I arrived in Prague with a haphazard plan that quickly collapsed.
No place to stay
At check-in, the receptionist looked extremely confused by my poor attempt at speaking Czech. He smiled in English and said, "your reservation is for next month." Worse, "we have no more private rooms available today."
Oops
I had done the opposite of what I always do: planned poorly. No buffer, no extra card, no margin for error.
For a moment, I stood there doing the mental math:
- How much is in my account?
- How long until a refund clears?
- Where do I sleep if nothing works?
He checked and said they had one 6-person dorm bed left.
I checked my balance on my mobile banking app. I had just barely enough to pay for it. Not comfortably enough; just... enough.
Waiting for money
So I took my bed and spent the next couple days in Prague waiting for the booking refund. Which meant walking the city with a strange combination of awe and impatience. Aware of every coffee, every meal, but also very present.
Prague is a beautiful city to be slightly uncertain in. It struck me like a medieval fairytale city with cobblestone, bridges, castles, and languages I didn't understand. I wandered slowly because there wasn't much else to do but wander and wait.
Exploring the city felt like darting in and out of secret alleys that opened up to medieval stories, occasionally glimpsing a castle on a hill or an archway or a church inviting entry.
What I learned from Prague
And... nothing dramatic happened. I didn't run out of money. I didn't get stranded. I had a warm bed to sleep in at night (too warm, thanks to another guest insisting we live in a furnace).
Prague showed me something simple: there's a difference between preparing and over-planning. And also a difference between trusting yourself and leaving no margin.
That trip taught me to carry a little buffer. Not because everything will go wrong, but because sometimes you book the wrong month (I've done it once again since then) and still end up exactly where you needed to be.
If you leave just a bit of space in the plan, the story still works out.
