Jay is a Thai intern currently on internship in Olomouc, Czech Republic. The following posting is her experience on a 2 day visit to Prague the capital of Czech Republic.
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Day 1 (04.03.09)
After a month in Olomouc, I made a trip to Prague (Praha in Czech and Prag auf Deutsch). It was just 2 days but I believe I had covered all those tourist destinations in the capital of Czech Republic.
I started my day early on Wed morning; I woke up at 4 a.m. as I had to catch the train at 5.11 a.m. To my dismay, the earliest bus from my stop to the train station would come at 5.10. Thank you. I could actually walk from my dorm to the station. However, it’d take like 20-30 min and it meant that I had to get up even earlier. I checked the tram schedule; the first tram left at 4.42 and the next one was at 4.54. And that how my adventure started- walking one and half bus stop to the tram station to catch the 4.54 tram.
In ten minutes, I was at the train station, waiting for the train to come. Usually, the trains were all on time so I thought I missed my train when I got to the platform at 5.10 and saw nothing there. However, there were people waiting and I went to ask a girl about the train. It seemed that the train was late. Eventually, it came at 5.25.
I arrived at Prague Hlavni nadrazi at about 7.55 which was 20 minutes later than the schedule. My host, Mihai, came to pick me up and then we went to his flat to drop my stuff. There I met another two trainees, Christina and Marcelo.
Mihai, Marcelo, and I took the subway back to the city. I got off at Mustek which was at the city center. I had no idea where to go so I walked to the first historical-looking building I saw- the museum. I took a seat at a bench and read the map. My plan was to walk to the Vltava River and then made a circle back to the city center again. I just needed to turn right at the museum and turn right somewhere. However, I walked too far. Upon realizing it, I made a right turn…walked…left turn…walked…right turn…walked down the hill…turned left…kept on walking and walking (I didn’t want to turn back and walked to the direction of museum…and yeah…I made a HUGE detour). I walked until I saw this big bridge that linked between two big hills when I decided to turn back to the direction I came from. I didn’t know where I was so there was no point consulting the map. I just use my instinct and (usually) good sense of directions. Finally, I found my reference point- Karlovo nemistri metro station.
After taking another look at the map, I found my way to the river. I walked along the river, passing Dancing Building, Bridges, and many beautiful buildings. I reached the famous Charles Bridge. It was under renovation so it wasn’t that pretty (it gave me an excuse to come back again). I walked across the bridge to the other side of the river, saw a bit of Prague Castle, and decided to go to Hotel Diplomat where AIESEC Career Days was held.
With that decision, I walked to the nearest metro station, checked the traffic map nearby, memorized all the trams that pass the around the hotel area. In order not to get lost in this new neighborhood, I followed the tramline. The hotel was only three metro stations from where I was. It couldn’t be that far. I turned out that I was wrong. While I was walking, I found out if I had walked pass the Castle up the hill instead of following the tramline, I would have had walk a much shorter distance.
Finally, I saw the directional sign for the hotel and it said the hotel was only a kilometer away. Yeah!!! I would get to sit down soon.
You guys may be curious to why I didn’t just take a metro and save my own two feet. It’s because I knew that I could see more of the city that way. And with this, I stumbled upon the coolest area in Prague; it’s an area where there were tons of embassies and residences of ambassadors (incl. Thailand). It would be awesome to reside in such an area.
I saw another sign for the hotel. This time it said the hotel was 600 meter away. I walked and walked and still didn’t see a glimpse of it. I asked a girl on the street. She said I need to go straight for 2 stops then I’d be there. I went straight and saw no hotel…asked a lady…she told me that I had to turn left at the roundabout. So…the first girl told me the wrong direction. (--“)
Here I was at the hotel and saw many people at the Career Days. They were all in their proper business suits and shoes. I was also in a business attire but with a very out-of-place pair of shoes (I only brought my running shoes, my flat Crocs, and flip-flops here). Besides, I didn’t see any international people there (Caucasians just look the same to me so I presumed that they were all Czechs). So I ditched it. After all the trouble I had gone to reach there, I just ditch it. Weird eh? =)
I could walk no more so I took a metro back to the city. I got out at Namestri Republiky (we also have this as a name of a station in Olomouc), went inside a shopping mall to sit down and get some warmth. Then, I walked my way to the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Hall. It was a bit tricky to get to Mustek from here. So I chose my reference point from the map- Tesco. Still, getting to Tesco was not so easy. Suddenly, a man carrying Tesco plastic bags walked pass by. At that very moment, I knew what to do- walk in the opposite direction to those with Tesco bags. From there, Mustek was no difficult destination to go.
Oh! While I was trying to find somewhere to sit on the street, I was haunted by smokers. Once, I got to sit down on a bench and 30 seconds later, a lady smoker came to sit beside me. It wasn’t even one minute that I got to rest my precious feet. So I walked to find another bench. I found one. However, there was a guy smoking beside it and the wind was actually blowing my way. So I went home and put my feet under the warm water. Ah…finally… =)
At the flat, I looked at maps to see all the places I was. I discovered that I wasn’t far from the river at all when I decided to turn back. Plus, I walked around in the circle too many times.
Day 2 (05.03.09)
I started at Vysehrad as Mihai suggested. When I got out of the metro, I was exactly above the place where I turned back yesterday. Vysehrad wasn’t far from the river. Damn it!!! I knew my sense of direction wasn’t that bad though I was kinda lost. If only I had walk a bit further down the road…
Anyway, Vysehrad was great. I loved it. It situated on top on the hill with this beautiful view of the city and fresh air. If I were to stay here in Prague, I would have come here every week. It'd be my fave hangout in the city.
Then I walked down the hill to the river…walked along the river…walked back to the city to the New Town Hall (which wasn’t far at all from my first ref. point. I could have come here yesterday)…walked back to the river…crossed Legions Bridge to the other side of the river. I actually liked this side of river more than the other one. There weren’t much tourists compared to the other side. It was prettier and nicer to walk (I didn’t get lost here ;)). I visited the Prague palace this time (involving walking up a hill again). Done with the Palace, I crossed Charles Bridge back to the city. I went to the Old Town Hall for a very late lunch. It took me a while to get there as I got myself confused with the directions and walked in a circle…again.
Walked back to Wenceslas Square area around Mustek where there was a fair called “A Taste of Europe”. There was a concert from European artists and stalls from several European countries. Then it rained so I went back to the flat, got my stuff, and meet with Mihai at Mustek again for a movie with other AIESEC trainees.
From Mustek we walked to Namestri Republiky. It turned out that even a Prague trainee could get confused with the directions. There, we took a tram to a university campus. There, I met several Prague trainees who were there for the movie. So jealous (There are only two trainees, incl. me in Olomouc). They met every once in a while to hang out together. Cool!
The movie was Czech and it’s called ‘Soudruh’ or ‘Comrade’ in English. It was funny. Too bad the students who were responsible for showing the movie were late and made a really long intro of the movie. So I didn’t get to finish it as I had to catch my last train at 2140 back to Olomouc.
All in all, my stay in Prague was great (and in a way very tiring). Gotta give thanks to Mihai and Marcelo.
Epilogue (06.03.09)
I got back to my room around 1.10 a.m. I wished I could go to sleep right away but I had to send an important email to one of AIESEC girls as I had to go for a medical check-up and clear some admin prob with my work contract. I woke up at 7 a.m., ran (again) to catch a bus at 7.47…changed to tram…met Beth on the tram…went for check-up. Well…I wouldn’t call it a check-up and I only had to measure my blood pressure and answer a few simple questions about my health. That freaking session caused me 350 Czk (around 700 baht)!!! Broke…broke…broke…no more Lllik bread and Lyld cheese bread for me. (--“)
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