I am a chicken. I don’t like taking cold showers. So today is the day when I turn into an animal (it happens on the third day without washing). I got an e-mail from a
I am a chicken. I don’t like taking cold showers. So today is the day when I turn into an animal (it happens on the third day without washing).
I got an e-mail from a seasoned Romanian hitchhiker. She had done Praha – Istanbul, alone. She had hitchhiked to China. I am a whimp in comparison. But I am not ashamed of it! I am proud of my cowardness. In fact, I wish had been more of a coward in the past. From now on, I’ll be as cowardish as it takes to achieve courageous deeds without risking the life or legs of my girlfriend’s boyfriend.
I went to the bus station in Semtin and raised my thumb; it was sunny and 9:30. After 24 minutes and 68 cars a man picked me up and took me to the beginning of the Praha highway. There I stood on the onramp for 14 sunny minutes and 28 cars till I was picked up by a Polish guy who was just passing through Czechia on his way to his work in Frankfurt. He seemed like such a friendly person that I thought he would let me off at IKEA in Cerny Most which would be very convenient, but he was clinging to every minute of his time and let me off at the highway ring, giving me a long nice walk through the Commie-style suburb.
I got an sms from my mother saying “we are on the train to Pardubice” and I wrote her back: “get off the train, I am in Praha”. Obviously she didn’t read my last e-mail, although I sent it half an hour before the scheduled time.
The signs at the subway junction confused me and I got on the wrong line and it took me some time to get to the central station. There I looked all over the place but my family was nowhere. They called me now and then saying “now we’re by a food stand” but they weren’t. Then I figured they must be at another train station so I suggested that we meet by the huge statue in front of the parliament building and finally they made it there. My mom had checked her e-mail at 2 pm as I told her but there had been nothing further from me. Then I realized that the printing company hadn’t changed to summer time.
I had booked beds for us in a dormitory at AZ hostel, but my sister made a face when I told her. She had been partying with her friends in Berlin on her way down and they had been living in a dormitory and she was sick of it. “We thought we had the room for ourselves, and then one night when we came home there was this pair of big shoes standing on the floor and this Retno guy sleeping there.” Retno hadn’t given them any trouble, in fact it was them who bullied him, by coming home late and loud at night and by accidentally locking him up in the room with the only key. “I am zorry to tell you but I could not get out of the room yezterday” Retno said.
And my sister was terrified at the thought to become his roommate again so we tried another hostel where we got a family room for no money at all. The name of the street was Senovazne Namesti; it was very close to the central station. The view from the room was just beautiful, overlooking a square with picturesque trams that made cozy sounds.
Then we had an enormous lunch and then we went back to our nice room to sleep and then we went out on a long walk to find that pub I came to when I was 18 and then we gave up and had fried cheese in a nice restaurant and then we walked around and then went home to sleep.
It was a day of conversations, you know, quality time.