Post #6- Prague (part 1) and Český Krumlov

I made my way to Prague from Salzburg last Wednesday without too much difficulty, but it took 2 trains and a very long travel day. I got in at about 6 pm and took the subway to my hostel, which was conveniently located right downtown. The receptionist at the hostel told me that there’s a free activity every evening at 8 with Kristian, and I obviously had no other plans so I decided to check it out. The activity that night was a cooking tutorial, so I went down and met Neil from England, Geoff from New York, and Linda from Canada. There were some others from South America there, but they mostly kept to themselves. Kristian, a funny Czech man, immediately put us to work peeling and chopping potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and cilantro to make a traditional Czech potato soup, which was delicious.

The next day I got an early(ish) start and explored the old town of Prague on my own. It was an overload of prettiness! There are so many gorgeous buildings, bridges, and long, narrow streets. I found most of the historical sites with the help of my travel book.

That evening I joined the others at the hostel for Kristian’s activity, which was a tour of another part of Prague that I probably never would have seen otherwise. We climbed a hill and took in a gorgeous view of the Vltava river and the city’s lights, and we stopped in at an outdoor concert that was playing folk music. Neil told me about a beer festival (!!!!) that was starting the next day, and he was trying to get a group together to try it out. I clearly did not need much convincing, so we planned to meet the next afternoon.

The following morning I took a free walking tour of the city that was recommended by the hostel. It was great because I had already seen most of the sights so I could orient myself, but I learned a lot about the actual history of Prague, which, as it turns out, has been very bloody for the past 600 years or so.

Later that afternoon I met up with Neil and about 6 others that I had met the previous few nights and we made our way over to the beer festival, which was a ton of fun. They servers, dressed in stereotypical bavarian attire, served 1-litre beer steins. Ben and Steve (also from England) taught us a drinking song, but we weren’t very good at it and I don’t think we ever got the whole thing right.

After a few hours, 4 of us wanted to get back to the hostel for Kristian’s tour of Prague castle, which is actually a complex of palaces. Apparently the Czech emperors were never satisfied with the palaces built by the previous ones, so they kept commissioning their own. At the centre of the complex is this enormous cathedral that I couldn’t even fit into 1 photo, nevermind the whole complex (google ‘Prague castle’ and hopefully you’ll see what I mean).

Sidenote- you know how it’s illegal to drink in streets, on city transport, and in pretty much all public areas? Not such an issue over here.

Since I’m not meeting up with Matt until Thursday, I decided to leave Prague for a while to see some other towns, so on Saturday I made my way to a small, adorable village called Cesky Krumlov. I thought it would be nice to get away from the big city and have some time to relax.

BUT- it turned out to be no less of an adventure, mostly because I kept getting myself into trouble. Not serious trouble, more like a series of minor mishaps. The first one (completely my fault) was that I forgot to write down the name and address of the hostel that I had booked in Cesky Krumlov. I did however, have a map of the town that listed a few hostels and I was PRETTY SURE which one I had booked, so I made my way through town from the train station. Next issue- the reception desk was closed when I got there. Problematic, since I wasn't 100% sure that this was even the right place. But then I noticed a small note with my name on it and a set of keys attached. Woohoo! The note said something along the lines of "gone for a bit, you're in room A, here are your keys, you can register later :) " Big relief! The hostel was quiet, and I had the 8-bed dorm to myself that night, which was great because I was really looking forward to sleeping in.

 I went back to check in a while later and the receptionist who introduced herself as Blanka, maybe in her late 20s, mentioned that there would be some live music down in the bar area later on. She said she didn't know who they were, some young local guys, but suggested I go check it out. Well, she was right about the young part! The band consisted of 4 high school aged boys, 3 of them about 16 and the tiny little bassist couldn't have been older than 14. It was still fun though, they played a bunch of songs that I recognized including some Deep Purple, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Blink 182, so I ordered a pint for 24 koruna (about $1.25) and hung around for most of their set.

I slept soundly that night until maybe around 4 am, when I woke up to a loud pounding on my door. Okay, maybe having the room to myself wasn't so great after all. I didn't make a sound because I figured that anyone who needed to get in should have a key. Then I heard whoever it was banging on the door next to mine. No answer there either. He/she moved on to a few other rooms, determined for an answer. I listened for a little longer... running footsteps, then nothing. Definitely took me a while to get back to sleep after that, but I was too scared to turn my light on to read.

I spent the next day enjoying the town. There's a big castle in the middle, and the Vltava river (same one that passes through Prague) snakes it's way through town creating 3 peninsula type things. Since Cesky Krumlov is so small, it didn't even take me the whole day to walk through all the streets. But I had brought my book and stopped at a pretty park to read for a few hours part way through the afternoon.

When I went back to the hostel to make dinner (brown buns, cheese, some deli meat that I THINK was chicken, and a banana) I sat on a balcony off the kitchen that looked out into a courtyard, and Blanka came out for a cigarette and sat down next to me. She asked about where I was travelling and I asked her where she was from. Then she told me that every Sunday night at 10pm for the past 2 years...something about street art...something about a project of local artists... and I didn't quite get the rest. But she invited me to come join them that night because after they were going to the 'baptism' of her friend's new bar that was opening, called La Cantina. She also mentioned that there was a astronomical phenomenon happening that night so it would be extra special.

So I went down to this side street with her and a few others that I think worked at the hostel, and there was already a group of about 8 or 10 other people (and 3 dogs). There were murals on the walls of some of the buildings in the street, and one of the guys read something to the group (in Czech) and everybody clapped. What I gathered from the whole thing was that this street art project had caught the attention of ...somebody, and they were celebrating the opening of an actual exhibit in town promoting local artists. Or something. A friendly young guy (whose name I never figured out) with dreadlocks started to talk to me, and later when we were all at La Cantina, he invited me to come sleep in the forest with the group that night, and even offered me his extra sleeping bag “the only rule is that you must give off positive energy!”. As much as I’m always up for trying new things, this was slightly beyond my comfort zone (at least at this early stage in my trip) since I had just met these people, had basically just arrived in this town, and didn’t speak the language.

I headed back to the hostel later on (probably around midnight) and walked in to find an old drunk man sitting alone in the pub area. He mumbled something to me in Czech, which I ignored and went to the door to the stairway, at the top of which all the bedrooms are found. But- the door was locked. No problem, I had 4 different keys, one of them was bound to open that door. Although I soon discovered that NONE of them did. I tried all of them repeatedly for about 10 minutes with the drunkard sitting about 3 metres behind me (all the while thinking to myself, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PLACE??). Finally (luckily!!) one of the guys who worked at the hostel came down the stairs and opened the door, but only because he was heading home. If I had come about 15 minutes later, I would have had a bigger problem on my hands.

The next morning I packed up, checked out, and made the hike up the hill to the train station, the same way I had arrived 2 days before. Or so I thought. Somehow, despite my ever improving navigation skills, I managed to take a wrong turn and found myself in unfamiliar territory. Right before giving in and backtracking, I saw a woman pushing a stroller, so I smiled and asked if she knew where the train station was. She shrugged apologetically, so I said the one word in Czech that I knew: “Nadrazi?” which means train station. She motioned for me to follow her, so I did, and after about 5 minutes I saw it. So I wasn’t that far off!

So I get there, get a ticket, wait around for the train, and find a seat when it comes. Now here comes the fun part. I have to change trains at a town called Cesky Budejovice. Apparently this town is bigger than I thought, and has not one BUT TWO stations. I look out my window and see the station sign, and get off. By the time I realized that there would be no transferring to any other trains from this tiny little stop, the train was pulling away. I looked closer at the station sign and it said “Cesky Budejovice something something” which I assume meant ‘south station’ or something indicating that this was NOT the main station. So there I was in a town I knew nothing about, didn’t speak the language, and had no idea where I was going. Great planning, Emily. I thought about hanging around until the next train came, but that wouldn’t be for 2 hours. Instead, I walked into town to try to find a hotel (they usually speak some english there!) and ask for directions to the main train station. This was a challenge because I couldn’t find a hotel anywhere, and the people I did ask spoke little or no english. Not their problem of course. Eventually I found my way, mostly with the help of the one czech word I knew, ‘Nadrazi’. Unfortunately, the Canada flag badge didn’t help me much here.

Of course by then I had missed my connecting train to Brno, but the beauty of trains is that there’s always another one coming, so I just had to wait about an hour and a half until the next one came along.

Lessons learned?
1. Always check to make sure you’re getting off at the right station BEFORE your train pulls away
2. Don’t be afraid to talk to the conductors and ask for clarification, even if you sound like a dumb tourist
3. Never underestimate the utility of knowing even just a few words of the language of the country you’re in!