Travelling to Prague - take 1!

Sorry this has taken a while... just a little while... okay 3 weeks.. bums. but i'll do my best to remember everything that went on so that you can laugh at some of the awkward/funny things that i know happened!

After a really strenuous first week (ha) it was already time to leave Germany and go to the Czech Republic. And in true Pippa style, i didn't actually know who was going (2 teachers +me obvs), where exactly we were going or what we were going for until about the day before... and it took me a couple of days into the trip to actually work out what exactly the "Comenius Project" even is, and if you don't know what that is either then bear with me, i promise i will explain it at some point in the post. i can't promise when that will be though so if you're in a rush to find out (because you're that keen) it's probably better to google it!

 <-- that's Comenius

But anyway, let's start at the beginning of the trip. The taxi was booked for 4.15am with the train leaving at 4.40 so that gave me plenty of time to get there, i slept til about 3.50, got up, got dressed, did my teeth and out the door right? well yes there was that but there was also the typical me thing of packing the majority of the things i need in the morning... i had already packed the night before but there's just something in me that doesn't let me finish packing until i'm literally about to run out of the door... i don't know why, but i think it's damaging to my parents' health so i should probably try and break that habit, although while i'm here what they don't know can't hurt them?
anyway so i make it down to the taxi, going down 2 flights of creaky wooden stairs trying not to wake anyone and make it out the door to the waiting taxi who, on the 10 minute drive to the station spoke for about 97% of the trip with me adding the occasional "ja" or "nein" where appropriate.

amoung other things we (he) spoke about the fact that in Germany they turn off all the traffic lights at night, and he gave the reason that they were cost cutting... now this sounds a little fishy to me.. considering if any country should be able to afford the "luxury" of traffic lights 24/7 i imagine it would be Germany, but then there is the whole Germany efficiency argument, of "it iz unnecessary wastage to keep ze lights on when zere are only some cars on ze strassen"
(Dad and i have since come to the conclusion that it is probably a method of population control to turn the traffic lights off at night, which is probably especially effective at the weekends between the hours of 12am and 4am, and at the time of Oktoberfest...)

but anyway i made it to the station really early and got to the platform which i thought was the right one (after trying to go through a locked door and the taxi driver yelling at me from across the station to go round the side of the building... subtle)
the station was actually surprisingly busy for that time in the morning, i imagined it would be dead but there were about 4 or 5 other people on the platform too - their jobs suck.

Another thing i would like to comment on is the clocks they have at the station... i seem to remember that this was actually the same with the clocks in holland... now picture this, you're waiting at the station and it's cold, and you really want to train to come so that you can just sit down and relax till you have to change again another million times before you actually get to where you're going, so you look at the clock.. and after a while you just end up watching the clock (there really was nothing better to do) and it's an analogue clock so you can see the second hand moving and you just end up watching that. After 30 seconds it's almost at the 12 so you count in your head and it gets to the 12... and move to the 12.01 point... but does it? yes eventually, it takes about 2 seconds for it to move off of the 12.. what is that all about?! it seems more like the clock's just had a mini panic attack "this is the moment i've been preparing for for 59 moves, there's so much pressure i don't know what to do anymore, 12 was always my goal, what do i do with my life now?!" what's that all about?!!? german clocks need to get a grip and move when it's their time, because all that has done is made me lose faith in the whole blooming clock. how am i meant to know if the second hand is even moving every second?? i mean surely it's getting the extra time for it's "break" from somewhere... is that from a little bit each second? and if it isn't doesn't that mean that german minutes are actually 61 seconds long, which means that they're all out of time so all german station clocks are wrong? <-- this is what happens when you leave me at a station for too long too early. i develop trust issues apparently.

but i'll get back to the more interesting things, the train arrived and i got on and found the other teachers i was travelling with, and discovered that i'm actually a better packer than everyone gives me credit for, all the packing for time in holland seems to have paid off as i only had my handluggage suitcase and a small handbag whereas they had a biiigggg suitcase each, a big bag and a handbag. but then i guess they had the presents for the czech school and breakfast.. but still!
the train that was so early was one to Magdeburg, where we then changed to a train to Dresden and the changed for a train to Praha, it actually all went pretty quickly, we had breakfast whilst on the train to Dresden (in first class i'll have you know, because that's just how teacher's trips work apparently) and it was so cute, one of the teachers, Simone had packed breakfast for the both of us, which consisted of cherry flavored water (odd but not bad..), sandwiches cut into tiny pieces, cherry tomatoes, and  boiled eggs - it was so cute ha! it felt like being a toddler at a birthday party again!

we then arrived at Dresden and had some time to waste but we just waited on the platform because of the crazy amount of stuff we had when it was all grouped together and i got bored and started taking pictures but i won't bore you with them all, i will put some in though so that you can have a break from my rambling about breakfast and clocks!

Standard DDR train still in use - if it aint broke and all that

then it was time to get on the next train which would take us to the lovely Prague, now i'm not going to lie, i'm not sure how much of this train journey i was awake for... but from what i remember it was a really nice train journey ha! it was however a very stuffy train, which got more and more full the closer we got to Prague and it was really funny to hear the announcements change from being just in German, to German and Czech to just Czech. i can now say that Czech is a lovely sounding language but it's also sooo confusing! it's so difficult to even guess what they're saying!
the countryside on the way to prague was lovely, it was like a painting in a lot of the places we saw, and i was expecting the buildings to looks more boring or uniform i think, i'm not entirely sure why... but i was definitely wrong! there's something i find quite beautiful about old buildings which show their age as.. that sounds really odd i know and i promise i won't go on about it but it just looks more lived in in a way, it's not like a museum it's just a real house, a home... and now i'll stop ha!

unfortunately this is the only picture i have from the train ride there... and it's not that great! but you get the idea. they have green trees there. 

so after a very stuffy train journey to prague we arrived, and managed to get all of our things off the crowded train and made it onto the platform where there was a bit of a confusion about where we were going to be meeting the czech teacher who were going to be picking us up and taking us to the hotel and after looking round the platform and realising that wherever we were being met it wasn't going to be there, we went towards the exit and he was there with another woman who turned out to be the teacher from the Greek school, who seemed to think for a little while that i was one of the students from the school... even though we were speaking in fluent english... and i'd already said i was english.... and that i'm helping at the school for a couple of months...right. 

but anyway, we made it to the hotel after a trip on the underground, the tram and a short walk. it was a pretty good hotel, and quite close to the center. the only thing i will say is, the german efficiency doesn't seem to have made it so far across the border, when we got in to the hotel we decided to have a bit of a rest before going out and exploring prague so i got to my room and went to turn on the tv and nothing happened, i thought that it might not have been plugged in so i crawled under the desk and had a look but it was plugged in, so i tried turning it on again and i heard a slight electrical sound this time so i kept trying but then i think i annoyed it and it made a sound slightly like it was about to explode or zap me or something, so i had a proper look at the cable between the tv and the wall and that did explain things slightly...

anyway, i then fell asleep (on the bed, not under the desk by the dodgy electrics) and woke up again in time to do a mini round of Prague, and have a cup of coffee with the teachers from my school before meeting all the other teachers who had arrived by now for dinner. they were all pretty cool actually, there was one from Greece, one from Portugal, one from Romania, two from Spain, two from Martinique, two from Turkey, two from the Czech Republic and us so quite a big group all in all. 

for dinner we went to a restaurant that was away from the touristy area and it was really nice, good to have a good meal after a long day, and they really do like to give you a lot of food! i had goulash with dumplings and it probably could have fed at least 2 people - i have a theory that the dumplings expanded after you ate them because i was sooo full by the end of it and i hadn't eaten half of it i don't think! but either way it was tasty. we then wandered back through the town and to the hotel to have a proper rest before doing another tour and then heading to Uherske Hradiste the next day. 

These are the teachers i went with