World Travel Guide Online

In the Beginning…
Prague, Czech Republic

Prague felt like wet towels and overcast skies. Of communist blocs and clandestine murders. Vans perhaps would swoop in and take you away for thinking a single dissenting thought against The State.

When I arrived in Prague it was cloudy and cold. The cab drove me by destitute buildings as soldiers walked by in their fatigues. I had a feeling in my stomach that I wasn’t going to be pleased with any of this. Being left on a desolate street corner during the afternoon with my belongings in the run down part of town reaffirmed my initial impression.

I looked into a window of the establishment I was to be lodged in for a few days. From the outside, I saw there were many tables of what looked to be a restaurant or bar. Had I come to the wrong place? Or had I been dropped off somewhere unbeknownst to me? The sign indicated I was at the right place, though that wasn’t much of an assurance. I didn’t have much choice at this point, so I picked up my belongings and entered.

I stumbled down the stairs of the hostel as my belongings shifted their weight – and my balance – and the concierge watched me slip and slide down the stairs. Seeing tables and a bar off into a distance, I didn’t know where I had literally fallen into. I told the concierge I had a reservation and had called from the airport. He asked what type of room I wanted and I told him to give me the cheapest. I signed in and filled out the proper forms, wondering if this information would one day make it to the unsavory types I figured were all about this shadowy city. I knew I was in for something terrible when I was told I was on the top floor and there was no elevator. So I stashed the heavier of my goods in the safe, which was an unsettlingly filthy room with other people’s belongings in them.

My many years of smoking began to take their toll as I ascended the six flights of stairs with a heavy bag containing thousands of dollars in goods. I traversed flight after flight, huffing and puffing until there I was, in a large room with thirty people. Well, thirty beds, at that time of the day anyhow. But did it matter?

I really couldn’t think all too much about it now, since I had already paid and needed to go. I nodded to a few of the residents of the communal room, found my bed, and placed my belongings underneath. I hesitated upon leaving my valuables there, but again, what choice did I have? Descending down the dank stairs, I knew I had to get to the branch of my school that was out here. I had come to Prague to teach English, and the school had told me to come by when I got there, so they could set me up with permanent lodgings. I felt it was extremely paramount to do so.

As I pushed through the old wooden doors, and walked past the bar with urgency, I noticed the very attractive bartender out of the corner of my eye, and reconsidered how paramount it was to get out of here. No, first I had to take care of business. I went to the front desk and immediately asked the concierge where the street Kaprova was. Looking rather annoyed that I had disturbed whatever it was he was doing, and from my observations, it wasn’t much, he told me I needed to take a train. I asked if he had a map I could have. He gave me one and showed me where it was. He explained to me where I had to go for the train, how many stops it was, the number it was, and what the name of the stop was, which I wrote down.

Rushing out onto the cobblestone street, the ghetto greeted me once again as I followed the surly, though detail-orientated, concierge’s instructions. Take a left from the exit and now a left at this corner…and there I was, at the top, or rather, the middle of a hill, overlooking Prague, the center out in the gray distance. I admired the view as I was forced down by the steep slope of the hill, sometimes running and sometimes rushing down the slant, but always moving; it was very hard to stop. Once at the base, I looked for the train. Seeing nothing, nor any entrances to the subterranean tunnels, I saw a bus on tracks go by. He didn’t say train, he said tram! I went over to the other side and waited for the right numbered tram to show up. It was rather bizarre for me to watch these street cars roll by on their tracks, as their antennas touched the wires in the air. How uncanny! How out of this world! I was certainly on another planet entirely I thought.

The tram didn’t take long to show up and I hopped on with the other passengers. I looked around for some sort of change slot to place my fare in and found nothing. Seeing no one else pay a fare, I swayed back and forth with excitement as the tram’s engine sped up and gnarled, thinking what a fine city it was. Free transportation! As a foreigner in a foreign land, how was I to know any better! Well, commonsense seemed to dictate the opposite.

And so, with my excitement bursting forth, I awaited my stop as I watched as we came closer to the center of the city, curious as to what my future held and what this strange city had to offer. Everything was so foreign and so different, and not so very long ago, I was in Spain, then on a plane, and now here! It was all so strange, but I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind.

I counted three stops and figured I was to get off, and I was quite assured when I heard the stop announced and surprised that I had understood it. Getting off as a throng of people exited and a throng of people boarded, I whipped out my map as a chill came over me because of the unexpectedly brisk weather. I was dressed very lightly as I had just come from a very hot climate.

Looking at the map, I could make neither head nor tail of where I needed to go. I walked to the very middle of Wenceslas Square and looked around for reference points. Finding a few, I headed in the direction I thought my school was. Let us just say it was more trouble than I had expected. The map wasn’t exact, and the many landmarks dotting the map didn’t help me decipher my direction any better. I had to go towards a gothic tower and there were many gothic towers about the city! What the hell, I thought, this only made it more confusing to someone as displaced as I was. I ran around in circles for close to an hour, going back and forth expecting to see the street I looked for in vain. Finally I ventured down Wenceslas Square, moving away from the Národní Museum as it slowly became dark. I passed by all manners of sights, sword swallowers and vagrants, enormous markets and the many pubs that inhabited the streets until I was squeezed into a narrow little street that was filled with foreigners that zig zagged passed shops selling glassware and spit me out into Old Town Square.

Among the numerous bars and restaurants around the square there were even more creepy buildings to greet me. I thought it best to sit down and have an exorbitant drink. I almost ordered a beer, but figured I needed my wits about me, and there’d be plenty of time for that later. I had an expensive coffee as I sat there smoking a cigarette just getting my bearings. From the map, I knew I was close, and it looked simple enough from here. After paying my bill – and never say “check!” – I made my way around the square looking for the street. Again, the map was not accurate at all to the shape of the city, so I found myself walking down street after street.

Finally, I asked a fellow in the square who sold kilbasas, and he pointed me into a direction I had not yet gone! Damnation, I thought, I should have checked there! I was about to but figured it couldn’t be that way…well, anyhow, knowing by this time the school was closed, I just needed to find it so I would know where it was for tomorrow’s expedition. Just as I crossed the street I found it. Kaprova! From the location of the map, it was not at all surprising I had trouble finding the place. Or perhaps I was just rather dull. Either way, it made for a confusing and unexpected, but interesting tour. And within a few feet, I found my school and looked around. I buzzed the door to make sure no one was there. And as expected, there was not.

I stood under the doorway for a moment to gather myself as I looked around, while my mind still tried to catch up with the chaos of the day. And so, as the sky faded further into darkness, I started to make my way back.

It was on the return tram as the fluorescent lights bombarded me, that the surreal feeling of it all slowly enraptured me as the foreign, computerized voice announced the stops. Looking at the city at dusk was much different than during the day. I felt the very feeling of Eastern Europe seep into me, even though it was Central Europe. One couldn’t escape the fading feeling of communism that once stamped the country into submission. From the people and to the shops, you could still feel the oppression that had once covered this land, as did the fresh shadows of the newly darkened streets. I felt uneasy and lost even though I knew where I was…well, sort of. There was just a strange feeling still nagging me as my excitement receded and I thought, what was there to look forward to? I exited the tram and as I began my trek back up the hill, I thought, oh yes, the bartender!

She was a cross between Charlize Theron and Linda Evangelista with a wonderful Czech accent. When I got back to the hostel, I was glad to see her tending the bar as I went to order a beer. I stood there for a moment drinking my freshly poured beer, looking around as other people lounged about, drinking and talking, realizing that I knew no one, and had no one to talk to. So, I began a conversation with the only person I wanted to talk to. I asked the kindly bartender for a light and began talking with her. She had a lovely accent, and while her English wasn’t fluent, it was enough to talk to her without many misunderstandings. I was completely jazzed up, being awake for what seemed like days, and having been in this new country for not even a day, talking to this lovely thing, and throwing back the cheap quality beer that was ubiquitous throughout this country. She was a med student, and in my state of delirium, I neglected to ask for her name, as we talked about school and other things, and why I was here as patrons came to get their drinks refilled. I was thinking of asking her to show me around the city sometime, but I was swept away in the moment as she left to clear some tables while I drained the last of my drink. We continued to talk when she returned and I began to lose track of what was going on around me.

I was on my third when some strangers came up to me unexpectedly and introduced themselves. They were all Czechs, the three of them. One pretty girl, Alex, who spoke fluently, without an accent (she very well could have been American!), and her two friends, Pavel and Simona, a guy and another pretty gal who spoke not such fluent English. We talked briefly and all of a sudden they asked if I’d like to join them for drinks at another bar and in my haste and crazed state I said, “Let’s go!” Thinking I would have another opportunity to get to know the nameless bartender better, I downed my beer and rushed off with them back into this strange city. We all got into Pavel’s car as they mixed some strange cinnamon flavored alcohol they had. Without thinking I began drinking as I asked, “What the hell is going on here? You can’t drink and drive!”

They proved me wrong, as we whisked off to some unknown destination known only as the Red Baron. Rumbling through the cobblestone streets we became lost, as they weren’t exactly sure how to get to the very place they had invited me to. We drove around for a while and came to a humongous tower that soared into the night like an antenna. We drove around it, bumping around here and there, and finally we found our destination, and parked not more than a block away. We got out into what seemed like a nice quiet suburb; the trees on the sidewalks covered the streets protectively as I felt I could be in Anywhere USA, but I certainly was far from it.

At the Red Baron, we met one of their friends, another Czech girl. We got a table and thus began what all Czechs enjoy as their favorite pastime. Beer after beer we drank as we talked and smoked and lost track of the time. It was a strange damn time as I forgot all about Spain, or the thirty-person room I was to be staying in, or the fact that it was so damn cold here. An hour or so later, the friend they came to meet decided to leave and was going to show me back to the hostel, but I decided to stay and drink further, in hopes that perhaps this feeling and the night would never end. But Alex had to wake up early and we drove – yes drove! – back to my hostel, where we said our farewells. I had thought about asking for their phone numbers, but figured I’d see them again as they said they stopped by every now and again.

Returning to the bar in the hostel, I ordered a drink as another bartender manned the bar. I was a little disappointed with how the night came to a close, but I saw the fine looking bartender again as I drank another beer and also began talking with the new concierge. I ended the night by knocking over my beer onto the sign-in book, quite by accident I assure you, but at that point, it really didn’t matter how many drinks I had had.

Around midnight, the bar closed and everyone either went out or went to their rooms, and as I had nothing else to do, I reluctantly made my way up to ‘my room’, dreading the thought of this upcoming experience. I thought of many things as I slowly made my way up the stairs, such as how I needed shampoo and a towel, or how I’d look forward to getting back tomorrow and talking to what’s her name, or what times I would have with my new Czech friends. Perhaps I’d see my new friends tomorrow, I thought, as I continued my way up through the darkness, not knowing that I’d never see them again.