CZECHIA - PRAGUE AND OLOMOUC - MAY 7TH - 12TH

LEAVING VANCOUVER - MAY 6TH

Once again I am leaving on an adventure, this time to Eastern Europe for about 4 months and then off to Southeast Asia for another 8 months.

I am filled with excitement about going on another adventure and apprehension about being an older traveller on my own. I am not the average demographic of a backpaker and I am 11 years older than I was when I left on my Central and South America adventure. i am curious to see how easy it will be to meet other travellers.

But I love travelling, and I love travelling without a planned route, or a timeframe of how long I will stay in any 1 place or exactly where I will go next.

Saturday May 6th arrives and I am all set, finally. My sister Kelly picks me up at my apartment and we are off to the airport. I am flying to Prague via Condor Airlines, we fly to Frankfurt with a 7 hour layover and then a short 50 minute flight to Prague; 18h and 20m total travel time.

My flight out of Vancouver is delayed about an hour but it does not matter, my long layover in Frankfurt is now 1 hour less. When we arrive in Franfurt, I am surprised to find that such a major hub airport is so poorly laid out, the condition of the terminal and the ammenities in the terminal are horrible. There are huge lineups for everything and a small sandwich and a coke cost $30. 

I have not slept since I left Vancouver and do not plan to until I get to my hotel in Prague. This is my way of trying to reduce the effects of jetlag with a 9 hour time difference between Vancouver and Prague.

PRAGUE MAY 7TH TO 10TH

After a short flight from Frankfurt at about 5:30PM , we touch down in Prague. I am exhausted and starving. The airport at Prague is so much nicer and well laid out and within 20 minutes I have collected my backpack and I am in a cab heading to my hotel. It takes about half an hour to get there but the views along the way easpecially along the river are breathtaking.

My hotel is called Hotel Rhea and is a 21 floor building, very simplistic and cheap with nice clean comfortable rooms. I drop off my bags in my room and quickly head to a nearby Italian Restaurant which is a short walk from the hotel. I wolf done some food and am quickly back in my room and sound asleep.

Prague Castle

 I am awake my 7AM, have a nice free   breakfast in the hotel and itching to explore   the Old Town and Prague Castle. I have read   how hard it can be to navigate through the   irregular streets of Prague so having a   working cell phone with Google Maps is a   must, so my first task is to buy a new SIM card   with a huge amount of data. Except, it is May   8th, which is the formal anniverary of the end   of WW2. So it is a huge holiday throughout all   of Europe and all stores are closed. So, no   working cell phone today.

I catch the bus to the local metro station and within 20 minutes I am in the middle of Old Town Prague. My goal is to see the old Down Town Central Square, Charles Bridge and Progue Castle, but I am soon lost. The roads meander all over the place and without a phone, it is virtually impossible to find anything. But, every view within Old Town is like a postercard image so it is a beautiful walk.

Charles Bridge

After 90 minutes, I find the river and can see Charles Bridge in the distance. Charles Bridge is a majestic pedestrian bridge that takes you to Prague Castle which is huge and on a hillside along the river. It is beautifull and I read it is the biggest castle in Europe. I  spend all afternoon here and have a nice lunch at a small cafe. Overall, it was a great 1st day.

Next day, I wake up at 5am and cannot get back to sleep, I have virtually no jetlag other than the early wake up time, it takes me a few days to get to my normal 7am wake up time. I am now able to get my new SIM card so navigation should be a lot easier.

Prague Catle

Old City Square

I head back to Old Town and find the Old City Square and a number other stunning locations that would have been impossible without Google Maps. 

That evening I have my best meal yet at a Vietnames Restaurant. Tomorrow, I am travelling to Olomouc near the Polish border, so I am off to bed early.

OLOMOUC MAY 10 TO 13th

I have decided to go to Krakow in Poland but wanted to do another stop in Czechia first. I picked Olomouc, it is a fast growng university town with one of the best Old Towns other than Prague and it quite close to the Polish border.

I swear the hotel information centre just about made me miss the train. The info they gave me to get to the train station was not correct. I was able to find my own way there once I realized the mistake with about 3 minutes to spare. 

I have too much stuff. My pack is jammed full and weighs around 50 pounds, I have a small duffle bag that is full and then my day pack. It is too much, I need to lighten the load and jetison some stuff. My back, which I strained a couple weeks ago, was not happy with me.

It has been a long time since I travelled by train, I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Once we left Prague it was all farm land that was mostly flat with a few low rolling hills. We passed through a few towns on the way, many filled with drab Soviet era housing projects and sometimes old factories. It took about 2.5 hours to get to Olomouc.

When I arrtived at the train station, I caught a taxi as my back was not up to a 20 minute walk and within minutes of getting to the hotel, I realize my phone had slipped out of my pocket in the cab as I had it to show him the address of my holtel when I was in the back of the cab. I cannot believe it, getting a SIM card was cheap replacing my phone will be expensive.

Olomouc Old City Square

I do not remember the name of the cab company as it was in Czech but I am determined to try and get the phone back. I check into the hotel, look at some maps on my tablet using the hotel wifi, and go in search of the train station. I end up getting lost once and it ends up taking more than 1 hour to get to the train station, when I get to the taxi stand, there is my cab first in line and my phone is sitting on the back seat. i think I just used 6 months of good luck.

Beef, Gravy, Whipped Cream & Bread

I then walk to Old Town Olomouc which is about 25 minute walk. I get to the very picturesque main square and find a very nice cafe with nice outdoor tables and have a traditional Czech dinner of roast beef in thick gravy with a dumpling in the middle of the plate with whip cream on top along with lots of fresh bread to soak up the gravy, it was fantastic. And of course a couple of trditional Czech pilsner beers poured the Czech way in big mugs with a good inch or 2 of foam. 

Pilsner Beer

I sat there drinking my beer and thought how lucky my day turned out with just catching the train and getting my phone back. Then I walked back to my hotel.