Prague Day 1

8-15-09

We woke up early on Saturday and caught the train to Prague. This was my first experience on a train and we had a great time. At first when we boarded we could not find a seat. We quickly learned that the reserved seats were in the forward cars and since we had not reserved a seat, we would find some in the farther back cars. We found a section that was empty except for one sleeping man. We sat in this car and our companion awoke. His name was Vladamir and he is originally from Ukraine but lives in Berlin and studies medicine in Vienna. He was incredibly friendly and laughed at my attempts at Russian as I listened to my “Listen and Learn Russian” playlist on my iPod. After some teasing, he was generous enough to help me with my pronunciation and correct some of the things I had learned.

After the two hour train ride we arrived in Prague and headed to our couch surfing location (Gautier LeSann). Tess’s phone was out of money so we could not call our host. Vlad let us use his phone but the number we had written down was incorrect. We decided to try and find his apartment on our own since we had the address. Somehow we found the apartment building but had no way to enter. Luckily another woman was entering the building and let us in. The apartments were not numbered so we had no idea which was Gautier’s. Luckily we heard music from one apartment and decided to ring just to ask if this resident knew Gautier. It just so happened we had found Gautier’s apartment. Gautier is from Paris and has lived in Prague for three years. He speaks English (his French accent is VERY difficult to understand) and French but no Czech even though he has a Czech girlfriend. Our room is very nice and has all Ikea furniture which made Tess and I giggle a bit.

We decided the best way to spend the rest of our afternoon would be to walk and explore the city. We had an awful and small map, and were in search of a better one. We found a place to eat and walked for about three hours while trying to find the clock tower and Charles Bridge. By the time we found these touristy centers of the city we were somewhat delirious. On our way Tess introduced me to European shopping by way of Zara and Mango. At Zara, Tess and I found great cardigan sweaters to buy. Unfortunately neither of us was carrying our credit cards, just the small amount of Czech crowns we had exchanged for our Euros. Embarrassed, we had to leave the check out counter, unable to purchase our items.

We found a map and oriented ourselves with the city before sitting at a very nice restaurant. We shared bruschetta, a bottle of wine, and two desserts. After eating, we walked home and discovered the walk that had taken us three hours should have only been twenty minutes. It was a fantastic night filled with laughter and great conversation.

(AND my camera was lost/stolen...BOO!)