Venice to Prague - what a long journey, what an interesting journey. Venice to Vienna 9pm - 8am; waiting in Vienna 8am - 12.30pm; Vienna to Prague 12.30 - 5.30pm.
1st time in an overnight sleeper compartment, 6 people in one compartment - must say that I for one, didn't sleep hardly at all - 1 guy snoring and the train carriage moved A LOT as we whizzed through the night. I thought that I may have felt so much movement because it was my first time and as for snoring, that's all part of it, I guess. The one snorer did stop after a while but by then my brain had hooked into feeling every sway, slowing down, speeding up and every other movement.
Anyway, our traveling companions were a decent bunch - 1 Chinese guy who is a chemistry student studying in Ireland, a young Austrian couple who live in Vienna and another young Chinese guy who lives in Budapest and has an import business. Everyone was mindful of each others' space and it was ok.
Traveling through the night means that the countryside passes by unseen by me - so - no - photos.
Finally we we arrived in Vienna. The train attendant, kind of like a flight attendant, came in with tea, coffee, buns and bread at around 7am to help us start our day, compliments of the train company. It seems like an excellent way to make sure that all the passengers actually wake up and therefore get off the train.
We found our way to the train to take us to another station to get the train to Prague and got there with plenty of time to spare so we went off in search of breakfast. We found a little cafe and had coffee and a bread kind of thing and then I spotted a couple of people eating some delicious looking something so we ordered one of the same, which, when it came to us, the other people thought was very funny because they knew that we'd got it after seeing them get theirs. It turned put to be 2 pieces of toast with ham, cheese and tomato in the middle and a fried egg on the top - simple and delicious.
Finally it was time to find our train, the carriage and our seats for the final 5 hour journey to Prague. This time our traveling companions were a Czech couple in their early - mid thirties, both of whom spoke very good English and a guy who didn't speak at all, just sat looking out the window we had a good time chatting with the Czech couple who, amongst the chatting, gave us Czech language lessons which was a lot of fun and they also told us that in late summer they're going to Portugal for a holiday and will swim in the ocean"for the very first time, EVER!" How much I take for granted. I asked them if they'd approach the ocean cautiously and they both laughed and said "hell, no! We're going to run and dive right in" . They were certainly excited about there first ocean swim, that's for sure.
Along with all the yakking, I got up and watched the countryside whizz by and took some photos which is not so easy going at speed. Well, what I mean is, it's very easy for me to take photos galore but not easy to get many good ones. Here's some that are ok
waiting on the platform in Vienna
from the train
Rape seed which is added to diesel and used for fuel to drive motors growing where food once grew. Now so much rape seed is grown that Czech now imports its food - told to us by the Czech couple on the train with much head shaking. Incomprehensible!
Finally, at 5.30pm, we arrived in Prague, said goodbye to the Czech couple and then, the other guy, who hadn't said one word in the entire time, spoke to us in perfect English - and off he went.
Here's a few photos of the countryside between Vienna and Prague
We'd decided that the apartment we had rented for our 4 days in Prague wasn't far from the station so we'd walk. Well, while it didn't look far on the map, by the time we'd walked left instead of right from the station, discovered our mistake and backtracked, set off in the right direction, walked for ages to get to an underpass to go under a main road and to then on to our street, it was feeling like a long way. Found the building - no one there waiting to let us into an apartment and it was getting dark. Barry phoned, texted and emailed the owner to no avail. There was a note on the door, written in Czech with a phone number so Barry also rang and texted that number even though we had no idea if it was anything to do with is. Anyway, again there was no response. Then I spied a young couple coming up the hill so I pounced on them - "do you speak any English?", yes they did, " can you speak or read Czech?" No they couldn't but after hearing what our problem was they then set about helping us in extraordinary kindness and generosity. Some time later we came to know their names - Mauris and Charlotte and are French students studying graphic design in Prague.
First, she pressed the buttons on the call pad until someone answered, told them what was going on, in English, and whoever she spoke opened the door so we all went inside. Both of them then went up the stairs and set about knocking on every door to find the one which we had rented. Well, time went by and I was getting more and more uneasy about the situation and finally I said, "Enough!"
So, out we all went, and then they took our bags and we set off down the street to find a hotel nearby which they knew was cheap and decent, however there were no rooms available there. Turned out that there were quite a few hotels in the immediate vicinity and we went to about 4 of them and all had the same answer - "no vacancies here" or in that old phrase 'no room at this inn'.
All the time Mauris and Charlotte insisted on carrying our bags and finding hotels. Finally, I called a halt to the trekking about and in the final hotel, Charlotte asked if we could use the hotel client computer and internet - no problem so Barry got cracking with booking.com and found us a hotel with 2 rooms still vacant so we got a confirmed booking in 2 minutes and the hotel receptionist printed it out for us. Mauris and Charlotte went off to get on with whatever they'd put on hold to help us and we got a taxi to the hotel. Yay! we had a place to sleep - but ... NO!
The staff hadn't caught up with the fact that rooms had been booked over the internet and had given our room to people who'd just walked in off the street. I decided that I was going nowhere and would sleep on the floor there if nothing got sorted out. However, the hotel staff gave is a drinks voucher to have a fre drink in the bar while they got a place sorted out for us in another hotel and we would have our room from the next day on. After about 30 minutes we were called up and told that we had a room in a hotel over the river and a car would arrive shortly to take us there and the next morning, when we were ready the car would come and pick us up and bring us back to the hotel, Elite Hotelis it's name.
This is exactly what happened. We were so grateful and impressed by Mauris and Charlotte's kindness that the next afternoon we meet up with them and enjoyed shouting them a couple of beers each, and ourselves in a park at the top of the hill overlooking the city. A couple of hours slid by and then it was time to say goodbye and go our separate ways, them to study for exams and us to explore.
Presenting .... Charlotte and Mauris - we wish you the very best of everything you want for yourselves.
Once again - Mauris and Charlotte, thanks heaps for your generous help over and beyond ..... well, what started out as a request to read the note on the door and remember - there's always room in our house for you both, should you make it to New Zealand, and we certainly hope that you will.
We had a happy stay in the Elite Hotel, it was close to everything, we had very nice room and a decent breakfast was included.
To date we've not heard anything from the guy who whose apartment we'd rented and neither have the booking.com people. Seems very dodgy to us.
our hotel
our room
the ceiling was pretty neat.
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