The Hizzle of T-Fizzle

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04/03/2007:
Our train back to Berlin did not leave at the crack of dawn as our train out did, but it left fairly early. Early enough that in order to do further sightseeing in Prague, we would have to truly get up at the crack of dawn. Instead we opted to sleep in a little bit. We woke and packed and got some breakfast from the cool kids lounge and then went down to wait for our taxi.

The taxi was right on time and took us right to the station.

For some reason, Nádrazí Holesovice was either uncommonly empty yesterday or uncommonly crowded today. We were in the station around the same time both days, but for some reason today there was a lot of people. Touristy people. With all of these travellers in the station who were there with a purpose, Holesovice seemed a lot less seedy than before. Had we stepped off the train into this environment I might not have been quite so skeeved out.

In the station were a bunch of American girls. Pretty young I’d say…17 years old maybe? They seemed *awfully* young to be travelling without any adult supervision…or at least a beefy male to back them up. One of them approached me and asked me about a train to Italy. “You do know there are other train stations, right?” She said that her train was leaving from Holesovice. “Is this Holesovice?” Yes. *Whew* For a minute I was concerned these girls weren’t even in the right station.

Meanwhile, our train was listed as delayed. I took advantage of the extra time to waste the remainder of my Czech crowns seeing as how by the time I ever come back that currency will be long-gone. I suppose I could have kept some as a souvenir, but I don’t need the clutter. Believe me.

At some point we decided our train’s arrival was imminent. We went out on the platform where it was shockingly cold. I believe there were snow flurries in the air. There was a single tramcar sitting on the track. Was this the cause of the delay? I suggested that we all just get behind it and push it out of the way, but this plan did not last long. Everyone was cold and we went back inside.

The train was not super late in the end. An hour, maybe? I don’t recall completely. We found our car and boarded and I was disappointed to learn that we did not get a cool compartment to ourselves. For the ride home we would be in normal train seats. Sometime into the ride, Mike revealed a stash of fruit in his backpack. He had the foresight to take a little snack along for the ride. X had a banana and the rest of us had apples.

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. Because we didn’t have private cars, and the dining car seemed pretty crowded, we went there in shifts. The girls went first while we held down the seats and then X came and got us and we went back and assumed their table at the dining car while Kate and Mary went back to the seats. On the long walk through the train we went through the smoking car which was astounding. You could smell it two cars away and it was thick with smoke. I’m pretty tolerant of smoke and it threw me for a loop! At the dining car I had some sort of sausage and lentil stew that I really liked.

We arrived back at our lovely apartment and kicked back for a few minutes to change, freshen up, nap and plan dinner. We also planned some activities after dinner - namely a ride on the 100 bus that goes around the touristy attractions so that we could see them light up at night. We also wanted to visit the Siegessäule.

All week long we had been going back and forth about visiting a kneipe. You see, my guidebook described kneipen as, basically old-man bars. Seedy joints where neighborhood people went to get blitzed after work. It specifically said that women rarely ventured into these dives. But Mary, on the advice of her guidebook and a co-worker had been lobbying to visit a kneipe listed in her guidebook. At some point I mused to X that maybe Mary’s guidebook described kneipen more favorably, so we decided to compare. Sure enough, Mary’s guidebook talked of the kneipe being a friendly neighborhood pub where the whole family goes out for a drink and a cheap bite to eat. It would be interesting to visit the kneipen listed in my guidebook to see if they really are seedy dives.

In any case, spurred on by the favorable description in Mary’s book we sought out the kneipe that she thought was most interesting. We stepped inside the main entrance and it wasn’t beautiful. It did seem like an old-man bar. In fact it was full of old men - actual old men in the 60+ range, a lot of them playing cards. This might not be the crowd we’d normally hang out with, but they did not seem a dangerous lot. We got some looks as we entered but nothing disconcerting. There were no tables in the bar but someone spotted a door leading off to another room. We went through to find more of restaurant-like area. This area was completely empty. We sat down at a nearby table.

On the table was little metal cube that had a picture on it of a crossed-out cigarette. Presumably this room was a non-smoking section. A bit of an extra bonus since people smoke pretty much everywhere in Berlin, including at the dinner table. While they eat. Shortly after we sat down, a pleasant waitress buzzed by the table and sat down an ashtray! We got a chuckle out of this. Evidently the non-smoking section is not heavily enforced!

Once concern with eating at a kneipe is that they are not really touristy so you are less likely to find English-speaking staff or English-language menus. I don’t know how much English the waitress knew - we all try to be polite travellers and just do our best in German and hand signals. She did fairly quickly determine that we were English speakers and did bring us an English menu. I always carried a guidebook that included a food dictionary, but having an English menu always makes things simpler!

This seemed like a good opportunity to get a Berliner Weiße which was described in the guidebook as one of the things you *have* to do in Berlin since it’s something pretty much unique to Berlin. I asked for it mit grün which includes a shot of a woodruff flavored syrup since that also seems to be the most traditional of all the options. Actually, I ordered a different kind of beer mit grün and I believe the waitress told me that you wouldn’t want to put that syrup in anything but Berliner Weiße, so I heeded her advice. It is definitely different and I can see why it’s very popular during the summer months!

For dinner I got this dish that had a name that I cannot recall but it was bloodwurst and liverwurst fried up with potatoes and onions and maybe some sauerkraut into a sort of hash. I think you would have to try pretty hard to come up with a meal that is more unhealthy and more offensive to the senses. It was really, really good. Frying liverwurst is a brilliant idea.

At some point during the meal Mike, who had previously mentioned not feeling very hungry, declared that he was going to opt out from further touring activities for the evening and just get an early night. He was looking a little bit pale. Mike and Mary departed and X, Kate and I finished up and paid. We decided not to go touring without Mike and Mary after a long day on the train. On our way back to the apartment, we got a little bit lost. A very nice woman noticed us huddled around a map and asked us (in German) if we needed help. At least I recognized the word for “help” in there somewhere. Kate used this opportunity to use the one German phrase she has truly mastered “Ich verstehe kein Deutsch” or “I understand no German.” The woman chuckled. We pointed to her on the map where we wanted to go and she pointed us in the right direction.

Meanwhile back at the apartment, Mike and Mary were in bed. Aunt Bern and company were supposed to arrive the next day so our plan was to meet them for dinner. Since we had this awesome apartment with this awesome balcony and the weather was beautiful, we figured after dinner we could hang out at the apartment. To celebrate the occasion I had picked up a case of Berliner Pilsener at ReWe during our last shopping excursion. I have no idea if it’s good beer, but really it’s hard to find BAD beer in German. In ReWe there were a couple of guys who were giving away some Berliner Pilsener schwag to go with a discount on the case and they seemed to enjoy practicing their sales pitch in English. We scored a pen, a lanyard, a metal motorscooter keyring and a model tractor trailer Anyway, we had this case of beer so we figured we’d crack into it. Kate and X and I sat and talked and drank for awhile. Well Kate didn’t drink because despite feeding her beer in every restaurant she just can’t get into it.

After awhile, Mary came out to chat for awhile. She wasn’t feeling all that great either. Suddenly, Mike runs past and into the bathroom and gets sick. Mary goes into to assist…and soon after she gets sick, too! After things started to calm down we got the sick soldiers to bed and then retired ourselves. Not a very spectacular day for us!

To see all of the pics from the trip, head on over to the Gallery!

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04/02/2007:
It was early. 5AM maybe? I don’t remember. It was dark. I showered before going to bed so I could sleep later. Maybe if I can find my ticket stub I can figure out when the train left…suffice it to say that factoring in time to make it from our apartment to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, we had to get up really really early. We had a little breakfast and made our way out to the station via S-Bahn. Berlin Hbf is really nice. Here’s a picture:

If it looks familiar, you probably saw it on Day 2 from atop the Reichstag.

We found our way to our track and waited around for our train. There was a clock on the platform that did a weird hitch every minute. I can’t imagine how it stayed accurate.

European rail travel is interesting. It’s a little more complex than travel in the US since people actually use it and you can actually go places on it for a sensible amount of money. Crazy, I know. Since tracks are shared by multiple carriers and cars can be headed to different destinations, you actually have to make sure you get on the right car because the wrong car might get disconnected from the train before you arrive!

We found our car and stepped inside and looked for our seat numbers. Very shortly we found this:

We had our own compartment! Just like in the movies! And since we had bought the group ticket for 6 people we knew that the 6th seat would remain unoccupied and we wouldn’t have to share it with some creepy or chatty person.

The ride down to Prague takes about 5 hours and you see a lot of scenic countryside and you pass through Dresden. On the way we saw a lot of tiny cottages no bigger than tool sheds on plots of land. We have it on reliable sources that these are basically rentable backyards that urban people can use to get away from the city and spend some time in the garden. It is also reported that there was a set of these a couple blocks from our apartment but we never went by it.

Anyway, we arrived in Nádrazí Holesovice which is one of Prague’s secondary train stations, but it is the one that you go to when you come from north. It was probably 11AM or so. Holesovice is seedy. There are not a whole lot of people around and the few people that are there don’t seem particularly wholesome. I felt leery and it was boad daylight. Interestingly, in researching this post I found an article that says the main train station is actually SEEDIER than Holesovice! Yikes…

Doing our best not to look like complete targets, we attempted to find our way to the public trams. The signs seemed to lead in circles. We did find a way to the subway, so we went and studied the subway map and stared at the antiquated ticket machines. More modern ticketing machines generally speak English or are illustrated with pictograms allowing you to at least pick your way through. These were coin-op. I commented that the subway map looks like it was drawn with a crayon. I held up my pocket map of Berlin’s transit system next to the Prague map. “See?” X and Kate lobbied to just go get taxis. I wondered if maybe we should just cut our losses and buy a ticket on the next train back to Berlin.

Eventually we capitulated and decided that even though it would be more expensive, we might as well just take a taxi and get where we need to go. We proceeded to a taxi stand where we found some guys standing around smoking. We told one guy where we were going and how many people and he called over a couple of other guys. We asked how much (when travelling in places where taxis are not well regulated, always negotiate the price first. Depending on how you feel, you might even want to have the driver write the price down so that he can’t “forget.” Even in places where it’s safe to take taxis, you still might want to get an estimate from the driver before you take off!) and the driver quoted us something in local currency - Czech Crowns or Kurona. It was like 500. It sounded like a lot. Here’s something I don’t like about Prague - the crown is worthless in just the right amount to make it very hard to compare with dollars or Euro. Prices are always in the hundreds of crowns and the numbers are just weird enough that it’s hard to calculate in your head what something would be in the other currencies. This will get better once they fully convert to Euro, but for the time being I get the distinct impression that merchants in touristy areas are charging high prices in crowns hoping people won’t be able to figure it out. In any case, we didn’t have much local currency. We told the drivers we would discuss it and walked away. As we walked away he told us we could also pay in Euro - 20 per car. We went back into the station, huddled up and decided that the 20 Euro didn’t seem too terrible. We went back. I was expecting the driver to say “30 Euro, now!” but when I asked to confirm he said it would be 20.

The ride to the Prague Hilton was uneventful. Driving in Prague seems frightening and crazy, and the hotel seemed a bit out of the way, so taking a taxi seemed a decent idea. We got to the hotel and checked in. It’s a very nice hotel. We dropped our stuff off and explored the lay of the land. X found a desk in the hotel that offered a walking/bus tour of the city. It seemed a little bit expensive, but it also seemed like a convenient and safe way to see all the major sights. After discussing with the group we decided to do this, and booked a tour with them.

We had a little bit of time for lunch, so we sat down in one of the hotel restaurants. There wasn’t a table big enough for all 5 of us, so we sat at a 4-top and pulled a 5th chair over. After a wait of typical European length, a waitress finally came over and asked us if we were ordering food or drinks. We told her food and she said “This table is not for 5 people to order food.” And then walked away! She did not offer to split us up. She did not offer to find us another table. We were not sure if she is going to set something up for us or anything. We waited a few more minutes and she did not return. We were running out of time. Mike and Mary and Kate decided to run upstairs to the club lounge for cool people like Mike who book a lot of Hilton rooms. X and I sat at a 2-top and were finally able to get someone to serve us sandwiches. Again, the bill came back in crowns. The conversion still boggles my mind, but I’m pretty sure it was outrageously expensive…something like $30 for a sandwich and a bowl of soup. I had heard that if they bring bread to your table and you eat it, they also charge for this, but there did not appear to be a charge for the bread. The food was tasty, at least

At the appointed time we went out and met our tour guide who had a nice slavic name like Yaroslav. We had him all to ourselves which was really nice. They took us into the center of the historic district where we walked all around and saw all the historic sights. I don’t remember most of the names and I don’t have a guidebook, but suffice it to say we saw all the major stuff like the Charles River Bridge, Wenceslas Square, etc. Here are some highlights:

Cathedral

Stained Glass

The local standard for one metre.

The Prague skyline.

After walking around we hopped back in the bus where he showed us more cool things. There was a lot of traffic in the city, so the guide and driver decided that instead of wasting a lot of time sitting in traffic, we would walk some more and meet the bus at another location. We were now travelling off of the planned route, so the guide had to get a little bit creative. He began taking us into all kinds of crazy places to show us the centuries-old architecture that has since been converted into things like banks and department stores and still have amazing gilt ceilings and murals. Unfortunately you can’t take pictures in most of these places, but it was neat. Eventually we met up with the bus where we were driven to a square near the Charles River. We crossed the bridge to the square where there was an open-air market going on along with a band and lots of activity. We asked our guide if he could show us a good place to get real Czech food. We ducked off into a side street and followed him into a door to a small, smokey pub. It was basically an old man bar! It might have been good. In fact, considering that it was absolutely stuffed with people I’m sure it was good, but it was too crowded. He gave us directions to another place and lead us back to the square where after a brief goodbye, he disappeared into the crowd.

We took this opportunity to explore the market. There were a few rows of stalls, but they all seemed to be selling the same overpriced (if you can figure out the conversion) junk. We did pick up some souvenirs for folks back home, though. We also found this interesting fire-roasted pastry called Trdlo which they seem to pitch as being a Czech tradition, but this story is of dubious origins. Either way it’s like a pretzel, but it’s fire-roasted on a cylinder and coated with cinnamon and sugar. It was a tasty snack.

The square seemed to be teeming with American tourists. It seemed like everyone was speaking American English. A guy from New York started a conversation with me and remarked how beautiful the city was and how awesome it was that there were so many Americans around. I didn’t want to be a wet blanket so I agreed, but deep down inside I felt kinda like it was Busch Gardens and not an actual old world city. Did we come all this way to hang out with other Americans in a square where the vendors are selling trinkets at high prices?

After wandering the market a bit longer we set out to find the restaurant that our tour guide had recommended. He indicated that it was a good place to get Czech food, but would be fairly accessible to tourists. The restaurant was called Kolkovna and for all we know it could basically be the Czech version of TGI Friday’s, but it certainly fit the bill of offering ribsticking Czech food but accessible to tourists with translated menus and the like. We enjoyed our meals. Unfortunately I didn’t write what I ate in my notes. Had some tasty beers, too.

After dinner it was getting dark. X, Kate and I still did not feel all that comfortable about the environment and decided to make our way back to the hotel. Mary and Mike decided to press on for a few more hours. I guess all of their time spent wandering NYC in the wee hours during Mary’s college days makes them a little bolder about that kind of thing

Back at the hotel we decided to arrange for our transportation back to the station. We told the woman at the Reception desk our story about the taxis and how it took 20 Euro to get there. She seemed to think we had definitely been screwed. She said she would call and have a van pick us up, picked up the phone and gave us some confirmation information. And a price. You want to know how much? 20 Euro! Who is ripping who off here? Maybe the going rate for that trip really is 20 Euro? The bonus is that this would be a van so really the trip would be half the price in total. Score.

We then relaxed in the room a bit. The Eurosport network was showing the Men’s World Curling Championships. It’s a bit absurd that I could see this event in the Czech Republic but I would not have been able to watch in the US! We also wandered up to the business center in the hotel to play on the Internet. I chatted with Lee for a little while.

When Mike and Mary returned safely, we went down to the restaurant for some desert and drink and then we thought we’d check out the casino in the hotel. Why not? I’ll tell you why not. It was whacky. When we got there, a woman at the front desk asked if we were hotel guests. She then told the girls they could go into the casino, but she would need to see the guys’ passports. The girls went inside. Mike handed her is passport and she began writing down some information. Before she was finished, suddenly a TON of guys came in. Like 20 people. All speaking Czech or another Slavic language. They were pushy and rude. They came in and began throwing their passports at the woman. Instead of trying to serve the people in order (in other words clearing Mike and I first!), she took one of their passports. It then occurred to me that the reason they were bumping and jostling was because they were actually pickpockets. I decided I had had enough of this nonsense. Around this time the girls, wondering what was taking so long, came back out into the lobby. I signaled to them and told Mike I was getting out of there and made for the door. No casino that night. I didn’t need to spend the money anyway! The girls said it was pretty small and not that impressive anyway.

At this point, we had been up for quite a long time and we also had a fairly early train back the next day so it seemed like a good time to call it a night, and so we did.

Here are the rest of the pictures from Prague:

Do I seem kinda down on Prague? Well, I AM down on Prague! I actually felt homesick for our awesome little apartment in Berlin. You see, we had heard a lot of great things about Prague up to and including it being the best city in Europe. It’s really cheap. It’s really beautiful. It’s really pristine and unmodernized. Those last two things are quite true. But it’s not cheap. Not by a long shot. I think the people we talked to haven’t been to Prague in the last few years. Food was expensive. Beer was expensive. It seemed very touristy to me. So many things seem to be set up just to exploit the tourists. I constantly felt like I was asking myself “Is this person trying to screw me?” It was in many ways like being in Cancun, minus the ocean and in another language. And that language is really challenging - there are very few cognates and the words *look* like you shoudl be able to read and understand them but there’s just no way. Maybe it’s better suited towards a different type of tourist, but even Mike and Mary who are more exploratory were not overly impressed. Of London, Berlin and Prague, Prague is my least favorite by a long shot.

There are some great things about Prague - the beer, the castle, the cathedrals. It is beautiful and picturesque. When you close your eyes and picture the quintessential old world city in your mind, you think of narrow, winding cobblestone streets. Stone buildings with terracotta roofs. Squares and plazas with fountains. Elegant gardens. Historic Prague is that image come to life right out of your imagination. Should you skip going there if you have a chance? Definitely not. Should you go out of your way to get there? I don’t think so. In retrospect, I think I would have preferred to have more time in Berlin or a stop in Leipzig, Lubeck or the Harz Mountains.

To see all of the pics from the trip, head on over to the Gallery!