* Sorry I had to go rapid fire, I haven’t had an internet connection for a couple days, so the reviews of Budapest, Vienna, and Prague are all below*
I was a bit worried when the Rail Europe rep suggested that an 11 minute changeover was enough between trains. My train from Vienna to Prague yesterday arrived about 30 minutes late, and it’s that same route I picked up to go on from Prague to Dresden. If a 30 minute delay was standard for that route, than an 11 minute changeover was far less than likely to be enough time. When I got to the train station in Prague, they were already reporting that the train from Vienna was 10 minutes behind, leaving me a whopping 60 seconds to change trains. By halfway through the trip from Prague to Dresden, they were calling it 15 minutes. I didn’t know how frequently the Dresden to Nuremberg train ran, but given I got the right one, I had 45 minutes in Nuremberg. It’s a 4 hour trip from Dresden to Nuremberg, so chances are that it’s a route that only goes every couple of hours.
If I miss that connection, then I’m staying in Dresden or Nuremberg for the evening. I wouldn’t have been too fussed because both are meant to be great places, but I was really looking forward to Munich and already have a friend of mine meeting me at the train station. Therefore, making the connection was ideal, but looking grim.
Worse yet, despite the two hour trip, border patrol (since we crossed from the Czech Republic to Germany) entered our car about 10 minutes before we were to arrive in Dresden. As the car was slowing into the Dresden station, one of the guys sat next to me and started quizzing me. Now I was warned well in advance that the Germans were by far the tightest when it came to border control. The trouble here was that this guy barely spoke a word of English and had a full page questionnaire to go through with me. I could see the station on the horizon and we were arriving a little ahead of the delayed schedule, meaning I would have my precious 60 seconds change time back. However, the last thing I was going to do was tick off a German border patrol agent by rushing him.
I patiently went through each question and tried the little bit of German I had picked up to aide him with our huge communication divide. On top of everything, I’m very far from an ordinary traveller. I’m not a citizen of an EU nation, I’m presenting a passport for a country I haven’t lived in or even been to in almost 7 months, I’m presenting a visa that is already expired, and I was going to be in 3 German cities in one day. Everything I was doing was fully legal but took a heck of a lot of explaining and I didn’t have the time. I still tried to stay as calm as possible and keep a positive attitude, as rushing the guy would certainly lead to him being suspicious about my many irregularities with respect to my travel.
The doors to the train opened at the Dresden station and at that point I had no choice but to be a little pointed since once the train doors closed the train would be leaving Dresden for whatever northern German destination it was continuing onto, likely Berlin. For a split second I thought, “I could do Berlin for a night, it would make the remainder of my travel tough to figure out, but wherever this takes me, I’ll go”. I told him that my ticket ends in Dresden and he looked up and said in broken English, “You’re a good kid, I trust you, enjoy our beautiful country”. And just like that, I was off.
I breathed a short sigh of relief but only had about 30 seconds to make my connection. Running through a train terminal with 26 different gates, while wearing a huge backpack, then finding the right gate in about 15 seconds, isn’t quite the simple task. When I got off the train, there were gates in 4 different directions and I didn’t have time to find the board to find Nuremberg. So I had a 25% chance, guessing wrong would guarantee I missed my connection. As luck would have it, I spotted Nuremberg but the doors started to close while I was still about 50 meters from the first opportunity to get on the train. That was it, I missed it by 10 seconds, but figured why not try, I ran up and hit the button and the doors opened half the way but started to close again. Two people grabbed my arms and pulled me onto the train and helped make sure my backpack made it on. The train was moving within 3 seconds after that. Completely unreal. I’m still catching my breath, 15 minutes later.
Backtracking a little, I knew that 20 hours in Prague wouldn’t be nearly enough. Then again, if I stayed there a week, I think I would still say that it wasn’t enough time. When I was plotting out my holiday, I was down to one of three options, cut into my time in Crete, not see Prague at all, or stay in Prague for 20 hours. The latter seemed like the best option, given the circumstances. I definitely see myself making another trip to Prague at some point in the future.
Most travellers I’ve spoken with put Prague in their top 5 for European cities. Many have called it their favorite, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a ridiculously beautiful city, full of amazing architecture and just has an aura of cool to it. The capital of the Czech Republic sits on the Vtlava River which runs north-south through the center of the city. The most dominating structure, the Prague Castle, sits on the northwest side of the river. It is the largest castle in the world but isn’t quite what most people imagine when they think of grand castles. It’s a complex of amazing narrow cobblestone roads with beautiful residences circling a large Gothic chapel. You could spend a full day exploring the castle, but of course I was a little limited on time and settled for a 4 hour hike. After that, my friend was called into work to cover for someone who called off for the overnight shift, so I was on my own for the rest of the night.
I made my way into the Old Town, and like most places, was eager to sample the local food and drink. The most traditional Czech meal involves pork or lamb with dumplings and red and white cabbage. I settled into a nice place with a four piece band and went with the lamb and a half liter of a mix of the local brews, the Czech version of the black and tan. It was one of my favorite meals of the trip so far.
After a night walk through the city, I settled at a nice riverside pub with an acoustic guitarist playing. One interesting fact I learned was that the citizens of Prague consume more beer per capita than any city in the world. That surprised me a bit, along with the idea that they take their beer very seriously. I watched one woman argue with the bartender for 5 minutes and ask to see his manager, simply because the head on her beer was keeping the liquid a hair below the half liter marking on the glass. Normally I would find that pretty amusing, but I was behind her in line, so after a few minutes I came close to offering to buy her beer. And that wouldn’t have been a problme, because the beer is cheaper than the water in Prague. A half liter of beer was less than $2. As tempted as I was to take full advantage of the economic opportunity that brought about, the skies were starting to fill with lighting and it was just after midnight, so I decided I’d find my friend’s flat.
One negative about Prague are that the tram stations aren’t all that clearly marked. I learned after the fact that half the trams are newer and have a nice video board displaying the stops, but I had hopped on an old school one, not knowing any better. So I was left to listen closely, over the conversation of the crowd to hear the station’s name in Czech. Once I heard one that sounded close, I jumped out, only to find out from someone that I was 4 stops shy. And at that point, the skies opened up. I had left my backpack in a locker in the station but still had my leather man bag. Plus I’d have to wear the same clothes for the first 3 hours of the next day. So as much as I love a jog in the pouring rain, I had to take cover and wait for the next tram. 20 minutes later, one arrived and had the video board, so I got off at the right station, but still had a 4 block jaunt with the precipitation pounding the pavement. I ran awning to awning and finally made it, just slightly damp.
As has been the norm, I traded getting a full night’s sleep for an early morning walk. And as has been the norm, it was the right decision. Hiking through the city well before it woke up was a blast.
A couple of random thoughts about my travels, it’s very cool to hear how many languages everyone speaks. Everyone I’ve met along the way is fluent in at least 2 or 3 languages with some reasonable knowledge in another 2 or 3 beyond that. The local language and English are almost guaranteed, but it rarely stops there. It makes me feel uncultured (if that’s a word) for knowing just English and my leftover Spanish. Also, I read this in a couple books, and have tried to be mindful of it, but any comment made, specifically in Eastern Europe, is taking at face value. So if you tell someone “I’ll definitely visit _____ again!”, you better plan on doing it. It goes for most other things too, as I’ve learned when my various friends say “Do you want to see A, B, and C?” when asking about sights. If you say “yeah, they all sound great”, you will see them all. It sounds like a simple thing, but can lead to awkward conversations if you change your mind.
Anyway, I desperately need to catch up on some sleep over the last 3 hours of the train ride to Nuremberg. I want to be fresh for dinner and drinks tonight in Munich and make it a full day before taking my overnight train to Venice.
Phil
