The Train, and Prague.

Poland was behind me in my trip covering eleven more countries, but my next stop was not out of the Slavic speaking world.  It was untroubling for me to infer bits of German on street signs or in conversation and indispensably convenient to be able to remember my hostel's street name.  My language comfort bubble was to be busted with Polish and Czech.  Slavic languages are very different from our German-Romantic stew we call English.  Tell me a German word to remember, and I got it. Ask me what Polish street our hostel was on, and we'd probably never find the place again.  

Luckily with Natalie and Dove I was able to learn polite Polish phrases of gratitude and salutations.  But if you throw into the mixture a different dialect of Slavic languages, i.e. Czech, then words get mixed and people you deal with get frustrated.  Sadly, I resorted to hand gestures and short whistles of contentment in order to express that which I felt appropriate.  This speaking with the hands ended up getting back at me later. 

My next destination was to be Prague in The Czech Republic. The land of Bohemia in the core of central Europe. Prague spreads itself around the shores of the Vlatava river and has been a settlemet for people - Celts originally - since 200 BC. [Sidenote: I wouldn't swim in either the Vlatava in Prague nor the river Vistula connecting Warsaw and Cracow.]  Praha (Prague) was spared during those dreadfully disasterous wars in the twentieth century helping the city maintain its alluring attractiveness palpable in every corner of the city. Well, in the daytime. Day Prague and night Prague are as different as the words day and night themselves. 

My train to Prague bunked six people in one little room with three beds stacked like cabinet shelves on either side.  In admiration of thc ride I did meet these very nice Finnish girls in those close quarters. A Brit and I got the Finns to speak and teach us some Of their language. Finnish is completely different from the Germanic and Slavic languages.  It's not even Indo-European in class or structure which puts it out of my comprehension.  Finnish is full of the most interesting sounds any one person could ever make with their mouth.  

All six of us, two Australians, two Finns, a Brit, and myself sweated and talked half the night about what it's like back home.  To my own fortune I was on the bottom of the bunks. A perfect location for my head in direct way of falling backpacks and top bunked travelers getting down to use the bathroom.  

We made it to Prague with no problems. The train did its duty transporting us and for that I am grateful. Once again, a big city in the center of Europe also means, "spray grafetti everywhere, please." This I noticed first about the city Prague.  By this time in my trip I have a routine I follow for all new cities: find a map and figure out the public transport.  Once that's figured out the whole of the city is more accessible.  Prague has a wonderful and cheap (though sometimes I didn't pay) metro system taking you anywhere in admirable time. First off the train and saying goodbye to those Finns I set to grab cash. It was the third currency for me in ten days; my wallet was very colerful at this point.  I hadn't showered since the morning before and had slept all night sweating in my clothes.  Then to my dismay the hotel said check-in was six hours later.  No problem, I brushed my teeth and picked flowers from the hotel to put under my arms.  

The flower thing is a fabrication, no flowers found themselves in my pits.  And I should point out I didn't book a hostel like I thought I had done. The website lied, I thought it was a hostel.  Hotels are a little more lonely than hostels when you're by yourself.

It was time to walk around Prague all but showered. The hotel was far from the center and I figured more sweat on me wouldn't hurt.  I footed the journey to see what the central Bohemian city had to offer.  Having my map I strolled along the streets. I was going to see the infamous Prague Castle with the St. Vitus Cathedral in its center. Prague Castle is the largest in the world set on a hill by the banks of the Vltava. As soon as you see it, you breath leaves you behind. It is absolutely massive and surrounded by uniformed terra-cotta red roofs the city buildings seem to share. There is much uniformity with the city Prague and coming from my view of American cities I instantly appreciated the depth of consistancy this city held. Not monotonous by any standard but unique in the sheer scale of the city. Sometimes Prague is called, "City of a hundred spires," rather appropriatly named too. The view from Prague Castle on top of the hill shows spire after spire from church steeples to baroque buildings filling the city of Prague in a skydiver's nightmare. Spires or steeples - whichever the proper term - to me look very sharp and jagged spears.  They're still interesting to look at, nonetheless. 

Connecting the Staré Město (Old Town) to Prague Castle is a very old footbridge known as Charles Bridge.  I crossed it many times.  Europe's oldest synagogue aptly named "The New Old Synagogue" is there which i visited.  Franze Kafka lived in Prague. His house is now a museum.  There is also a very nice statue of him in the Jewish Quarter. In the Staré Město is a very interesting astronomical clock I can't describe because I don't know how it works. It is complicated with the zodiac signs and arabic numbers circling the three intertwined clocks.  It does have an interesting story. The man who designed it in the 14th or 15th century was a very skilled clockmaker.  The Bohemians of Prague liked their new clock so much they gouged his eyes out so he could not make another, that's gratitude for ya'.

I was burned a few times on overpriced low-quality meals. I swore off resturaunts for a time. My friend Steve once told me the best food in Prague is the fast food vendors on the street. It is true; however, these aren't like McDonald's.  I would compare them to food stands at your local carnival.  I was loving the bratwurst smeared with saurkraut and onion every chance I got, and for a good price too. Furthermore, they remained open until very late for those who stay up to see the wee hours of morning. 

As I mentioned, you have day Prague, and you have night Prague. Day Prague is filled with tourists and their families strolling from site to site getting gouged by those awful restuarants and sham tour groups. Night Prague is filled with hookers, drug dealers, sex show peddlers, drunken loud englishmem, pub crawlers in mass numbers, local drunks,  and your average modest Asian tourist looking very intrigued by the surrounding Gomorrah.  Typically I stayed away from the streets at night. I did go to Prague's largest night club, The Karlovy Lazne, to dance and socialize one night.  It was great fun and awkward at the same time to dance with non-english-speaking women.  I just kept my mouth shut and jiggled my rear, everyone understands dancing. 

Everyone.