I took a week-long vacation to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest
in August 2019 with my sister Sarah and our best friend Michele. My travel
buddies stayed a few extra days but I came home after 7 days because it was a
busy time for work. It was super fast for 3 capital cities and reminded me of
my European backpacking trip when I was 21…a very long time ago. This time I
upgraded to hotels instead of hostels and drank slightly less. Maturity! Here
are a few highlights if you’re interested, but first: the TL,DR feature:
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| Prague |
General Tips:
- Buy train tickets in advance.
- My cell provider offers a $10/day feature for call, text, and data when abroad. I highly recommend it.
- When withdrawing money from ATMs, use the "without conversion" option if offered.
Prague Highlights:
- Don't rely on Uber in Old Town.
- Stay in Hotel Liliova Prague Old Town.
- Go to Brevnov Monastery and Strahov Monastery (have a drink at the outdoor bar at Strahov overlooking the city).
- Obviously go to Prague Castle.
Vienna Highlights:
- Dinner at Gasthaus zu den 3 Hacken was delicious.
- I loved walking around the museums and having breakfast in the park.
Budapest Highlights:
- Have dinner at Chef’s Café.
- Another obvious one, but take a river cruise at night on the Danube.
- If you want to splurge, have dinner at Costes Downtown.
- Definitely spend a day at Szechenyi Thermal Baths.
Days 0 and 1: Prague
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| Charles Bridge |
I left Austin on Saturday and flew to JFK where I met up
with my sister at the airport for our 6.5-hour flight to Prague. We landed
around 1 pm on Sunday, waited almost an hour to get through immigration (Be
patient in Prague in the high season. You and everyone in the world are there.),
and took a bus and a train to downtown, where we had a short walk to our hotel.
We checked in around 3 and hit the town. Old Town Prague was mobbed, but that’s
what happens when you go to a hot spot in high season. The crowds were thick
everywhere we went and we just kind of shuffled along with them. We shuffled to
the Charles Bridge for views of the castle and St. Vitus Cathedral, snapped a
selfie, and turned around toward the Old Town Square. We shuffled to the
Astronomical Clock and a cathedral in the square and then shuffled through
twisty cobblestone streets for an hour until I started getting hungry.
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| Old Town Prague |
Sarah warned me that Prague is a very cash-based city (I
didn’t do much research for this trip, which will become obvious soon), so we
needed to find an ATM before we could get a late lunch. We had been looking for
a bank ATM but everywhere we went had private ones that charged crazy fees. After
we passed through the old Powder Tower and came to the Municipal Hall, we
scored an actual bank ATM (turn right after the tower, Muni Hall will be on the
left). We each took out a little less than USD150. We had the choice to
withdraw money with or without conversion, and I had a little bell ringing in
my head from some previous trip that without conversion was the right answer.
(Sarah Googled it later and I was right! Always choose without conversion if
you can.)
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| Inside Municipal Hall Cafe |
We decided to eat at the beautiful café in the Municipal
Hall, which is a stunning art nouveau building. We sat at a table on the
sidewalk overlooking the small square and ordered beers and a cheese plate.
Happily satiated, we decided to go back to the hotel for showers and a little
rest before Michele arrived. It was around 7, and she was due around 9:30, so
we planned on going back out with her when she got to the hotel.
I hit the bed HARD and the next thing I knew Michele was in
the room trying to find a place to dump her backpack. I was groggy and Sarah
was out. I dragged myself out of bed to get ready for dinner but Sarah would
not be waking up to join us. Mish and I walked a couple blocks to Old Town
Square and sat down at a sidewalk table that was still full of people eating
and drinking. She got a very Czech meat-based meal and I selected the one
vegetarian entrée: fried cheese with French fries. We discussed going somewhere
else for another beer after dinner, but then it started raining on us so we
decided to call it a night. We made the short walk to the hotel and I was fast
asleep in no time.
Day 2: Prague
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| Brevnov Monastery |
The next morning, we had the free breakfast in the hotel
(Sarah’s a pro at finding gems of hotels with free breakfast). We shuffled
Michele through the sights we saw yesterday and over to the main train station.
I wanted to buy our tickets to Vienna in advance (we were going the next day)
because I hate being rushed on the way somewhere and I was worried the train
would sell out. We waited in line for a little bit and to get tickets for the
2.5-hour train to Vienna the next day. Our charming ticket vendor politely let
us know we were stupid for initially buying train tickets without paying the
extra charge for reserved seats. High season again.
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| Brevnov Cafe |
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| Brevnov Gardens |
Then we hit public transportation for the day’s main
adventure: 2 monasteries with a walking tour of suburban Prague in between. It
took us a few wrong turns to get to the first monastery, Brevnov, but we got to
wander through a beautiful old cemetery on the way. It was pretty quiet when we
arrived at Brevnov and we walked toward the church in the back, but it was
closed to the public. We meandered through their gardens for a bit and then
headed to the café for monastery beers. Michele ordered a pork appetizer but
she wasn’t too impressed with the ball of pate with raw onions and loaf of
bread she received. Sarah and I stuck to beer. As we were leaving a bunch more
tourists were piling in the gates.
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| Strahov |
Next we started our walk through a very communist-looking
village of apartment towers and came out on a street with cute little cottages
on more winding cobblestone streets. The walk was about an hour and then we
reached the second monastery of the day, Strahov. This one is famous for its
library and there were many more people than at Brevnov. We bought tickets that
gave us access to a roped-off door at the entry of the library. No one is
allowed in it, so we snapped a few photos and went off in search of our next monastery
beer. Strahov has a much nicer outdoor seating area and we were all taken aback
by the amazing views of the city down below. It was so beautiful we decided to
have a couple rounds and another cheese plate to soak up the view. (Am I eating
too much cheese and beer?)
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| Strahov Library |
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| Strahov |
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| Strahov Library |
Then we walked to the tram stop and headed back to old town.
We wandered a little south along the river and stopped at a cute beer garden
right on the water. Then we decided to rent a paddleboat because the river was
full of people paddling around and it looked adorable. We took a spin in our
boat as close to the Charles Bridge as we could get and turned around to ride
by hippie island. It has a proper name, but I just remember Sarah reading from
her guidebook that it’s a bohemian enclave of artists and free spirits who like
to picnic by the water, so it became hippie island in my mind.
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| Paddlers |
Then we headed to a restaurant Sarah found in her research
for dinner. Again we got to sit at a table on the sidewalk and enjoy dinner.
Everywhere we went in old town, we saw people eating or selling things called
trdlos and trdloniks, which we started calling turtlenecks. They are ice cream
cones but made from a sugar-covered pastry and they looked delicious, so I had
to have one after dinner. Mine was filled with whipped cream (not the ice cream
I was expecting), chocolate sauce, and strawberries. It was so good, especially
toward the end of the pastry cone when it was pretty much just pastry and
chocolate sauce. Highly recommend.
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| Turtlenecks |
After we finished our turtlenecks we all agreed it was time for bed but decided to make a quick stop at the Charles Bridge to see it at night. Our hotel was in a great location so it was an easy detour. After a few night photos of the castle lit up in the distance, we happily called it a night.
Day 3: Prague and Vienna
We started the day with free breakfast again and had to
check out of the hotel. We were heading to Vienna in the afternoon but had time
for a tour of Prague Castle first. We got there early enough that the lines and
crowds weren’t terrible (but by the time we left it was crazy, so go early!).
Sarah had her guidebook with her and gave us an excellent walking tour of the
beautiful St. Vitus Cathedral and the castle.
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| St. Vitus |
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| Prague Castle |
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| Inside St. Vitus |
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| Small cathedral in Prague Castle |
We stopped for coffee at a café
along the river and then walked the small Jewish quarter for a little before
heading back to old town for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Then we picked up
our bags at the hotel and waited for our Uber. Turns out most Uber drivers
won’t pick you up in old town. After waiting for one for about 20 minutes who then
canceled when he got close, and then having another 2 cancel on us, we had to
speed walk the 20 minutes to the station with our big backpacks. Keep that in
mind if you go. We made it just in time for our 2:45 train and settled in to
read horoscopes, take personality quizzes, and drink wine.
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| Mushroom goulash |
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| Gasthaus zu den 3 Hacken |
When we arrived in Vienna, I made the girls buy tickets to
Budapest with me before we left the train station. This time it was warranted
as tickets for the day were already sold out. If we had waited to buy when we
were leaving the next day, we would have been out of luck. By the time we got
to our hotel near St. Stephen’s Cathedral, it was too late to make the symphony
in Schonbrunn Palace, which was really the only thing I wanted to do in Vienna
(they have a show every night in the palace during the summer). Bummer, but
it’s a reason to go back. So instead we looked up a restaurant in Sarah’s
guidebook (Gasthaus zu den 3 Hacken) and I had an amazing dinner of mushroom goulash.
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| Wine garden |
Next up, we found a “wine garden” downtown. Vienna is known
for wine gardens, and the concept sounded perfect, but it turned out to be just
another café with sidewalk tables serving wine. Nice, sure, but not really what
I was picturing. (To be fair, if we had time to go a bit out of the city, there
are real wine gardens.) Sarah decided to go to bed after this, which is always
the right decision, but Michele and I wanted to see the Viennese nightlife.
Turns out it’s not so great, at least not where we were. We found one café that
served us a drink as they closed up everything, and then we stumbled upon a
tiny, packed, “American” bar for a nightcap before finally calling it a night.
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| Stephensdom near our hotel in Vienna |
Day 4: Vienna and Budapest
Sarah and Michele got up early the next morning to sightsee,
but I opted to sleep in another couple of hours. After leisurely packing up my
stuff, I wandered down to Museum Row and the Hofburg Palace and had brunch at a
lovely café in the gardens. I didn’t actually go inside any of the museums, but
I walked by them all and snapped a few photos, so I’m good with that. |
| Vienna |
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| Budapest Keleti Station |
We met up at the hotel to pick up our bags and go to the
train station. We were off to Budapest and I was very excited. Is it bad that I
was leaving Vienna after fewer than 24 hours and not really bothered? I’ll let
you judge, but I didn’t feel bad. We filled our 4-hour train ride with more
horoscopes, tarot cards, and personality quizzes, and then we pulled into the
most beautiful, abandoned-looking train station (that’s obviously not abandoned
at all). We had to walk the whole perimeter before we found the little room
selling tickets for international trains (again, I insisted on buying tickets
immediately). Then we took the subway to the inner city and walked about 10
minutes to our hotel. Already, I was happy. The streets were so much less
crowded but just as beautiful as Prague and Vienna.
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| Catfish goulash |
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| Chef's Cafe |
We chilled in the room and looked up options for our night
entertainment: a cruise on the Danube River to see the sights of Budapest. We
had plenty of options and selected an hour tour that started at 9 pm. River
cruises are one of the most popular tourist activities in Budapest, and I
recommend it. Next order of business: dinner. Sarah found a cute place called
Chef’s Café, which recommended you have reservations but we headed over early
in hopes of beating the rush. (Can you tell that Sarah was our de-facto tour
guide, willing or not?) We got to Chef’s Café before 6 and scored the last
non-reserved table. We were waited on by Chef himself, and his son, and enjoyed
their hilarious banter and the delicious food. I got catfish goulash, and it
was soooo much better than I was expecting. One of my best meals of the trip.
After dinner we walked along the river for a while and then headed over to our
night cruise.
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| Budapest Parliament |
Boats leave docks along the riverfront almost constantly in
Budapest, and for good reason. It’s an easy but beautiful tour. We cruised down
the Pest side for about 30 minutes, passing the Chain Bridge, the gorgeous parliament
building, the Elisabeth Bridge, and then we turned around and passed the Buda
Castle on the way back, along with countless other sights lit up in the night.
We were staying on the Pest side (the more urban side) and didn’t really explore
Buda at all, so it was nice to see it at night.
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| Buda Castle |
After the night tour we walked back to our hotel about 20
minutes from the waterfront. Michele wanted a rooftop bar, so we tried
valiantly the whole walk to find one, but with no luck. We ended up at an
sidewalk café, but again they were closing up as we arrived. We were able to
have one drink before the started rolling up awnings and moving tables and
chairs inside, so we headed home around midnight.
Day 5: Budapest
The next morning, we woke up leisurely and walked to a
nearby café for brunch. This was one of my few contributions to the agenda: a
couple of tables at the entrance to a city park with a waiter who ferries
coffee and brunch food to you from a tiny café across the street. The food and
coffee were delicious, and it was a such a lovely spot. Then we went back to
the hotel to get ready for the best part of Budapest: the baths! I was stoked.
Budapest is known for its Roman and Turkish baths, and today we were heading to
the largest/most touristy of them all: Szechenyi Thermal Baths.
We had taken public transportation in all of our cities, but
the tram to the baths was something special. They have old-timey tram cars
restored and running on tracks through the city. Super fucking charming. When
we got to our stop, we walked over to the big yellow buildings right across the
street from a rundown-looking children’s park. Budapest is beautiful in such a
unique, semi-derelict way.
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| Szechenyi Thermal Baths |
We walked into the baths and paid our entrance fee and
headed to the changing rooms. After putting on our suits and showering off, we
did a full lap of the baths before committing to a plan. They are massive and
offer so many options. There are two large pools outside separated by a lap
pool (you have to wear a swim cap to get in the lap pool) and a huge network of
indoor pools: hot tubs, almost-freezing plunge pools, and everything in
between. The main building we entered through also houses the locker rooms, bar
and restaurant, and sunning decks.
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After our initial lap we decided to start outside and work
our way through every single pool (and steam and sauna room, I forgot to
mention those) inside to bath building. It was quite the time commitment and so
worth it. I was especially proud of my ability to jump into those freezing
plunge pools. After a few hours of indulgent self-care in tiled beauty, we hit
the bar for beers and fruit, and enjoyed them on one of the sunning decks (I
found shade, Sarah found sun, and Michele straddled the two). Sadly, we had to
pull ourselves away because we had another decadent experience booked for that
evening: dinner at the chef’s table at a Michelin-starred restaurant in town.
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| View from the chef's table |
We headed back to the hotel to clean up and put on our
“fancy vacation” clothes.
Michele had made us reservations at Costes Downtown a month or so in advance. We had the chef’s table, but we had no idea what that would entail. When we arrived, the hostess took us to the big table (it easily sat 10 and it was all ours!) and told us we should put our stuff down. Then the chef came out to greet us and took us into the kitchen for a tour of all the stations. He had us walking around while everyone was trying to do their job, and honestly it was kind of uncomfortable but also cool. We sampled bread, cheese, and desserts as they were being prepared for the evening. Then the sommelier came over and took us to the wine cellar, where there was champagne, cheese, and dessert waiting for us. He gave us a history of Hungarian wines and regions and then it was time to have dinner. I’ll let the photos do the talking here.
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| Bread and avocado butter, heirloom tomato and burrata salad, trout with avocado and salad, another fish I can't remember but might have been monkfish, palate cleanser of watermelon soup, mushroom main course, fig and ice cream, coffee, surprise dessert |
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| Szimpla Kert |
Sadly, I think we are a little too old for Szimpla Kert. It
was packed full of young backpackers who were mobbing the bars and overloading
their credit card system. We waited in line behind one couple who kept trying
different credit cards on the poor bartender with no luck. We finally gave up
on that bar and wandered to a smaller one but it only served wine (there are
many bars scattered around the complex of little cave-like rooms and
scaffolding and levels that make up Szimpla Kert). We hung out for a drink, took
some photos of the chaos, but finally accepted we just weren’t cool enough to
hang and left. I guess that’s what happens when you’re all approaching 40? Did
I mention how loud and bad the music was?
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| Red Ruin |
We left and started walking back to our hotel through the
old Jewish quarter (where many of the ruin bars are). We had found another ruin
bar just around the corner from our hotel so we decided to check that one out.
It was called Red Ruin and had communist propaganda all over the place, but was
mostly a neighborhood dive bar, not necessarily a ruin bar. But it was more to
our taste, so we ordered a round of beers and sat outside. This was our last
night before we split up (me going back to Prague for a night before flying
home, Sarah and Mish going back to Vienna and then Prague to fly home), so we
convinced Sarah to hang out later than she normally would.
Day 6: Budapest and Prague
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| Bookseller outside the train station |
Today I was catching a train back to Prague and it was going
to be about 8 hours of travel. I got up and left the hotel while Sarah and Mish
were still cozy in bed and made my way via subway to the train station. I purchased some snacks and coffee from a little stand in
the station and then boarded my train. I was leaving Budapest around 8 am and
arriving in Prague around 4 pm. It wasn’t as fun without my travel buddies to
kill time with quizzes like “what kind of crystal are you?” but there was beautiful
scenery out the window. I booked a hotel room in the new part of Prague, but
still only a 20-minute walk to Old Town. We had some delays and it was about a
15-minute walk from the train station, so I barely made it to my hotel before
the check-in guy left for another property.
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| Pivovar u Fleku |
I dropped my bags and walked to the old city center, but
wandered through some parks and areas in my new neighborhood along the way. I walked
by a beer garden on the way and decided to have dinner there. It wasn’t crowded
when I walked in, and I grabbed a spot at the end of one of the long, communal
tables. Waiters were walking around with mugs of beer, and one came by and
offered me a mug. I said yes, and he dropped it off along with a little scrap
of paper indicating I had one beer. Then another waiter came by and took my
food order, and wrote that on the same scrap of paper. There were a couple guys
walking around playing the accordion and one came right up to me so I could
take some photos. Everyone there was a tourist, so I wasn’t embarrassed. After
dinner I took my scrap of paper up to the payment stand and then headed out.  |
| Astronomical Clock |
I hadn’t gotten to see the astronomical clock do its show,
so I was going to catch it tonight. Every hour the mechanical figures make a procession.
I arrived about 15 minutes before 7 and claimed my spot. The crowds weren’t
bad, but as it got closer to the top of the hour I was hemmed in by tourists.
When the clock struck, I watched the little guys make their rotation and then
headed off for dessert.
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| Prague candy store |
All through Old Town Prague, you’ll see candy stores that
are works of art. Barrels overflowing with brightly colored candy fill shops on
twisty cobblestone streets. I had resisted going in them, but my willpower
failed on my last night. Plus I figured candy would be a nice gift for coworkers
who had been covering for me while I was on vacation (sure, that was an excuse,
but it sounds good!). I went into one and spent about five minutes just walking
up and down the aisles looking at everything. It was seriously as much a feast
for the eyes as the mouth. This stuff was stunning. Once I made a full loop to
see everything, I started filling up bags with the scoops they have in each barrel.
I probably scooped up five pounds of candy in total, but I told myself that
most of that would go to the office and my family.
Then it was time for me to call it a night. I was flying
home the next day, so I went back to my hotel and packed up everything for my
return home. This was a very fast trip for three cities with so much culture
and history (although we can all agree I didn’t really see much of Vienna). I
love my vacations with Sarah and Michele, even when they’re whirlwind trips
like this. Until next time, ladies!
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