Yep, we are headed to Eastern Europe. Certainly someplace I had not been to yet but wanted to experience for many reasons. And an experience it was.

FFS…it was a very long, sleepless night – even with an edible and a joint before we left. I think my travel partner and I may have slept 90 minutes total. The girl next to me by the window went somewhere (I think she found an empty compartment with a berth) so I had a little extra room.

We went east out of The Netherlands with two stops before we get into Germany. Once we got into Germany there were no stops for over seven hours until we got to Berlin as night turned to day and began to brighten the clouds.

Then my seatmate reappeared all rested and ready to go. I believe the American girl disembarked at the first Berlin stop Ostbanhof (East train station), then I believe the other two girls disembarked at the next Berlin stop or Dresden.

When the girl next to me go off the train she had brought along a disposable camera. When she got outside she was taking a picture of the train. She saw me and ended up taking my picture through the train window. I should have gotten my phone out to take a picture but was tired and didn’t think about it fast enough because I was in the moment. She was smiling big and we both waved as the train pulled away. Another one of those absolutely priceless moments that reminds us why we love traveling.

We have one more stop in Germany, the first stop in Czech Republic, then our destination – Prague. I feel that I know somewhat to expect in Prague. I have wanted to visit here for a while and I guess we will find out soon!

Then…oh shit! About 6 AM or so I get a text about a rail strike in Germany on the 27th. This is really going to affect our plans in a bad kinda way. There is potential that this can hose us very, very badly. I will stay calm, work up some ideas and will deal with it later when I can and after I had time to ponder. I let my partner know what was up; everyone must know the plans in case of an issue…like this. We will get it worked out but not stress so we can enjoy what we ARE doing.

In situations like this, you gotta stay calm. Freaking out will not fix it so don’t do it! It will just make things worse and more stressful, and freaking out is a lot of wasted energy you could use to solve the problem and then still have some left to have a good time. Look at ALL your options and the options from each of the FIRST set of options. You have to come up with a couple of plans and see what works best for you. I try to work within the confines of making it fit into our current plans with minimal disruption.

Of course, buy trip insurance for a trip like this and we did. You also need to have a couple of credit cards, preferably VISA then MC. Tap to pay is widespread and most everyone used their phone or watch to pay; I saw very little cash change hands.

The travel insurance people will usually help, but I did not bother contacting them due to time constraints and I am working on resolving everything that happened now that we are back. I wanted to make sure it was handled as we only had 24 hours maximum of leeway and there was not time to wait on hold.

We had an hour or two before we arrived but we had a nice ride along a river through some older villages. It is always interesting and enjoyable to me to see these places. This area has seen a lot of history, and it is slowly looking like what I had expected of the area – old buildings and simple life.

Prague was no different. It definitely has a “feel” to it – you can feel the history here, and it has a slight sadness to it. It’s not a giant touristy place like Amsterdam, but there are tourists and it is a beautiful, interesting place. From the moment we arrived at Praha hlavní nádraží (the main train station in Prague) until the moment we left you could really feel the history.

But, when traveling you should always be cautious and aware of your surroundings. We got a lot of looks for some reason, and a few were unnerving (I imagine it feels the same as the “Seattle Freeze” people talk about). I never felt that and I love Seattle the way it is.We were carrying backpacks so maybe that was it. Or, maybe my 10 earrings. I don’t know. Maybe they don’t like outsiders/tourists and I get that all too well. Prague has a certain dark energy to it as well, and the only thing I can think it must be is that it must partially be because of the communist history. But, I would love to go back and stay 3-4 days to really see it! The time we got to spend was fun and quite an experience.

Our hotel was very nice and was very reasonable – especially for the luxury level of accommodations. Outstanding in every way.

It was a little ways away from the train station, but we had local trams a block or two away. It was a bit of a walk but we got to see a lot along the way from the train. Plus, it would work out as a great location for what we were going to see and do.

We got settled in to our room and sat for a few minutes, thinking about the previous sleepless night of travel. Then we talked about our train travel conundrum and tossed around a few options to think about while we looked around.

And a few things at the hotel I saw when we went back there…

Our original plan was to check out some sites in Prague after arriving, having a late evening, sleep, then getting up early to see some more sites before catching a train to get coffee in Vienna, Austria then sightsee a few hours before going on to Munich, Germany.

We decided to go get something to eat and sightsee. I can work on some ideas a little more but we gotta get it done ASAP. Again, it will make more sense soon.

We found a little cafe and got coffee and something to eat. Not the friendliest service but the food was good. We then took a walk around the city. Found some really cool buildings and artwork. I also wanted to check on info for the subway and trams. All options are on the table to fix our problem.

Whenever I walk around cities I just wander. Explore. Take it all in. Discover. I want to see everyday life and not just the attractions. It is just amazing the variety and amount of things you will see. The next place we stumbled upon was an incredible piece of history. By chance.

We walked around a corner and gently sloping up toward a huge building was this enormous open plaza, 60 meters wide and 750 meters long. With the amount of travel shows I watch I had a feeling I knew the history of this place…I just didn’t know for sure.

I stopped to grab a little local currency at an ATM. (A side note: be careful at ATMs. Read everything on the screen closely. Look around you, be aware of your surroundings. Czech Republic uses their own currency and not the euro. I got $20 USD worth of the local currency. Just withdraw the cash you think you can use in countries not on the euro (I try to only use a bank ATM to reduce any potential issues and exorbitant fees). Otherwise you are bringing home souvenirs. Take it out in local currency, and if you tap to pay or pay by card use local currency as there may be an exchange fee tacked on.

Along each side were hotels, restaurants, and shops of all sorts in these beautiful old buildings. It was busier than it was walking around the city center. I went into a cannabis shop and bought a joint. I told the guy I wanted Indica and it was more than I had so he showed me the “budget buy” joints.

I sparked up that $20 joint (yeah…that was the cheap one…), took a hit, and looked around at everything, putting the pieces together, realizing we are standing in the middle of history. This place is a very important part of Czech republic’s story and a huge part of world history.

This place is called Wenceslas Square.

It is the site of many gatherings in their history (several political), but it is the site of The Velvet Revolution – it is where communism fell somewhat peacefully (hence the name) in 1989 and where 300,000-400,000 people gathered to celebrate. It was an incredible place to be and it still had that energy. I remember seeing that on the news when it happened.

We went back to the hotel with the itinerary upheaval still to deal with. We got up to our room and decided what we were going to do. We ended up getting airline tickets for an early flight out of Prague, our time here unfortunately cut short by several hours – by getting up way earlier which meant also meant calling it a night much earlier than planned.

Hell with that! I decided to get out for a walk and smoke some more of this very expensive joint. As I said earlier, Prague has a feel of danger, and it is a darkly lit city at night so it enhances that feeling a bit. But, I don’t let that stop me from exploring most of the time. That weed was pretty good with one hit, but I took another as I started walking.

I decided to just walk a couple of blocks square to get a feel for the area. I felt pretty safe and let my guard down a little more with each block but never completely. About that time the reefer really kicked in and I decided I needed to get back to the hotel…STAT!!!! I don’t know what the hell was in that joint, but I really didn’t want any more of that stuff. I got back in the nick of time.

I have never smoked any weed like that and I am thinking I don’t really need to again. I had planned to take a shower but I could not stand. I had to sit there for at least a good hour before I could even walk to the bathroom. I don’t know if it was some weird strain I had never had before or if something was rolled in the middle of it. I have smoked plenty of The Reefer and never had a feeling like that.

The night was still cut short, but I sure slept good!

I cannot tell you the rest of our plan yet (so you’ll come back and read about the rest of the trip!) so we’ll stop with the Munich issue in the original plan. The new plan will unfold and make more sense tomorrow. Suffice it to say that relying on a train pass when there is a rail strike can be very problematic.

My thoughts on the night train? The train was noisy and it was a pretty rough ride but it is pretty cool to ride in something historical like that. This “seat-sleeping” was not a good idea, though. We shoulda gotten a berth but we thought we would be okay; it was not a matter of money – we just thought we could make it work out okay. Oh well…learn by doing. Not gonna make that mistake again. With the Eurail passes our trains were all covered First Class so all we had was a seat charge, which was very cheap.

Yeah I would certainly do it again, but I would do it differently and get a berth. My travel partner was less enthusiastic, especially after not sleeping for four nights straight. My opinion is that it is just part of the experience you have traveling but I really do understand. You make the best of it and learn things from it.

Anyhoo, it’s bedtime. An early morning and it will be busy.

Shawn