Wednesday 3 September 2014

From A Hot Car to Praha


 The train journey was an experience - I was in a six-person couchette room, essentially two triple bunks on either side. Four of them were taken by four English girls that were friends , the other by some random non-English-speaking woman about my mothers age. I was worried I would piss the girls off with my snoring, but at the end of the day it was so hot in the carriage I'm not sure how much sleep I actually got. It was like a sauna, eventually I gave in and took my tshirt off, but unfortunately the girls didn't follow suit. I did have a good chat with one of them when the train stopped on the border for about an hour, and due to there being no movement, there was no breeze coming in through the window.


At about 7:30 we got in to Prague. I made it first priority to go to the hostel and check in. The good thing was they let me do so, and go to my room straight away, as opposed to having to wait until 12 or 2pm. I went in and had a bit of a lie down for about half an hour until the person who was sleeping got up. I then decided it was a good idea to take care of some washing, which I did by hand and with the shower. I also re-arranged my bag, had a shave and brushed my teeth, and had a well-needed shower, not necessarily in that order. I then also needed to organise my train to Venice, get some lunch and do some sightseeing. I opted for lunch at the cafe downstairs that was either part of the hostel, or at least part of the same building. I had some nice soup and a piece of ham quiche. From there I went and sorted my train out, finding it was much easier to get between the two than the instructions made out for getting to the hostel. Once I did that I did a bit of research so I could book accommodation for Venice. By the time I'd done all that (& Possibly had a sleep) it was about 8pm, so I went about finding a nice dinner. The staff at the hostel recommended a pub around the corner -which was good, and when I looked at the price coverted, it was essentially $4nzd for the main course, so I accompanied that with a beer and dessert, apple strudel, as I figured it was a fitting dessert for that part of the world. I then went about sightseeing albeit by night. Prague was still busy then.

The next day I got up and checked out, but stored my luggage downstairs. I grabbed a quick McDonalds breakfast, and not far from there was the starting point of a free walking tour, that had been advertised on the map the hostel gave me (basically it's free, and you tip them at the end, based on what you think is fair - I usually give them a standard figure, in this case, because it was in a different currency, and I felt he did a good job I gave him slightly more.) I then went and had lunch at the restaurant he recommended - I had wanted to try Pork Knuckle, so I had one. I then went and had a quick look over at the castle grounds, then headed back to the hostel, got my bags and went to the station.



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