Sunday, August 12, 2007, 8:30pm Prague time
So, our arrival in Prague left something to be desired…to say the least...Today, however was much better. Our last night in Athens was…long…shall we say. We decided, what the hell, only in Athens once, everyone we met at the hostel wanted us to come out, and really, all we had to do the next day was fly, who cares if we flew hung over? BAD. IDEA. We did not go to bed that night, just out all night with people from the hostel. The next day I struggled to stay awake on the metro to the airport, then called to mind every cuss word I could think of, in every language, when the “lovely” people at the Athens airport (yes, that was snide) took for-freakin-ever to start boarding the plane. Finally, we boarded and I got a few hours sleep on the first plane, then I was too sick to be able to sleep on the second leg of the flight. Quick aside – our layover was in Brussels, which is where the money is. Flying in and out, the entire city looked like suburbia on crack. Perfect homes, perfect lawns, perfect pools. I mean, we’re talking “Pleasantville” in color.
Anywho, I go from seeing Disneyland translated in suburban neighborhoods to Prague. This city is a combination of neo-Gothic, Art Nouveau, and Communist. Some gorgeous spires, some interesting buildings, and some very functional, grey squares. We get begrudging directions in the airport to get to the train station we need to be at. As we exit we were *strongly* encouraged to get a ridiculously expensive “taxi” (not one of the official ones) but we passed them by to get on the bus. The bus was fine, though crowded. 25 mins. later we got to the metro stop, got on our first metro, then transferred to our second metro, to finally get to one of the largest metro stations in Prague. At this point we start wandering. We finally ask for directions, we are told “up two levels, to the right”. Of course, at this point we are on the train platform. Ok, so we think we are not in the right place. We go back in, start looking some more. Danielle tries to approach two waitresses, they walk past her as if she didn’t even exist. I try to ask one of the workers, he says he has no idea. The friggin hostel is IN the goddamn station, and he doesn’t KNOW?? Ok, Danielle tries to ask other people. No idea. We sit and rest for a few minutes since we’re both exhausted, in pain from walking and extraordinarily heavy bags, and soaking with sweat. We go back down and find another “info” booth and ask. He says it’s one level up. I say, “right above us now”, he says “yes”. Unfortunately, that would mean THE EXACT SAME PLACE WE CAME FROM. By this time I am almost in tears. We finally were able to use some logic and thought, hmmmm…maybe the entrance is OUTside the station…brilliant! We find the hostel finally and go up to check in. Hmm…she doesn’t seem to have a reservation, and since my Outlook took a crap a few months ago, I don’t have the confirmation to give her, only an informational thing, which she HELPFULLY points out is not a confirmation. Yes, lady, I realize this, however, I received one, I just don’t have it printed out. Finally, we are able to come to an “agreement”. She will give us a BIGGER room for only a few more dollars. Fine, I just want a shower. So, we manage to check in, have a six bed room all to ourselves. After we took a shower and drank some water we felt like new people…albeit very TIRED people, so we promptly fell asleep.
We slept for about 11 hours, then headed into downtown. We hit Wenceslas Square where we had breakfast at an Irish pub, then walked to the Old Town Square, wandering down to the bridges, crossing Charles Bridge, up to the Prague Castle, into Nárdoní Art Gallery, where I FINALLY met my first NICE Czech person, a very helpful guard, then wandered back down and had some lunch/dinner at one of the oldest bars in Prague (founded in 1435). While there we met some lovely people from Budapest that sat with us. We chatted about our travels and their travels, they, of course, insisted we needed to go to Budapest. Finally, after a few beers (SO cheap here! Only $1.45 for a half liter of Pilsner Urquell) we wandered back towards the hostel. While walking up Wenceslas Square we hear this faint chanting behind us. Suddenly, behind us, materializes this semi-militant, most-likely-sports-related, group of loud people chanting SOMETHING in a foreign language. We were trying to figure out if they were trying to start a new revolution (most start in Wenceslas Square, apparently), or if this is just a regular Sunday evening occurrence.
So, now we are back in our hostel, writing about our days, and going to head out for dinner and maybe a few drinks (not drinking tomorrow night, no drinking before flying again, learned our lesson there!). Tomorrow we are headed out to Kutna Hora (oh, yeah, so when we stopped to ask at one of the “tourist information” places how to get to Kutna Hora, there was an Italian couple in there trying to find information on a “night walk” through Prague and *I* had to translate for them!!! SO exciting!!! I know, I’m a nerd…but I have noticed that the universal language in Europe is English, and I just happened to know enough Italian to translate…interesting to me.).
So, will write more tomorrow!
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