Saturday in Prague

Today was an interesting day in Prague. Interesting and exciting! I started the day a little later than I had hoped, seeing as how the girls I am sharing a room with kept me up fairly late into the morning, getting in around 5am. I went to bed a little late after booking my hostel in Krakow and my flight from Krakow to Milan. (Milan was not my desired destination, but it is pretty close to Rome. At least it is in the same country.). And the flight didn't cost me too terribly much, thanks RyanAir!

By the time I did get a start on my day, I was feeling quite energetic. I only had two goals for the day: find an art supply store to by a smudging stick so I don't have to use my finger any more, and meet up with Jules, the girl I traveled with in Vienna and Warsaw. She arrived in Prague late last night, is staying in a different hostel, and today is her birthday, so we tried to arrange a place and time to meet up and hang out. Jules had a couple of other friends visiting Prague so I was going to meet them as well. On my way to the center of town, I stopped at the train station and got a reservation to Krakow for tomorrow, so I didn't need to worry about getting to the station extremely early, just early enough so that I don't miss my train, again!

After an hour or so of walking around the Old Town looking for an art store and keeping my eyes and ears open for Jules, I ran into the girls I am sharing a room with. They asked what I was up to and recommended I go across the river since they had seen some art stores in that area. One exclaimed, "They had everything including colored pencils." Well Wal-mart has colored pencils, but I thought, I am not having any luck here, so what would it hurt to cross the bridge. This is when my day took an exciting turn.

I was just about a block from the Charles Bridge when I looked across the street and recognized a face in the crowed. Jules you might ask, no, in fact it was a fella I shared a room with in Vienna, Andrew. He was with another girl I knew from Vienna, Sophie, and two friends they had made on a pub crawl in Prague the night before. I crossed the street and surprised them to death. I do believe I was the last person they expected to see in Prague, since I certainly wasn't expecting to run into them there. After Vienna, Sophie went to Budapest, and Andrew went to Venice (and apparently the rest of Italy). We all had a good laugh about the odds of running into each other, and I was introduced to Tiffany from Melbourne, and Jacob from Sweden. The four of them were headed across the bridge as well, so I decided to walk with them for a bit. I filled them in on a few of the interesting tidbits I had learned on my walking tour, trying not to sound too know-it-all-ish, and they asked me to join them as their tour guide. I did my best.

The five of us spent the afternoon together, walking around Prague, and I took them to a fun restaurant that I had been to the night before that served cheap Czech cuisine. I didn't remember the portions being as large as they were, but the night before I had eaten conservative old chicken pasta, while tonight I had Pork neck (which is excellent). It was a great meal, and we all lost total track of time. Around 7:30 when we had finished and paid our tab (848 Crowns/ appx. $45 for the five of us) we headed on the metro to their hostel for an after dinner drink.

Of course, one after dinner drink turned into a couple, and I ended up leaving at around 1:30am after a stop at McDonalds with the gang for a late night snack. This is when the story gets a bit interesting. I didn't have a map all day, so before leaving their hostel, I picked one up so I could find my way home. After consulting the wise map, I realized I was just due south of my hostel and made a rough route home. Well, about a third of the way home, I realized I had dropped the map somewhere along my route and was without map. And the only "address" I had for my hostel was "It is on the street that looks kind of like 'chimichanga.'" Needless to say I got a bit worried, and realized I had two choices: turn back and get another map (which I would then staple to my body) or keep going. I chose the latter. I sort of knew where I was, I had a major landmark in vision, and I knew the direction to head. I walked in this manner for about 15 minutes, making it several more blocks, when I saw another hostel. I now view hostels as the all-knowing location of information. I tried pulling on the door and of course it was locked being almost 2am, but as I was walking off, I heard the sound of buzzing, meaning the door had been buzzed open. I walked in, told the guy I was a bit lost, and asked if he had a map. Well of course he did, an identical replacement to the one I had lost. Once I had it in my hands and figured out my location on it, I realized I was 3 blocks from my hostel. Incredible I would say. From there it was an easy walk home, but there were those 20 minutes where I was scared (pardon my french) shitless, yet I just kept walking. So when in a foreign country alone, keep dozens of maps on you as well as dozens of the hotel's business cards on you, so you don't have that situation (unless you enjoy living on the edge while a little drunk).

All in all it was a wonderful and surprising day, and I am not in the least bit disappointed that I did not in any way shape or form achieve any of the two goals I started my day with. I would have loved to see Jules on her birthday, but I am sure we both had a good day regardless. I say, live for days like this one, when nothing goes as planned, but everything goes right!