As our train pulled in to the Czech Republic, we could immediately tell that we had arrived in Eastern Europe because of the sounds: the barking dogs and crying babies of communism. However, we weren’t exactly sure where we were supposed to get off. At this point we had successfully navigated five train transfers in the past 14 hours and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. I immediately realized how clueless we really were when the only girl in our group of five got off the train and yelled in her thick Jersey accent to anyone who could hear, “Is thiiiis Praaague?” The answer was a resounding “no” and we all giggled all the way to the actual station.
The next morning was when we started our city-touring system that worked pretty effectively. When we woke up we sought out our first New Europe tour. New Europe might be the sweetest company ever and definitely made my experiences on this trip infinitely better. The company gives free walking tours in many major European cities and you’re just supposed to tip your guide if you feel they deserve it. For our Prague tour we had a great guide, saw a lot of the city, and learned a good deal of the history, which can best be described as the Czech people getting repeatedly walked over. After the free tour we decided to pay for a tour of the Prague castle. However, this time the guide wasn’t that great, mainly because he allowed it to start raining. Everything we saw was beautiful and cool, but we were all very cold and wet after walking around for eight hours so we were ready to get back to the hostel. We only had a little bit of time to rest before we were meeting a girl we met in Interlaken who is studying in Prague for dinner, but we made the most of it. I cuddled up in my warm, dry bed next to the radiator and crushed Swiss chocolate like Madam Pomfrey gave it to me. It worked like a charm.
We got a nice cheap dinner (everything in Prague is cheap) and then, determined to see more people than the night before, decided to go on a pub crawl. Now, there is a time and a place for the Prague pub crawl story, and unfortunately this is not it. Let’s just say that I felt like Preson on his first date with Shay in the movie Blank Check. Let your imaginations run wild. So anyway, I got in after 5 a.m., but because I am the warrior I got up at nine to see more of the city. We went to the Lennon Wall, a wall that has been painted with Beatles-inspired quotes and images since the 80s. The wall might be my favorite part of the visit. Love is love. We walked across the Charles Bridge, stopped at the statue of St. John Nepomuk, and rubbed the two plaques, one for luck and one for fertility. I hope I get lucky and don’t use my fertility any time soon. We then went to the Jewish district to see the Holocaust Memorial and the Jewish cemetery. The memorial was very interesting, similar to the Vietnam Memorial; it had the names of all the Jews from the Czech Republic that died in the Holocaust written on the walls. It is very simple and the amount of names that cover the walls in several rooms force you to reflect on the horrible atrocity that was the Holocaust. The other amazing part of the memorial was the exhibit of artwork by Jewish children in the ghettoes. A teacher started an art therapy program for the children and was able to hide a lot of the artwork before she was taken away so it could be preserved. It is a remarkable and moving idea that really fleshes out the victims of the Holocaust. The cemetery is very unique; it is above ground level and full of unmarked, slanted tombstones. The cemetery served as an inspiration for the memorial in Berlin, which we would see the next day.
After our last bit of touring we grabbed some goulash and our bags from the hostel and headed to the train station for the biggest little disaster of the trip. Before, all of our trains had been perfect, running exactly at the times that were listed in the timetable that came with our Eurail passes. However, when we got to the train station our train to Berlin wasn’t on the board. Now Czech is a weird language and I thought that maybe they said Berlin differently. We asked around for help, but didn’t find any because people kept telling us that Berlin was Berlin. They obviously didn’t understand that we were asking what Berlin was in Czech. There was a train that was leaving and arriving at the same time, in a place called “Vsetín,” and I started to convince myself that this could be Berlin. It wasn’t that hard, it was the same distance away, ended in “in,” it had an “e” in it, and in Spanish they say their V’s as B’s so I could buy it. At this point we were pretty rushed so we just decided to head to that train’s platform. The train was leaving at 4:40 and I got on the train at 4:39 to ask where it was going. This was where I experienced my first big communication failure. I asked if the train was going to Berlin and the Czech gentlemen sitting in the compartment motioned to the seats around them and said, “They are free.” After some frantic pointing and saying “Germany” and “Deutschland” they understood and said, “Nooooo, Eastern Europe. Slovakia.” I have never gotten off a train faster in my life. It turns out Berlin is Berlin and we were just at the wrong train station. We were supposed to go to the train station that wasn’t on the map. At this point I thought we were completely effed. We were sitting on some stairs with maps and timetables spread out trying to figure out a way to get to Berlin before midnight through all kinds of connections because otherwise we would have to use an extra day of travel on our Eurail passes, which we didn’t have. There was no way to do it and I thought we were stranded in Prague for the night without a place to stay while paying for a night in Berlin. When we went to the information office to try and see if there was a way to get to Berlin that we missed we found out that there was a direct train that wasn’t in the book that left at 6:29. So disaster averted and everything worked out as planned. Good thing I rubbed that plaque.
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