around the world in 180 days

There are so many things that happen to you or around you when you’re traveling that just would not happen in the US. Some things are pretty prosaic, like in NZ, there were trampolines in public campgounds, which, because of insurance, would never happen in the US. Others, like people riding on the roof of the bus for long distances as in Nepal, are a bit more strange. In the Prague, we’ve had a few more.

For instance: in the US, you’ll never be scalded by water from a tap in a hotel. If anything like that happened, it’d be a bright, shiny invitation to a lawsuit and a ticket to a bunch of money for whoever was burned. Unlucky for me, I’m not in the US. Last night I took a shower. My sandals have been pretty stinky, so I brought them in with me to clean them up. After I was all done, I turned the water on as hot as it would go and sprayed down my sandals for a minute or to, just to get rid of any extra stink. The shower was hand-held, if you know what I mean, and when I was done, I propped it behind the faucet and started to dry off. As I was getting out, I accidentally bumped the faucet and it sprayed me in the side of the chest, with the water as hot as it will go. In the US, this would have been a shock, maybe, but it wouldn’t have scalded me. In Prague, they run their water heaters pretty damn hot, I guess.

I went back to the room and showed Anna, whose first response was (and I quote exactly) “Your skin is coming off!” It wasn’t. Not really. I did have a blister about the size of my thumb that had burst, so I can see what she meant, but it’s not as bad as she made it sound. Initially I had a red, extremely painful area about the size or my head on the side of my chest. Now, I’ve got the burst blister and an area about the size of a silver dollar around it that hurts.

Also: in the US, if there is a tourist information stand in a train station (or bus station or airport). it will have train information. In Prague, this is not the case. I can’t imagine why not.

Prague, aside from not being the USA, is very beautiful. It’s one of only a few cities that were spared in WWII, so the architecture is original and amazing. Prague is in Bohemia, so everything that your mind associates with gothic and the brothers Grimm is made manifest here. The churches are some of the most ornate I’ve ever seen and the castles, well, the castles are what you think of when you hear the word castle. They’re unbelieveable and almost unreal. We’ve been wandering around town for a couple of days and even the hordes of tourists can’t ruin such a beautiful city.

There’s more, I’m sure, there’s always more, but a blog is a blog and I can’t put it all here. We’ll be home in 2 weeks to start to dole out the stories and show the pictures and talk to people in person. We’re both looking forward to seeing all of you!