Spending the Christmas period in Prague was something I was very excited about before moving here. Its impressive Christmas markets are known throughout Europe for being rather impressive. After spending the most part of the festive period in the city, it is safe to say that Prague really comes alive at Christmas.

Although it is a beautiful city throughout all points of the year, with its buildings’ colourful and unique architecture, there is no question Prague comes into its own in the winter months. The city’s magical atmosphere at Christmas, the snow falling and being surrounded by the grandest of buildings, really makes you feel like you are in a snow globe. This, paired with the magical Christmas markets immerses you into a Christmassy, festive, chilly bubble. In as early as November, all kinds of shops started opening up their windows, serving mulled wine and hot chocolate. This signified the start of the festivities. Walking through the little, cobbled streets of the centre of the city, you would be struck by blaring Christmas music, coming from pubs and restaurants with merry tourists singing along. This is something I will really miss when I go home.

It is without a doubt that during winter in Prague, the weather can reach really low temperatures, with snowfall. When packing for a year abroad in here, I had to keep in mind the temperatures it can reach. The majority of my luggage consisted of thermals, jumpers, fleeces, warm coats, hats and gloves. In reality, the lowest temperature I have experienced here, so far, was in December whilst it was snowing heavily, the temperature had dropped to -11 degrees Celsius.

Prague’s five main Christmas markets opened up the weekend of November 25^th and since then, the streets were filled with even more tourists than normal. The main market was the Old Town Square markets that was home to the largest Christmas tree in Prague. Incredibly impressive, this tree signified the centre of the Christmas festivities in the city. In this specific market, there was traditional Czech food stalls, with goulash and gingerbreads, and even a stage where Christmas carols were being performed. It took some getting used to this completely transformed Old Town Square as it became a snowy Christmas vision packed with tourists carrying mulled wine.

As our time to go home for Christmas neared, and some of our friends were starting to fly home, issues with the weather and flights were starting to present themselves. As much as we were all enjoying living in a very festive Prague, I was very excited to get home to see my family. There were concerns over flight cancellations the week I was planning to home, with three days left until Christmas. Luckily my flight went ahead as planned and I made it home to see my family. Returning to a still-cold, yet less festive, Prague in January made me realise just how magical the city is around Christmas time and made me realise I would definitely like to return around that time of year one day.