As I mentioned in my last post, I went on a trip to Europe
last year. It was an experience of a
lifetime to say the least. As a guy with
a full time job, the opportunities to hoof it around a foreign continent for 3
weeks at a time are getting fewer and further between.
After finally arriving in Paris, my girlfriend and I spent
the next week bouncing around Italy before we made our way to Munich. This city was incredible. On this trip, which took us through 5
different countries, this stop was by far my favourite. Maybe it had something to do with the North
American feel. Maybe it had something to
do with the big time support for Bayern Munich.
But it probably had mostly to do with the fact that they only served
beer a litre at a time. There is
something pretty sweet about seeing people popping out to a beer garden at
lunch. It takes a special place to let
you sit down for lunch and be able order with a straight face by asking, “Could
I please have 3 beers in a single glass with my wiener schnitzel?”
So after my great few days in Munich, which included a very
heavy trip to Dachau along the way, it was time to move on. Next on the agenda: Prague. The beautiful city which awaited us was a
quick stop on our way to Berlin. If you
read my last post, you may remember that we tried not to have too firm of an
itinerary so that we could be flexible if we ended up wanting to spend more
time in a city that we were visiting. Since
we had made up our minds to move on, I booked our next hostel in Prague for a
two night stay, the day before we were going to leave Munich.
So we strapped on our packs and made our way to the train
station. Since we were making use of a
rail pass, you typically need to book a seat reservation in order to use the
pass. These reservations turn out to be
pretty expensive by the way… I actually
couldn’t believe how much rail travel ended up costing us. But I digress. This particular train that we were taking
from Munich to Prague didn’t require a reservation, as it was more of a
commuter train. It was much like the GO
Train that we have here in Toronto. So
all we had to do was arrive at the station, and find ourselves a seat on the
train. We locate the track that the
train was boarding from, and lucky for us the train was there waiting for us
under a big sign that says ‘Praha’.
After finding the train, I noticed that each car seemed to
have a different city listed on it.
Naturally, we march down the platform looking for the train car marked for
Prague. Well… we get to the end of the
platform, and no car marked for Prague.
We figured at this point, that since Prague was the end of the line, any
car would be fine. So we find ourselves
a seat on the final car, since we were sick of walking with our packs at this
point. It’s right about now that I begin
to feel uneasy…
Why wouldn’t any of the cars be marked for Prague? Why did every other car have a different city
identified? What am I missing here? I tell my girlfriend to watch our stuff while
I attempt to figure out if I’m euchring myself by just assuming that we are in
the right spot. I step back out onto the
platform to see a group of people speaking with a staff member. As I get closer, I can see that the woman who
worked at the train station was pretty vexed at this point. Once I got close enough to actually hear what
she was saying, she was waving her arms in the air as though to call a runner
safe and saying, “No Prague!”
…I’m sorry, what? Yes
Prague!
She repeated herself, “No Prague! Not today!”
Are you kidding me?
Why the hell not?!
This staff member was up to her eyeballs with people, so I
moved on to find someone else to talk to.
I managed to find someone who had a handle on the situation, and a better
handle on English as well. They broke the
news to me. In true Murph fashion, the
Czech Republic decided to have a rail strike on the VERY MORNING I decided to
enter their country.
So rail company… even though you knew very well that the
train couldn’t get in to the country, you still mark the sign as if the train
will end up in Prague?! Ridiculous! If I hadn’t had the uneasy feeling my
girlfriend and I would have ridden the train to the Czech-German border, where
we would have basically been told, “You’re SOL.
Get off the train”.
I get on my horse back to my girlfriend, who is eagerly
awaiting the train to leave to head to the city she wanted to visit the
most. I hate being the bearer of bad
news.
Now it’s decision time…
What do we do?
Fly there?
Take a bus?
If we can get into Prague, can we get out?
We already have our money sunk on this rail pass, can we
afford to get there another way?
Since we weren’t in a rush, we went to the station’s
Starbucks to weigh our options. (BTW,
free Starbucks wi-fi is just about the best thing for a scrambling traveler) Remember how I referred to Prague
as a beautiful city? Well, that’s just
what I saw in my tour book. We
ultimately decided that Prague wasn’t much of an option at this point, and we
should go straight to Berlin.
Chalk me up for another prepaid accommodation I never got to
use…
There was a train leaving for Berlin shortly, and we would
need to hurry to book our seat reservations before the train left. As a result, we didn’t have time to book our
next hostel before we left Munich.
The train ride to Berlin consisted of some of the least enjoyable
hours of my life. I don’t know if you
guys have ever traveled with someone you were dating, but you know how when
someone starts to sulk, you can leave them be and go about your business? Nuh-uh.
Not for this guy. Trapped with a
sulker for multiple hours is easily much worse than it already crappily
sounds. As much as I knew she wasn’t
blaming me for what happened, she sure as hell tried to make it sound like it
was my fault. She’s right; I probably
should have spent that day we were at Dachau collectively bargaining for the
rail union instead. How selfish of me…
The one bright spot of that train ride was the German children
sitting in front of me. As we rode past
an IKEA, they pho-net-ic-all-y screamed, “Ick-ee-ah!”.
It’s the little things.
So we arrive in Berlin, to an airport of a train station
that they had recently built for the 2006 World Cup. We now need to find a place to stay.
We manage to find an internet café, and get down to
business. I figure after the letdown of
the morning, a private room at our hostel was in order.
I find a place on hostelworld and away we go. By the end of our time in Berlin, we realized
that everything you wanted to get to was EASILY accessible by transit. This hostel I booked? The hardest place to get to in the entire city,
I kid you not. Anyone want to fashion a
guess as to the establishment's level of quality?
Ridiculous.
As soon as we walked in the place, I told the guy in
charge that we would only be staying for one night. What a hole.
Our room? No sheets or duvet cover.
There was a clear aroma of urine in certain parts of the room. Romantic.
When we went to shower after we checked in, I
wouldn’t let my girlfriend go shower alone.
I literally sat and watched the door from the inside of the
bathroom. Sketchfest.
So needless to say, once we were glad to have survived the
night, we went and checked into a dorm style chain. Our roommates seemingly all had a cold. I have never been so happy to share a room
with 5 other people in my life.
Booking refundable hotels from now on,
Murph
