By hjensen95
I LOVE transit here in Prague, it is the simplest, most intuitive and, useful I’ve experienced in my life. It is based off the “trust system,” in that you only need to show your ticket if you’re asked. Meaning you can just hop on and hop off the metro as you please. There are three methods of public transportation; the tram, the metro, and the bus.
I use the tram most times and occasionally the metro and I’ve never used the bus. The nice things about the program that I’m on is that they provide you with a metro card to use for free the duration of the entire semester. Now having this luxury, I couldn’t imagine having to pay for public transportation in cities like London or Paris.
Cost is something that came into consideration when choosing a place to study abroad. Prague has one of the lowest cost of living throughout Europe and that is apparent when traveling to other cities. For example, most meals cost between $4 - $8 USD – a steal compared to other major cities.
Most locals eat lunch out because it’s both cheap and the largest meal of the day. I’ve started to get into the rhythm of making breakfast and dinner for myself and eating lunch out. Today I ate chicken with potatoes and gravy and that cost me 100 Krona (or $4 usd).
While I’m not studying it in school, I’m interested in international economics and how the costs of things (say a coffee) differ between countries and economies. I can get a coffee for about $1 or $2 that I would pay around $5 back in the states. While some things are overpriced; when I first got here I accidently paid around $18 USD for a shampoo (without realizing the conversion rate until too late).
Now that my classes have started, and I’m getting into a weekly schedule, I want to establish a weekly budget that I’m able to stick to. While Prague may seem cheap at first, costs can easily add up and since I’m not working while abroad and I’m traveling as much as I can; I really need to watch my spending.
This past weekend, I visited family in Copenhagen (a very expensive city) and was relieved to return to Prague (and the prices here!). One thing that is very prevalent in Copenhagen, which hasn’t seemed to permeate Prague is the biking culture. People bike everywhere in Copenhagen, here, not so much. Maybe it’s because the transit here is just so good or maybe because biking has a deep history in Scandinavian countries.