The Prague Travel Guide

I had known since the beginning of my trip that I wanted to visit Prague. During the months leading up to my trip many people who had already visited Europe and backpacked across the continent highly recommended Prague for its beautiful sights, nightlife and general atmosphere. Of course arranging a trip from Rome to Prague was no easy task but after a long afternoon at a computer lab I planned a flight from Rome to Frankfurt and then a train ride to Dresden and another train into the Czech capital. I would now be leaving Western Europe and the warm climate of the Mediterranean but I was running seriously low on funds and the west was bankrupting me so I gladly welcomed the dollar-friendly exchange rates of Eastern Europe.

I enjoyed a long day of European mass transit during the course of which I landed in Germany. Germany was, from what I could see, very green and very modern. The German countryside is studded with wind farms and is spotlessly clean. In Frankfurt I purchased my tickets to Prague and boarded a German bullet train. Unfortunately when the train arrived in Dresden some hours later, I did not realize that the city had two train stations and I got off at the first while my connection waited across town at the second. With approximately fifteen minutes to get there I hailed a taxi to run me across town. Firstly, German taxi cabs are all Mercedes Benz and this one handled and accelerated like a race car. My driver was a trim middle aged woman with bleach blond hair cut into short spikes. She drove expertly and smoked cigarettes the whole time. If she got me there on time I would give her a ten euro tip. If we failed, I would wait six hours in the station for the next train to Prague. It was close. As I looked out the window I thought of Slaughter House 5 and how American bombers turned this city into powder during the closing days of World War II. Needless to say we made it; I tipped the cabbie a sawbuck (in euros) and sprinted with my cumbersome pack swaying on my back to the train.