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Days 9-13: Saturday, July 18 - Wednesday July 22, 1998
Day 9
We are currently on the short train to Prague. The topography has changed to mountains, with a valley and
river. We arrived in the city after having to pay a $14 charge for the ride (not covered by Eurorail). After reaching our hostel, we went to the supermarket where we were stunned at the cheap prices. Wine was
around $2 a bottle, and beer was like $0.50 a bottle. I decided (along with Dave) to go to sleep early. Meanwhile, Sam, Eric, and Bill went downtown. They hit some bars and clubs. Bill picked up some girl
named Blumpka from Norway who wanted to take him home. He didn't go, and everyone stayed in the city to watch the sunrise. They arrived back at 6 AM. I ended up sleeping for 18 hours, which I thought was
necessary after Holland, and our awful night train.
Day 10
Today we went to PragueCastle, a short walk from our hostel. We went to St. Vitus Cathedral, the main
steeple tower (287 stairs with a great view of the city), the St. George Basilica, and the RoyalPalace. We
ate lunch in the green in front of the complex. Tonight I'm looking forward to checking out the night life in Prague.
Well, we didn't go into the city tonight. Instead, we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. The meals we got were about $5 each, and they were large portions and good too. The service was a bit odd though; the
waitress brought the 3 pasta meals that were ready out first, then the 2 pizzas about 5-plus minutes later. Anyway, we went back to the hostel and drank a couple of beers. Oh yeah, I saw 3 skateboarders today
(all in different places).
Day 11
It is nice to have a private room. You can sleep in, be loud, and not worry about having to lock up your stuff
all the time. We were ready to go into Prague around 2 PM, but Bill disappeared. We ended up playing Hearts for 2 1/2 hours in the common room/lobby. He never showed up, so we eventually left. Later, we
found out he had gone to a large park, and fallen asleep. While we were gone, he ended up eating at KFC and walking into Prague. Meanwhile, we emerged from the Soviet-made metro to an escalator of gigantic
proportions. It was steep, fast and long. The metro cars, according to Dave, are Russian-made. This might explain their performance. These things speed along quite fast, and the doors close with a jarring force, and
appear unlikely to reopen if you get stuck in them. Either way, your nuts would be squashed. Also, the metro system is only 3 lines, and extremely easy to use.
We walked around for awhile. We walked over the CharlesBridge (1,000 years old). It's amazing to think
of how many generations of peddlers, artists, and tourists have been on that bridge. The view of the RoyalPalace and St. Vitus Cathedral was also nice. We got dinner at a small restaurant. Again, the normally
$12-plus meal was only $5. We got ice cream afterwards, at a place that also had a full bar. Even the sausage stands on the street sold small bottles of liquor. When we returned to our hostel, Dave cracked
open a 1/2 liter bottle of R. Jelinek Vodka (Moravia) which we bought for $3 at the grocery store. That was also the scene of Dave accidentally breaking a $10 bottle of liquor. It was quite embarrassing. Oh yeah,
back to Prague for a second. When we were in OldTown, in front of the astronomical clock (15th century), some girl (Simi) recognized Dave as Greg's brother. Ok, I opened Sam's bottle of white wine first,
and it was tasty. Screwdrivers were made. When I opened the bottle of white wine I bought, and took a sip, I felt a gag reflex, it was skanky fishwater! As we left toward Prague that night, Eric began
pouring the shit (skanky wine) on about 5 or 6 different cars, and then he broke it in a side street. Meanwhile, Bill began to puke in the street, and told us to go without him.
By the time we ordered our drinks at Jo's Bar, Bill was right behind us, which means he must have caught
the last metro of the night. I ordered a gin and tonic hoping it would be as good as the one Eric had received
a few days ago. According to him, it wasn't the same. Plus, it was twice as expensive! We went down to the third floor where there was a small dance floor with nobody on it. About 20-30 minutes later, I eased my
drunken body onto the floor and started dancing more and better than ever before. It was the first time I really was not paying attention to my moves. I think this will allow me to enjoy dancing more often. Of
course, it helped that I was with everyone else, and they were playing all Top 40 American hits like: Nirvana, Chumbawamba, Natalie Imbruglia, The Doors, Don McLean (American Pie), etc. Anyway, I made some
attempts to dance with some girls. Though I probably could have grabbed one, and spun her closer, I didn't.
This glass wall I've built for myself is quite frustrating. Despite that, I still had fun. I guess I just need to be a
bit more aggressive. We left at 3:45 AM. Bill stayed, and ended up coming back alone. The walk back seemed to be short, up to the PragueCastle, then down to our hostel. Sleep. Tomorrow, I'm hoping we go
to the "Yellow Submarine" puppet show (with blacklights) ($14). I'd also like to see the clock chime (bones are supposed to come out), and I'd like to dance again!?
Day 12
Well, we didn't do too much today: slept late, mailed postcards, played cards, and sat around. Of course
we went to the supermarket. Around 11:15 PM, we finished our drinks and decided to head into Prague again. We brought along 3 guys from California who had just arrived down the hall from us. I didn't really
mind them coming along. One of the guys had gotten a blowjob from a hooker in Amsterdam. That was kind of interesting to hear about.
Since Jo's was the only place we really knew, we went there again. This time, however, I managed to spend
more money at the bar on 2 warm screwdrivers, a really bad gin and tonic (w/o gin it seemed), and 2 cheap beers. Apparently, Monday night was American music night because they didn't play any of that while we
were there. I danced a little bit, but the prospects weren't the same, or the music. There was some (gay) guy there who started poking Eric, and later everyone in the place. Bill later reasoned that he was dealing
cocaine. There were some really hot girls there but they seemed untouchable by my mortal style. Towards 1 AM, Eric, Sam, and Dave left. I decided to stay with Bill. There were two cute girls that I spotted. Often,
one would leave the other. I was unable to approach either, but before we left, Bill did. They said they didn't
speak English (Norwegians), which sounded like a shady excuse. There was also a girl with a red Beefeater shirt. She appeared to have a boyfriend though. The next day, she ended up taking the same train as us to
Vienna. The night ended with Bill and me walking home during a thunderstorm (w/lightning). The rain was light. It felt good to take my shirt off for half the walk home (I ended up catching a bad cold/flu tonight,
which I had for the next 2 weeks).
Also, today, we ate at that same Italian restaurant where I got the same meal, noodles w/ham. I also bought
a weird bottle of beer which was made of whiskey and vitamin E. The label had the male/female symbols,
and said "Don't drink and drive, fly." It also said stay cool, while showing a picture of a cigarette and a snowflake. It wasn't that good.
Day 13
I woke up this morning to rally the troops after only 4 hours of sleep. By the time I finished showering, I began to feel my hangover and my cold. My head was congested, mucous was thick and yellow. I
immediately began drinking water (3 liters by 2 PM), and blowing my nose. My bandana became a nasty snotrag.
We missed the 9:39 AM train by minutes. We then missed the 11:39 AM train even though we were at the
station. Apparently, we were looking at the wrong schedule board. We played cards till the 1:39 PM train. I bought 2 pornos while we were bumbling around. Fantastic has a woman with a dick, and the other is just a
list of photo-personals. They are nasty, but cheap, at a total of $3. I hope Vienna is nice, and I hope it doesn’t' take too long to find a place to stay. Eric has been saying he has to go home since he is low on
money. I'd miss him, but I'm not going to worry too much about it. Right now I just want to shake my cold before I get an ear infection.
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