MyTravels

Czech Mate

As you may have noticed by now with my last few recent posts, I have been quite busy trying to wrap up all the final details of my world tour.   I posted some new flight itineraries mainly for my family so that they will be assured of my whereabouts and safety while travelling via airplanes across Europe.    I am still looking into arranging a transfer from Gatwick to Luton airport in London...SIGH... There are 70 miles in between the two airports so I am left with no other choice but to hire some kind of taxi or limo service as I only have about 5 hours to play with once I return from the Canary Islands at Gatwick Airport on Wednesday May 25th at 2:35pm.   My flight from the Luton Airport (London) to Paris is at 7:25pm.   How can one stupid city (London) have two destinations that are 70 miles apart!!??   For F*ck's sake!

Keith and I have settled in on the idea of the WARM Canary Islands which are located off the south coast of Spain.     Hola!   I cannot wait to practice my two years of Spanish, thank you Chelsea High School!!   Between Keith and myself we should serve to annoy the hotel staff within about 30 seconds of our arrival on the Gran Canaria island with our lame attempts at Spanish Linguistics!     We are staying at the resort called La Playa del Ingles (English Beach) at a hotel called the IFA Continental.    I could not be convinced otherwise to stay in anything less that a 4 star hotel with my darling travel companion so we are booked in a real hotel room which has a TV and most likely fluffy pillows and proper bedding.   I have to admit, it will be nice to end my tour with a little bit of luxury.   I would not have been able to accomplish all that I did and all that I saw on anything less than a budget travel itinerary.  I can say with complete confidence and gratitude that it has all been worth every minute of each experience.   

Today (Friday) is my last day in Prague.   The clubs are open until 5am here so we were out pretty late (until 3) and we had to get up early today to switch rooms from our private pre-school suite for midgets to a dorm room.   Ironically, the pillows and bedding in the dorm seem to be fluffier than our private (more expensive) room so Keith is actually happy about this.   He is upstairs napping right now and I can't seem to sleep at all.   I have been travelling for almost 9 weeks without ever taking siestas during the day so napping is actually not that easy for me to do.   I tried.   I failed.   Here I am writing for you.   

We are supposed to go out again this evening and it will be our last hoorah here in Prague which has been my second home for the past few weeks.   Last night I proved once again the idea that "I clean up well".   Basically speaking, I have been walking around without much primp or effort towards my appearance.   Now that my Hollywood friend is here, I decided to go all out and put on some makeup, brush my hair, and match my clothes in an attempt to be cool.   The girl at reception here at the hostel did not recognize me all dolled up and she told me so.   She said, "wow, you look so different...."   I am still not sure if I should worry about the fact that I am not some natural beauty walking around the streets of Europe.   Perhaps I should stop and make an effort to pretty myself up a bit.   Based on the reaction I got last night, which has happened to me before mind you, via my friend AL-B (volleyball vacations).   He called me the transformer chick when he didn't recognize me at Club Getaway at the evening group get together.  AL-B had takena a group of us volleyballers to a gym in the early morning and spent the day teaching us volleyball techniques.   So maybe there is a happy medium here.   I definitely am not one of those girls who sees a need to pretty up before playing a sport, but perhaps I should reconsider my grooming routines before I go out in the general public??    

The best part about this upcoming weekend is that I will be at a hotel on an island named after a bird and I will be working on that illusive tan that has disappeared under the demise of a cold European Spring!   

I should go and wake up Keith now... I can't sleep and now I am hungry.   He has had a nice 2 hour nap so I am sure after the initial bitching when I attempt to wake sleeping beauty, all will be well again here in Prague.   My strategy is actually quite easy.   All I have to do is make a mention of "food" and he will spring right up into action.    That boy loves to eat and eat often... I honestly cannot understand how he stays so thin!    Bugger!

ALL-IN

Tonight I experienced my first real Texas Holdem Poker Tournament in a Casino right here in Prague.   If you take the Metro (B or C) to Mustek, they hold regular tournaments on Thursday and Sunday evenings.   Ironically, the casino you are looking for is right near TGI Fridays and there is a man who is standing right outside of the casino with a top hat on and long coat.   There are a ton of casinos here in Prague, but not all of them run No LIMIT Texas Holdem tournies...  I was the only girl in the tournament and out of 16 I was probably the 4th or 5th to be eliminated.  I had a little Czechie punk-A at my table talking a little too much trash with absolutely no table etiquette whatsoever.   "Punky Czech" with the tight black skull cap that burglars wear over their ski masks got reprimanded by the tournament director.   He was edging people on and shouting at them when he was not even in the hand.   Totally annoying... It only figures that I went out losing to the punk, he actually took me and another all-in gent out in one hand.    He had the impervious pocket aces....  They either assure a kick-ass win or they can be the most deceiving hand you could hold in NL Holdem... The odds can go either way in your favor depending on the intensity of the playahs at your table.   

I played for almost 2 hours which is not bad considering.   I had a few really good (surprised all the boyz) hands and I left the table with some new found respect from some of the better players (not punky boy).    I actually had the guys cheering for me in the 3-way hand that took me out.   Boy do I got da bug to play...  Poker night will be arranged for some time in June at MLD Poker Palace back in Southie.   I am thinking about doing a world tour theme where I can give away little trinkets of my travels.   

It is 11pm here in Prague and I am waiting for my darling Keith to finish primping so that we can go out to some clubs tonight.  I went to play poker, he came back to the hostel to catch up on his beauty rest.    I can understand why he goes up and down to extremes with his energy level and you would too if you saw what he ate for breakfast!   He ordered pancakes with whip cream, sugared apples and pears and then more powdered sugar on top.   Then he ordered a second breakfast meal which caused the waitress to look at him like he had a bonzai tree growing out of his ear.   The second dish was two chocolate pastries with yet more powdered sugar.    And lest us not forget the Ice Vanilla Moccachino which had some expresso, ice cream, chocolate syrup and more whip cream!!   I sware I wanted to call Sugarholics Anonymous and report a near overdose!    My GOD, as much as I love sweets I actually had an adverse reaction watching him consume this meal.   A breakfast meal, mind you.   The only way I can explain this is by using the example of the casual drinker compared to a low bottom alcoholic.   The casual drinker might look at this guy or girl in utter and complete pity while somehow at the same time absolving themself from any resemblance to the same abusive gluttony.   It is so easy to judge others when they are exemplifying extreme negative behavior that you yourself may only exhibit when a gun was pointing to your head or maybe just having a bad day... Who knows???

Okay the prince is tapping his foot and giving me evil eyes from behind my head as he is sitting on the red couch behind me here in the lobby... Oh, and now HE is ready so I must go!!

nite nite

My Prince Has Arrived

After almost 40 anxious minutes after Keith's flight landed, my love finally emerged from behind the sliding doors immediately outside of Praha International Customs.   I was just about to have him paged because I was nervous that Keith may have gotten himself tied up at the customs desk or in some other kind of dramatic situation.   Quite honestly, once I got a view of his luggage I am surprised that he didn't get stopped and arrested???   But then again as I have mentioned before, the only way he would get arrested is by the fashion police and that institution of order clearly does not exist here in Prague.   This is evident by all the 80's clothing and bad hair dyes walking around this city.    My darling Keith has more luggage for one week than at least 5x what I have been carrying around for 3 MONTHS of travel.   I saw his Boston Red Sox hat first, then I noticed this ungodly looking beige and some kind of off-black tiger striped suit case which seemed to introduce itself to all the airport saying, "yes, I know I am gawdy and extremely pretentious so just deal with it!"   Keith looked tired and slightly traumatized from the long hours of travel, but he managed a happy smile once he saw that I was indeed there to retrieve him.   He thought I might have left him at the airport knowing how long it took for him to get out of the customs area but I would never do such a thing.   After my Thailand airport experience, I would never purposefully subject anyone to a barrage of foreign speakers with little English.   It was a scary experience for me, I think Keith would throw a fit if he was forced into a similiar situation.  I wouldn't do that to him, I would never hear the end of it for the rest of my natural life.

I offered to help Keith with his 20 tons of luggage by grabbing his Louis Vuitton bag.   There was no way I was going to associate myself with that tiger striped hideous bag, I was not having any part of that.   His LV bag probably weighs at least 30 pounds, he wonders why his shoulders hurt after spending a full day at Gatwick Airport.   If he had taken some trains and public transport, he would have saved himself the shocking cab fare of 125 GBP.    Just to give you the full depth of his insanity, let me give you the currency conversion for that:

125.00 GBP (UK Pounds)  = 229.025 USD 

He is completely out of his tree.   This decision to take a taxi from Heathrow to Gatwick is still completely out of my realm of rationalization but this is Princess Liza we are talking about here.    Quite honestly, after helping him with his luggage I really think he may not have had any other choice but to taxi, there is no way he would have managed all that luggage on the tubes!   

It was so great to see Keith, we laughed all the way from the airport to the hostel.   Mostly because of the strange looks we were getting from the Czechs and other tourists when we rode on the metro back towards the center of Prague.   I think my funniest sight of the evening was watching Keith trying to carry his 100 pound zebra striped suitcase up the several flights of stairs between the metro station and then the 100 meter foot bridge with a 3-story steep stair case which brought us to our hostel.   Oh my God, I have not laughed so hard since I left Boston last March!   

Once we managed to get all the "luggage" and Keith safely back to the hostel, I then had the absolute pleasure of listening to the 100 reasons why the hostel is insufficient for his royal hinus.    I missed my Keith, he is one of a kind.    The prince is still sleeping, it is almost noon here in Prague.   He had a rough evening assimilating into the world of budget travelling.   I am sure he will have us booked into a Ritz by the time this portion of my trip is over.   I love him though, he makes me laugh uncontrollably at times.   

And one other funny gem, I found out that I am not the only one who has dream stage terrets (sp?) syndrome.   I was awoken this morning (with earplugs mind you) by Keith shouting from his sleep, "F%CK YOU!!"    LOL   I looked across our kiddie room at him laying on his mini-bed and he looked like he was still sleeping.   "Keith", I whispered after this outburst.  "Are you awake?"  He stirred for a bit and then said that he must have been dreaming.   I asked him if by chance he was dreaming about me and he said no.   "I was dreaming about Susan".    Whew!  At least he was not cursing at me in his dreams.   I got an earful last night once I opened the door to our twin private room and he saw his mini sized wooden oak twin bed from Pottery Barn.   The bed is about a foot off the floor, and the mattress sinks into the frame making it look like a low bunk bed for a child.   Keith says,  "the pillow is not fluffy enough, you call this a pillow!?  Is this supposed to be a blanket and sheet combined?   where is the TV? "   

I guess I have grown so accustomed to budget travel and hostels that I actually believed that this place Arpacay in Prague would be up to snuff for my prince.   I have stayed in a lot worse places, I think this place is pretty nice.   Oh well, it makes for entertaining companionship for me, I just laugh when he starts bitching.   I think that his high-maintenance aura is very entertaining and we laugh a lot when we are together.   Lucky you, hopefully this new added dimension to my travelling will leave you with some interesting reading as I wrap up my world tour.   

It is raining and cold AGAIN here today.   My prince and I will be looking to find a WARM destination for this weekend.   I am so done with this cold already.   I have been looking at Greece, possibly Spain, and then today I was looking at the Canary Islands which is off the coast of Spain.   I think as long as there is a 4 star hotel in the next location, Keith might be more comfortable and happy.  Maybe....   God Bless him, I have missed him, my frivolous blacker than black haired friend!!    I am still upset that he found someone in Boston to tint his eyelashes!!   This is illegal in MA at the moment and this is something I have much personal interest in.    I want details and I will persevere until I get a street address and a name from him!   

To be continued....

Naked Weather

Now that I have your undivided attention you dirty monkey, I think you should read this article by Dave Barry and his very interesting story about the Czech Republic and Naked Weather Forecasters... No really, I am not joking... 

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/dave/barry061999.asp

Since I am in the Czech Republic and I have found this article via a reverse search that someone did to land on my website.   My visitor stats show links from top search engines that list my site.   I kid you not... You should try it, go to Google right now and type in the exact name of one of my more recent posts.   I checked one this person searched on via the link in my referrer addresses and I found the above article.   I believe in sharing the wealth...

I will be tuned in tonight to the 11 o'cock weather report... I will confirm if there are naked weather girls or boys on public television.   I feel I owe this to you, my dedicated reader, to report back to you as a on-the-scene news reporter from downtown Prague.

Get naked, watch TV...

p.s.  Someone came across my website from a YAHOO Search:

how did  louis vuitton die

My website lists as number 3....  LOL

Travel Companion

I woke up feeling pretty excited today, I will go to pick up my friend Keith from the Prague Airport tonight!    I have 9 days left, I can hardly believe it!   I booked Keith and I into the same hostel I have been living at for the last week or so since it is so cheap here in Prague compared to EURO places.   

Last night I met up with George and we had dinner and a lot of laughs.   George is cool, good guy.  (I know he is reading this too...)    I also got to talk to my Frankey last night on the phone which was really cool.   I got a nice email from Tex as well which always makes my day!    I can hardly believe that I am so close to the end of my tour but in a way I am getting excited to go home to my cats, my own bed, and most important of all, MY CLOSET!!   

Today I am going to take it easy and basically count down the hours until I retrieve my precious from the airport!   I have been saving a lot of the sight-seeing things to do here in Prague until Keith arrives so we can check things out together.    I am hoping to go to someplace warm before I come home, my hard earned tan is M.I.A. thanks to the frigid temps here in Europe....I thought it was supposed to be SPRING here???   UGH!

I did book my final flight connection from London to France on May 25th and I booked my last night in Europe at a hotel near the airport.   I fly out of Charles de Gaulle on Thursday May 26th at 10:30am.    Keith flew from Boston to London so I figured that I would probably go with him back to London and then get to France from there.    Hopefully, if he agrees, we can go from Prague to London for one night and then hop a plane to Greece for a few days.   We'll see what he wants to do... I have to avoid spending any time in London, the British Pound is almost double the USD...  Talk about expensive, WHOA!   

To all my friends who are going to the Volleyball Nationals Championships in Denver Colorado, I wish you luck!!

Czech GOLD!

Final Score of the World Hockey Championships:

CZE   3        CAN    0

I must have brought the Czech Hockey Team my World Champion  Boston MOJO!!   I know those of you back in America have probably forgotten about hockey, let me tell you that it is alive and well here in the Czech Republic!!   The Czechs won the GOLD MEDAL!!    Since the Czechs beat the USA, it was only right for me to root for them since they are temporarily my home team.   

Even Joe Thorton could not help out the canucks.    The Czechs skated circles around the Canadians and it was quite fun to watch them lose.    I have to hand it to the Canadians, they sure know how to act like a bunch of girls.   If you did not get to watch the game, the Canadians basically started swinging in the last 30 seconds of the game at anyone and everything.    Sore losers I guess... 

I got back from Berlin around 6 and I went to watch the game.   The hockey game was on every single visible TV in Prague.   Nothing can compare to Red Sox and Patriots fans but the Czechs deserve an honorable mention when it comes to supporting the home team.

Berlin was cool, and what made it the most cool is that I found a Dunkin Donuts!!!   I have not had a D and D coffee in over 2 months!!   Hard to believe I survived this long.    Dunkins alone was worth the trip!   One thing I noticed about Berliners is that you can drink anywhere you damn well please in public places.   Like the metro for instance.   It is quite common to see people with open Becks beer and some even have a cooler for there 3 stop metro ride.   I guess it is better to be prepared, one should not go longer than a 30 second metro stop without alcohol if he does not have to...   Also, like in Prague, 80äs fashion is alive and well.    Dogs are also common on the metro in Berlin as is bicycles.   The metro in both Berlin and Prague is somewhat based on the honor system.   It is up to you to get a valid metro ticket or one at all, since there are no ticket agents or turnstyles to go through.   You just walk right in to the train station and if you are trying to beat the system by not purchasing a ticket from the automated machines, you will incur a 40 EURO fine if you are caught by the metro police.  I donät think I saw one cop in Berlin, in Prague you do see the metro police randomly checking your tickets.   

Berlin is also the home of techno and the underground rave scene.   No, I did not go, I quit the drugs quite a long time ago now  Öß=

Now that I can sleep well because Canada lost and with the most unsportsmanlike conduct I have ever witnessed, I think I will close on that note.

Congrats to the Czechs on their World Championship Hockey Gold Medal !!

I will take a little credit for sending you good winning vibes by watching and cheering for you... In all seriousness, the Czechs played some AMAZing hockey!

Vyšehrad Castle

I did a little sightseeing today, I checked out the Vyšehrad Castle which was very cool and very old.   I have a thing for castles, I must have owned one in a past life or something.   Today was a leisurely day, I hung around the hostel until around noon time and then I went out with my metro pass in hand and picked a spot which turned out to be the castle I mentioned.  I then took the metro over to the city centre on a mission to find some cool "Prague" clothing items.   One thing I have to say about this city is that the overall fashion sense seems to be more aligned with the age of the castles, i.e. not 21st century.    It is not like people are walking around in cloaks and crowns, that would actually be more attractive than what you see in the general pool of people watching.   I have seen the most ugly-bizarre combinations of clothing here.   I actually saw a man with rainbow colored sox and black long shorts with animated characters that remarkably did not match one color on the sox.   It was frightening!   And he had brown loafers on to boot!   

I also noticed while scouring the city in my never ending curiousity of people and their odd human characteristics that there seems to be a real problem here finding a good hairstylist.   The color jobs on these people are frightening.   You know that red color that you put in your hair sometimes at Halloween to spice up a costume?   That color seems to be the suggested tint all over town and it ain't pretty!   The good thing about Prague also is that I feel quite pretty all of a sudden.   My worn out limited wardrobe is not all that bad anymore.   Even though I only have a few items, I still know how to match which is very important.   

If you were looking for a get rick quick scheme, I have a few suggestions for you and you too could be a billionare!!   

1. Move to Prague

2. Open a hair salon with real hair color and stylists who not only can cut hair, but properly tint it.

3. Open a fashion consulting shop...  You WILL BE RICH in no time! 

4. Become an English Teacher (high demand!)

5. Start a new movement called the "Praha Fashion Police" giving citations for horribly mismatched outfit onsembles...  It is really bad here, I no lie...

Yesterday I had dinner at this really cool Pizzeria and I brought my latest book obsession by David Sedaris.  I love this writer!   About halfway through my meal, this very good looking man sits down at the table right next to me and we were basically sitting across from each other but at a very slight angle.  I will call it "almost diagonal".   I don't remember when exactly it happened, but at some point we started talking to each other.   He was alone, I was alone, he had a book, I had a book..  David, that is his name, is from Amsterdam and he has been living in Prague for the last year on a business assignment.   We had a lovely chit chat, but what was more interesting was the booth behind us in my direct eye.   There was a booth with 4 men and 1 woman and I noticed after David and I had become engaged in regular conversation that these Jerry Springer cast rejects were outright staring at us speechless.   Literally, the whole table had their heads arc'd at a 45 degree angle all pointing in the same direction which was at me and the back of David's head.  I even looked over at them a few times, challenging them with my Wonder Woman powers to STOP STARING... Didn't your momma teach you back at the trailer park that staring is rude!!   Anyway, the weirdos finally left, I guess they had reached their nosey entertainment quota for the evening?   I left David to finish his fettucini as I had to meet up with George.   It was kind of cool talking to him without any expectations other than enjoying the conversation with a very good looking man. 

I went back to the same place for dinner again tonight, and low and behold, who was there again?   Now back in the day of mild obsessive compulsive behavior, I might have actually plotted something like this to happen.  Of course it never did, which is my point here... He was sitting at the same table, and I sat down at the same table without even realizing it was him!   It was funny to me that coincidence is not self-will scripted as much as I would like to think so.   We chatted again, and this time he was leaving ahead of me and said, "maybe I will run into you again"... I was thinking, probably not but it was still cool to see you twice without ever even knowing your last name.

I am leaving for Berlin tomorrow at 11am, Blair and I got our train tickets yesterday.   We were able to book a hostel in Berlin for Friday and Saturday night from here at my place Arpacay (free internet).   I am excited, yet another new last minute adventure!   I live for this stuff!  And Blair is happy because the hostel is near the Berlin Zoo and he seems to be kind of bent on that idea.   Sure, a zoo could be fun.   I also looked into the bike tour already in Berlin, so excited about that too!

I also ran into a girl tonight from Australia here at my hostel who told me about this cool getaway town in Czech called Karlovy Vary which is about a 2 hour bus ride.  She gave me all the details on how to get there by bus and where to stay.   I have a surprise plan already in motion for my friend Keith's arrival to Prague on Tuesday.   This little venture to the outskirts of Czech Republic (German border) should really be an adventure.   There is only one hostel in this town Karlovy Vary and it is called Titty Twister.   I guess the owners are huge Quentin Terrintino fans... I am planning on booking that little escapade the weekend after this for both Keith and I.  I was already warned that most people out that way do not speak English.   I know the people at the hostel do, so that is all we really need.   I least I hope!   ;-)

Stay tuned kids...

Prague, a Mystical Wonder

Greetings!   I apologize for a bit of a delay in my updates, I actually wrote a very nice post yesterday when I arrived here in Prague and I had another one of those classic computer moments when I went to Preview the post, I got the Internet Explorer error page... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh....   

Anyway, since the internet is free here at this LOVELY hostel here in Prague, I have decided that I will do my best to recreate my little travel adventure from Paris to Prague.

I arrived at the Paris metro stop Gare de l'Est around 4:10pm.   You are supposed to check-in at least 45 minutes early and I had already blown that theory.   My train from Paris to Frankfurt was scheduled to leave at 16:52.   I began to panic because I could not figure out where to exit to find the BIG TRAINS from the underground metro.   The French don't really see a point in having multi-lingual signs in both French and English, why would they?    I was scrambling back and forth with my time to retrieve my internet reserved ticket dwindling quickly.   I finally found a guy (very cute too!) who spoke some English and he had me follow him and he SHOWED me which exit to take to the main train terminal.   Whew!   

I tried using the yellow, ATM looking machines to retrieve my reservation ticket but I did not have the correct alpha confirmation code on my internet printout which really annoyed me...sigh    I went to the information desk and again, the man gave me the standard reply when I asked politely in French if he spoke English... He did the raise your hand and tilt it side to side gesture, the so-so English hand sign that I had seen so many times during my 5 days in Paris.   The i guy told me where to go to retrieve my ticket from an agent.   I stood in line with about 15 minutes left until departure time, trying not to look suspicious as my anxiety creeped to new levels.   I finally got to the window and I encountered yet another lovely French man who looked at my internet reservation paper and with the most condescencing, snippy tone he said "no, no good".   He told me that I needed that same alpha 6 letter code which if I had in the first place, I would not have had to torture myself by talking to Mr. French Charming at all.

Almost in tears (sound like a theme?), I begged this ever NOT so helpful punk to please help me and he said, "you speak too fast, I don't speak English" as he looked at me with his dismissive facial expression.   Luckily there was a kind elder Italian man at the ticket window beside me who overheard my rude ticket agent and he called me over to his window and spoke French to his agent on my behalf.   Luckily, this other agent spoke English and he looked up my name on the computer and found my reservation.   I am about 99 percent sure that Mr. Charming at the previous window could have done the same thing and used the computer he had in front of him, and I am even more sure that he spoke more English than he wanted to admit.    Damn FRENCH!   I got my ticket printed and settled and I was directed to platform 10 by the nice French ticket agent.   I made it to the train about 7 minutes before departure time and after more struggle, I finally found my train car number 108, which in typical French style there were a few of them... Ahhhhhhh!!  Which one do I choose!!???  I believe that the French to not offer classes in LOGIC because everything that has to do with instructions on finding anything in this country is purely illogical.

The train from Paris to Frankfurt was very nice.  I was seated next to a German couple who helped me out with my transfer infromation once I got to Frankfurt.  The ride was about 6 hours and I arrived at the Frankfurt station around 23:16.  My connection was at 23:36 and thankfully that German couple told me which platform to go to since I had about 12 minutes to play with. 

The train from Frankfurt to Prague had those separate compartments on board which is about a 6x8 space with six assigned seats in each.  There are 3 seats on either side facing each other.   Only one other guy came into my compartment so I got to stretch out across the 3 seats on my side and somewhat sleep throughout the night.  Of course I was woken at least 3 times for ticket and passport check in the middle of the night.   The passport check was the creapiest because it was about 4am and I was out cold.  These two very tall serious men busted in my compartment and said in a very stern voice, "passport".   I was seemingly very alert for this time of the early morning (fear will do that to you) and I retrieved my passport quickly.   The officer looked at my passport and in a disarming tone I heard him say, "americane".   He handed it back to me and I went back to sleep after I noticed that my compartment was empty now and that my roommate must have gotten off at another stop during the night.   Sweet!   I had the place to myself! 

I arrived in Prague at 8am and I had no idea how to get to my hostel.   I could not find a bank machine to get some Krowns (Praha currency).   I couldn't really find anyone who spoke English either, so I had EURO currency and no local language or any type of clue on how to figure out where my hostel was located in proximity to the train station.

One thing I have experienced while doing this world tour in foreign non-English speaking countries is that it is a slow and painful process to get acclimated to the new surroundings each time I land in a new place.   I always go through the initial fear of "my God, where am I and how do I get to where I want to go?"   I managed to find a taxi driver outside the train station who spoke enough English to read my paperwork with the hostel address and who understood that I only had EURO.   In the end, he made out in the deal because I gave him 5 EURO for a ride that took less than 5 minutes.   I did not have a street map of Prague else I would have realized that I could have walked to my hostel from the train station in 10 minutes!   Anyway, live and learn, that is what this trip is all about!!

My hostel called Arpaycay is probably my most favorite hostel of all so far!   It is brand new and the decor is very contemporary and everything is so clean and nice.   My dorm room has an adjacent sitting room/kitchen that is totally retro and cool.   The internet is free, I am close to the metro and it is really cheap!  CHEAP and GOOD is my new favorite motto which I learned from Mr. Paul, my driver from Thailand!

I could not check-in to my room until noon and I arrived at the hostel yesterday around 8:30am so I walked down to the main area by the train stop and found the coolest cafe!   They play techno music and the cafe and food are great!    To give you a basis of why I wanted to come to Prague and get out of Paris, let me give you an example of the cost benefit.    Yesterday, at this lovely cafe I ordered a cappucino and a breakfast dish which included yummy yogurt, musli and some fresh fruit cut up in a fancy dish.   Breakfast cost 95 Krown which is around 4 USD.   In Paris, the average cost for a cappucino was 4 EURO which works out to be around 5 USD.   So as you can see by my example, it is much cheaper here and that is what I like.   

Based on my excursion around the city last night, I will say that Prague so far is everything that I dreamed of and more!   This city is simply gorgeous and architecturally amazing!    I walked up by the Prague Castle and it is mind numbing to look at this structure knowing it was built several hundreds of years ago.   I met two guys last night, Blair and George both from the U.S. originally who live here in Prague.   George told me about a regular "Texas-Holdem" poker club which runs almost every night, and he promised he would get me in on a game one night before I leave Prague!    Bring it!   

Blair walked me to the metro stop and helped me determine that I had circled the wrong location  for my hostel on my newly purchased street map of Prague.  Blonde moments in Prague, it doesn't get any better than this!   He was going to walk me to my hostel based on my incorrect map marking, but then we figured out that the metro was my best bet and that was fine since he was going in the other direction.   It was late when I left Blair, probably around midnight.   I wasn't too keen on taking the metro by myself that late, but Blair assured me that Prague was voted the safest city in all of Europe... Okay, well I was still a little nervous mostly about walking from the metro since I am still not acclimated to all of my surroundings.   I got out of the train at the very same stop where it all started at 8am yesterday morning.   It was at this point, late in the evening that I realized there was a walking bridge that took you directly from the train stop over and across to where my hostel is.   The only problem was that the area was somewhat deserted and to say that it was adequately illuminated would be a stretch.   I saw the walking bridge, gathered up my courage and proceeded to the bottom of the steps which was slightly hidden in some bushes.   I got to the bottom of the steps and this weirdo came out of no where from the shadows and started muttering something in Czech.  Oh God...  Luckily my street smarts are right on and I didn't make eye contact and didn't acknowledge him even though he scared the b'jesus out of me.   I walked up the steep steps as if my life depended on it with urgency and definite purpose.   The bridge across was probably about 200 meters and I had to self-talk my way across and not look over my shoulder.   I made it, no problem, but I will not be doing that alone again.  I was afraid for sure.   

Blair said that he would come with me to Berlin this weekend which I was trying to figure into my travel plans but didn't think it was going to happen.   Everything just fell into place yesterday and I am totally psyched!   I am going to leave here Friday for Berlin via the train and return back to Prague on Sunday.  The same Bike Tour Company exists in Berlin that I took while I was in Paris so I convinced Blair that we should check that out.   I am supposed to meet up with Blair at noon for lunch today and we have to figure out our train to Berlin on Friday and a hostel to stay at and then we are good to go!   I am excited!!

I am going to walk around this beautiful city right now, the rain outside just stopped and the sun is peaking through the clouds.

I am off to explore....