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| Erin's Journal for 9-24-02, Part 1 This was our day to move on to Prague. We'd booked the shuttle a couple of days in advance, but had heard from a fellow traveler that he'd been booted off an overbooked shuttle, so we made sure to be up and waiting by the van at the required hour. This was the same small van and driver that had taken us from Berlin to Dresden, so we were familiar with its driving capabilities! This time the van was fully booked (at least nobody got kicked off!), so there were 2 up front with the driver, and 3 in each of the two rows in the back, plus all our backpacks. It was cozy! We drove out of town in some nice sunshine, and happily contemplated exploring Prague in warmer weather. The countryside in eastern Germany was perfection - rolling green hills, blue craggy mountains across the way, small villages dotting here and there with their whitewashed walls and red-tiled roofs. It was very romantic. Then we arrived at the Czech border after about 2 hours, and got a little shock. Of the 7 passengers, only one was not American, and she had not realized that Canadians needed an entry visa to get into the Czech Republic! Our driver had not verified ahead of time that everyone had all their requirements, and set about worrying that we would all have to turn back if the border guards made a fuss. You can't buy the visa at the border here, and she had no cash anyway. So we all sat there sweating as we waited to reach the guards. The driver collected all our passports and handed them over to a lady guard, hoping she'd overlook the Canadian one. Luckily, she passed us by with no problems. Then we got to the guard in his little box and passed them over again. He spent some moments asking our Czech driver where we were headed, and scanning each passport under some machine of his. We waited...and he let us by! Triumphant, we drove on, cheering and relieved. When we stopped for a snack not long after, though, the driver made sure to pull her aside and remind her that she had 'hitch-hiked across the border and been let through by accident,' and not to check into hostels or hotels with her own passport until she'd gone to her embassy and gotten a visa arranged. What a mess! Finally we arrived in Prague. After crossing the border, the clouds had returned and the wind had kicked up, so it was very chilly when we stepped out of the bus at our hostel. Glenn and I had heard too many bad things about the hostel that sponsored this van, so we asked him to stop at Sir Tobe's, a hostel we'd been referred to by one of the many brochures at other hostels. We checked in and asked for a double. They agreed, but didn't have any double rooms left, and made the decision to give us a 5 bed room all to ourselves!!! What a bonus! We checked in, got the routes into town (our place is on the outskirts, the one not so good thing about it), and directions to the grocery store and ATM. First thing was to get some local currency, as Czech is not on the Euro. We took out some cash and stopped into the store for some lunch, marveling at how wonderful the prices were (the exchange rate is about 30 crowns to a dollar or euro, so the 200 crowns we spent on a bunch of groceries came out to about 6 bucks!). We ate lunch and relaxed in the room till around 4, having arrived at almost 2pm. Then we got up and dressed warmly. I took my rain coat, knowing it would help cut the wind, but macho man Glenn refused his. |
| Our first view of Prague's castle was by night, with this glorious view from the Charles Bridge |