The value of ‘coming back’ – my return to Prague

In all of my travels, some of my most enjoyable experiences have transpired when coming back to a city that I have already been to for a second time. Sometimes this is a conscious decision, to want to go back somewhere because I loved it; sometimes it has been more so a matter of convenience, the train going through that city and it being a logical stop over. In all circumstances, I have found myself being able to really appreciate the experience and the city more.

This trip, I recently was in Prague, Czech Republic for the second time. I almost didn’t route my itinerary to go to Prague – even though I was visiting a friend in the east of the Czech Republic  I originally thought I would travel through Austria from my last stop in Germany and then up into the Czech Republic, however it wasn’t going to work with timing and when I reflected back on my first experience in Prague, I realised that going back was a really great idea. I’m so grateful that I had an opportunity to go back to this stunning city and it was this experience which led me to me reflecting on some of my other experiences where I have ‘gone back’ to a city for a second, third or even fourth time.

Even now as a somewhat more ‘experienced’ traveller, I find that the most immediate set of values which emerge when you go back to a city is the level of comfort and convenience. When you’re budget travelling, going from place to place, you spend a certain amount of time ‘acclimatising’ when you arrive somewhere new – figuring out what the local cultural norms are, how the public transport works, the layout of the city. When you go back to a city for a second, third, fourth time; you have the joy of having things ‘come back’ to you – it all seems just that little bit familiar. In London, it was me who was somehow showing people how to get an Oyster card, people being my UK companions, as well as some other confused tourists staring at the machine looking bewildered.

Sometimes I forget that when I was first in Prague, I was a baby to travelling. It was 2008, I was brand new to the backpacking experience. Prague was the third stop on my itinerary and it was the first stop in a non-English speaking country. It started out with a bang - Lufthansa lost my luggage, so I spent about 36 hours without clean clothes or my toiletries after a long distance flight. I didn’t think to research my ‘rights’ – I could’ve bought things and claimed reimbursement, if not from the airline then from my travel insurance. But I just sucked it up, the hostel gave me a towel and a bar of soap. It was my first time staying in a very large dorm room, which in itself was a surreal experience . It was my first time trying to communicate in a foreign language, getting used to where the best places are to go. I was still new to navigating maps and metro systems and didn’t have the confidence to just wander and get bit lost and find my way back.  I ate exclusively from grocery stores for days, the only place where I felt I could handle the level of communication required – me putting items on the counter and handing over money and taking back the change! Finally, at the very end of my time in Prague, I went to a McDonalds along one of the main tourist strips and was amazed that the person behind the counter spoke English. I now know that somewhere like Prague, in 95% of the cafes and restaurants in tourist areas, they have English speakers or at least an English menu and you can point to the item you want.

I recalled this strip with detail - one of the only areas I allowed
myself to wander in '08, from one end to the other in a straight line!

Thinking back on all of this, I wanted to go back to Prague. I didn’t feel the need to be there for days on end but I wanted a quick stop by so that I could quash the memory of the past and see what the city was really like. To make the comparison between my naive travel self and her experience in Prague, with what the current version of myself now knows.

The first thing I was struck by was how walkable the city centre is. I’ve learnt more about where to book your hostel, so I had selected a much better location which was walking distance to everything. Last time I was in Prague, I had a metro pass and I used it for the smallest distances, without really understanding how small they were. I experienced a completely different Prague last time, because of my fear to just walk and wander a little, because it was cold and I wasn’t accustomed to this, and the idea of wandering outside in the freezing weather when the metro could take me somewhere was ridiculous. This expanded to the horrifying extent that in 2008, I didn’t actually see the old town square or the astronomical clock. Sure, the area is overrun by tourists and pickpockets and souvenir shops – but this is like, the starting off point for any European city. The old town square doesn’t have a metro stop ‘right there’ – there are a couple of different options a few blocks away, but it was fear that caused me to miss such an important area of Prague.

World famous and slightly disappointing Astronomical Clock

I was also able to take advantage of a Sandemans walking tour in Prague – in 2008 I’m not sure if I just hadn’t heard of them yet, or if they weren’t yet in Prague. This was a really great experience – there were places I had seen or had snapped photos of in 2008 which I had absolutely no context for other than that Lonely Planet said I should go there. So this was something very much so enjoyable; to gain a much deeper understanding of Prague and Czech history – and for anyone who has the smallest knowledge of the last 100 years of history, this is a region of the world so rich in major elements of modern history. There is now a context to photographs I took before, an understanding of the significance of these statues and the importance that they play in recent history.

The town square in Prague has about a dozen umbrella wielding tour guides from different companies

I feel like coming back is about more than just the comfort and the convenience – it’s about allowing you to scratch the surface a little deeper. In a lot of places, I find that you essentially have two travel options – to skim the surface or to dedicate a large volume of time and really get to know the place. The average backpacker spends from two to five days in a given city. The further east you go from Prague, the more often you encounter people on long-term trips and so they're more likely to settle in a small city for a week, and get to know it intimately. But when it comes to the more popular capital cities, really, they are all similar in that they have a walkable section – an old town, city centre, whatever you want to label it – and this is where you focus most of your time. If you are a person who likes to go to museums, you may need an extra day. If you’re like me and this isn’t really your thing, then you only really need a day or so to see around the city centre.

If you're a museum buff, you could need weeks in some cities, with Museums existing for everything!

If there’s anything interesting in the outskirts, this might account for coming to city for an extra day – whether it be a day trip, such as to a concentration camp or neighbouring city; or perhaps something like a theme park, like allowing for a day to go to Disneyland Paris. Of course, you’re barely skimming the surface – you’re only truly going to gather an appreciation for a city and its culture by spending a greater amount of time, hunting down local haunts, getting away from the touristy places, trying to learn the language a little, seeing things that your average tourist doesn’t take the time to go see, hanging out in the suburbs. However for budget travellers, this is often the reality you’re faced with – skimming the surface of a large number of cities or regions.

Every time that I have ‘come back’ to a city for the second time, I feel like I get to know it a little bit more intimately, a little bit more for its ‘real’ self rather than on a tourist level. This year, I didn’t go to Prague Castle. In my lifetime I’d like to go back, but I have done it before and it was genuinely my preference to take that time to just wander, pop into some shops that weren’t right around the old town square, to experiment with my knowledge of the city layout and try to get from A to D without looking at my map. I’ve had similar experiences in other places – going back to New York City for a second time, I was able to lay on the grass at Central Park for an hour and just soak in the.... well, city smog! I went to Greenwich Village and to a local burger joint and then to a coffee shop and sat with my netbook writing, no pressure to rush off to make sure that I didn’t miss Fifth Avenue or the WTC site.

I was content with the stunning view seeing the castle from afar this trip

I think it is easy as a traveller to get trapped by that idea that you have already been somewhere, and therefore there’s nothing more to see. I would tell anyone with this mentality to not let yourself miss out on a deeper level of travel experience because of this fear. I can understand that if time is a factor - the preference is often to head somewhere new than to repeat a city if you're on time budget. But if time isn't a factor, there’s nothing wrong with soaking in the familiarity, with feeling proud that you can now name nearly all the London underground lines or that you can get from Point A to Point D with three subway changes in New York City without having to consult the subway map.

It is when you don’t have to focus on these sorts of mundane things that instead, you will have that piece of yourself available to listen and watch the people around you, see things you hadn’t noticed before because you were so focused on finding the exit or what street you need to turn down. And often, it is these surprising discoveries which will stand out in your mind as being highlights of your entire travel experience.