Prague Recap
Bucharest, Romania
I'm currently in Bucharest, Romania, but since I'm kind of behind on some updates, here's a quick recap of my days in Prague.
On Friday, Kacey, Tom and I took the bus from Vienna to Prague. The bus was pretty uneventful until we crossed the Czech border. I guess in Czech the driving etiquette is a bit different because our bus driver took offence to being passed by some small beat-up car towing a small beat-up trailer. Normally I don't think this would be something I would post about, but the part that is of interest is that the bus was passed with oncoming traffic. In North America, at a minimum there would have been tons of horn honking and most likely a near accident, if not one. But in Czech, the oncoming cars just kind of moved over, the passing car straddled the dividing line and the bus sort of moved over, thus allowing three cars to occupy a space intended for two. Note that all this was done at around 100 km/h. Tom just looked back at me after this happened with that sort of "Uh, did you just see what I just saw?" look of amazement on his face.
Anyways, the bus driver didn't like that so the next opportunity he had, he decided to pass the car. Now, if you've ever been in a bus trying to pass, well just about anything, you know that it takes miles for that pass to occur. No problem in the Czech Republic since all the oncoming traffic just casually moved over to make room for the bus. We eventually passed the car and never saw it again. The bus made it's way into Prague in just under 5 hours, after a 20 minute stop at McDonalds, of course...
We had some rudimentary directions on how to get to the hostel from the bus station. A little walking around, some Lonely Planet map reading and just general intuition had us at the Clown and Bard hostel about 30 minutes later. The hostel is, uh, interesting to say the least. Compared to Wombats, in Vienna, you could call the Clown and Bard a dump. It's much more run down, in a run down part of town and has graffiti all over it, both inside and out. We got beds in the main dormitory at the top of the stairs. Just think of summer camp. One big room, about 20 bunk beds and some lockers to stash your stuff. Luckily I got a bunk buried in the corner, so I wasn't really complaining.
We stashed our bags and headed into town. From the hostel, it's a quick tram ride to where all the sights are. The downtown area, otherwise know as the "Old Town Square" is really packed with tourists. Lots of narrow cobblestone streets, very little traffic but tons of people checking out all the buildings. I couldn't imagine this place during the summer, it must be backed. We just wandered around aimlessly before stopping at an outdoor cafe for some dinner, people watching as everyone strolled past our outdoor table.
After dinner, we decided to call it an early night and head back to the hostel to check out the pub. I had a headache going so I went up and just laid down in my bunk while Kacey and Tom headed downstairs to the pub. Good thing I was in my bunk because not long after I laid down, this guy comes up to me and says "Hey, you're in my bunk..." Right, ok, lets work this out shall we... Turns out this guy is from Canada, basically homeless, goes by the name "Eddie", is probably in his 40's and has hair like Weird Al Yankovic. Claims he paid for two nights and slept in my bunk last night, so it should be his again tonight. I told him that the bunk was empty when I arrived, and that it was the receptionist that gave me the number. Anyways, we talk it over and decide to get it straightened out downstairs. The receptionist is basically like, "Uh, whatever, just take any open bunk, it doesn't matter..." So, Eddie takes another bunk and I keep mine.
After that, I decided to head down to the pub to meet up with the others. In the pub, the graffiti is everyone, the walls are covered with it and frankly, it's kind of cool. It grows on you as you read quote after quote after quote. (Kacey wrote down a list of the "best ones", hopefully I can get it from here.) I didn't stay long at the pub and wandered back up stairs to get some sleep.
Saturday morning, we all got up fairly early. Sadly, the men's shower had ran out of hot water, so I was rather, uh, refreshed, for breakfast. Great breakfast spread put on by the hostel that we took advantage of before heading back to the old town. We all spend most of the day taking a walking tour of the city. There are literally dozens of walking tour companies to choose from and they all meet at the same place. I think we chose the one with the best looking brochure, but I'm sure we could have gone with any of the companies. The intro tour was actually pretty decent, hitting most of the major sites in just over 2 hours. After the tour, we wandered around some more, taking a few interesting pictures, before heading back to the hostel to freshen up before out big night out on the town.
Kacey had arranged to meet up with a friend of a friend downtown, some guy called Nick who was from Colorado as well. With Nick was a Swiss guy named Roman and a Canadian named Andrew, all were studying in Prague. The six of us headed out to a local bar for some drinks. I didn't mind the place, but the other guys thought we'd do better somewhere else, so off we went.
They kept referring to the second place as "The Russian Bar", and indeed, it was full of Russians... Having a Halloween costume party no less, so that was kind of odd. I was just chilling on the sofa when some Russian girl started talking to me. Turns out she's from Western Siberia and studying business in Prague. She tells me that she wants to return to Siberia once her classes are finished. Off hand, I ask if she would rather work in Moscow and she literally says: "Oh, I can't work in Moscow". Puzzled, I ask her why and she replies without pause: "I'm not part of the mafia.". Ok, so apparently the mafia still does run Moscow. From this, the conversation gets a little more "mafia-heavy" and I'm thinking it's about time to bail out of this conversation. Luckily, Tom swings by to tell me that they are leaving but that it was ok if I wanted to stay. Uh, thanks, but I'm coming too... So Kacey, Tom, Nick and I head out, hoping on the tram back to the hostel. Along the way, I notice that Andrew and Roman aren't with us. Apparently they had left earlier to hit up another bar.
While on the tram, Nick gets a text message from them saying the third place is happening. I'm compelled to go, but the others aren't. No worries, Nick just tells me to hope off at the next stop and walk back about 2 stops and I'll see the bar. Ok, so off I hope at the next stop and sure enough, some bar called the Lucern is about 2 stops back. The place is a classic open dance bar slash meat market. There's a huge video screen in the front, a stage in front of that, then a big dance floor. Music is straight from the 80's and 90's. People go crazy for Madonna's "Like a Virgin", Bon Jovi songs (the older ones) also get regular play and draw a shear. Ok, so at least it's better then Surfin USA that I had in Lugano, Switzerland.
Not sure where Andrew headed off to, but it was clear that Roman was working this girl from Macedonia called Maria-Anna, who apparently she goes to school with him. So like a good wingman I sweep in and take care of Tanya, the friend. Lots of dancing later, the place shuts down around 4am. Outside, I leave the three of them to head back to the hostel, getting into bed around 4.45am. No idea whatever happened to Roman and Maria-Anna, but hopefully things worked out for the better... ;
Sunday is similar to Saturday. Lots of walking around, hitting the major tourist sites, down a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter, hitting up the grocery store for food and other random errands. Nick had offered to let us crash at his apartment for the next two nights so we head back to the hostel around 5pm to grab out bags and meet Nick, who actually lives close by. He's got a pretty nice place with two other roommates, an American girl and an Austrian guy, both studying in Prague as well. Once settled in, Kacey, Tom and I head out to try and secure opera tickets for the night. Unfortunately, we're late for the show but the show is sold out anyways and it was a ballet, so no culture for us that night. We decide to split up since I wanted to go and try some night photography while they had some errands to run. My night photography didn't work out all that well, you really do need a full size tripod, but I gave it a shot. Met back up with Tom and Kacey on the famous Charles Bridge (awesome views up to the castle), and together we all walked back to Nicks apartment and crashed early, with the intent of getting up early to watch the sunrise over the Charles Bridge....
Well, of course, that early wake-up didn't happen. But thankfully, it was overcast anyways so there was no sunrise to photograph. So, instead of photographing a sunrise, I headed off to the train station to inquire about trains to Bucharest, while Tom and Kacey went to the bus station to look into buses to Berlin. By this point, I had kind of decided that I had wanted to spend a few extra days in Prague, maybe till Wednesday or Thursday, but when I found out that the train to Bucharest is only on Tuesday's and Saturday's, well that changed that plan. So I got the ticket for the Tuesday night train, since I didn't want to stick around all the way till Saturday. The ticket was around 150$US, a bit more then I was hoping, but what are you going to do. From the train station, I just spent the afternoon wandering around more of the city, exploring a huge park with autumn colors in it, more of the castle and the Charles Bridge, before returning to the Old Town Square to meet up with Tom and Kacey. (This had become our regular meeting spot).
As I come around the corner I walk right into a sea of hundreds of people all staring at the same thing. This isn't all that uncommon in a touristy area, but the crowd here was much larger then the last few days. The surprise event was the unveiling of the Prague Astronomical Clock, which had been under re-construction for the past several months. At 4pm, the clock went off and I saw more digital camera's pop into the air then I've ever seen in my life. If there was ever any doubt over the popularity of digital camera's, this just erased that. Absolutely insane...
From the clock, we.. yep, you guessed it... Walked around town some more (there really is a lot to see). I decided to pay a small fee to get up into one of the towers on the Charles Bridge. Could have been a cool spot for some photography, but for some reason none of my shots look all that impressive. Kacey and Tom headed back to the apartment to prepare for a Halloween party, while I wandered around some more before heading back myself around 9pm.
On my way back, I decided to take a detour into one of Prague's parks to go visit a huge horse statue of someone called Jan Zizka. I don't really know anything about him, but he has a huge statue on the top of a hill overlooking the city, which was pretty cool. It was also pretty damn creepy, since the walk up is not all that well light, it was cold and windy out and I was walking through a park in not the best part of town. It's amazing how you hear every noise in a situation like that... ;)
Back at the apartment, only Leo, the Austrian roommate, was still there. The others had gone off to a local bar where supposedly there was a Halloween costume party... An American one, not a Russian one... ;) Sure enough there was, but the place was so smoky you couldn't see the person in front of you. Nick, Tom, Leo and I played some foosbal but then left after only about an hour or so, all complaining of the smoke. Back at the apartment, we just hung for a bit, with Nick pretty much telling me train stories that would come back to haunt me the following night. (More on that in another post).
Tuesday brought an early wake-up as Kacey ran out to catch her bus to Berlin and Tom ran off to catch a bus for a day trip to some town outside Prague. I packed up my bag and headed to the train station to stash my bag in a locker for the day, since my train to Bucharest wasn't leaving until 11.23pm. Seemed like a simple task until I run into a problem with the locker. The key gets stuck in a half-turned position. I can't turn it all the way around to remove it, but I also can't turn it back to reset it. Oddly, some Japanese guy beside me runs into the exact same problem at the same time. We both kind of look at each other with that "Uh, shit, now what" expression...
Behind me is the lost luggage counter, so I head over the to seek help. The attendant says something in Czech, then hops over the counter to come help. Good, this should be solved in no time. Yeah, well his solution is to just bang on the door. After about 3 bangs, each harder then the other, he looks at me and shrugs his shoulders, then turns around and heads back to this counter... Uhh, I don't think so my friend, get back here and get this key out. He barely speaks English, I don't speak any Czech and there's this Japanese guy who speaks neither English nor Czech looking on. Basically, the luggage guy starts pointing at a phone number on the locker, telling me to call that number. It's the classic "Hey, we don't run these lockers, call this company, they run the lockers..." Ok, well that's not going to cut it for me. I explain some more, the guy goes back to his counter and then returns with a piece of paper with some Czeck writing on it. He gives me the paper and starts pointing to the second floor. Without too much effort I figure he's saying something along the lines of: "Hey, go upstairs and find this place.". So, with the Japanese guy in tow and my bags stuck in a half-locked locker, I set off to find this room...
Turns out, it's like a supervisors office, or maybe a security guard, or maybe a janitor. I don't know, but I do know that the office was closed, the lights were off, and no one had any idea when the guy was coming back. So I head back down to the lockers (Japanese guy is still with me) and I pass three police officers. I show them the paper, they point upstairs, and I respond by saying "Yeah, I know where it is, but no one is there..." They all look at each other, shrug, then one of them in perfectly fine English goes: "Sorry, we don't speak English", and off they go.
Ok, time to solve this problem myself. I head back to the locker and try the banging technique. At this point I'm no longer trying to be subtle, though banging as hard as you can on a locker will definitely attract attention at a train station. After about 3-4 hard bangs, the key turns, the light goes from green to red (available to in use) and I've got the key. Strangely, the Japanese guy just tried turning his key again and it worked, go figure. Long story short, my bag is in the locker, I've got the key, and I can only wander if that door is going to open later that night.
I spend lunchtime taking a tour of the Prague castle. It was cold out, windy and overcast and the tour wasn't all that good since most of the cool things in the castle require a special ticket, which the tour ticket doesn't cover. Essentially the tour tells you all the places you could go, if had purchased the entrance ticket. I just sort of bum around for the day. For some reason, on days that I know that I have to travel I'm not really motivated to see all that much. So I spend some time online, run some errands and pick up some food for the train (no restaurant car for the 24 hour journey).
Tom and I meet back up around 7.45pm, he had returned from his day by now, and the two of us head out for dinner, which was kind of a struggle has we both needed to use our credit cards but didn't want a pricey meal. Withdrawing a bunch of Czech crowns was the last thing I wanted to do before leaving Prague. So we find a pizzeria that isn't exactly cheap, but will do. Afterwards, we both walk back towards the train station say our goodbyes and I start praying that the locker will open. Thankfully the locker wasn't a problem at all, my bag was still there and the train was waiting on the platform. After 4 nights in Prague, it was time to jump to another city.
But first, I had a 24 hour train ride ahead of me....
Kenny
I'm currently in Bucharest, Romania, but since I'm kind of behind on some updates, here's a quick recap of my days in Prague.
On Friday, Kacey, Tom and I took the bus from Vienna to Prague. The bus was pretty uneventful until we crossed the Czech border. I guess in Czech the driving etiquette is a bit different because our bus driver took offence to being passed by some small beat-up car towing a small beat-up trailer. Normally I don't think this would be something I would post about, but the part that is of interest is that the bus was passed with oncoming traffic. In North America, at a minimum there would have been tons of horn honking and most likely a near accident, if not one. But in Czech, the oncoming cars just kind of moved over, the passing car straddled the dividing line and the bus sort of moved over, thus allowing three cars to occupy a space intended for two. Note that all this was done at around 100 km/h. Tom just looked back at me after this happened with that sort of "Uh, did you just see what I just saw?" look of amazement on his face.
Anyways, the bus driver didn't like that so the next opportunity he had, he decided to pass the car. Now, if you've ever been in a bus trying to pass, well just about anything, you know that it takes miles for that pass to occur. No problem in the Czech Republic since all the oncoming traffic just casually moved over to make room for the bus. We eventually passed the car and never saw it again. The bus made it's way into Prague in just under 5 hours, after a 20 minute stop at McDonalds, of course...
We had some rudimentary directions on how to get to the hostel from the bus station. A little walking around, some Lonely Planet map reading and just general intuition had us at the Clown and Bard hostel about 30 minutes later. The hostel is, uh, interesting to say the least. Compared to Wombats, in Vienna, you could call the Clown and Bard a dump. It's much more run down, in a run down part of town and has graffiti all over it, both inside and out. We got beds in the main dormitory at the top of the stairs. Just think of summer camp. One big room, about 20 bunk beds and some lockers to stash your stuff. Luckily I got a bunk buried in the corner, so I wasn't really complaining.
We stashed our bags and headed into town. From the hostel, it's a quick tram ride to where all the sights are. The downtown area, otherwise know as the "Old Town Square" is really packed with tourists. Lots of narrow cobblestone streets, very little traffic but tons of people checking out all the buildings. I couldn't imagine this place during the summer, it must be backed. We just wandered around aimlessly before stopping at an outdoor cafe for some dinner, people watching as everyone strolled past our outdoor table.
After dinner, we decided to call it an early night and head back to the hostel to check out the pub. I had a headache going so I went up and just laid down in my bunk while Kacey and Tom headed downstairs to the pub. Good thing I was in my bunk because not long after I laid down, this guy comes up to me and says "Hey, you're in my bunk..." Right, ok, lets work this out shall we... Turns out this guy is from Canada, basically homeless, goes by the name "Eddie", is probably in his 40's and has hair like Weird Al Yankovic. Claims he paid for two nights and slept in my bunk last night, so it should be his again tonight. I told him that the bunk was empty when I arrived, and that it was the receptionist that gave me the number. Anyways, we talk it over and decide to get it straightened out downstairs. The receptionist is basically like, "Uh, whatever, just take any open bunk, it doesn't matter..." So, Eddie takes another bunk and I keep mine.
After that, I decided to head down to the pub to meet up with the others. In the pub, the graffiti is everyone, the walls are covered with it and frankly, it's kind of cool. It grows on you as you read quote after quote after quote. (Kacey wrote down a list of the "best ones", hopefully I can get it from here.) I didn't stay long at the pub and wandered back up stairs to get some sleep.
Saturday morning, we all got up fairly early. Sadly, the men's shower had ran out of hot water, so I was rather, uh, refreshed, for breakfast. Great breakfast spread put on by the hostel that we took advantage of before heading back to the old town. We all spend most of the day taking a walking tour of the city. There are literally dozens of walking tour companies to choose from and they all meet at the same place. I think we chose the one with the best looking brochure, but I'm sure we could have gone with any of the companies. The intro tour was actually pretty decent, hitting most of the major sites in just over 2 hours. After the tour, we wandered around some more, taking a few interesting pictures, before heading back to the hostel to freshen up before out big night out on the town.
Kacey had arranged to meet up with a friend of a friend downtown, some guy called Nick who was from Colorado as well. With Nick was a Swiss guy named Roman and a Canadian named Andrew, all were studying in Prague. The six of us headed out to a local bar for some drinks. I didn't mind the place, but the other guys thought we'd do better somewhere else, so off we went.
They kept referring to the second place as "The Russian Bar", and indeed, it was full of Russians... Having a Halloween costume party no less, so that was kind of odd. I was just chilling on the sofa when some Russian girl started talking to me. Turns out she's from Western Siberia and studying business in Prague. She tells me that she wants to return to Siberia once her classes are finished. Off hand, I ask if she would rather work in Moscow and she literally says: "Oh, I can't work in Moscow". Puzzled, I ask her why and she replies without pause: "I'm not part of the mafia.". Ok, so apparently the mafia still does run Moscow. From this, the conversation gets a little more "mafia-heavy" and I'm thinking it's about time to bail out of this conversation. Luckily, Tom swings by to tell me that they are leaving but that it was ok if I wanted to stay. Uh, thanks, but I'm coming too... So Kacey, Tom, Nick and I head out, hoping on the tram back to the hostel. Along the way, I notice that Andrew and Roman aren't with us. Apparently they had left earlier to hit up another bar.
While on the tram, Nick gets a text message from them saying the third place is happening. I'm compelled to go, but the others aren't. No worries, Nick just tells me to hope off at the next stop and walk back about 2 stops and I'll see the bar. Ok, so off I hope at the next stop and sure enough, some bar called the Lucern is about 2 stops back. The place is a classic open dance bar slash meat market. There's a huge video screen in the front, a stage in front of that, then a big dance floor. Music is straight from the 80's and 90's. People go crazy for Madonna's "Like a Virgin", Bon Jovi songs (the older ones) also get regular play and draw a shear. Ok, so at least it's better then Surfin USA that I had in Lugano, Switzerland.
Not sure where Andrew headed off to, but it was clear that Roman was working this girl from Macedonia called Maria-Anna, who apparently she goes to school with him. So like a good wingman I sweep in and take care of Tanya, the friend. Lots of dancing later, the place shuts down around 4am. Outside, I leave the three of them to head back to the hostel, getting into bed around 4.45am. No idea whatever happened to Roman and Maria-Anna, but hopefully things worked out for the better... ;
Sunday is similar to Saturday. Lots of walking around, hitting the major tourist sites, down a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter, hitting up the grocery store for food and other random errands. Nick had offered to let us crash at his apartment for the next two nights so we head back to the hostel around 5pm to grab out bags and meet Nick, who actually lives close by. He's got a pretty nice place with two other roommates, an American girl and an Austrian guy, both studying in Prague as well. Once settled in, Kacey, Tom and I head out to try and secure opera tickets for the night. Unfortunately, we're late for the show but the show is sold out anyways and it was a ballet, so no culture for us that night. We decide to split up since I wanted to go and try some night photography while they had some errands to run. My night photography didn't work out all that well, you really do need a full size tripod, but I gave it a shot. Met back up with Tom and Kacey on the famous Charles Bridge (awesome views up to the castle), and together we all walked back to Nicks apartment and crashed early, with the intent of getting up early to watch the sunrise over the Charles Bridge....
Well, of course, that early wake-up didn't happen. But thankfully, it was overcast anyways so there was no sunrise to photograph. So, instead of photographing a sunrise, I headed off to the train station to inquire about trains to Bucharest, while Tom and Kacey went to the bus station to look into buses to Berlin. By this point, I had kind of decided that I had wanted to spend a few extra days in Prague, maybe till Wednesday or Thursday, but when I found out that the train to Bucharest is only on Tuesday's and Saturday's, well that changed that plan. So I got the ticket for the Tuesday night train, since I didn't want to stick around all the way till Saturday. The ticket was around 150$US, a bit more then I was hoping, but what are you going to do. From the train station, I just spent the afternoon wandering around more of the city, exploring a huge park with autumn colors in it, more of the castle and the Charles Bridge, before returning to the Old Town Square to meet up with Tom and Kacey. (This had become our regular meeting spot).
As I come around the corner I walk right into a sea of hundreds of people all staring at the same thing. This isn't all that uncommon in a touristy area, but the crowd here was much larger then the last few days. The surprise event was the unveiling of the Prague Astronomical Clock, which had been under re-construction for the past several months. At 4pm, the clock went off and I saw more digital camera's pop into the air then I've ever seen in my life. If there was ever any doubt over the popularity of digital camera's, this just erased that. Absolutely insane...
From the clock, we.. yep, you guessed it... Walked around town some more (there really is a lot to see). I decided to pay a small fee to get up into one of the towers on the Charles Bridge. Could have been a cool spot for some photography, but for some reason none of my shots look all that impressive. Kacey and Tom headed back to the apartment to prepare for a Halloween party, while I wandered around some more before heading back myself around 9pm.
On my way back, I decided to take a detour into one of Prague's parks to go visit a huge horse statue of someone called Jan Zizka. I don't really know anything about him, but he has a huge statue on the top of a hill overlooking the city, which was pretty cool. It was also pretty damn creepy, since the walk up is not all that well light, it was cold and windy out and I was walking through a park in not the best part of town. It's amazing how you hear every noise in a situation like that... ;)
Back at the apartment, only Leo, the Austrian roommate, was still there. The others had gone off to a local bar where supposedly there was a Halloween costume party... An American one, not a Russian one... ;) Sure enough there was, but the place was so smoky you couldn't see the person in front of you. Nick, Tom, Leo and I played some foosbal but then left after only about an hour or so, all complaining of the smoke. Back at the apartment, we just hung for a bit, with Nick pretty much telling me train stories that would come back to haunt me the following night. (More on that in another post).
Tuesday brought an early wake-up as Kacey ran out to catch her bus to Berlin and Tom ran off to catch a bus for a day trip to some town outside Prague. I packed up my bag and headed to the train station to stash my bag in a locker for the day, since my train to Bucharest wasn't leaving until 11.23pm. Seemed like a simple task until I run into a problem with the locker. The key gets stuck in a half-turned position. I can't turn it all the way around to remove it, but I also can't turn it back to reset it. Oddly, some Japanese guy beside me runs into the exact same problem at the same time. We both kind of look at each other with that "Uh, shit, now what" expression...
Behind me is the lost luggage counter, so I head over the to seek help. The attendant says something in Czech, then hops over the counter to come help. Good, this should be solved in no time. Yeah, well his solution is to just bang on the door. After about 3 bangs, each harder then the other, he looks at me and shrugs his shoulders, then turns around and heads back to this counter... Uhh, I don't think so my friend, get back here and get this key out. He barely speaks English, I don't speak any Czech and there's this Japanese guy who speaks neither English nor Czech looking on. Basically, the luggage guy starts pointing at a phone number on the locker, telling me to call that number. It's the classic "Hey, we don't run these lockers, call this company, they run the lockers..." Ok, well that's not going to cut it for me. I explain some more, the guy goes back to his counter and then returns with a piece of paper with some Czeck writing on it. He gives me the paper and starts pointing to the second floor. Without too much effort I figure he's saying something along the lines of: "Hey, go upstairs and find this place.". So, with the Japanese guy in tow and my bags stuck in a half-locked locker, I set off to find this room...
Turns out, it's like a supervisors office, or maybe a security guard, or maybe a janitor. I don't know, but I do know that the office was closed, the lights were off, and no one had any idea when the guy was coming back. So I head back down to the lockers (Japanese guy is still with me) and I pass three police officers. I show them the paper, they point upstairs, and I respond by saying "Yeah, I know where it is, but no one is there..." They all look at each other, shrug, then one of them in perfectly fine English goes: "Sorry, we don't speak English", and off they go.
Ok, time to solve this problem myself. I head back to the locker and try the banging technique. At this point I'm no longer trying to be subtle, though banging as hard as you can on a locker will definitely attract attention at a train station. After about 3-4 hard bangs, the key turns, the light goes from green to red (available to in use) and I've got the key. Strangely, the Japanese guy just tried turning his key again and it worked, go figure. Long story short, my bag is in the locker, I've got the key, and I can only wander if that door is going to open later that night.
I spend lunchtime taking a tour of the Prague castle. It was cold out, windy and overcast and the tour wasn't all that good since most of the cool things in the castle require a special ticket, which the tour ticket doesn't cover. Essentially the tour tells you all the places you could go, if had purchased the entrance ticket. I just sort of bum around for the day. For some reason, on days that I know that I have to travel I'm not really motivated to see all that much. So I spend some time online, run some errands and pick up some food for the train (no restaurant car for the 24 hour journey).
Tom and I meet back up around 7.45pm, he had returned from his day by now, and the two of us head out for dinner, which was kind of a struggle has we both needed to use our credit cards but didn't want a pricey meal. Withdrawing a bunch of Czech crowns was the last thing I wanted to do before leaving Prague. So we find a pizzeria that isn't exactly cheap, but will do. Afterwards, we both walk back towards the train station say our goodbyes and I start praying that the locker will open. Thankfully the locker wasn't a problem at all, my bag was still there and the train was waiting on the platform. After 4 nights in Prague, it was time to jump to another city.
But first, I had a 24 hour train ride ahead of me....
Kenny
posted by Kenny Carruthers at 11/03/2005 10:21:00 AM
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