Spring break part 8: Prague and 26 hours of travel

Prague, Czech Republic. Our finial destination. I feel like if we would have gone to Prague at any other point in the trip, we would have had a completely different impression. And as it was, we still really liked it. But coming from Olomouc where we had such a personal connection with the town and felt like it was ours to discover, to a huge tourist destination that had to live up to all the things we heard Prague was, we were a little disappointed. It's not that it had more signs in English or kitsch than any large Western European city does, it's just that we weren't in the mood for it. It also didn't help that our first experience there involved getting totally scammed by the taxi driver (two heavy accordions = need for taxi), and then checking in to a huge, impersonal hostel (Eloise, at our last hostel, had done our laundry for us while we were out and left it hanging in our room. aw).  So for our night in Prague we decided to ditch Lonely Planet, and just go with our gut instinct. Apparently our gut instinct is very similar to that of a toddler or a moth: We were attracted to the places with the flashiest lights and prettiest colors. And the places that just seemed the most ridiculous. So maybe this wasn't giving Prague a chance to show us its best side, but really, how often do you get to go to a restaurant and a bar in the same night that both have beds in them? 

I already showed some pictures of Fragola in the section about food, but as a reminder, here is the queen sized bed that was right next to our table.  So silly. And here is a little video I took of the place: 

After that experience, the only thing we could do was to go to the very most ridiculous place we could find: Bed Lounge. You've really got to watch the video to get a feel for what this place was all about. Be sure to notice: the completely white interior with gradually changing colored lights, the TV screens with screensaver like videos of digital fish, and of course all the people lounging on the bed. The video is not very good because I'm trying to be sneaky, but it gets the point across. 

The couples on the bed looked so awkward and uncomfortable. It was all extremely unnatural and posed. Plus you had to take off your shoes, so that made it funny. It was, to say the least, ridiculous. We just sat there and judged everyone for a while, until we decided we should leave and make better use of our lives. 

Prague is famous for its marionettes and puppets. Pinky hates marionettes and puppets. 

The next day we went to go check out the gay district in Prague, which is apparently world renown. With the help of Lonely Planet and Pinky using a mixture of intuition and logic, we walked around ALL DAY, and didn't find so much as a tastefully decorated trashcan. It was really tumbleweed-blowing-down-the-street style empty. We were where Lonely Planet told us to go (what they called "the funky part of town"), but apart from Warsaw it was probably the least funky place we had been. But we don't think it was Prague's fault. We think the person who wrote the Prague section of our book was just l@me. So instead of eating at some trendy, hipster, Sunday brunch/pub kind of place like we were imagining, we ate at the worst, tackiest "Mexican" restaurant I've even seen. As Pinky put it, it was straight out of central Ohio.  

And that there folks, was the last meal of our trip.

Then we got on a plane to Frankfurt (which was no easy feat with two accordions). Sitting next to us on the plane was a Czech film director! It was so exciting. I got to talk to her all about my love of Czech movies. She gave us her business card and said to connect her the next time we come back to Prague and she would help us find the good places to go. 

Then we sat in the Frankfurt airport from 11:30pm until 10:30am. That was not so much fun.

People sleeping on the tables of the closed security checkpoint. 

Pinky sleeping on the floor. I swear the floor cleaning zamboni lady ran over his pant-leg and he didn't even stir. 

And finally, 8 days, 6 countries, and 2 accordions later, we arrive back in the icy land of Finland. I would say that's an extremely successful Modern Odyssey.

That was the end of the road for me, but poor Pinky still had two days of travel ahead of him. And this time he would have to carry the accordions all on his own.