Prague - 5/19/10

'On to us all a little bit of rain must fall, but it's just a little rain.'

I always knew what this line meant, but I never quite took it literally, until today! Oh man, anybody who's been on a backpacking adventure knows that things never work out exactly as you'd hoped or planned. It's all part of the adventure, and while I wouldn't classify it as hell, there are definitely some pockets of heck to go through!

Long story short, I am in Prague and I arrived at my Hostel just fine and in one piece. Getting here was much easier than I thought! I had to wake up in Budapest at 5:45am to get my stuff together and get to the bus terminal on time. Since I'm backpacking, I packed light and have been doing the old sink laundry that is so popular amongst us backpagers. Waking up at 5:45am was hard enough, but it was more than a little disappointing to find my clothes hadn't quite dried, and I was forced to make my way wearing a pair of damp drawers! There's always gotta be something that will at least make you remember the journey, I suppose. Maybe I should spring for some laundry, but $10 a load??!?!? Come on!!

Arriving in Prague having absolutely no idea where the hostel is makes things a bit challenging, to say the least. That's the beauty of traveling, it forces you to be patient and do your best to just figure things out the best you can. It is nice that Prague is used to foreign travelers, and there are plenty of information booths in major areas that can help you out. It was (is) raining buckets, however, so it sure wasn't easy to navigate the streets in a foggy tram. The roads and stops weren't too clearly marked, so I jumped off the tram at the last minute and started walking, hoping to find some major road on the map I carried. Luckily, I found a Marriott hotel with an English speaking concierege. Turned out I was going in the complete opposite direction of where I needed to go! By that point I was soaked, tired, and just ready to crash, so I sprung for the $5 cab ride and, well, here I am! Really nice hostel. It's only 3pm, but I'm exhausted, so I'm going to crash after this.

Not to say it was all a bad day. Not at all. Some things worked very well in my favor! My original plan was to take the train from Budapest to Prague. I happened to mention this to my new friend Alex at the Carpe Noctem Hostel in Budapest, and he told me about a bus service that runs directly to Prague, is 3 hours shorter, and is only 1/4 the price of a train ticket! 20 Euro to get here vs. 110 Euro? Not a bad score, I must say! The bus was also super comfortable so I was able to relax the whole way.

No pictures for now, but there will be more! If anybody has any tips for Prague, let me know! There are a couple of friends I will get in touch with from way back, but otherwise my plan is just to enjoy myself! It is supposed to be warm this weekend, so there's always that to look forward to!

You all take good care of yourselves!