SUNDAY, JULY 7
EN ROUTE
More travel, this time on a Czech train. The landscape changed dramatically, as did the weather (much cooler!), and the people as we moved into Slav country.
A heated argument took place on the train with an extended family who got on in one town, stood because they didn’t have seats or reservations, and then nearly had to be dragged from the train at the next stop. They seemed to think they had a right to jump on the train without paying. I thought of my travels through the formerly East European countries, and what my friend, who is Czech, used to call the people living here. I won’t repeat it.
REACHING PRAGUE
The Prague train station was rough and dismal. Inside was a low hanging red roof. A young man was pounding on a tired looking piano placed in the main lobby. There wasn’t the lightness of movement among the people that we have experienced in most places. The transportation information and ticket booth had a long line up. Outside in the park, drunks sat on benches, garbage spotted the park, sidewalk and street. We thought of Naples.
We are staying across the river from Old Town, on a wide street called Milady Horakove. The buildings looked like a combination of Vienna, but less freshly painted, and a bit of Italy. But inside the tram, people were pushy and impolite. They wouldn’t help an Asian man who was trying to get his child and her stroller into the car. The air smelled of alcohol and sweat. The tram moved very quickly around curves and up the hill.
Yet, again travelling on a quiet Sunday. Only a few people were out on the streets when we got off the tram. Those people we did see in the neighborhood looked unhealthy, some begging. We wondered if there might be a drug problem here, or alcohol. Or maybe the heaviness we sensed was simply due to the overcast sky. We’ve been so spoiled by sunshine.
Dinner at an Indonesian restaurant, then a walk to Billa, the supermarket. It was near closing and the store was packed with anxious shoppers. At the checkout, we realized most of them, many young people, were buying alcohol – several beers or a small bottle of hard liquor and soda to mix with it.
Bye bye beautiful Vienna. Hello Prague.
