I have ended up doing a lot more travelling with Carli and Tuck than what I had originally intended. When I left England, it was an impulse decision but it seems that some kind of fate timed it in order for me to travel some stages with friends. It is nice to have such great and easy going people to join in with. It is perhaps a different kind of trip that I had envisioned but it’s not a bad thing. It’s been good to have friends around at this time and they’ve also given me much more material to write about and have graciously given me permission to take the piss out of them and the wonderful things they blurt out at the most ironic times. Thanks girls.
I decided to travel to Vienna with them that afternoon, although I would be getting the bus and they would be on the train. So we had one last day to explore Prague.
We had read about a flea market and found it on the banks of the river. It wasn’t exactly a market; there were about 5 ‘stalls’ with people’s old clothes and broken belongings scattered on the ground. It was kind of like hard rubbish day at home, without the couches. But I did find some leather to add to what is already on my wrists.
Prague used to have one of the largest statues of Stalin in Europe; it sat upon a hill and looked down upon the people. After WW2 when the people started to realise his crimes and they decided to blow it up and in its place they put a large metronome that would always show time passing and act as a memorial to time past and present and what is to come. Tuck really wanted to see this and we were hoping that it resembled a large version of the metronomes that we used to have when we spent hours practicing scales and chromatics and all that fun stuff on the piano. It did and we climbed to the top and sat next to the large whirring hand ticking past the time as we all had some thoughts to ourselves.
Further down along the river we found Kampa Island. It’s a small park on the river filled with space, museums and art. We sat at a small stall and had a beer. Well, I had a wheat beer and Tuck tried coffee with vodka, mainly because they didn’t understand anything else we asked for. It tasted a little bit like sake crossed with kaluha, not as bad as Tucky was expecting (she had sat in front of it for at least 10 minutes contemplating her options before I got bored and poured the entire shot into the tiny cup of coffee leaving her only one option).
It was relaxing to be able to just sit around and not do anything. I think when travelling it is so easy to get caught up with the notion of ‘doing’ things all the time and you start to feel guilty if you’re not looking at a painting, a church or a museum or something else that is written in a guide book. Personally, I think it is important to be able to just sit and watch and think and feel and to be able to let that be fulfilling enough.
We wandered over the bridge again and got caught up with ‘The Bridge Band’. Five of the most caricatured old gentleman playing the most charming music. Our favourite was a man who looked to be in his late 70’s with a steel washboard hung over his neck playing percussion. He had more talent with his whisks and thumb thimbles than many percussionists I had seen. The man playing the tuba had a face like leather and the most defined upper cheek muscles, he reminded me of Pinocchio for some reason and as he was expending more breath than he was taking in and staring into the direct sunlight, we all watched him tensely waiting for the moment he would take a break and a glass of water. The singer/conductor/front man looked like the captain from the Titanic (complete with hat) and had the roughest voice that he would occasionally add into the mix through an old brass megaphone. We must have stood watching them for close to an hour.
It was time for me to go to the bus and the girls to go to the train; we went our separate ways and planned to meet in the hostel in Vienna that evening. It was about a half hour walk to the bus station and I was cursing myself all the way for having too many things. But I made it and lay on the ground for an hour reading while I waited for the bus. It was only a 4 hour drive to Vienna and it passed quickly.
It was 10pm when I arrived at the bus station in Vienna. It looked to be closed and it was dark and set in an ugly part of town with a few strange men hanging around. Finding my bearings once again and yet another train station I found my way to the U-bahn closest to the hostel. Unfortunately from there I was a little bit stuck without a map. I was considering wandering about the streets hoping to find the right place when I heard some English speakers climbing up the stairs; I waited hoping they had a map or knew the right direction.
Tucky and Carli just kept on walking to the exit until I called out; Tuck just gave me this dumb stare as we both had a moment of realisation that we knew each other. Although we had planned to meet in this city around this time near this place, Tuck’s facial expression was gold and it sent me into fits of laughter.
They had a map and we found the hostel.
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