by Jordan Rousell

A year ago, my sister and I booked a 3-day city break in Prague. Living near London means that despite having a great city on our footsteps, it was time that we ventured out of the nest. We had wanted to see the world for a long time but financial resources had always limited us. Eventually, we saved up enough to really treat ourselves on our first international adventure. We booked a luxury airport transfer (a really nice taxi!)  to Heathrow; the service was impeccable, we were delivered to Heathrow, and off we went to Prague!

The events of this tale took place on the second night of our city break. We had already walked 21,000 steps or so (according to my sister’s fitbit) by 2 p.m., but we still wanted to do more. We were out in the world and we couldn’t let the time go to waste. One of the leaflets at our hotel recommended a ghost tour of the city; we are not big believers in ghosts, but we thought why not?

We got to the town square early as we are time-conscious freaks and booked our ghost tour for 8:30 p.m. We had about 10 minutes to kill, so we were hanging around the town square watching a street performer. Those of you who have been to Prague know the famous astronomical clock tower. Granted, it is an impressive sight but once you’ve seen it, that’s it, really;you don’t need to see it again.

Originally, my sister and I were facing the clock tower, but there was a smoker in front of us with a downwind blowing their smoke in our faces. Neither my sister nor myself found this pleasant and so we re-positioned ourselves, which resulted in us having our back to the clock tower. We continued to watch the street performer, who I believe was singing Coldplay--a lovely rendition might I add.

So we were thoroughly enjoying the performance when all of a sudden, we heard a hollow explosion. If I had to compare it to something, I’d say it was almost like an empty firework. So I turned around and looked to the night sky to see the beautiful colours, but all I saw was the black blanket of the night. And then I looked down and I saw a heap on the floor.

My sister and I immediately retreated as we didn’t know what it was, but we had to walk past the heap to get to our ghost tour. At this point it was 8:30, which meant we were going to be late; and we hate being late.

We edged towards the heap slowly and my sister noticed a shoe, and then a foot. We realized with horror that a mere 20 feet away from where we stood, a man had jumped to his death from the astronomical clock tower.

We would have seen the man leap if we had continued facing the clock tower, but I’m quite thankful that wasn’t the case. We managed to walk past the body and go to the ghost tour, but we didn’t really feel like participating.

Once the tour was in full swing, I forgot about the jumper for an hour or so and, honestly, it was nice to have something to take my mind off of it. We completed the tour, took some photos and headed back to the hotel, kind of stunned. At the hotel, we got onto the internet and told everyone what had happened; there was quite a range of reactions. Some didn’t believe me, and others responded as though I had jumped.

On the last day, we were on a Segway tour and we were riding through the town square when our guide mentioned the jumper. It turns out, that he was the only person to have jumped from the clock tower in its approximately 600 years of history. And it just happened to occur during my 3-day city break. Talk about weird timing!

The heap that was, minutes before, a living person, certainly overshadowed the rest of the fantastic trip to Prague. I do recommend visiting and, just in case, turn your back to the clock tower. Travel is so unpredictable and you just never know.

If You Go

Airport Transfer - https://www.realtransfers.co.uk/

Hotel - http://www.purewhitehotel.com/

Holiday Arranger - https://www.secretescapes.com/

Jordan Rousell is keen on travelling the world and diving head first into our multicultural planet. He shares his thoughts, opinions, and travel experiences on his website at jordanblogsthings.wordpress.com