Here are some ideas to keep in mind in the time before you travel
Practice the Language
My sister and I were excited to learn more about the Hungarian language. My grandparents spoke Hungarian, but we didn't know any. So, we tried out several free apps, picked a word or phrase-of-the-day and quizzed each other.
On the plane to Prague, we realized we hadn't really practiced any Czech words at all. We "crammed" for Prague, learning just a couple of basic phrases.
In both Prague and Budapest, language rarely or never stopped us from doing something we wanted to do. Being part of a group did help. In Budapest, our guide Andrea stayed at the Szechenyi Baths to help us buy our tickets. In the restaurants we went to ourselves, the menus were available in English, or our server understood us and willingly helped us out.
Even though we were able to get by with English in both cities, it was fun to learn and try out some Czech and Hungarian. Being part of the group gave us a safety net and a resource for when we got stuck, and that helped us to take the risk and try out the languages for ourselves.
The one exception to our positive language experiences was in a Budapest post office. We saw the sign to the right.
Then we tried to ask for help at a counter, where we were ignored. The man never looked up (I'm sure we were supposed to have a ticket to speak to him, if only we'd known how to get one :-) ). It worked out just fine, though because our hotel sold stamps and even dropped our postcards in the mail for us!
So, even if you seem to be stuck, look for another way to break the language barrier!
Know the Money
It was definitely worthwhile to spend some time learning about the money in the countries we traveled to. Since we traveled to countries with two different currencies we had a lot of math going on whenever we shopped. My sister wrote out a list of common conversions for each country so we could check it quickly to get an idea of how much we were spendings.
I chose to use cash whenever I could because I don't have a credit card with a chip like Europeans use. The markets, restaurants and shops always had clearly labeled prices and so using the Czech koruna or Hungarian forint was usually easy.
Research the Cities
We knew we had an entire extra day in Prague before our tour started. We used the Prague guidebook to make some choices about where to go and where to eat. Then, even though we had ideas in mind, we kept it open up to arriving. That way, if we found something else when we arrived, we could be flexible. The guidebook was great because it offered a variety of choices. Jana and the other tour guides were another wonderful resource. They had ideas for restaurants, concerts, attractions and historical sites. If they didn't know, they would find out!
photo- interior of Matthias Church