Arrival

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Trip Start Mar 08, 2007 Trip End Mar 12, 2007

  Prague, Czech Republic
Thursday, March 8, 2007

We've both wanted to go to Prague for years - Darren since he was about 18. We decided to visit to celebrate Angela's birthday - albeit 3 weeks after the actual day, as it falls within half term so flights are more expensive. As our visit didn't coincide exactly with her birthday, we thought we might as push it a little further into the year, to give a slightly increased chance of warmer weather. We visited on the last weekend of the winter (low) season, according to our accommodation rates.

We were a bit concerned that we would encounter lots of rowdy stag nights in the city, but actually, the only time we had to suffer big groups of lads was on the plane journies.

We left on Thursday afternoon straight from work (Angie sneaked off 2 hours early) and met at Gatwick. There was something a bit romantic about not seeing each other until the airport. That feeling was soon quashed by the length of the sleazyjet check-in queues. 

We weren't due to get into Prague until 9pm so went for the luxury option of a taxi transfer from the airport. Angie always feels slightly uncomfortable about this non-backpacker way of getting from the airport, especially when the public transport system is as good as it is in Prague.

We booked a self-catering apartment with The Castle Steps (http://www.castlesteps.com/). Highly recommended. It is a small company run by a group of Americans.

Our apartment block

They own a number of apartments around Prague city centre, and are very friendly and helpful. They use environmentally friendly cleaning products and offer vegan breakfasts so we were happy to support them. The apartments are excellent value (we paid £35 a night) and very central (we were just below the castle). Compared to hotel rooms in the centre, whose lowest rates are about £80 a night, there is no competition.

Being self catering we saved a lot of money, and cooked for ourselves most of the time. As traditional Czech food is not the most veggie-friendly (meat and dumplings) this suited us very well. Breakfast was included in the price, but you have to walk 8 minutes up the road to another of their buildings. We managed it every morning except one.

We choose the smallest of their apartments and were a bit worried that it was going to be very cramped, but infact it was perfect for us. We had to share a bathroom/toilet with one other room, but we had our own kitchen, living area with sofa, table and daybed, and slept on a mezzanine level reached by wooden steps. It was very cute!  We were on the first floor of an old building so immediately got a taste of Prague's atmsophere.  

We were going to go out for a drink when we arrived, but were both very tired after a day at work and the journey, so had some food and then went to bed, ready to get up early the next day for some full-on sightseeing.

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