Travelling Hopefully

I left Berlin on what must have been the shabbiest looking train in the Deutsche Bahn fleet.  I was very glad of a first class ticket, I suspect second class were helping push.  Still it was functional enough, we rolled smoothly through eastern Germany on route for the Czech border.  On the way we passed through Dresden which didn't impress from the window of a train carriage.  For the record eastern Germany looks like a slightly less well maintained version of western Germany.  Also at Dresden we picked up a river which would be our constant companion for the rest of the trip.

I haven't really got used to crossing borders with no ceremony whatsoever.  I looked up and we were in the Czech Republic.  I did notice differences though, for starters there was forest.  There was forest in Germany too but it looked as though the Germans had dusted off the trees in preparation for visitors.  The Czech forests were just there.  The border region has mountains or, at least, overachieving hills which is probably the reason it was the border in the first place.  Also in the Czech Republic I saw factories belching smoke into the sky.  It was the first time in my trip I had seen anything that looked like industry.

Conversations with Thomas having convinced me that all Czech taxi drivers were going to beat me to death and sell my organs on the black market I decided to walk from the train station to my accommodation.  It wasn't a long walk and I barely got lost.  Taxi drivers notwithstanding Prague has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  You don't need to visit any of the main attractions, just wander around the streets in the city centre and you will encounter a breathtaking array of magnificent old buildings interspersed with the occasional palace or church which stand out even against all the other buildings.

I want to take a moment out from the glories of Prague to address a very important social issue.  Who the fuck decided that segways were a good method for touring a city?  In both Berlin and Prague I encountered clutches of giggling tourists rolling around on these ridiculous things.  No wonder drivers in Berlin are pretty relaxed about bicycles, trying to sight see while at the same time zipping down the streets on a segway strikes me as possibly one of the most stupidly dangerous things you could do.  Let's get something straight, the segway has only one legitimate use; that is to provide mobility for a certain type of American to fill the gap between when they're too big to fit in the pram but not yet obese enough to qualify for a mobility chair.

I strolled through the Old Town and parts of the New Town of Prague.  For the record the New Town is old and the Old Town is really, really old.  In the Old Town you have the opportunity to marvel and the breathtaking diversity of tourists Prague has to offer.  There are also more cafes and bars than can be reasonably expected.  My favourite cafe was called Cafe Rybyka a small, comfortable place inhabited by the most honest people in Prague.  I know they're honest because the guy next to me left his dope on the bar while he went out to buy tobacco and rolling papers and it was still there when he got back.  I decided not to try the same trick with my iPhone however.

Tuesday was museum day.  I visited the Museum of Communism.  I was going to say something funny and smartarsed about that but they've thought of all the good lines themselves.  My favourite; a post card announcing "The Museum of Communism:  Above McDonalds and across the road from Bennetton.  Viva Imperialism."  The Museum itself would benefit from better lighting and a more efficient display of their exhibits so I guess they're really capturing the feel.  Down at the Charles bridge (about which more later if I can be bothered) I took time out to wander through the Museum of Torture which took me back to a better, simpler time before psychotropic drugs and "enhanced interrogation techniques" when all a torturer had were some simple tools and his imagination.  Various implements of judicial persuasion were laid out each with a little card explaining exactly how they could ruin your day.  Amusingly the English language version of these cards had syntax that was, shall we say, a little tortured?

Dinner at the Crazy Cow Steakhouse which had a Texas theme to it.  Not exactly Czech I know but how can you go past a steakhouse called The Crazy Cow?