Daniel Wille, an old friend from work at OAT came to visit, and for the weekend, we took off to Prague. We rented a car and navigation system, and took our leave from Berlin on a bright Thursday morning.
I don't like to be rushed on trips, but I also don't like to not have anything to do. For this reason, I told Daniel we were going "Southeast." Our trip itinerary included Dresden, Prague, Brno, Bratislava, and Vienna. However, I was fully aware that we probably wouldn't make it past Prague.
So we headed toward Dresden. I have driven out of Berlin a couple of times, so as Jordan and Daniel tried to figure out the GPS system, I just drove toward the Autobahn. When Jordan announced that they had figured it out and had us going towards Dresden, I looked at the display and was disappointed to see that we appeared to be driving through fields. The system was evidently running on an outdated map.
Unfortunately, the GPS system was not plugged in, and by the time I noticed that the system was displaying a "low battery" message, it had entered the state known as the "Low Battery Screen of Death" state, and could not be coaxed to return to normal function, unchanged by attempts to plug in the power or restart the system. Eventually, we decided to leave it unplugged until it ran completely out of batteries, then we would restart it again. Unfortunately, this meant that until we had determined that the batteries were completely dead, we would be relying on the one-page map showing all European highways, road signs (I could read the German ones, but my Czech isn't too good), and my manly inherent sense of direction (which isn't half-bad, if I do say so my self). As a result, it would be an overstatement to say we visited the Czech Republic on this trip because we were only in Prague, and on highways that were leading to and from Prague. Although there was that interesting detour an hour outside of Prague due to the closure of a stretch of freeway ("detour" is "objížďka" in Czech).
Daniel found Dresden to be very pretty, and I'd have to agree that it has a rather impressive collection of good ol' German-style building in a small area. We saw the sites (including the communist mural in front of which I met the communist from England two summers ago) and hiked up the Frauenkirche, which was very impressive.
Then, Jordan stated that he wouldn't mind being force-fed, and that it actually would be kindof pleasurable, so we headed to the Rick-Steeves-Recommended eating area which I somehow remembered from when I toured through Germany with my parents right after my mission. I didn't stop there with my parents. It was at this recommended eating street - which, as Rick predicted, offered a great view of the Frauenkirche at sunset - that I discovered that Rick is not a starving student. We spent the next 15 minutes trying to find a restaurant that had good food for under 15 euros.
And then we drove to Prague. I'd say we visited the Czech Republic, but I think that would be a bit of an overstatement because we were only in Prague and on roads that were heading to and from Prague. We didn't dare stray from the road for fear of never getting back for the performance of my church choir on Sunday.
We arrived in Prague. Unfortunately, the GPS wasn't working. We drove toward the center of the city and found a hotel. I went inside, asked for room rates and a map. We then drove around a little more, asked some people about parking, and discovered that there was a 20,000 Czech Frank fine for parking in spaces outlined in blue unless you had a residency parking permit.. Shoot.
As we drove around, a bit of unnecessary tension arose due to the fact that the GPS wasn't working combined with the fact that the map didn't show one-way streets on it and Jordan kept telling me to turn the wrong way down one-way streets and we kept ending up in dead ends. And we were all ready for some dinner and a nice bed.
We drove back an area of Prague that seemed to have an abundance of hotels, then scouted prices. Somehow, we stumbled upon the Brixon hotel, which offered a room for three for 45 euros/night, including breakfast and free parking for our car. It ended up being a great little hotel, and the slight malaise that had enshrouded our vacation was dispersed.
My only complaints about the hotel were that the garage was small (we spent a good 15 minutes trying to back-and-forth it out of the garage upon departure) and that the artwork in our room consisted of the back of a naked lady dragging a blanket.. But other than that, it was a great deal. Especially because it was close to the subway and we could park our car in a safe spot during the day, where no police officers could notice that we hadn't purchased the "vignette" required to drive in Prague.
Prague was beautiful. Honestly, it had one of the most impressive cathedral interiors I've been to in my life, and it had some good sights. I thought the castle was well-maintained, and although the famous Charles Bridge was under construction, we were able to see our fair share of street peddlers.
On one of our walks across the bridge, we saw one bum approach another bum who was begging. In Prague, the bums prostrate themselves on their knees with their face to the ground, hands holding a cup in front of them. I thought the bums might be hiding their faces out of shame, or were trying to conserve warmth, but I discovered that it is humanly possible to drink yourself into such a plastered state that you can sleep in this position. Or at least this guy appeared to be sleeping. Maybe he was just passed out. At any rate, when the one bum came up to the other bum and shook his shoulder, the bum on the ground did not respond. The standing bum shook his shoulder some more. "Vstávej zadek! Vstávej zadek!" The bum on the ground looked up with a very annoyed look on his dirty face, said something, and put his head back down.
Then, something funny happened. The bum on the ground lost his entire day's earnings as the standing bum reached into his cup and cleaned him out. I had to laugh.
After two days in Prague, we were tired. My camera card was full, my feet hurt, and my appetite for random St. Wenceslaus trivia had been filled.
So we headed back. We got the car out of the garage (no small feat) and headed down the maze of one-way streets and dead ends toward Germany. We had entered Berlin into our GPS system, but the GPS system's route to Germany was "Please turn around when possible" ad infinitum. Finally, we zoomed out on the GPS's map, and tried to follow roads that led us to roads that looked like they were going west. Finally, we could follow the signs to Dresden, and made it home safely.
In all, it was a very fun and fulfilling adventure.
The top three things I will remember from Prague are:
- Prague has really really deep subway stations. I remember jumping on an escalator and realizing that it was going like twice as fast as a regular one. It was almost dizzying as we rode the escalator for what seemed to be an entire minute to the next level.
- People don't speak English. But the ones that do (hotel workers, Charles Bridge peddlers, etc) thought that Daniel, Jordan and I came from Denmark or Sweden. Hm.
- Prague was very touristy. We were only there in the shoulder season, and there were already crowds of people. With cameras. Oh, and I discovered two things that make me cry: The business man in Prague taking pictures of the castle with his iphone (he'll get home with some nice 2MP pictures of Prague), and the tourist who goes overboard with three huge cameras with 50-foot lenses on each of them. I think the trick is to find the balance somewhere in between.
I also felt the same feelings as in Switzerland, that it looked a lot like German ruins of cities. I guess technically, the people in Prague were part of the German people, so that explained the similarities. And Prague had avoided most of the war, or at least survived it better than Dresden.
Anyway, Prague turned out to be a great trip, but I'm glad I'm home, and I'm buying insoles for my shoes before the next trip to London.
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