Prague in 2 Days: Two Walking Tours, a Chimney Cake & a Bus Booking Gone Wrong

Prague is a great-vibe, chill kind of city. Even after Vienna - which is no small act to follow - Prague held its own. All around, people eating, drinking and, in capital letters, ENJOYING LIFE. We had two days to take it in, walked nearly all of it, ate a chimney cake that haunts me to this day, and managed one truly excellent booking blunder. Here is exactly what we did.

Day 1
Hotel Bilakut, a 6pm Walking Tour & the Lennon Wall

We rolled in from Vienna and reached Hotel Bilakut for a 2pm check-in. After dropping bags, we grabbed some veg food and a bubble tea on the way to our 6pm walking tour. The tours in Prague are "free" walking tours - pay-as-much-as-you-like at the end, no compulsion - and I cannot recommend them enough.

Our Day 1 tour took us through the Old Town, across Charles Bridge, past more sights than I can list, and ended at the Lennon Wall. I'd seen the wall in so many movies but knew nothing about its history - the tour fixed that in fifteen good minutes. Because of the guide, we enjoyed a lot more than we would have wandering on our own, and picked up a serious amount of city history in the process.

We walked all the way back to the hotel and on the way ate the Hungarian-origin dessert that has become Prague's signature - Trdelnik, the chimney cake with gelato stuffed inside it. It is worth every penny. We also booked too many costly souvenirs and then slept it all off.

Day 2
Prague Castle Walking Tour, One Sip of Czech Beer

Day 2 was built around a second walking tour, this time for Prague Castle and the town around it. We'd already booked a Hop on Hop off so we started by using it, but honestly, after the walking tour, the bus felt redundant. The walking tour was completely worth it. We took an unreasonable number of pictures.

Prague is picturesque, completely. Mesmerized by the life there. Harshit thought about getting a caricature done by one of the street artists, but dropped the idea at the last minute. We strolled the streets and tried Czech beer - the thing the country is famous for - and could not finish the mug. We left it on the table, slightly embarrassed, and moved on. Then we took the HoHo out again to a very old village near Prague that has been brewing beer for centuries. Beautiful, even to two non-drinkers.

Food in Prague: Maitree, Svickova & the Chimney Cake

For our big dinner, we went to a vegan restaurant called Maitree. We wanted to try Prague's traditional food, but with a vegetarian option - and Maitree's veg version of Svickova (we had to Google the name later) hit the spot. Svickova is traditionally a beef sirloin in cream sauce with dumplings and cranberry; the vegan take preserved the soul of it without the meat, and we left full and happy.

The other Prague food memory is, of course, the Trdelnik. Chimney cake, hot off the rolling spit, with cold gelato dropped in the middle. We ate one on Day 1 and one more before leaving, just to make sure the first wasn't a fluke. It wasn't.

Honest Reflection: One Disappointment & One Booking Mistake

I will admit two things honestly. First - the Astronomical Clock. Famous, much-watched, hourly performance with the apostles parading past. Sorry to say it, but for us it was the 2nd most disappointing thing of the whole Europe trip. (The first, in case you're wondering, is waiting for us in Paris in the form of the Mona Lisa.) Watch it once, take your picture, move on.

Second - the booking blunder. I thought I had booked a RegioJet train from Prague to Paris, the same way we'd taken RegioJet from Vienna to Prague. Turned out I had booked a 13-hour bus ride. For a few hours I thought we were genuinely screwed. In the end the bus was surprisingly comfortable and we even met a South Indian student studying in Prague at the station. So it worked out. But please, double-check what you actually booked.

What stays with me about Prague isn't the clock or the bus. It is the chill, the cobblestones, the cheap good food, and that line about people enjoying life. With chimney cake crumbs on our laps and happy memories in our heads, we left for Paris.