Poděbrady 2012 - Day 1

My first glimpse of Poděbrady

After getting up at the frankly cruel hour of 3am and travelling for an hour and a half by car, I arrived at Gatwick, tired and preparing myself for the mayhem of getting through check-in and security at a big airport. Despite queuing for a good half hour to check my bags in – thank goodness I’d checked in online so no need to faf around with that queue as well – and getting more and more paranoid about missing my flight, I only had to wait 30 seconds at security. This meant I actually managed to get to the gate before they’d closed it! (Unlike to Berlin where I had to run a mile to get there and only made it with seconds to spare) 

After a fairly uneventful flight from London Gatwick to Prague, I was all set and raring to go, if a little tired. The fact that I didn’t have ear pain and wasn’t deaf after the flight was definitely a plus! I then did the classic trick of following the crowd to baggage collection, which I never would have found otherwise, winding our way through the entire airport, or so it seemed. I was almost at the point of thinking they just let you into the country for funsies when we eventually reached customs, which was absolutely mad. The Czech’s clearly need to jump on the “EU Only Passports” bandwagon like the rest of us, because I spent way too long waiting for a huge party of Japanese tourists get their visas checked. They also need to learn to queue, something that most of Europe should have lessons in. Finally I went through and headed to the baggage lounge, grabbed my bag, and made my way out of the airport. Let’s just say that if every sign hadn’t been in German and English as well as Czech I might still have been there now. Turns out that being able to read political articles in a language doesn’t mean you can understand airport talk.

Prague Main Station - hlavní nádraží

Escaping the airport I headed for bus stop “D” to wait for the Airport Express which would take me to Praha Hlavni Nadraží (Prague Central Station). You’d never think getting on a bus could a) take so long or b) be so entertaining, but here Prague was to prove me wrong. For a start it seemed like the entire population of the plane I had just got off of was joining me on the bus, hence the 15 minute wait while everyone got on with huge suitcases, pushchairs, and the likes. With one lady left in front of me I was all set to go, practising how to ask for a ticket in my head – Prosla bych jízdenku do hlanví nádraží The nice seeming lady in front of me turned out to be a German crazy – aka she spent 5 minutes or so arguing with the bus driver over whether she could pay for her fare in euros – No – and what it would cost in euros – 5 – until eventually he convinced her to get off the bus and go and change some money. Oh those Central Europeans, they need to learn that not everyone has the Euro! When it finally came to me I was about to start my well-rehearsed speel when the bus driver went “Main station? Single? 60 Koruna” so all I could do was nod. Disappointed!

The bus trip from the airport was boring on the most part, until we came to the old town. We crossed a long bridge (not Charles Bridge, I spent a lot of time checking) and were suddenly surrounded by beautiful Baroque buildings, all domes and arched windows. It was beautiful, especially in the sunlight. Unfortunately the old town didn’t last long at all and soon enough we were back surrounded by the big block grey buildings that seem to dominate the scenery of the new town.

Ticket to Poděbrady

Going into the station I was this time determined to get my ticket in Czech, I found the ticket place (again, English signs) and asked for a Jízdenku do Poděbrady, prosím (Ticket to Podebrady please) but again luck was against me when the lady replied “a single? 80 Koruna”. How do they know?! Still at least after that I felt it was acceptable to ask in English what time the train went and which platform it went from.

I’m now writing this from the train, an old rickety thing with compartments. For the first 5 minutes of the journey I thought I was in luck – my own compartment to myself! Now, however, I am sharing it with 8 school boys aged around 9. Very relaxing. It’s also about 40 degrees on the train which is lovely! Sudden torrential downpour occurred about 10 minutes ago and I’m hoping that if there is any more, it will hold out until I get to the dorms!


Later:

I arrived at the dorms at around 1pm after only getting partially lost and being rescued by a fellow student type person. I unpacked my things but as my roommate hadn’t turned up I started to get bored, so took my melon and went to explore the building. Arriving at the stairs in the centre of the building I noticed the common room/library where a meeting was taking place – one that I was supposed to be at and was 10 minutes late for, oops! However in my defence the sign on the door was miniscule so how anyone turned up at all is a miracle. Due to the fact that I’d been up since 3am I wasn’t exactly on top form with my Czech listening skills, and mostly spent the meeting staring into space until they passed around the next thing for me to sign.

My room in the kolej (dorms)

They gave us our meal vouchers – 85 koruna, about £2.80 – which can be used in any restaurant in the Czech Republic, a new programme for the week and a fetching Charles University green t-shirt (only for use as pjs due to its colour and size). They then informed us that we would be having the test at 6pm, and sent us off to our rooms again. Panicking somewhat at my lack of Czech skills combined with lack of sleep, I went and had a nap and revised for a couple of hours. Needless to say the test didn’t go brilliantly but luckily I ended up in a class with other Bristolians.

By evening I was even more tired, hungry, and still lacking a roommate so feeling a bit sorry for myself. To solve at least part of the problem I went in search of some food at 9pm, and thankfully stumbled across a pizza stand that sold slices the size of my head for 25 koruna. After a slice of mozzarella a salam I was feeling much better and very ready for bed. Just as I was getting to sleep at 10pm my roommate turned up – a Slovenian girl who thankfully speaks amazing English who I get on well with.