That $4 hostel breakfast in Prague I will never touch again

I was staying at this cheap hostel in Prague near the old town square, paid 12 euros a night so I figured the breakfast for 4 bucks was a steal. Walked down at 7am and there was this big tray of scrambled eggs that looked yellow enough but had this weird watery sheen on top. I grabbed a scoop and put it on my plate next to some stale bread, took one bite and instantly knew something was wrong. The eggs tasted sour like they had been sitting out since the day before, maybe longer. I saw the cook come out of the kitchen wiping his hands on a dirty apron and just dump more raw eggs into the same pan without washing it. Spent the next 3 hours in my hostel bunk praying to the porcelain god and missed my walking tour of the castle. Now I always bring instant oatmeal packets in my carry on for those cheap hostel breakfasts. Anyone else get wrecked by a budget hostel breakfast that looked fine but was actually a biohazard?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor_miller1025d agoMost Upvoted

You're probably right that some of those breakfasts are rough, but I've actually had pretty good luck with cheap hostel breakfasts in Europe. The key is to avoid the hot items like scrambled eggs and go straight for the bread, jam, and maybe a hard boiled egg if the shell is still on. I stayed at a place in Budapest that had a similar setup for 3 euros, and the boiled eggs were fine because they had been cooked that morning. The watery scrambled eggs you're describing sound like the cook tried to stretch them with milk or water to save money, which is a bad sign. I think the oatmeal packets are smart, but I'd rather take my chances with the bread and butter and save the luggage space for souvenirs.

gibson.sarah24d ago

Yeah but that bread and butter thing can backfire too. I stayed at a hostel in Prague that had bread so stale you could have used it as a frisbee. They had jam packets but they were those weird industrial ones that taste more like plastic than fruit. Ended up buying a kebab from a street cart down the road just to get something edible in me. And the coffee was basically warm dishwater. So even the safe options can be a gamble depending on who's running the place.