These Boots...

...are made for compliments! Who would have thought that rubber rain boots could attract so much attention. I am typically the type of person who avoids any possiblity of drawing unnecessary attention to myself. It's not that I don't like an ocassional compliment, but it's much easier to just stay out of the realm of "high fashion". When I got to Prague in the thick of the snow season, I thought to myself it would be a good idea to get a pair of rain boots. I don't think I ever had owned a pair, so it wasn't that crazy of an idea. Well, they have cute rubber rain boots here. The kids pairs are even cuter, but they didn't fit. So, I found these. I actually made a trip back to Prague to get them the day after I saw them the first time. And until yesterday, I had worn them once. I found they weren't really worth the effort. If I simply avoided puddles, I was fine. And if my shoes did get wet, we have a handy radiator in our room to dry them on.
Yesterday it rained all day. Really. All day. I had to go to the airport to meet my mom and dad, so I thought if I would be out in the rain, I could probably get away with wearing these boots. They're not comfy...a pair of insoles would be awesome in these. But, they keep your feet dry.
I wore them downstairs to lunch and I got a nod and a smile from the lunch lady who takes my money and wishes me a good meal (in Czech) every day. A couple of students commented that the boots were cool and one mentioned that his neices would love them. Then, a complete stranger (she was probably 18) mentioned to her parents that she thought my boots were cool. This was on the subway, she probably thought I was Czech. She had a British accent and a red passport (I think that's from the UK). Anyway, I just smiled, because she was pointing at my boots, not at me...
So I thought I would write to say you never know what will be a conversation starter. I certainly didn't expect it from my rubber rain boots.

Good times in Kraków

The train was scheduled to take 7.5 hours to get from Prague to Kraków. I think that even included the time for transferring. Well, our train from Prague to the first transfer, Ostrava was right on time. Also, it was a "fancy" train, operated by Czech Airlines. It cost about $8 to reserve seats on this train (high priced considering most reservations are about $1.50). But, we zoomed through the countryside, looking at all the flooding in the fields near the rivers and entertaining ourselves for the first four-hour segment of our trip. Emrys and I played cribbage. Sara cross-stitched. Geo studied. Everything was swell. When we arrived in Ostrava, we found out our train would be 45 minutes late, in addition to our 25 minute layover. The incoming train was running late because of flooding in Austria. Well, it arrived, we went straight to the dinner car for a nice Polish meal and enjoyed the hour and a half journey to Katowice, Poland. That was our next scheduled stop, but because we were so late on this train, we missed the train to Kraków that we had wanted to take that would finish our journey in the 7.5 hours scheduled. Instead, we were on the next train that didn't get us in til about 2 and a half hours after we should have been there. That means we would be getting in around 23:30. And with a 30 minute walk ahead of us to our hostel (quite charming though!) that meant a long day...several hours more than we had signed up for. Oh well, what can you do?
We took off early the next morning (um, 10:30 is early, right?) and enjoyed learning everything we could about Kraków. You can read Sara and Emrys's blog for a nice commentary on the trip.
Meanwhile, we walked about 5 or 6 miles and did almost everything Rick Steves recommended for the day. And the weather was gorgeous! That was the best part. When Andie and I were there about 3 weeks ago, it was so cold and snowy. This time I actually got a bit of a tan! There were so many people out enjoying the good weather along the river...I was so jealous of those with bikes and rollerblades.
On Sunday, Geo and I split up from Sara and Emrys. They went to Auschwitz for the day. We headed back for Prague. Another uneventful 7.5 hour train ride put us in to Prague on time (actually 4 minutes early this time) but we still had to wait an hour for our little train back to Čelákovice. We had drinks again at the Marriott (right next to our train station) and enjoyed a few minutes of free internet. Awesome.

The Hills are Alive!

Trying to decide what to do in Austria when you have free train tickets is like going to a pastry shop and trying to decide what yummy dessert you would like. Andrea and I went over our options and decided to go to Salzburg. I didn't know this before, but Andrea is in love with the Sound of Music. I've seen it and have loved all the songs, but she's way into the movie. So with the opportunity to go to Salzburg and take the Sound of Music tour, we figured we'd have a good time. Andrea is amazing for what she was able to accomplish with only a week or so to get this trip organized. She has connections in the publishing world, so she was able to get us press/media rates for our trip. That meant a deeply discounted 4-star hotel room and free tickets for her and Connor and me to a Mozart dinner concert and the grand Sound of Music tour. It was unbelievable! Now that's the way to travel :)

Another week on the train

First, let me say that buying an Eastern Europe Rail Pass can be a good value, despite what Rick Steves thinks. He says that it doesn't save much money...I disagree. I spent $195 for 6 days of rail travel through the following countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Austria. True, the 6 days had to be in one month, but we're not going to be here forever (maybe).
Anyway, after Andie came, I still had 4 days left on my pass. So, I had to use up the rest of the days. My plan was to go somewhere in Austria because that is where the train tickets would be the most expensive and therefore I would get the most value. I talked Andrea and Connor into coming with me to Salzburg. That was awesome! So there were two train days spent. And then I talked Geo (and Emrys and Sara) into coming with me to Poland again. I really wanted to go back to Krakow since Andie and I didn't have much time there on our quick trip. Again, it was way worth it.
Now, I will say that it is challenging to manage all these train schedules and connections. I decided it would be wise to have reservations on trains here because for some reason I am often on the busiest train at the busiest time and I have been kicked out of my seat by someone who has the reservation. Sneaky, because they don't always post the little tickets that say the seat is reserved. So for a few dollars, you can make a reservation and not have to worry about being kicked out. It took me more than a half hour to make reservations for the trains I would be taking in a 10-day period. But even that was okay, because I had planned out the schedules ahead of time. I only wonder how long it would have taken if I showed up without the schedules planned...
The sad part of this story is what happens when you miss your originally planned and reserved train. For various reasons, on both of my trips, I managed to miss trains that I had paid extra for reserved seats. Ouch! Fortunately, the trains that we ended up taking had seats for us that were not already reserved. But when you take the time to make reservations, it's because you have quick connections in some far-away station that you want to catch. And if you miss the connection, sometimes you are stuck a long time. On the way to Krakow, we had a train delayed because of flooding in Austria. That made us late getting to the next stop, so we were about 2 hours late. Going to Salzburg, we were running late and I wasn't sure what platform we were departing from, so we missed the train there and had to change our plans a lot. That only cost us four hours. So, the moral of this story is be thankful for your car. Just kidding. I've relied on the trains exclusively here (except a few times with a taxi after IKEA runs) and they've been great. But once in a while, there are some glitches in a very organized system and I wonder how everyone else manages. I'm sure the fact that I don't speak any of the local languages doesn't help me much. Anyway, I'm off on another train adventure with my mom and dad over Easter weekend to go to Budapest. We've got tickets and reserved seats and the train is direct. Nothing to worry about (I hope!).