PRAHA here we come.
As Caehle says, Czech us out! We are in beautiful Prague, and it only took a 15 hour train ride and our first expierience on a sleeper train. Bunks stacked 3 high on either side of an 8x8x8 compartment - a little cozy to say the least, but it beats the hell out of the North Carolina air
port terminal floor. This train kinda made San Diego's NCDT look good. No outlets, no showers, no cafe' compartment...oh boy, it was a little rough. Luckily we were tired enough to sleep a good 12 hours and expierience as little of the overly cozy compartment as possible.
When we arived Thursday morning, to be honest, it didnt look like much. Exiting the train and figuring out the metro/trolly system to get to the
hostel was far from easy. I was for sure out of my comfort zone; very few people spoke English, transit signs didn't ring any bells, and we had to exchange our Euro's to Crowns (100 euro = 2,
400 crown). The written language was what really got me - you couldnt even wing it. In French you can usually make out what the word would be in English, especially when it comes to the important things like toilet and vino. In Czech, it's a little difficult to pick out the meaning of things. Toilets are WC (water closet), beer is pivo. Hello is Ahoj (ahoy!), and so on and so forth. All I can say is thank god for the little pictures next to the signs at the transit stations: train, trolly, bus, little person running with an arrow, all good things.
We finally made it down some small cobblestoned street where we were to take a left then a right then a left to the front door of Yan's Residence, our hostel. Like I said, initially it didnt look like much, but after we made the first turn on that cobblestone street, I saw my fathers name plastered on the side of a building, and it was then that I realized things were much nicer around the corner. Oh what a difference a corner can make. Happy music mixed with happy smells filled the small corridors of the cutest little city I have seen yet.
As Caehle says, Czech us out! We are in beautiful Prague, and it only took a 15 hour train ride and our first expierience on a sleeper train. Bunks stacked 3 high on either side of an 8x8x8 compartment - a little cozy to say the least, but it beats the hell out of the North Carolina air
port terminal floor. This train kinda made San Diego's NCDT look good. No outlets, no showers, no cafe' compartment...oh boy, it was a little rough. Luckily we were tired enough to sleep a good 12 hours and expierience as little of the overly cozy compartment as possible.When we arived Thursday morning, to be honest, it didnt look like much. Exiting the train and figuring out the metro/trolly system to get to the
hostel was far from easy. I was for sure out of my comfort zone; very few people spoke English, transit signs didn't ring any bells, and we had to exchange our Euro's to Crowns (100 euro = 2,
400 crown). The written language was what really got me - you couldnt even wing it. In French you can usually make out what the word would be in English, especially when it comes to the important things like toilet and vino. In Czech, it's a little difficult to pick out the meaning of things. Toilets are WC (water closet), beer is pivo. Hello is Ahoj (ahoy!), and so on and so forth. All I can say is thank god for the little pictures next to the signs at the transit stations: train, trolly, bus, little person running with an arrow, all good things.We finally made it down some small cobblestoned street where we were to take a left then a right then a left to the front door of Yan's Residence, our hostel. Like I said, initially it didnt look like much, but after we made the first turn on that cobblestone street, I saw my fathers name plastered on the side of a building, and it was then that I realized things were much nicer around the corner. Oh what a difference a corner can make. Happy music mixed with happy smells filled the small corridors of the cutest little city I have seen yet.
Sounds like you're having a wonderful time so far Halley! I'm enjoying reading about your adventure :)
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