Magical Prague at Sunrise, My Cringe Oktoberfest Stories and Travel Fitness
In this week’s episode of Winging It Travel Podcast, I’m taking you through three very different parts of my travel life — the peaceful beauty of Prague at sunrise, the chaotic hilarity of my cringe Oktoberfest stories, and my personal reflections on something I call “travel fitness.”
I start with my recent trip to Prague, one of Europe’s most enchanting cities. After a sleepless overnight flight from Vancouver, I landed just in time to experience something truly magical — the city waking up at dawn. With the sun rising over the Vltava River and not a tourist in sight, I wandered across the Charles Bridge, through the Old Town Square, and soaked in that golden early-morning glow that made the whole city feel timeless. It reminded me why I travel — those quiet, unplanned moments that make everything worth it.
Then we move into a very different kind of travel experience — my cringe and hilarious Oktoberfest stories. I went to Oktoberfest for the first time back in 2014 at the end of my two-year backpacking trip, and to say it was messy would be an understatement. From falling off benches to accidentally soaking locals in beer, to somehow ending up cleaning my own disaster in a tent washroom — it was pure chaos. I also share what it was like to go back this year to meet some fellow travel creators, Chris and Sarah and Matt and Nat, and to see the festival from a slightly older (and more sober!) perspective. It’s a funny look back at my early travel days — the mistakes, the laughs, and the stories that stick with you forever.
Finally, I wrap up with a reflection on something I’ve been thinking about lately — travel fitness. It’s not just about being physically fit; it’s about having the energy, curiosity, and adaptability to keep exploring day after day. After walking nearly 27,000 steps in Prague, I realised just how much “travel stamina” it takes to be on the move — from early mornings, long days, and constant new experiences. I share a few honest thoughts on how I try to keep that balance and stay ready for whatever comes next on the road.
This episode is a mix of reflection, chaos, laughter, and travel insight — everything I love about sharing stories on this podcast. Whether you’re planning your next adventure, reminiscing about your own travel fails, or just dreaming of that next sunrise in a new city, I hope this episode inspires you to get out there and keep exploring.
⏰ Episode Timestamps
00:00 – Intro and what’s coming up in this episode
01:10 – Why Prague blew me away at sunrise
03:20 – First impressions of the city and staying on a boat hotel
05:30 – Walking Prague’s empty streets and Charles Bridge at dawn
08:00 – Meeting a fellow traveler and reflecting on Prague’s vibe
10:30 – Travel tips: seeing Prague before the crowds
11:00 – Heading to Oktoberfest and meeting YouTube travel creators
12:45 – Throwback to my first Oktoberfest in 2014
15:00 – The infamous “bench collapse” story
17:30 – Falling asleep at a Bayern Munich game
19:40 – My worst Oktoberfest hangover ever
21:30 – Revisiting Oktoberfest as an older, wiser traveler
22:30 – What I’ve learned from embarrassing travel moments
23:00 – Introducing “travel fitness” — my personal theory
24:30 – Why travel stamina matters on long trips
25:20 – Tips for building your travel fitness before your next adventure
26:00 – Upcoming podcast news and future travel plans
This week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:
This week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:
Hello and welcome to this week's episode. I've got an old school episode today where I'm doing three sort of quirky topics related to travel. So first is my recent trip to Prague. I want to share how awesome it was at sunrise to see that city. Second of all, I'm revisiting Oktoberfest. I went in 2014 at the end of my two year trip and there were some wild and funny stories from that that I thought I'd share for you for a laugh. But the reason for that is I went back there on my trip after Czech Republic and Prague.
I went to see some travel creators for Oktoberfest this year. And thirdly, I want to discuss something called the travel fitness. It's a theory of mine. I don't know if you suffer from it or have it or not. So I want to discuss that as well today. Welcome to the Winging It Travel podcast, your weekly ticket to the world, dropping every Monday and hosted by me, James Hammond, probably part of the Voyascape network. This is a travel podcast that throws out the itinerary and dove straight into the raw, real...
an unpredictable essence of global exploration chasing moments over milestones, those spontaneous encounters, immersive sounds and unforgettable stories. Whether I'm hiking up volcanoes in Guatemala,
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or camping under the stars in British Columbia.
met incredible people, seen breath taking places and collected unforgettable stories. I now get to share them with you, alongside some of the most diverse and well travelled guests from around the world. Expect engaging conversations that bring fresh perspectives and inspiring travel tales. There are also raw, reflective solo episodes where I share personal insights, practical tips and honest stories from the road. This is a podcast for travellers, dreamers, backpackers and anyone who's ever thought, what if I just went for it and travelled. If you're looking for stories to tell, tips to share,
and experiences to inspire, then you're in the right place. There's so much travel content coming your way, it might just spark that trip you've been dreaming about for years. You can find Winging It, a more fantastic travel podcast from around the world at voyescape.com. The link is in the show notes. Let's go and explore the world. So, Prague. Now, this city has been written about, storied about, talked about, videoed about, all over the internet.
And it's no surprise that everyone has heard about Prague and what a city, the capital of the Republic. A very popular destination for Brits growing up to go there for stag dos or bachelor parties and bachelorette and hen dos as well. And also great for that central European vibe and great value for money. So unbelievably, I was going there for the first time this year and I flew from Vancouver to Frankfurt throughout flight. That's overnight. And yet again, I did not sleep a wink. That's not the first time that's happened to me.
And I don't think I've ever slept on a flight. And that is a recurring problem for me going from North America to Europe because they always tend to be overnight. But there's a good side to that, which I'll come to in a minute. And then I flew from Frankfurt to Prague about an hour and landed in Prague on an evening about 6 PM. I actually arrived into Prague on a Saturday night, so busy weekend. And I stayed at a boat hotel called the Matilda Hotel. And I wasn't sure at first about booking this, but I thought, you know what?
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as wing it and see what happens. I was kind of regretting it as I was going into Prague because I was tired. I was like, what happens if it sways too much and I can't get to sleep? Is it going to be that comfortable? And it wasn't cheap either. So I was hoping it'd be good value. So I arrived Saturday night and I managed to get out just for a walk to get my bearings, get some local food, which was some goulash, which was obviously Hungarian at a restaurant near the boat hotel. Quite a quirky restaurant. Went in.
sort of ignored me. I sat down. I was like, yeah, any service. And then I kept looking, kept serving people, chat around the bar. I wasn't sure what to do. So I eventually went out and got my own menu and they said, Oh, are you ready now? So I hadn't even looked. So yeah, ordered a goulash and a Coke to keep myself awake, but the tiredness was too much. A great goulash. Went to Boat Hotel. It's quite warm because on this day in Prague a couple of weeks ago, it was about 25 degrees.
And the next day was going to be 27 degrees on the Sunday, which I was exploring the city. And I thought, oh, no air con. The windows are open, but you know, there's middle of Prague, people about, bit of water with the waves and it was swaying side to side. just wasn't sure. As luck would have it, a great hotel and I managed to sleep perfectly that night and get up early next day. Now the main part of this part of the conversation instead of episode is the sunrise.
on a Sunday morning in Prague because that was absolutely magical. Now, due to the jet lag and the time difference, I was up at probably 5 a.m. and I kind of thought, well, Saturday night, people are still coming back from their night out at that point. I'll wait until sunrise, which is about quarter to seven in the morning. And yeah, half six, got myself showered, ready for the day and popped out. An interesting mix of people on this Sunday morning. There people with bags of beers.
either coming from a house party or from a night out and carrying on and had people out jogging early getting their fitness in on a great summer's day. I kind of got the impression based on the weather forecast that this was kind of the last proper day of summer. So I thought, you know what, let's go out early and see the city. Prague at sunrise is beautiful. I stood on the bridge by the boat hotel and just watched the sunrise come over the water. I thought, you know what,
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What if I go and see all the sites I'm going to see today on my walking tour, but during sunrise and just see if I can get in, get my footage, soak in kind of the history of it first before I go and delve into the chaotic walking tours that I've read about. So off I went, grabbed my camera, went across the bridge near the hotel, walked back into Prague, went to Charles Bridge, went across the water there to John Lennon's wall, went into the old square and
That old square where you see the famous clock where they go off every hour to do the little play it does, know, little sculptures as a little play. That was pretty cool as well. There was no one about it. It was absolutely magical and it was warm. And it's an interesting little tour for myself because actually I'm purposely, I did not do much research on Prague. I wanted to hear about the history and buildings on my walking tour, which I would do later in the day. But in this time of day, I was like, you know what? I'm just going to walk around and soak in the architecture. Don't know too much about it. I just want to look at it.
Imagine what this place would have been like three, four or five hundred years ago and just wander. No real plan. I've got about two hours until breakfast. I'm just going to wander around the city and see what I can find. The breeze coming off the river is absolutely breathtaking. The views of the sun coming down just over the hill there of the Prague Castle was magical. I love the vibe of the city. was like, this is awesome. That central European vibe is unrivaled in a city break.
I get it, weeks and weeks is probably too much, but if you're looking for a daybreak or even just a weekend away, I think Prague or Vienna, any of those types of cities in the central European part of Europe is a dream. So I was wandering around, head up, soaking in the atmosphere, walking the streets, getting my steps in, enjoying the temperatures, going for a little trendy coffee as well, and just enjoying being in Prague. I'm actually going to...
release a YouTube episode to show you because I don't think my words here doing it justice. So if you head to Roaming with Hammo on YouTube, you can see what this looks like. But I got the camera out and took as many photos and videos as I could. I just love the reflection of the sun as it came up on the water onto those old buildings. What a view. Met a random guy on Charles Bridge. He's from San Francisco. He kind of noticed me doing a bit of a bumbly intro.
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in my camera on that bridge and he said, do you do YouTube? yep, YouTube and a podcast. Check it out. Gave him a card and hopefully he tunes in and hello to you, sir. Park at sunrise is recommended. If you are not an early riser, I get it. I understand. It's not my go-to either, but if you can in the summer before it gets crazy, crazy, crazy with tourists, get up at six and walk the streets, you won't be disappointed. The architecture is as clean and as uncompromised as possible.
You can see everything with a clear view. The water ripples from the sun and there's just not many people about as the city starts to wake up for the day. I imagine that'd be even better during the week, but Sunday was cool too and I was very happy with my choice. And my overriding feeling at the timers, it just feels good to travel again. I was only away for a week before headed back to the UK, but for me a week in Czech Republic and Germany was what I needed. I wanted to see somewhere new.
get some great content and just get that vibe of traveling again. So Prague at sunrise is a recommendation. The boat hotel called Petilda is definitely a good recommendation if you fancy that. Quite fancy restaurant in the evening that day. I sat in, it's quite a romantic setting really. It's like some flowers on the table. You're sitting on the boat. So your view is of the lights in distance of the castle and the buildings across the river. It really is a top notch view.
for a dinner around 15 to 20 euros, not that expensive. And I thought, you know what, I'm going to treat myself to a really good pasta dish and a dessert. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. And yes, later in the day when I joined my walking tour, which was great by the way, I want to give a shout out to Lucy who was on a walking tour, who led the tour. You can book with her on GuruWalk, the search for Prague walking tour. Great tour, learned so much about the history of Prague, of the Czech Republic, but it was so, so busy. And these walking tours are huge.
could be between 20 to 30 people and Charles Bridge, my word, you could barely move on that bridge at what, 2pm. So I was really glad to get there early doors, walk across it and just soak it all in. The old town that we're visiting, the old square was absolutely heaving with people as we watched the clock do its little display on the hour. I somehow missed that when I was in the square early doors, but then again, I wasn't really paying attention to doing anything. I was just kind of walking and kind of soaking it all in.
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Keep saying so. It's a Prague for me. Recommend it. Sunrise. Get up. See it. You won't regret it. Now, Oktoberfest. I dipped into Oktoberfest this year to see some cool creators, Chris and Sarah on YouTube and Adventures of Matt and Nat on YouTube. They're both my friends. I met them at TravelCon a couple of times and they were there coincidentally for Oktoberfest. And I thought, do know what? Is there a chance I can join them? Yes. So I went and joined them after Prague. I went to Sesky Krumlov.
an amazing little town by the way well worth seeing that castle cobbled street little village and town along the river and after that I busted to Munich and went to meet those guys for Oktoberfest I didn't get dressed up I don't do dressing up with fancy dressers not my scene it's actually up there with the top five worst things ever of all time in life for me it's definitely something I'm not doing those guys did and it looks great I must admit now there is someone come back
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I do the immersive episodes, which I'm working on now for the next one, which is going to be Hornby Island, which means I collect sounds and put them together like a cinematic experience. I love doing those episodes. They take ages, but the outcome is spectacular. Let's get some money off the Australian credit card and go and enjoy ourselves for Oktoberfest. Now I'm young at this point. I am 24, 25. Better mind I've not seen my friends really in two years. And we hopped on a plane and got into Munich and checked into a hostel.
Now the stories from this are quite cringe, but it's part of the course if you're a youngster in Europe looking for that city break. I think Oktoberfest for people who are non-Bahemian, so non-German, Czech Republic, Austrian, Swiss maybe, is a real interesting activity. It's this organized, pretty well behaved event for a period of time in Munich that starts
I think about 10, 10.30 the doors open and goes on till midnight where you can drink as much steins, which are one liters of beer as you want. And you can eat all the foods and enjoy all the atmosphere as much as you want. Now for me, being a non-drinker, as in I do drink, but not very well, this was going to be a problem. And I knew that early doors. So some of the stories from this are a bit weird. These are not in chronological order.
The first one I do remember and I've never seen a couple of my friends, one called Spax and one called Thomas Osborne, who's been the previous guest on this podcast. As much in this sort of hysterics as possible. They were beyond laughing. When you get to that state where you laugh and you can't breathe, it's that sort of state. In Octoberfest, there's a band in the middle of the tent. You sit on your table, you drink your steins, happy days. Sometimes in local tents, they play local songs and that's great. But the international visitors don't know the songs. Fair enough.
but in some other tents like we were in, they play international songs. And I think Sweet Caroline came on. So everyone got up on their bench and started dancing. Now I'm not a small chap, I'm a pretty big guy. And some of my friends are as well. I don't know what happened here or the concoction of events, but we're dancing, happy days, drinking, Stein's in the air, all that sort of thing. And maybe some people jumped off or maybe some people jumped on who are liar, whatever it was, but the balance of the bench.
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was on me and this felt like time slowed right down. And as you can imagine, the bench starts to slip and it starts to sway one side. And before you know it, the bench is in my face. I have hit the floor on my side of the bench. The bench is in the air. In the air with the bench are the Steins. I may have been jumping at this point, so wasn't helping with that or I could have been stitched up. I don't know either way. Anyway, the bench comes up.
The Stines come up, they all somehow seem to miss me and as I was dancing and realised last second, I fell back. Now behind us are a group of older ladies, probably locals in their 50s or 60s and I somehow managed to wedge myself into their bench head first in between two ladies. Stines and beer everywhere, all over their hair, what an absolute mess. That is
funny as a scene as it is. But the reason my friends are in hysterics because I fell head first into that bench and I couldn't get out. I was wedged in. I was literally head down, feet in the air and I can't move. I'm really drunk at this point. It's a little bit embarrassing. I'm soaked in beer. The Stein's are over the floor. Our bench behind us is upside down. One of my friends just yanked me right out of there onto my feet.
And I was like, what the hell just happened in those five or 10 seconds? And all I saw around me was my friends in stitches. Now I apologize to the ladies behind me because I spilled beer over their hair. I've got beer in my hair. I'm like, what the hell am I doing? I need to go to the washroom and dry my hair because I'm soaked in beer. As it would happen for that point of the day, meeting a friend of mine who was there with me, going to a bi-munic game. And I said to him,
It's probably about time we leave, isn't it? He's like, yeah, think, do you know what? That's a good time to leave those guys, leave this tent and walk out of there. So I stumbled towards the washroom, had the toilet, dried my hair, came back and we're like, let's go, let's get out of here. Totally embarrassing. Not sure the servers liked it either. They probably see a lot of international tourists do that, especially Brits who can't handle their drink like me. Classic, gave us a bad reputation or should I say kept it going.
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And that's me out of there. That's the first story I recall. Another story I remember is linking to that on our way to the Bayern Munich game. Me and my friend went to see Bayern Munich versus Paderborn. I believe it's 4-0, but we're so boozed up. No idea how we got there to Allianz Arena. We somehow made it to the right tram or train. We're singing with the fans on the train. We're singing Borussia Dortmund songs, which are the rivals of kind of Bayern Munich to an extent.
We went up to the ground and went to the Bayern Munich shop and asked if they had a Barusa Dortmund scarf. That didn't go down too well. Somehow made our way into the stadium and as you can imagine, as much as I love football, the beer sinks in, we're both just falling asleep on each other and we missed the whole game. 4-0, I believe. We may have seen one goal because the crowd might have cheered or something happened before the goal, but think Lewandowski scored and it was 4-0. So that was a great...
activity to go and see and do on some people's bucket lists and dreams yet there we were falling asleep because of too much beer and falling over on benches while singing songs to Sweet Caroline. Also in Oktoberfest I do remember on another night, well this was daytime actually, you go to the day in Oktoberfest because sometimes the nights in the tents are booked out, they're reserved for people. So my advice is to go during the day, during the week and you'll be able to get a table in the tents. Now on this occasion
did that. We got there about:
just feeling absolutely awful. And I was doing the classic thing, which I've done before a few times, which my friends do remind me of, I sat on the toilet and was sick at the same time. Absolutely carnage, disgusting. But what can you do? I was kind of almost like passed out on it. Anyway, somehow managed to get myself out of there, the toilet, clean myself up a little bit and left. But the problem was the toilet attendants would not let me leave. They're like, no, you've got to stay there and clean that up. I was like, what do you mean? They're like, if you're sick, you clean that up.
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And I kind of said to him, what do you do? And they're like, well, not that. I was like, ah. So the cheekiness and the, ah, just ambivalence and the arrogance of the Brit abroad. Not a fan of that, not proud of that. That came out, but there was like three or four of them. They kind of called me in as like, well, I've got no choice here. So there I was on my hands and knees in my own sick cleaning up. And you can imagine that's a pretty degrading moment of time. And it wasn't just a quick clean. I'd do a little bit.
and go to leave that. Nope, you got to do more. I was there for like 15, 20 minutes and bear in mind, I could have been sick again because I was that ill. I was like, what am I doing here? So I managed to somehow clean it up, get out of those washrooms and saw my mates on the table said, yep, that's me done. It's only about 2pm and I was off and I somehow, somehow stumbled back to my hostel. had no internet. I don't know how I got back. And I went to
have a shower, nap off and then by 5pm I was back out on it. So these were the early days where could do that. And my friends were then coming back from a session, but I was like ready to go again. So was in a hostel bar meeting some Australians, drinking some beers there. So that's one of the other stories. So I just imagine these are all quite embarrassing. So was kind of keen to go back and enjoy Oktoberfest again this year, just to see it from a more mature point of view and still have a few Steins and yeah, enjoy myself. So we had the
a table in one of the tents Augustina it's called and yeah I had a couple of stones but even then I was done I was like do you know what I am getting a headache I'm getting hungover already I've drunk too much beer you have to pay four or five euros for water a go it's cash only it's annoying me so I enjoyed my time in the tents with Matt and that Chris and Sarah such a good laugh but towards 7 p.m. I was done I was back towards my Airbnb I was kind of
done in by the headache at this point. It's more of a migraine actually, so that didn't help either. I really want to stay out until the end, but I just couldn't do it anymore. That's age. That's me not being a drinker. And that's me kind of being a bit more true and saying, no, no more. Let's crack on. So that's my Oktoberfest stories. I think there are a few more from Oktoberfest, but I can't quite remember them that well, but they're the ones that come to mind. As I reflect on those times, great times, great laughs. I enjoyed them. I hope you find them funny and cringy at the same time.
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But that was good to revisit that for this podcast. I don't think I've shared those stories, so why not? Bit of non-PC stories for you. And to finish on this episode, I want to touch on a thing called travel fitness. I don't know if you believe in this. I noticed this on my trip, actually. People who go on holidays are used to this. It's kind of related to fast travel. If you're on a holiday or vacation for short amount of time. And also I'm including long-term travel here for the first two weeks.
You need to get your travel fitness up. And what I mean by that is you're out and about walking the steps, trying to get used to walking all the time, day in, day out, trying to take in new information, learn new cultures, try new foods, be engaged and not to say, now I'm going to scroll my phone and stay in my room. So I believe it takes a few days to get this up to speed. Now you can always try and get used to this at home. Maybe the weekend before you go, maybe you're going to see a new area, new restaurant, new coffee place, a new activity.
and try and build it up, but I don't think you can really build it up until you're actually doing it because it's got to be something that's new and it kind of takes your breath away, which Prague did to be fair. And actually the whole trip, trip Republic was amazing and went to a few places in Germany. But I think for me, I was like, Oh yeah, I'm just unfit. that first day in Prague, I I walked 27,000 steps, 27,000 and I got really bad chafing marks.
on my groin area, which wasn't the best either. A lot of information in this podcast. So I was like, oh, I'm just not fit enough. Now I have been running and losing weight, so I'm fit in that sense, but you know, learning new things, engaging with people, being adaptive, looking at new things, getting used to that step intake day in, day out is new. And I think it takes you a couple of days to get used to that. I think I have to push through, keep going.
And after a few days, you get that travel fitness going and you're ready to take on the world and see new places. And I think, yeah, things you can do is long walks. mean, go for runs, get fit as well. That does help when you travel. I see a lot of people, especially in, um, Sesky Krumlov where I was there in Czech Republic. It's a bit of a hilly town with those cobbled streets, not easy to walk on. And I saw a lot of people were walking six or hiking six, just trying to get up these hills. I'm like, I don't want to be in that position when I'm in my sixties.
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So fitness is part of it, but I think being travel fit is also part of it too. So I think I've rambled on enough in this episode about some cringe stories, some amazing cities and also a bit of fitness in there. So if you like those sort of things, let me know and I'll do more story time episodes. I've been doing them briefly as part of the podcast with the interviews, but haven't done a dedicated one for a while. So thought, you know what, let's get this done. Thanks for tuning in. I really appreciate it. I'll see you on the other side. And I've got a lot more content coming up.
towards the end of the year before I go away for a month traveling in December, which is pretty exciting. I've got some more exciting news for travel, tours, and that trip coming up in a few weeks. Look forward to sharing those with you then, and don't forget to tune in to the next episode for another great guest. Catch you then. See you. Cheers. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to the podcast episode today. If you've been inspired by today's chat and want to book some travel, if you head to the show notes, you'll see some affiliate links below, which helps support this podcast.
You'll find Skyscanner to book your flight. You'll find Booking.com to book that accommodation. Want to stay in a super cool hostel? You'll see Hostel World down there too. You'll find Revolut to get your travel card sorted. Click the GIGSKY link to get your eSIM ready for your trip. And more importantly, you'll find Safety Wing Insurance to get that travel insurance for your trip. There are many more to check out. So when you click that link and book your product, a small commission goes towards me and the Wigginit Travel Podcast. Thank you in advance and enjoy your travels.