Hello everyone, it´s been some time!
Holidays have been fun. We went to Prague and did some shopping.

We had our tickets ready and went by train. The weather was beautiful, sunshine and some tender clouds.
Due to the fact that we were traveling quite early and during the week, we had only few company.
The slight rocking of the train made me weary as I listened to some calming music and watched the landscape rush by.
Shortly after crossing the Czech border an elderly lady hopped onto the train, taking her seat next to us.
She seemed friendly, though one of her eyes was twitching constantly and she looked as if she had to sneeze all the time, snuffeling.
I turned to gaze out of the window again, now seeing derelict houses, old trees and children waving at the train.

Suddenly some smell caught my attention. It was sweet and salty at the same time and made my stomach revolt.
It was only then that I realized that the right leg of the old lady was soaked with blood. Whatever kind of wound it was, it must have been very fresh for the stains on her beige trousers were still bright red.
I looked at her in terror, but she did not even seem to mind. She read her newspaper, ate some apples and hummed some tunes as I watched her closely.
The fear hit me that she might turn unconcious and we might have to get some medical help.
I prayed that she might get off the train soon, but she stayed with us alomst three more hours until Prague. The rest of the journey was everything but relaxed.
We would have liked to leave but we could not let her alone in case anything happened.

Our hostel was not far away from the train station. The latter was so huge and impressive that we took some minutes just to stare at it.

Until this trip I must say that I was very lucky when it comes down to boarding hostels.
All of them were very clean and somehow stylish. I cannot claim that the CRIB 51 did not at least try.
They tried hard ineed and we could see that. The whole hostel was a building site. Jackhammer and drill sounds making it kinda hard to communicate with the staff.
“What is your name?”——–”What?”—-”WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”——We said our name.——”I cannot find your name on my reservation list.”—-”WHAT???”—–”I SAID THAT I CANNOT FIND YOUR NAME ON THE RESERVATION LIST!”—–”Yes, we got that, but: WHAT??? Why not?”
It turned out that she simply had looked up the wrong date…still, somehow difficult.
I guess I don´t have to say that the sound of  Jack and Drill did not diminish from ground floor to first floor.

So we decided to watch the World Cup match of Spain vs. Germany in the biggest Irish Pub in town.
The place was highly crowded soon after we have taken our seats and had our dinner. Everybody but two men in front of us were pro-spain, so it was quite funny to hear them swear under their breath, not being able to show their true emotions.

As already expected the night was not very recreative, mostly to blame on four english guys occupying the room next to us. They obviously had no feeling of volume after Spain edged Germany out. (“REVENGE—-HARRRRRRRR!!!!!!”)

The next day we went throught the city, searching for certain shops, visiting galleries and having a look at historic places.

Best of all was the Ben&Jerry´s Store. I grew very jealous of Prague at that point.

We decided to leave on day earlier, afraid of another night without sleep.
It turned out that it was better for us….and for others.
Back on the train we shared our compartment with four very friendly and entertaining german interrail backpackers on their way through Europe.
The conversations and card games made the hours seem to fly by.
As the compartment door slid open, the conductor stepped in and asked us if we were going to Vienna or Bratislava.
She told us to go to the front part of the train for we would be sitting on the part that was going to the wrong direction.
As time came closer we made our way to the front section, not finding a compartment for the six of us and therefore having to split up.
After five minutes I heard agitated voices outside. Uh-oh, they have forgotten one of their tents.
We would be in Vienna by 11 p.m., quite late for a camping place to check in. Without much further ado we invited them to stay with us.
It was like a giant pyjama party, we had lots of fun and I made a stack of pancakes for breakfast.

After that we took them around the city a bit and showed them the way to the camping side.

I honestly would consider couch surfing, if only we had a couch!

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