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Published: November 26th 2006
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Spending all my coins on unhealthy amounts of coffee in different shapes and forms from the machine in the hostel common room. Well, actually the coffee is all the same shape and form and so far i haven't really been able to taste any difference. But in lack of anything useful, interesting or exciting to do I might as well check if my tummy is back in shape enough to discover what separates a Coffee Melange from a Moccachino. I would really like to find out what the "soup" button does and if that one also combines with "add extra sugar", but being carnivorically challenged I'm afraid it would not make its way down my throat anyway.
I noticed there are two things largely missing in Prague; mail boxes and trash cans. What they generously offer at every corner however are little metal boxes containing brown paper bags to clean up whatever your dog did on the street. I'm actually surprised how neat and clean Prague is, especially considering that there are no trash cans. That is in fact a lie, after two days of having seen neither I realized both trash cans and mail boxes are placed on most
every street. Of course they are the most noticable when you don't need them anymore. Kind of like walking around half the city with a growling tummy not finding anything appealing, finally grabbing a "baked cheese hamburger" (basically baked cheese in a burger bun, not bad actually), only to turn onto the next street and be standing in front of the "Green Tomato", and walking around town later with a full stomach seeing falafel and pancakes on every corner.
Either way, postcards have been sent, bag has been packed, alarm has been set, just have to wake up in the morning and head off to good ol' Deutschland. I kind of felt like going out for a beer tonight, didn't have any of that yet. But the desire wasn't strong enough to motivate me to go to a pub or bar by myself. Doing this would result in one of two things anyway, either I sit in the corner by myself, have a beer or a few, become overly emotional, feel very lonely but too stubbornly pessimistic to talk to anyone, going home utterly disappointed; or I'd end up with a group of loud, drunk, probably male, tourists getting
equally or more loud and drunk, having them buy me beer after beer after becherovka after absinth, probably sleeping with atleast one of them, showing up completely wasted at the airport or still be partying at 10am missing my flight altogether. Hey, that actually doesn't sound so bad...
Nah, with the right company I would have settled for just a couple of beer and some nice conversation. But what am I supposed to do, just walk up to people on the street and ask if they'd go have a drink with me? I guess I could actually do that, but somehow it doesn't sound that appealing. It's strange how diffferent people react to a single person as opposed to a group. If you're a couple or more of girls people - men - will constantly approach you, if you're girl by yourself nobody will (except for some sleazy persistent men whose attention you could do without). I could draw the conclusion that this is due to my unattractive face or unfriendly appearance, but I'd prefer to assume it's a more a general phenomena. I don't really see a group of girls going up to a single guy either, it's
just too direct and personal and you don't have the same kind of anonymosity and mood as in a group situation. A personal meeting between two individuals (or a group vs. one individual) always seems to provoke - unjust? - expectations of something "more".
Having that said I'd also like to add that I think I was rather unlucky with my fellow visitors in the hostel. Hostels mostly have this nice open atmosphere where everyone talks to everyone and people sit around and play games and chat while cooking their dinner or planning their day, or is that just my romantic view? Once again I could assume it's all because of my character, but observing the other guests, both single travellers and those in twos or more it seems no one has any interest in any interaction at all. People enter rooms without a greeting, turn on and off lights without asking, talk loud in the middle of the night without apologizing. I can't claim it bothers me namely, it's a mere observation. I can't really complain about my place of stay at all; it's farily clean, the bed is comfortable, internet is free, staff not unfriendly although not
overly friendly, showers are hot, it's all ok. Judging by numerous itchy red marks on my body I'd say they have a flea problem, but hey, that's what you get for 7 Euro a night, right?
A smile! A smile! I have to add. A smile! 😊 On my very last night someone smiled at me. I was just trying to stuff some food I bought days ago down my throat when a young couple came into the kitchen, I recognized him as staying the room connected to mine. I got up to leave as everybody seems to do, I guess I am just "monkey sees - monkey does". And as I tried to leave the room he was kind of standing in my way, our eyes met and his lips moved in this way, I had to think for a moment, this grimache seemed familliar but after these days I wasn't sure anymore. Oh yes, there it was! A smile! Not sarcastic or arrogant or forced, a warm friendly honest smile! Without thinking I gave him one back and retreated to my room, suddenly filled with this pleasant warmth inside. I resisted the urge to go back and
say "hi, you guys wanna be my friends?" thinking I shouldn't push it. It might seem like over reacting a bit to a smile, but I'm not sure how many times people just looked the other way when entereing a room in this place, this one girl i seem to have crossed paths with a lot always looks at the ground and makes this kind of "i guess we
have to meet in the door every time" kind of face without considering removing her greasy hair from in front of her eyes. She reminds me of my sister somehow, she and her boyfriend being those having spent the most common time with me in the room, both seeming to have some kind of "social interaction is something you only perform if absolutely necessary" attitude. There is this other couple in the room who just seem to be young and in love and not able to take their eyes of each other, I can understand that (although they do say hello before climbing on top of each other in bed. This couple doesn't even seem to care much for interaction with each other. Both couples are English, English seem to
travel mostly in couples or in large groups of loud drunk men. Americans seem to come in small mixed-gender groups, or in same-sex pairs. Irish seem to travel almost exclusively in large loud drunk male groups spending most or all of their time in Irish pubs or strip clubs. I have actually seen and heard surprisingly few Germans since I came here, in Barcelona they were all over the place. A rather large group of teenage Germans with an eastern accent checked in today, with the hostel receptionist chasing them all day to fill out the check-in form again as they couldn't read most of their handwriting. Almost the only Swedes I've noticed were a group of teens as well, following a middle aged woman carrying a Swedish flag through the grounds of Prague's Castle.
Ah, shit, I'm such a genious. Five cups of coffee and it's taken me an hour of restless turning and twisting in bed to figure out why I can't sleep. Changing position over and over again, keep feeling (imagining?) those fleas crawling and biting all over me, keep hearing the American girl above me grunt and squeak, the English guy on the other side snore. Thinking about getting up and going for a walk, but shit I have to get up early tomorrow. Used the word "shit" twice already, I must be rather frustrated. Didn't help to eat that salad before bed either. And writing in only the light from your cell phone isn't the easiest. If it only wasn't so warm, I absolutely hate when it's warm when I have to sleep, and I absolutely hate when i'ts cold when I have to get up. Going insane with the snoring and the twisting and turning, think I might go take a shower and wake everyone up.
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