To Prague

Last night Carolyn and I were up till late talking. She couldn't sleep because Charlie snored like a banshee in between frequent outbursts of Vietnam flashbacks, and I was still up writing last night's blog. She's a great girl, she reminds me somewhat of Ellen Paige. She's got a little tomboy in her, but she pulls it off with a lot of feminine wit. She's (as Janene would say) full of piss and vinegar. She asked about Budapest, being as I'd just come from there and that's where she and Kara were off to next. I told her about the hostel I really loved over there, and Buda where all the beautiful sites and parks were. She gave me some tips for Prague and Paris.

I asked when she and Kara would be getting back to Paris, and she said sometime around May 14th. I told her I'd probably be getting to Paris sometime soon after that, so she offered to show me around the city when I get there. Charlie was suddenly back in Vietnam again, kicking around and yelling out incoherent sentence fragments, so we turned our attention back on him. I told her to try and roll him over somehow, but she refused. I mentioned the technique Ryan and I always use on each other when either of us is snoring. You make a huge movement real quick and then lie perfectly still. The snoring person is alarmed half awake by the sudden movement (or sound), and rolls over, thus ending the snoring. She tried waving her hand over his face and then reeling it back quickly, but nothing happened. Then she tried pushing the bed, but still he kept on snoring all the louder. Finally, just as we gave up, he choked on a bit of saliva and rolled over. We took advantage of the silence to say goodnight and get to sleep as fast as possible.

In the morning we all awoke and said goodbye to Charlie, who was leaving Vienna early that morning. We were all leaving today at different times toward different directions. I had breakfast downstairs with the girls, and we all exchanged emails so that I could find them again when I get in to Paris. Then after breakfast, I packed up the last of my stuff and checked out. I tried the train station just across the street first, for a train to Prague. However, they told me only the southern station goes to Prague, which is what I figured to begin with (it's the larger station). So I took the local bus to the southern station and asked the information desk for the time of the first available train to Prague. Unfortunately, the soonest departure to Prague was at a 1:30pm, which was still 3 hours away. The good thing about just showing up at a train station is that you're never late for your train. You're very often sickeningly early, but never late. I had nothing else I could really accomplish in this part of town, so I found my platform and an open bench, and sat in the station for 3 hours.

The train finally came, and I boarded it. It was a lot nicer than the trains I'd been used to coming up through lower eastern Europe. It really resembled more of a commercial airliner than a train. I sat next to a really nice guy from Columbia who's living right now in Vienna. He wasn't much a fan of Vienna though, he said it was too perfect. He wanted to find somewhere that was a little more unusual, and he'd heard Prague was pretty unusual. I'd not seen Prague yet, but if it was anything like this guy described his "ideal town", I was in for some kind of adventure.

My Eurail pass, as it turns out, doesn't work in The Czech Republic, so as soon as we crossed the border they made me pay for the rest of my transit to Prague. Thankfully I had just exactly enough cash to cover the ticket, and two nights in the hostel I booked. However, this meant that when I got there, I was virtually broke. Like the majority of Eastern Europe (and most places I've been, in fact) no one takes credit cards, so all my dealings have to be in cash. As soon as I pulled into the station in Prague, I had the distinct feeling of being an outsider. It just looked like everyone wanted to rob me. I'd been warned that Prague is one of the pick-pocket centers of the world, and it certainly looked that way. I kept a careful watch over both my front pockets. Everything worth stealing was in those two pockets. Fortunately, I had no cash to speak of, but I still had my iPod, phone, passport, and credit cards still up for grabs. Whenever I could I kept my hands in my pockets, however this was a lot more difficult when carrying my fiddle in one hand. It left one pocket always vulnerable. I developed a crick in my neck trying to keep my eyes on the open pocket. In the metro, especially this was tough, but somehow I made it through without losing anything.

My first impression of the city is actually somewhat disappointing. It seems like kind of a crappy city. It's dirty, and rat infested. There are beggars and pickpockets on every corner. The streets are marred with graffiti, and the smell is terrible. My hostel is over across the train tracks on the lower west side, which is not really a great part of town. The hostel itself is rather nice, but outside seems pretty sketchy. After I took advantage of the free internet to upload my new pictures, I realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I asked the front desk lady if there was a quick cheap fast food place nearby. I didn't really want to wander around too far here after dark, at least not until I knew the place well enough in the daylight. She showed me where there was a McDonalds just down the road, so I went there. I had to pick up some money from an ATM also on the way, and the only bank machine I could find was buried down in the metro tunnel. It's increasingly sketchy pulling out money from a bank machine at 9 at night in the ghetto of Prague, but I did it. I just have to try not to look lost or naive, keep my hands in my pockets and my head down. That's how you avoid attention. I tried to eat something somewhat healthy at McDonalds, but that's pretty near impossible. That's the thing about McDonalds, it never changes no matter where in the world. Other American fast food places are different in Europe. KFC and Pizza Hut are qualified as decent sit-down restaurants here. They're not super nice restaurants, but the kind of place you might have a birthday party, sort of on par with like TGI Friday's. Definitely worthy of a business function. However McDonalds is cheap, crappy food no matter where in the world it resides, and it does reside absolutely everywhere. Even in the Middle East where they don't even have their own crappy fast food places, there's still a McDonalds on every corner. However, I can't complain too much. McDonalds and Starbucks act as the American embassy when you're far away from home for so long. It's a comfort to be somewhere familiar, and you usually see a lot of other Americans doing the same thing, hiding out from the often overwhelming foreign lands. So thank you McDonalds for providing weary homesick travelers with the same crappy food and mediocre service we're accustomed to getting back home. It's good to know everything doesn't have to change.

Tomorrow I'll explore the city a lot more. I'll get out of the ghetto, and hang around the City Center. I'll see some sights, and figure out if this place brightens up any. Perhaps first impressions can be decieving.