Czech one more country off the list!

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Ahaha! Sorry. I just had to!

After Amsterdam I flew to Prague and spent two days exploring this beautiful city. For the first time I decided to do a guided tour (only because it was free) so I spent three hours walking around Prague and learning its history. Some of the attractions included the astronomical clock at the Old Town Hall, Charles Bridge, Josefov: the jewish quarter, and my favorite: the 16th century arm dangling from a church wall. The story goes...back in the day a small statue of the virgin mary inside this church was considered magical. People would leave expensive necklaces on it and someone had the brilliant idea to sneak in one night and steal some of these necklaces. Well Mary didn't like that too much, so she quickly came alive and grabbed his wrist then turned back into stone. Well the poor guy didn't have any chance of getting away, so in the morning when they still couldn't get his arm out of her death grip, they decided to cut if off. As soon as the job was done, the statue came back to life and threw the arm onto the floor. And to teach everyone a lesson, they hung the severed arm up on the wall to display to all the consequences of stealing from the church. And it's still hanging there to this day! On this tour I met a couple canadians and an aussie and after it finished we went out to lunch to try some traditional czech food. It was delicious!!! We had svickova which is a bread dumpling with slices of meet covered in a creamy carrot sauce with a slice of lemon and whip cream to garnish. I know, it sounds like a weird combination, but it was heaven on a plate! After lunch we all walked over to the Prague Castle and enjoyed the magnificent view of the city. Later that night we all met up again and went on the Ghost Tour where we walked around prague at night and listened to stories which ended with "...and then they DIED!" Everyone was having a pretty good laugh at how ridiculous the whole thing was! Overall I really enjoyed Prague and wished I had more time there to explore the city. There was still a lot of things I didn't see. I would also like to see some more of the Czech Republic because the countryside looked beautiful from the train window and the people were so friendly!

From Prague I caught a train down to Wels, Austria where I would meet up with my friend Cornelia. Even though it only took 6 hours, it was the most complicated bit of travel I've had yet. Originally I was supposed to take a train for an hour, then hop on a bus for 45 minutes, then back onto a train and then switch trains, and wa-la...I'd be in Wels. If only it had been that simple. To start off with, each of my connection times was approximately 10 minutes, so I was already nervous about that. Well, my first train went as planned. At the station I ran/walked the 500meters to the bus area, which was basically out of town in an abandoned parking lot. I got on the bus, pointing at my printed itinerary to make sure I was going to the right place (english is not too common in the czech rep.) About ten minutes down the road, a bus official got on and made everyone show their tickets. I handed him my train ticket, hoping that it would pass. He gave it a long hard look and after saying a few things to the driver and seeing the completely lost look on my face, he handed it back, whew! So I'm sitting on this local bus, eyeing my watch about every 10 seconds wondering when the train station will come into view. At about the time my next train should have been departing, the ticket checker tells me that in about one minute I will have to get off the bus and onto another bus, and this new bus will take me to the station. Well, there weren't many other options, so when the bus stopped alongside the road, I jumped off and ran onto the bus in front of us. About 45 additional minutes later, we pull up to this tiny train station and I follow all the locals off the bus. Since there was only one train, well...I wouldn't even call it a train, it looked more like a tram since it was only one car, i jump onto this assuming it is the right one. Again, I lean over the seat toward a nice looking lady, pointing to my itinerary and attempting to pronounce the town I should be headed to. Whew, lucked out again. She gave a confirmation nod with a touch of sympathy in her eyes. When the ticket checker comes by, he tells me that in two stops I'll need to get off and switch trains to get to my next destination. When our train comes to a halt, I jump off only to be told that instead of the next train, we need to take a bus instead. OK, so at this point I am into Austria and it's getting late and I know that if things go disastrously wrong that I can always call up Cornelia and she could come find me. I follow everyone out of the station towards he bus, but instead of one bus there are three. I pick the first bus I get to and jump on board hoping it's headed toward Linz. This time I don't do any finger pointing to make sure. We leave the station and all is well until I notice the bus ahead of us turns a different direction. So now I'm a bit worried that maybe I should have doubled checked I was on the right bus. To hopefully gain some assurance, I start watching the road signs and notice that everytime we come to an intersection with a sign pointing toward Linz, the bus driver goes the complete opposite direction! I just tell myself maybe he's taking some back roads cause we do keep stopping at random places picking up and dropping off people. I kept having a nagging suspision that I would end up in Slovakia or something. Finally we come to an intersection that says Linz is only 15km away! Yay, I'm not completely out off the map just yet. But of course at this intersection we go in the opposite direction and I don't see any more signs pointing to Linz. Gulp! Finally we arrive at a train station and I get the guts to ask if this bus eventually makes it to Linz and the driver motions me to get off here and get on the train, at least I think thats what he was trying to say. So I run off the bus straight onto the train, and this time I ask if it's going to Linz. Yes...finally I'm back on my original itinerary and we arrive 15 minutes later to Linz where I then catch my train to Wels. And it was perfect because Cornelia was waiting for me right in front of the train cabin I was in. Fortunatetly enough, I was staying with her for the next week so I didn't have to worry anymore about finding my way around.

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Comments

[isaacs mama]

way to go go
glad you made it ok, those are the kinda stories that make yo mam sweat. I went over to your moms the other night, it was so weird, the house was gone. Poof! just dirt and a garage. Shannon and her friend Roy came to town and we all had dinner. it was great. Oh BTW, Isaac is getting married on January 10th, yipee! love ya girl-