Coming Home

I’ve decided to come home. I’ll be back October 17.

I was thinking a lot about trying to get to Russia, do the trans-Mongolian rail, see Mongolia, and get into China. But a few things stood in my way. The Russian visa. Complicated. The Chinese visa. Just some more money. And the Winter. This was the breaking point.

Its already cold here in Central Europe. And I caught a cold too. Russia, Mongolia, and China would be much colder. And being a traveler, I would be more exposed to the elements. I decided I should save this for another time.

I bought the ticket the other day, only 300 dollars! In the meantime, I will be seeing Poland and Ukraine, and then making it back to Germany to fly from Berlin to Dublin, then Dublin to New York, and then China bus to Philadelphia.

By the way, Prague sucked. I think it has been my least favorite place so far. It is just a tourist town. Large tour groups getting in the way. Lots of shitty photographs. Every building is either a souvenir shop, an exchange office, or a restaurant. And I dont even like Pilsner Urquell. The buildings and main bridge are nice to look at, but the city is just an empty shell. Like Venice. Big disappointment.

Maybe January would be a good time for South America.

Kutna Hora

I took a day trip to Kutna Hora.  The main reason was to see the bone church I had heard about.

I liked seeing the town.  Small and charming.  It was a good change from Prague.

Beautiful countryside.  Great colors.

I took a local bus out to the bone church.  There was a tourist couple on the same bus.  I got help from them to find the church.  The guy told me they were from France.  I was wearing my French beret so I pointed to it, and we had a laugh.  He got frustrated with himself as he struggled to remember certain English words.  “It is difficult.”  Having studied French in high school for four years, I wanted to bridge the gap and show him I knew a little French.  “Il est difficile,” I said.  They smiled.  Then I realized I should have said “C’est difficile.”  I had said “He is difficult.”  I felt like an idiot.

Later, in the bone church, I realized I was even more French than I thought.  I shared my discovery with my French friends.  I lifted up my jacket to show them my red and white stripe shirt.  That and my beret.  I was really French!  They laughed.

The bone church was cool.  It was great too to get a student discount with my old buzzcard.

Bones were used to decorate everything.  A chandelier made out of bones and skulls.  Piles of bones and skulls.

A crest made out of bone and skull.  Skulls strung together to make streamers.

More and more skulls and bones.

I have seen a lot of churches on this trip.  I stopped going to the ones that would charge admission because it ended up being just another church.  Same sculptures and murals.  It got boring.  The bone church though.  That was pretty unique.

Prague

I have heard great things about Prague. Everyone I’ve talked to has raved about it. Beautiful place. Beer. Buildings well-preserved and never bombed. People who visit end up staying. I was excited to see Prague. Ready to fall in love.

It ended up being the biggest disappointment of the trip.

I contacted a Adam, a Czech guy I met in Cappadocia, Turkey who lives in Prague. He met me at the train station and brought me to his place way out in a soviet-style block high-rise. I met his girlfriend, Zuzana.

The next morning, I went to the city and stopped first at the castle. It was nice. An ornate, old cathedral in the middle. Some other old buildings and spires. Whatever. Loads of tourists. Loads. I walked on towards the old town and across Charles Bridge. More tourists. More. Lots of strolling and wandering. Terrible photography. Interest in trinkets for sale. Convertible pants that zip away into shorts.

I came into old town. Souvenir shops. Currency exchanges. Tourist restaurants. Horse carriages. People dressed as sailors advertising boat rides. And then I hit the tour groups. This was the biggest pain in the ass. Standing in a mass, clogging up the narrow streets. The little space available to walk by was taken up by strolling tourists. Walking at their leisure. Taking it all in. Enjoying the show.

I got a feeling of emptiness in Prague. The entire old town was setup for tourists. There was no energy in the place. Only the slow bustle of tourists. It was a lot like Venice. The city is no longer functioning on its own. It’s an empty shell for vacations. Like one big hostel.

If you ever wondered what I look like naked, you can see it in bronze in Prague.

It was cold and windy. I wore my French beret and improvised a scarf from a t-shirt. I still caught a cold. This didn’t help my opinion of Prague. Asshole.

A statue in the main square of old town.

A couple of boring building shots. Not much else to do in Prague. Buildings!

I stayed a two days in Prague (with one day in Kutna Hora). At the end of each day, when I’d meet up with Adam and Zuzana, they would ask me what I did. I would have a pathetic response about how I walked around. I tried to show enthusiasm for the city, but there was nothing to do there.

One night, Adam and I went to a show. Overpriced. I had a few beers, which were pretty cheap. But I realized that I don’t even like Pilsner Urquell, the most highly regarded Czech beer. World famous. Nothing was working for me.

The food even. Pretty boring. Heavy gravy and dumplings. This was the specialty. Total shit.

Prague was a turning point for me. I wasn’t having fun, and I realized the cold would only get worse. I wanted to go to Russia to take the Trans-Mongolian through Mongolia to Beijing. I realized this was bad timing. You are more exposed to the elements when you travel. The cold in Prague was bad enough and this was only October. If I kept going, I would hit some extreme temperatures.

I decided to go home. I found some great deals on flights. ~30 euro from Berlin to Dublin, and then ~200 euro from Dublin to New York. Amazing. And this was only two weeks away. It was good timing because I still wanted to see some of Poland and Ukraine. It was a relief to buy these tickets, although I had a feeling of missed opportunity.

My stay with Adam and Zuzana was probably the best part. They lived in the outskirts in a Soviet high-rise. This is how most people live in Eastern Europe.

I left for Olomouc, Czech Republic towards Poland. The train stopped suddenly. I was told there was a suicide. A body was on the tracks. We were stuck there a couple of hours waiting for the police.

As I waited I took a MySpace self-portrait.

I got to Olomouc. I walked into the center and I had a meal. It was also a cold place and it was quiet. A weekend day. I got a bad feeling so I ran back to the train station to make the train to Krakow. I was in Olomouc for about an hour. The Czech Republic just didn’t work.