PART I - GETTING THERE: Our weekend in Prague started out rather rockily. First off, we purchased a EURO-Domino ticket for the Czech Republic, which is a three-day ticket valid for all train travel within the Czech Republic. To get to the Czech Republic in the first place, we purchased a Bayern Ticket, which was valid to get us to the border. We looked at the Deutsch Bahn web site to find departure times for trains going from München to Prague (Prag in German, Praha in Czech). There was a regional train listed as leaving at around 11:20 that we could use with a Bayern Ticket. So we packed up our cameras, passports, journals, and a bit of food in our beloved (cheap but tiny) LMU backpacks, said goodbye to our loved ones (small dinner with Becky and Jay), and set off. We purchased and validated our Bayern Tickets at the Studentenstadt U-Bahn, so we wouldn't have to take our U-bahn cards with us.
We arrived triumphantly at the Hauptbahnhof (central train station), and marched over to the bulletin board to see what gate our train left from. 11:15...11:20...11:25.... No train to Prague. Confused, we walked over to an information booth and asked kindly where our train was. Apparently it didn't exist. There was a night ICE train that our Bayern Tickets wouldn't be valid for, which we could pay about 100 Euros to take, but other than that the next regional train to Prague would be leaving at 6:40 in the morning.
Annoyed, we fumed silently for a while at the lost time, and then realized another problem: our Bayern Tickets would no longer be valid after 3 AM. Refusing to waste 24 euros, we marched up to the reservations window, explained our situation to the kind attendant, and got our money promptly refunded, along with a profuse apology for the inconvenience.
In our dreams, that is. The attendant, apart from being an asshole in general, was very rude and unreceptive to our plight. He saw no reason that a Deutsch Bahn train listed by Deutsch Bahn on the Deutsch Bahn web site that didn't actually exist should be any fault of Deutsch Bahn's. He refused to refund our money, and waved us away. Frustrated, and thinking that perhaps there was a miscommunication, I asked if I could explain it again, this time in English. He promptly repeated HIS answer in English. (No no, you see, we understood YOUR German, sir, but you are being so ridiculously rude and anal, surely you must not have understood OURS). Such was not the case. He was, in fact, just rude and anal, in either language. The one positive thing we can take from this: we communicated perfectly well the first time around, in German. The many negative things need not be spelled out.
After this episode, we decided to camp out in the station's cafe and wait the night until our ACTUAL train arrived. Again, not a possibility afforded to us. The train station closed at one in the morning, at which point we relocated to the U-Bahn station downstairs, determined to spend the night there. However, as the trains kept going by, blowing cold air through the station and being generally noisy, neither Susan nor I could sleep. At about 2:30 we ended up returning to Studentenstadt to sleep for a few hours before returning to the train station yet again.
We met at 5:45, U-Bahn cards in hand this time, and did not validate our new Bayern Tickets until we arrived at the train station, checked that our train did in fact exist, and found the gate. We got on the train, and prepared to nap the many hours to Prague, when our tickets got checked almost immediately. I pulled out our new Bayern Ticket and handed it over. "This isn't valid for another half hour." Pardon? "The Bayern Ticket is not valid until 8 in the morning; this ticket does not work right now." I rolled my eyes slightly, fished around in my wallet for the old ticket, and handed it over saying, fine, we have the one from yesterday, too. "This ticket was only valid until 3AM." I stared at him blankly for a bit, certain that if I gave him some time, the absurdness of this would catch up with him. Day-long tickets valid until 3 AM, and the next day starts at 8 AM. I know I'm not a math major, but just in appearances, 3 is not 8. tres is not ocho, drei is not acht and why the hell does this ticket not work?!
Equally frustrated, Susan piped up, "Look, we have these Czech Republic tickets for most of our trip, we just need to get out of Bayern with this ticket; what do you want?" Apparently, the Czech Republic tickets, valid for all trains within the Czech Republic, purchased for our time in the Czech Republic, is valid for travel in Germany. We give up. We got our tickets stamped without any other problems, tucked both our useless Bayern Tickets into my wallet, and lay down to sleep. For all the Germans are stereotyped as logical and methodical, this is the most screwed up, counter-intuitive, and ridiculous set of rules for a train system I've ever seen. Bah. Onward to Prague.
We slept for a few hours, after which out tickets were checked again. Although there were no problems with the ticket, the woman who checked them informed us that the train would be splitting and if we wanted to go all the way to Prague, we'd have to move up by three cars. We thanked her, moved up, and went back to sleep. Then our tickets got checked again, and apparently the splitting point was not three cars away the first time, but rather we needed to move up another two trains. And quickly, as the trains would spit at the next stop. We moved and I ran off in search of a bathroom. Susan apparently lay down again, at which point the guy next to her asked if she wasn't getting off at the next stop. No, she replied, we were going to Prague. In this case, she was informed, we'd have to move up another few trains because this part of the train stayed at the next station. Susan waited until I returned, relayed the new information, and we ran up the train - about six cars further this time, for good measure. After this attempt, we ended up in the right place. The train separated, our part continued on, and very soon a pair of police officers came through the train asking for passports. Apparently we had crossed the border.
PART II - LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES: Soon after our passports were checked, a man came through to check everyone's tickets again and we found ourselves surrounded by Czech. We understood the scenario, and therefore had no problem figuring out that the man with a uniform and date-stamp wanted to see our tickets, but it was the beginning of a new experience: neither of us had ever been in a country in which we were not competent (or accompanied by someone fully competent) in the language. Here, neither of us spoke Czech and, for all that people talk about how much English is spoken in Prague, we ran into a decent amount of people who spoke neither German nor English.
This scenario is at once frustrating and embarrassing. Between the two of us, we spoke five languages very competently, though rarely asked people about them. We'd normally ask first, "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" (do you speak German) and, if met with a blank look or a negative answer, we'd continue, "oder Englisch?" as these two languages would seem the most likely to be common between us and Czech citizens. Besides which, it seems silly to just continue on, "oder Französisch? Italienisch? Spanisch?" because, although we could get by with these options, they were unlikely to be found in Prague and, at this point, grunts and gestures would be more efficient.
It was nice when people were able to speak German, mostly because it feels like a concession to me if I speak English abroad. It makes me feel like I have less control over the situation - I have to depend on their knowledge of a second language - and also it makes me feel... I don't know, guilty? Lazy? If I resort to my first language, even if I know German and Spanish, I feel that I'm projecting the image of an arrogant American traveler - "Why should I bother to learn a new language; everyone should speak mine". To be fair, Czech is only spoken in one small country and is, logically speaking, a rather large amount of time and effort for such a small visit, whereas French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese are spoken by more people. But this reasoning isn't explained in every encounter. The only fact that is known is that I am in a country without any grasp of its language. Peinlich. (pitiable/pathetic).
PART III - OUR ARRIVAL: We arrived in Prague in the afternoon; withdrew money; deciphered the metro system; found a very nice, yet extremely affordable, hostel; dropped off our backpacks; and set out on a walk towards downtown. Our hostel was a long way from downtown, so we ended up walking for a few hours. We felt safe, and the view was gorgeous - we found the river Vltava and then followed it towards the double spires of the Altstadt Cathedral. It was long-since dark by the time we got there, and we pretty much just wandered aimlessly for a bit. We saw some of the shops selling wooden puppets and others selling gorgeous blown-glass creations, bought some delicious gelato, and, after a few hours, took the metro back to our hostel
PART IV - EXPLORING PRAGUE: The next morning, we set off to explore all of Prague. In order to have as much time to explore as possible, we took the metro to Nové Mêsto (new town) and from there walked through Malá Strana (Little Quarter) to Hradcany, the area around the Prague Castle. The castle itself was unspectacular, but the buildings around it, the park in Malá Strana that we went through, and especially the overviews of Prague were amazing. From there, we crossed the Karlov most (Charles Bridge), which is probably over-hyped but still quite lovely, to Staromêstské Nám, which is the old square.
When we arrived there, it was getting dark and quite cold, so we wanted to buy some Glühwine (German mulled wine) to keep us warm. We saw lots of signs advertising it, most of which said "Grog" then "Glühwine" then "Mulled Wine". As the last two were identical, we assumed that Grog was the Czech word for Glühwine. Feeling proud of this conclusion and culturally-sensitive for using the local name, we walked into a store with one of these signs and ordered two "Grog"s. Oh man. First off, if that is wine, I am blonde. And tall. And a man. This drink smelled so strong, we had to hold it at arms length to keep from choking on the stench. When we finally got up the courage to try the stuff, we made an interesting discovery. Grog is, in fact, not a word of Czech origins, but rather a form of onomatopoeia, as "GROG" is, loosely transcribed, the sound one makes upon ingesting the stuff. After it cooled off enough to be of use no longer in warming our hands (still at arms' length from our faces), we dumped the vile fluid (apparently tea and rum, according to a translation I've read since), and purchased two Glühwines at a food stand in the square. This made us warm and very very happy (see Susan with her Glühwine). We stayed to see the Astronomical Clock go off at five, and then headed back home.
Due to the fact that we did not end up paying to enter either the museum (no time) or the actual castle (no interest), we had much more money than we needed, as our train tickets were already paid for. We therefore bought Czech beers to bring for Becky and Jay, and went out to eat. We went to an Italian restaurant near our hostel The woman who greeted us spoke no English, but did speak a decent amount of German. She was very sweet and patient and we successfully ordered a (very delicious) meal. When we were done, a different waiter came to clear the dishes, and said something to us in Czech. We looked a bit lost, and then responded in German, to which he raised his eyebrows and shook his head while backing (slowly, slowly) away. Ugh, so peinlich. He talked to the nice German-speaking lady, who laughed and came over to our table again... so embarrassing to not be competent in the language! On the plus side, we spoke so much German (in attempts to communicate with Czech people as well as with each other) that I think my German has improved more here than it did in München!
PART V - KARLSTEJN: On our last day, we went to Karlstejn to see the castle there. It was great to wander through the town and through the castle grounds. I think Susan described it best, saying that the Bavarian castles like Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, and Nymphenburg, are too fairy-tale, too decorative. In contrast, the Karlstejn castle looked like a medieval castle is expected to look, which was an interesting site to witness.
After exploring the castle, I sat down outside the gates to wait for Susan and was passed by a group of three Eastern Europeans (I couldn't pinpoint the language past being slavic, but it may have actually been Czech). A woman and two men - a bit before reaching the gates, the woman called out something excitedly and gestured towards the gate. The two men stopped, sighed, rolled their eyes, linked arms, and posed as she took a picture. The expression that they gave at being forced to pose (yet again?)... I can just see this having happened all the way up the hill. I giggled at how this reaction transcends language, and also at the thought of what they'd be in for once they actually passed the gates. (Hee hee. Yes, I'm evil, but you would have laughed too if you'd been there.)
When we finished exploring Karlstejn, we headed back to Prague to catch the afternoon train back to München. Ticket difficulties on our first day aside, it was a great weekend!
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