Roadtrip: Czeching Out Prague
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Nice title, huh? I know, I know. I’m a little retarded.
So a couple of us decided we didn’t have enough problems with the first roadtrip, so we decided to try one more before the semester ended. And we decided to take Derek along this time. This time we went to Prague. We had planned on hitting up Belgium and Luxembourg, but that was before the hell we went through driving through it to France. This time, unlike the last, we ended up with issues, and then it got better.
I had decided to rent the car out of Hannover since it is closer to Prague than Hamburg. Plus, since we all have passes that are good for all of Neidersachsen, we could get there free. Awesome idea, right? Nope. Because I have a eurail pass, I was able to take the ICE train that was an hour and a half early to get the car, and wait for everyone else to get there. I called Theresa after their train was supposed to have left, and she informed me that Julian was not on the train. To make things worse, he missed the next two trains, so we had to drive all the way back to Luneburg (a hour and a half away) to pick his ass up, then turn back and head back the same way to get to Prague.
That was pretty much the only issue, except for Keith being caught speeding on two videotape traps. We’ll have to see if the tickets make it back to me, since my name is associated with the plates. We made it to Prague with no issues, in fact we made it all the way to about a mile away from the hotel before we got lost. Then a fun 30 min followed of us trying every direction that we could think of. We ended up stopping at a gas station and I went in to ask for directions. Of course the cashier spoke neither English or German, so I ended up buying a map for about 6 dollars. All that work just to find out that we were only about 3 minutes away from the hotel…
We got to the hotel and parked, just to be yelled at that we were in the VIP parking. We then got into the hotel at 9am, just to be told that we can’t check in until 2pm. No problem, we’ll mess around in the casino. Nope, closed. Fine, we’ll change some money, get a bus and metro pass and go into town. Nope, they don’t exchange money until noon. Mother F#&*!er! So we ended up walking the half mile to the closest metro station and found an ATM.
We wandered through Wenceslas Square, the Christmas Market and the Old Town Square, and the St. Charles Bridge before getting something to eat and heading back to the hotel to check in. Of course the day wouldn’t be complete without one last problem. It was the same scumbag at the desk when we got back. I thought that it was just me, but later we found in the room that the previous guests thought the employees treated Americans like crap, so maybe it wasn’t just me. Anyways, he told me that he only had my name in the computer for 1 room for 3 beds. Nope. Thankfully I had my printout of my reservation and wasn’t budging. He finally gave me the two rooms and Derek, Keith, and Julian were able to go to sleep. Theresa and I ended up watching CNN (and she slept) for about an hour and a half before Theresa and I went out to wander around Prague. I thought it was funny. The two people who have actually been to Prague before (me twice, and her once) were the ones going out while the other 3 slept the rest of the day.
Theresa ended up taking pictures around the city and of the castle. Then we just randomly walked around looking for a restaurant. Thankfully, because of my small bladder, we found an awesome place with really cheap beer and awesome food. As Theresa has said, I ordered enough food to feed an army, but with our two main courses, two appetizers, and a total of 2 liters of beer, and it came to less than $30.
On our 12:30am bus ride back, we ended up seeing Derek, Julian, and Keith walking away from our hotel. Unfortunately for them, we were on the last bus, and there was no way they were walking into town. It was then that we realized that none of our phones worked properly, so they had to figure it out the hard way and walk all the way back.
The next day was pretty much devoted to sightseeing. Keith had friends in town, so he ended up staying with them and we made an appointment to meet later. We checked out the Prague Castle, were Julian and I were able to shoot an authentic medieval cross bow. I think I did pretty well for how bad the aim was. And the fact that it was like 25 ft. away. Got all five on the paper, which is more than I can say for Julian. Later we checked out the Jewish Cemetary, which was closed and ended up looking at through the gate. Later we got some more food and beer at the Christmas market before meeting back up with Keith in Wenceslas Square.
Keith ended up deciding to stay out with his friends all night. Which was nice because I got the feeling his friends would have annoyed the hell out of me. Plus Theresa’s Czech friend Helena met up with us. She took us out to some pretty cool bars which were COMPLETELY off the beaten path. Wasn’t sure how anyone was supposed to find the first one…
After like 20 beers, 8 shots, and 6 hours later, we had to get home in order to catch the last metro and bus to our hotel. Plus I knew eventually I was going to get sick because the shots were Apple Schapps type shots. Mixing beer and sugary liquor is never a good idea for me. Plus there was no way we were walking 10 miles back to the hotel. It was so sad. Helena was almost to tears when we said we had to leave.
After the 30 minute metro ride, we got back to our station, just in time for me to puke on the tracks. I know that I need to stay away for sugary liquor, but it never happens. Then we ended up walking back to the hotel and debating whether we should leave Keith behind if he wasn’t back by 11am the next day. Much to our surprise he was already passed out in his bed when we got back.
Our ride back was pretty uneventful. No real problems, except for the weather. We went through all 4 seasons driving back. 1st we hit cloudy, gray, cold weather. Then lots of snow, then rain. Later we hit nice and sunny weather before ending back up in cloudy, cold Hanover. All within like 6 hours.
mrnational
