've ever properly explored the Midlands. And so when it came to picking somewhere to go and visit for the day, I thought I'd head a little closer to home.

a guide to brick lane market.

One of the wonderful things about living in London is the sheer amount of things you can get up to each weekend - those wonderful days tacked on to the end of the week when you don't have to start your day squashed into a fellow commuter on the tube. I've really enjoyed visiting the different markets London has to offer (there are quite a few to be fair). If you want to get a real feel for an area then all you have to do is visit its market. The difference between Notting Hill's Portobello Road market and the East's Brick Lane market are stark, but so are the areas they're both placed in. I've not been to a market that's been even remotely similar to the last one in London. Have a look at my posts on Maltby Street and Columbia Road, you'll get what I mean.

neon heaven at gods own junkyard | walthamstow.

I love neon lights. A simple but slightly ridiculous statement to make, but it's true. I even used to have a Pinterest board devoted to them. I love how they're tacky and they're bright and they're kitsch and they can really add something to the interior design of a place (you'll know what I mean if you've ever been to Flat Iron), but deep in my heart I know they're something I'll probably never own. I'm just not that good at styling. I can see it now, I'd invest in a neon light and before I knew it, my flat would be mistaken for something a very different kind. A red lit building. A bit like the one I used to live near when I lived in the Netherlands, you know?

street food thursdays at markthalle 9 | berlin.

When I found out that one of the main food markets in Berlin has a street food night which takes place on a Thursday night and that I also would be in Berlin on a Thursday night, it was sliiightly obvious where I'd be heading. Inevitable almost. Heading to a food market is becoming a bit of a habit - both abroad and in London - and so I knew we'd have to find time for Berlin's offering too. Apparently, Berlin is becoming a bit of a haven for foodies and although I wouldn't quite put myself in that category, it was still worth checking out.