A quiet morning in Prague

I had a good time at Szymon's watching Barcelona v.s. Arsenal with his friends. Maja was kind enough to offer me a ride to the train station so that I could stay longer and not walk in the rain. I got to the station in time to meet up with Marcin. Together we found my train car we said our goodbyes. I was surprised to see that the sleeper car could hold a total of six people, bunked three to a side. The top bunk didn't look much bigger than a luggage rack. Luckily I was on the very bottom and only sharing the car with two very friendly South Korean students who were studying English in London, but in Eastern Europe for a short vacation. We chatted a bit before turning out the lights and catching some sleep. I was fairly comfortable on the ride, much more so than on an airplane. There were a few brief stops along the way and I only had to get out my passport once during the trip. The ride seemed to be over very quickly, and we arrived at Hlavni Nadrazi (Main Station) in Prague exactly on time at 7:01.

I spent almost an hour wandering around the station trying to get my bearings, find a bankomat and withdraw some Czech crowns, find a decent map to buy, figure out the tram ticket machine (which I still have yet to use my one tram ticket), and find the exit. I followed my map to the main square and sat down to eat my breakfast of bread, cheese, sausage, water, and an apple. It was very peaceful in the square at 8:30 before the hoards of tourists all woke up and the commercial tours began, probably my most favorite memory of Prague so far. I stuck around to watch the astronomical clock strike 9:00 and put on it's hourly performance and then went in search of my hostel.

I booked a room at the Art Prison Hostel, which sounds dubious, but is actually quite nice. I have a four person room all to myself and it's very nice to have a sturdy door and a lock so that I feel safe leaving most of my things (and stuff) in the room. Paul's magic backpack has a smaller backpack you can unzip from the rest of it, so I've been using that as my day bag. I have to get myself one of this! I took a shower, got dressed and then sat down to plan my day.

I have to get off the shared computer now so I'll save the rest of today's entry for later. Ciao.