Back on the Streets, Prague, May 2004

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Hello again,

Where did we leave off last time? Oh yes, 6:00 am, in the park with a reformed heroine addict, thinking about breakfast.

After breakfast Anni decided she had to leave. Not really sure where she was going, but she went none the less. We decided that it was about time to see the city, so we walked around. A lot. Between the five of us we spent over 250 man hours walking around Prague, which was great. Some cities have many interesting things, but it is boring trying to get from one place to another. Not Prague. Every where we went we saw something interesting. And everywhere we went Sal(and everyone else, but especially Sal) feel asleep at random times and in random places. At this point, we had endured a solid week of partying at UC; an eighteen hour bus-ride which featured many things, but good sleep was not among them; and a day and a half in Prague with only three hours of sleep(outside in a park, where it was cold). We were all tired, but Sal was the worst off. He didn't look as bad as he would on Thursday and Friday, but he didn't look good either. Which can be completely refuted based on the fact that he picked up a Swedish chick that night at the bar, but we'll get back to that later. During the day, Sal feel asleep everywhere. On a bench in the old town square, at John's hostel on the coach, even at the concert we went to that night. We heard an organ and two trumpets play some Mozart, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and a few other composers inside the St. Nicolas Cathedral. Except that Sal didn't hear much of the performance, because he couldn't keep his eyes open. Of course, Sal was not alone. Richard almost tumbled out of his chair towards the end of the show, while Josh, John, and I all struggled to keep it together. From what I remember, it was a very nice show.

The daytime walking slowly evolved into nighttime walking. We decided that we needed to find a nice bar to drink at and hopefully find someone to stay with, so we wouldn't be on the street again. John caved and paid for a hostel, so the four of us were on our own. We began the drinking by paying 67 Kroners(about two euros) for a liter of Pilsner Urquell. A liter is a lot of beer, trust me. After that, we had dinner and then went to another bar and tried another beer. John was a little tired and went home at ten. The four UCers proceeded to jump from bar to bar to bar. Every time, we were disappointed. There are over 130 bars in Prague, yet we can't find one that has good cheap beer and is full of people our age. After our fifth try, we settled on a subterrenean, international bar called "Double Trouble." If you are thinking what I am thinking(and I know at least Karl and Eric are), then you know that this bar is going to suck. It was full of people, including a bunch of Germans and Swedes. After much debate as to whether we shoud stay or not, I was overruled and we stayed. We ordered four crap beers and four shots of a random Czech spirit and waited to see what would happen. After about thirty minutes three women sat at the end of our table, but when we asked their names they said they didn't speak English. I didn't believe them, but was also not too worried about it. About thirty minutes later I found out my suspicions were well founded. Sal speaks decent Italian and he was trying to teach Italian numbers to Richard. These women were from Switzerland and one of them knew Italian. After that, they spoke to us in English for about an hour, and then they left. They had all just graduated and were psychologists, so none of us were too sad to see them leave. But we had just struck out on the whole finding a place to stay thing, so we had to redouble our efforts. In steps Sal's Swede.

Her name was Maria and she had just graduated. She was here with a bunch of her friends celebrating the graduation. We ran into many Swedes over the next two days, so apparantly everyone in Sweden comes to Prague for vacation. It seems like a good idea to me. Maria friends left to go to a disco, but she stayed because 1) she was diggin Sal and 2) she didn't like the music at disco's. She was into punk and gave me the names of three Swedish punk bands, which is awesome. We drank a lot of beer and spent a lot of money(relatively), which we said we weren't going to do. The bar closed at four and we all walked back to John's hostel to get our blankets. Maria tried to get us a place to stay, but she couldn't manage it. Bummer. Instead, we slept in the park again. It was much warmer, so we didn't mind too much. We went to bed at 5:30 and woke up at 7:00. In case you were wondering, we saw 5:00 am every day we were in Prague, because we either stayed up that late, or woke up that early.

The next day we decided to take it easy. We woke up and walked around some more, then decided to get lunch. We went to a grocery store and bought some sandwich stuff and went to a small park to eat. After lunch, Josh and John played guitar while the rest of us tried to get a tan. It didn't work. I intended to lay down and relax for about twenty minutes, but instead I feel asleep and got a sunburn. I only woke up because some random old Czech man started to yell at us. I'm not quite sure what he was yelling about, but he seemed very angry. We got up and sat on the bench, which seemed to satisfy him. We gathered our belongings and headed back into the fray.

We rolled up to the Saint Nicholas cathedral next, which was amazing. There were over a dozen stained glass windows in the church, and the central window, at the entrance to the church, was the largest I have ever seen. We paid twenty crowns, which equals about 70 euro cents, to climb the south tower. From there we could see all of Prague. The climb consisted of 287 steps, which is certainly less than the Dom, but there is no attempt at controlling the inflow of tourists, so there was a lot of waiting on the stairs for the people in front of us to move. But the view at the top was absolutely worth it.

After we left the cathedral we decided to grab a beer and a bite to eat. There was a bar near the church where we got more Pilsner, some beer cheese, pretzels, and the Czech equivalent of meatloaf. It was very good and very chill. Karl, it was the Czech equivalent of Cello, only without the music. We were supposed to meet Maria in the old town square at 5:00, so we booked it up there and saw her. We were tired, dirty, and a little hungry, so we wanted to get cleaned up before we went out with her friends. We chilled for a minute, then headed towards John's hostel. Since none of us had showered since Saturday, we were ready to get clean. We were allowed in, but after twenty minutes they told us to leave, so Richard and Sal had to shower guerilla style. We rushed around and made it out in about fifteen minutes and ate more Chinese for dinner. Then we headed to the square.

While we were eating we decided that the mission for that night was to find a place to stay. Getting laid, drunk, whatever, was completely secondary. We had to do whatever it took to not sleep outside. That was our life goal. We met up with Maria and her friends in the old square and tried to find a place for Josh and John to bask. We settled on a side street near the city center, which just happened to be near "Double Trouble." They did pretty well, making about five hundred Kronen(15 euros). We met some Germans who were celebrating a friends birthday and had just arrived in Prague. Since there were only four Swedes and there were five of us, I decided to roll the dice with the Germans. A back up plan is always a bonus. After the guitar playing was over, everyone headed to "Double Trouble." But there was one tiny problem; I couldn't get in! My pants were not adequate for admission, even though they were exactly like the ones I had worn in the bar for five hours the night before. Richard and I came up with an alternate plan, which consisted of Sal, Richard, and I looking for a better bar while the girls waited for us and drank. I am still not sure how this was a better plan, but apparantly it was. We had one hour to find a bar, and we ran all over town looking for one. We knew that if we found a bar we were in, and not only would we find a place to stay, but we would also get a little more than that. Finally, ten minutes before the deadline, Sal and Richard stumbled across a bar named Dusk til Dawn. Richard went back to get the crew and it was on. Our group numbered over thirty and consisted of Swedes, Germans, Dutchies, and Americans. We took over. The Germans had just arrived in Prague and were a little tired, so they went home early. I had crapped out. Still, the Swedes gave us hope. While John, Josh, Richard, and Sal were busy finding us a place to stay with some Swedes, so I decided to find out what it was like to roam around Prague at 3:00 in the morning. It was very interesting.

Late at night, there is an intricate dance that goes on in the old town square. It involves prostitutes, drug dealers, the police, and random drunk tourists. There seemed to be two groups of hookers, and a few random rouges. One group wore black and white, while the other group wore orange, red, etc. The rouges dressed in whatever. The cops came by periodically and chastised both the tourists and the prostitutes, but it did not matter. The drug dealers stayed in basically one position, while the hookers moved around. It was very interesting to see.

I headed back to the bar at about 3:30. It was run by a giant San Francisan, who was also the bouncer, named Jason. After I got everyone out of the bar, I directed them towards a taxi. It seemed like it was in the bag for them, while I would be sleeping in the park again. Whatever. When I left everything was in order. There was no way they could screw it up. Or could they?

I walked around for an hour, and if I can recommend that you do anything on vacation, it is walk around in a city at five in the morining. There are very few people out and the city is all yours. I walked around for an hour and then headed for the park. Just as I got there, Sal and Maria showed up. I said hello, then climbed higher up the hill. Shortly thereafter Richard, and then Josh, followed me. Apparently these girls had to check out by nine, so they didn't have anywhere for us to stay. Josh, Richard, and I went to sleep at 6:30 in the park and woke up at 7:45. We had failed miserably at our goal of finding a place to sleep, but that was alright. We knew we had one day left and that everything would be alright.

Our last day in Prague is a bit of a blur. By this point, we had slept about twelve hours in five days, as unbelievable as that might sound. We slowly stumbled around the city, waiting to get on the bus to Budapest so we could sleep. Everytime we stopped moving, we fell asleep. I fell asleep on the cobblestones in the main square after lunch, Josh fell asleep on the floor of a museum, Sal fell asleep leaning against a light pole in the street. You get the idea. It was a brutal last day, but definitely worth it. And we knew that we were headed to Budapest and things would only get better. Or so we thought.

I am writing this from Budapest because I have an extra week to kill. Extra, as in unexpected. Extra, as in I should be in Belgrade, or Skopje, or Istanbul right now. Extra, as in I won't make it to Egypt. What could possibly cause me to spend another week in Budapest against my will, at the expense of Istanbul and Egypt. I guess you will find out next time.

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