Skip the ticket,walk the castle compound for free

I bought the ticket for circuit A which includes most of the attractions in the palace. But I only went to St Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle Story exhibition. I didn't take a guided tour or use an audio guide and there wasn't too many information boards in the Cathedral, so it was pretty boring for me. The Prague castle story exhibition has exhibits of archaeological finds but some of the exhibits are in very poor condition, probably because it had been handled by so many different people over the past few hundred years. There was no label showing which description goes with which exhibits in some glass panels, the wording was etched on the glass and they were small with no contrast, some were even faded, so it is very difficult to read some of them. The lights that were supposed to be shining on some of the exhibits were also spoilt so a few exhibits were in darkness. And some of the interactive panels were not working. Also, although the closing time is 5pm, the staff chased all visitors out at 440pm. As the last visitor left at 450pm, the door was closed with a loud bang. I must say that visitors were made to feel rather unwelcomed here. Bad things aside, there are some good points to the exhibition as well. They covered the history of the castle including its landscape change with building modeling. The story of different kings were also told here. I enjoyed the exhibits where the skeleton of people were dug up with their hands binded behind and stone resting on their head preventing them from coming back alive. Unless you are a history buff, it will be sufficient to skip the tickets and just walk around the castle compound for free. Although all the paid exhibits close at 5pm, the castle compound is open until 10pm. I was there after 6pm, there was very little people in the compound and I can stroll around freely and take photos without tonnes of people inside.