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Published: April 16th 2010
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April 16, 2010: Greetings from Düsseldorf, Germany! If you have no idea where that is, don't worry. I, too, had to google it. I'm currently trapped here since the ash from Eyjafjallajokull (what a cool name!) has settled so menacingly over Western Europe. I managed to fly from Leipzig to Düsseldorf yesterday, but then all flights to France, England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, etc. were cancelled. Apparently volcanic ash can severely damage the engines of planes. So...here I am. In Düsseldorf. In a hotel so generously paid for by Lufthansa. There's pretty much no hope of me escaping today since the airport here in closed, as is Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. France is also in the midst of (yet another) train strike. My only options are waiting until tomorrow to take a bus to Lille or to start the 193 mile hike back to Douai. Bus it is!
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Anyway, Marius and I decided to take a little road trip to Prague with some of his friends. We ended up leaving about 3 hours late due to missing passports, lack of cash to exchange, and the overwhelming desire for kebab and falafel. Oh, and Marius' headlights were
burnt out, none of us spoke a single word of Czech, we had no koruna in our pockets, and the Czech Republic was not an option on the GPS. I really should have seen this turning into a Eurotrip-esque trip.
We got horribly lost in Prague when we first arrived, but after asking about 8 people where Prague 1 was (yeah, we couldn't even find the right district of the city), we managed to find our apartment. Marius rented us a massive 3 bedroom apartment right in the middle of Old Town. We each paid a bit more than we would have at a hostel, but had an enormous apartment, a kitchen, AND a big breakfast included. Plus, we could walk just about everywhere in less than ten minutes.
Our first night there, we decided to head to a club called Duplex, where Mick Jagger celebrated his 60th birthday. Unfortunately the club was charging a 12 euro cover (about $16) and they were closing within a half hour due to low turnout. Right next door was a club called Hot Peppers. I'll give you three guesses as to what kind of club this was. Basti, being a typical
20-year-old guy, was like "Hey guys, there's no cover charge...let's go in!" So we walked past the girl dancing on a box dressed like a slutty cowgirl and walked down and down and down the stairs and through hallways. I got the feeling that we wouldn't be able to get out easily, and what do you know? We couldn't. We realized right away that is was kind of sketchy but when we tried to leave, they said we couldn't leave until we had purchased drinks. I'm sure it was at least 10 euros for a Coke, and we had stayed near the back so we could use the bathroom and hadn't gone anywhere near the girls taking off their clothes and writhing on the poles. We finally convinced them to let us go and walked up the steps past hoards of young travelers being lured in by skimpy clothes and promises of a good time.
The next day, we hit up one of the big tourist attractions, the Charles Bridge. It's a completely pedestrian bridge full of musicians, artists, and people selling all sorts of things. The weather was beautiful and we spent several hours wandering along the bridge
and through the small streets of the Old Town.
Thursday night, we went to Karlovy Lazne, the largest club in Central Europe. It was five floors of crazy music and dancing and Red Bulls. After they dragged Basti and me out of the disco room, we settled on a floor and danced until 3:30am with some of the strangest guys I've ever run into.
On our last day, Basti and I went to the Jewish cemetery while the others went shopping. We went through the historic synagogues now turned into museums and walked through the crooked, crowded grave markers in the tiny Jewish cemetery. Prague is such a historic city and I just didn't have enough time to explore. Anybody want to go back with me?
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HeartandSeoul
Katie Lang
I'm in! :)