Prague, Day one

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Sometime during the night we have entered the Czech Republic.  Neither of us really slept, although for different reasons. Marilyn had trouble with the motion of the train;  she doesn’t remember the train from Bergen to Oslo having so much sway.  I don’t know why I don’t sleep;  but I often don’t sleep, so I don’t much notice.  The beds are really narrow, that’s for sure.

We awaken at 5:30 so as to have lots of time to be able to enjoy breakfast when the charming steward brings our coffee at six.  We learn a valuable tip.  There’s a sign at the end of the hall that says WC and when the room is occupied, a red light is lit next to the letters!  You don’t have to trek all the way to either end of the hall on a fruitless mission!

The coffee is very good and there is butter and peach jelly for the croissants on our steward’s little tray.  Nice.

We pull into the main train station, Hlavni Nadrazi, and our ever-present steward helps us down with our bags.  We’ve read about the best way to get to our hostel, the Old Prague Hostel, and just need to know how to get tram tickets for the number 5.  That really shouldn’t have been such a big deal, but the lady at the first “I” window was no help at all.  We went up a level and there found a much more interested lady who sold us tickets and made sure we were heading out the correct door.

With just a little luck we found our tram and rode the three stops to our destination.  That may sound silly, but dragging a rolley bag along cobblestones isn’t much fun, and we’ve been shopping, so our backpacks aren’t as slender as they once were, either!  Riding was by far the way to go!

The directions were good and we saw the yellow flags saying Old Prague Hostel in no time.  Of course, reception is on the mezzanine (that would be second floor, for us) and you can’t use the lift, so it was a haul to get there.  But they had a cage in which we could leave everything while we checked out the city before our room was available at two.  There is free coffee and tea in the two lounge areas, and wifi if you can get it to cooperate, so we settle in to gather our resources and plan our day.  (Did I mention that the key to the cage is attached to a red, stuffed devil?)

There is a two-hour lunch cruise down the Vtlava River that sounds good.  That croissant won’t last much longer!  And there’s a 10% discount for booking on line!  Marilyn’s phone likes the wifi better than mine does, so she does the honors and then we’re off to explore.  It’s that or fall asleep in the lounge!

Yesterday the girls had told us that they spent three wonderful days in Prague and that the whole city was like Krakov’s Market Square!  It’s all old and stunning!  We’re off to find out!

 The Old Town Square in only a few short blocks from our hostel and we find the Astronomical Clock, a huge tourist item, right away!  Very cool!  We do need to come back to it, though, for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, the doors above the upper clock open periodically and “things happen”!  We need to see that!  For another, the day is pretty gray and gloomy and we’re hoping to show off the city in all its finery, so some sunlight would be most helpful!

The red is a reflection from the Coke truck across the street!

Little did we know we'd be coming back here!

We find a shop with real Czech handicrafts (harder than you’d think!) and do some shopping, but now it is getting close to time for our cruise.  This becomes important later, because I don’t take the time to stash everything the way I normally do.

We head for the Charles Bridge, another tourist icon, to scope it out on the way to “our” bridge, from which our boat will be leaving. Then it’s a quick march to Pier Number 5 where our e-ticket becomes a real one.  Shouldn’t have rushed so much, there is enough time to walk along the river for a bit before we board The Valencia.

The Jewish Quarter is located in one corner or Old Town.

There aren’t many people on our cruise and the buffet is available during the entire two hours.  As we board we are each given a liqueur glass filled with a Czech liqueur called Becherovka. Ohhh! I hope it comes in small bottles, so I can fit it in my suitcase!  We choose a table and wait for the signal to begin lunch.  It comes as the boat gets underway.

We figured that we should eat first, because we will be coming back to the same place and anything we miss while eating we can catch later.  The buffet includes sliced meats and cheeses, a penne salad, a tossed salad, roasted chicken, another kind of chicken which was also quite tasty, roasted potatoes, rice with a kind of beef stew to pour over it and what looked like some sort of broth-base soup.  We went for the most filling things, which basically meant everything but the soup!  It was all quite satisfying and would have been pretty perfect if the man two tables down hadn’t found it necessary to carry on his continuous and far-ranging conversation at quite a few too many decibels!  His table mate must be a saint!

Tunnel

This is the only "beach" in Prague.  The island in the river
is covered with pecan trees.

 As soon as possible we went upstairs to get the fresh air and the relative quiet!  The cruise passed under several of the bridges over the river and gave a nice view of some of the local attractions.  At one point, going both down river and up, a half dozen or more boats came to a halt and were tightly packed together.  There must be a lock system for raising and lowering the water levels, although we never saw the gates.

The really dark one is the Powder Tower.

March of the Penguins, Czech style

Lockmaster?

The Dancing House, also knows as Fred and Ginger

Even the graffiti under the bridge is charming.

  

Toward the end of the cruise dessert appeared downstairs and I brought up a selection for us while Marilyn manned our table, and goodies.  There were bananas and blueberries and kiwi pieces and two kinds of little cakes and an apple pastry.  There was also an accordionist who played a selection of popular songs from back in the day.  Very nice!

Apparently anyone can sit and play! Chain optional!

This caught our eye!

Aha!

Afterwards we walked along the river for a while then headed roughly homeward, looking in windows for charms for our necklaces.  Garnets are Prague’s big claim to fame, so they were the order of the day.  In one shop we agree that a barrel with garnets would be just the ticket and while Marilyn’s paperwork is being prepared, the jeweler offers to gold plate mine (since I’m too cheap to buy much real gold anymore!)  That sounds great and that’s when I realize that my rush at the other store has had dire consequences. My card is gone.

Absinthe

Well, it’s time to go check in at the hostel anyway, so no more shopping until I can call the bank and cancel the card.  (Again, that phone plan sure is paying off!)  Once at the hostel we are faced with another challenge.  Although they were happy to charge the deposit to my credit card, they now only want Euros or Czech krona for our room.  We don’t have any Euros, of course, and not enough krona for five nights.  We scrap together two-nights’ worth and will go in search of an ATM in the morning. 

Our room is up yet another floor;  but the lift is now working!  Yay!  But with both of us and our luggage in it, it refuses to close its door.  Marilyn decides to walk up and leaves me in the funky lift with our bags.  I haven’t pushed a button yet and it begins to rise.  Oh goodie.  It goes to the fourth floor where a man awaits.  He’s going down to two  and helps me off with the luggage.  You might have guessed that that was the wrong floor.  I have to load it all back in again and go down one more. It’s called the second floor but it is really the third, and to get to it you push the number one. Maybe we can change our plane tickets.

Once in our room, though, things look up.  I am able to call the bank with no difficulty, 1-800-…., and it goes through!  The young woman cancels my card and assures me that the last charge on it is, indeed, the last charge I made!  Now if I can just get the wifi to cooperate I can go online and check my balances before hitting the ATM in the morning.

Hmmm.  The wifi is pretty iffy.  Sometimes you can trick it by turning the airport off and on and being really quick with what you want to do!  Perseverance is a wonderful thing, and so are smart phones!  Sometimes the phone gets the signal when the computer won’t and vice versa!  At any rate, I get all the bank stuff taken care of and am able to post at least once on the blog.  Marilyn has been blissfully sleeping through all of this, which is wonderful.  I wish I had her gift for sleeping through noise and light!  It’s now about eight-thirty and I’m hoping she might want to get some supper, instead of just sleeping clear through to breakfast!!

View from our room;  too bad, right?

Also from our room!

James Dean interior - actual light and color

Ah yes, dinner would not go amiss!  We stop at the desk and revisit the issue of our rent, confirming the amount in kronas, since our email gave it in dollars and Euros, and the last desk person only wanted kronas.  We also ask about the closest ATM or bankomat, and inquire about a restaurant with salads.  The young man isn’t used to people who actually eat out, and thought we wanted a grocery store to buy lettuce and such!

Map in hand, we set off, eventually find the ATM and negotiate the instructions successfully.  Then we look for AMOS, the restaurant he recommended.  Instead we find James Dean.  There are burly guards in black uniforms at both doors, but we enter anyway.  The décor is black, white and red, with red lighting and pictures of James Dean and his contemporaries adorning the walls.  The drink I order, because I deserve a drink!, is called a Screaming Orgasm and contains Finlandia vodka, Amaretto, Kahlua, Baileys and cream. Screamingly good!  My dinner is a goat cheese salad, but it’s unlike any I’ve had before! It’s described as containing mixed-leaf salad, cucumbers, homemade dressing, carmel nuts, pears, and goat cheese. What is doesn’t say is that the dressing is red and sweet (delicious) and the goat cheese is a patty that is at least an inch tall and three inches in diameter and has been baked so it is warm and amazing!  It’s more orgasmic than the drink!  I’m starting to feel better!

Complete with signature!

Apparently this is how it looked!

This is what I saw! Amazing how light
and color affect your perceptions! I thought
the pears were odd but delicious tomatoes!

Whatever goes on downstairs at the James Dean is the reason for the security guards.  They point the way to the continual stream of young men who go straight down the stairs.  In the whole time we are having dinner we only see two women go down.  I want to go check it out but Marilyn won’t let me!

We find our way home, even though it’s dark and everything looks different in the dark.  Thank goodness for those yellow flags!  We go upstairs and pay the rest of our bill.  Even that is complicated, but it’s finally done, and we settle into bed.  There is some sort of club near us and the kids are all lined up in the street waiting to get in.  Sounds like they don’t need the club to party!  And someone is crashing glass bottles and eventually I decide that having some quiet trumps the open windows and ineffective breeze.  Maybe it will rain tomorrow night.