Just got back from watching a Czech-Slovak soccer match, and got my first taste of Czech beer. I am basically a master of the Czech language, at his point... ok that was a complete lie. The waitress at the pub just mocked me for using a cheat sheet to ask for the bill. Earlier today, I spent 5 minutes trying to find our tram station on the map before realizing that the sign I was using was not our location, but simply said "No Smoking."
Let me give you the run down of our trip up to this point.
Day 1- After 26 hours of traveling from Seattle to Reykjavik...
...to Frankfurt to Nurmberg...
...we found ourselves in Prague, at night, with no place to stay. Thanks to quick thinking, helpful fellow travelers, and dumb luck, we got a room and conked out.
Day 2- Morgan and I saw the sights in Prague, wrestled with how to eat and not get ripped off, and met our amazing host Jana. We stayed with Jana for 3 nights.
Day 3- We took to the woods and tackled a 22k hike to a castle called Krivoklat. The bus ride to our start was interesting, because most tourists are usually on transport in and out of Prague. It was great to be out in a place where people actually live. Our jet-lag induced sleeping gave us a let start, however, and in the interest of time we cut the hike short. With 7k to go we stuck our thumbs out, and it was about 0.03 seconds before the blinker came on and the first car pulled over. Our Italian driver zipped us to Krivoklat, where we discovered we could catch a train in 15 minutes, or 2 hours and 15 minutes. Not wanting to return to Jana's at 9pm, we opted for the whirlwind tour. The hike was the highlight, at any rate.
Day 4- Another day of Prague, including the Mucha museum. On our way back to Kladno Morgan asked "What did we even do today?" It was a good question.
And you can see by the length of my descriptions the type of traveling I value. From now on, less time wandering around the cities and more times exploring places that are not filled with tourists. I hate wading through throngs of tourists, and I love when a local asks me "why on earth would you come to (insert insignificant town here)?" As Morgan said, it is great to see where people actually live, and what there lives are like. Therein lies the greatness of couch surfing, and I am convinced that Jana deserves an entire post to that effect.
Hope everyone is enjoying their time in Cube land and the start of school... suckers!
2 comments:
Miss you guys already but so glad you are having a great time!
Justin says, "suckers.... we're just trying to fix the economy over here so you two can come back to jobs."
Love you guys!
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