27 July, Friday
The day began, but formally continued at 7:30am. Continued, because of last almost-without-sleep night shouldn’t be called “night”… but not about this… Prepared, with bought korony
(kč) and stock of cans with meat – known later also as „salmon“- we booked in at the main train station in Wroclaw. At 10:31 am the train with two travellers – Rys and Lolo at the platform, has left Wroclaw... Direction – Klodzko („Miasto“ as we and our legs got to know later)... The journey took almost two hours, but now I have to mention sth... in the majority of cities the name „Dworzec Glowny“ (the main station) means... and let you think that if you left train at this station, you would probably find yourself in the middle of the city or at least quite close to such... but this definition doesn’t fit to at least two towns in our region.... All travellers, who travelled, or are willling to travel on Lower Silesia (Dolny Slask) should forget since now about getting out of train at „main“ station in Klodzko and Walbrzych – hold your emotions for a while and wait for the station „Miasto“ (the city – because this name is real).
But our two heroes surely left train at Klodzko Glowny because otherwise they wouldn’t have an opportunity to remind few „latin“ words and do some „warm-up“ of our legs on the way to the bus station, which was just near „Klodzko Miasto“... [numbers: 9,76 zl for one-way student’s ticket, 1 zl tram’s ticket , 0,90zl „Napoleonka“ in Klodzko :-)].
The clock shows 1:40 pm and the bus of czech lines „Orlobus“ is ready to take us to Prague... The journey takes about 4 hours (including 1 hour in Poland, although with car you could reach the border even in 20 minutes) The border Kudowa Zdroj is rather symbollic because the guards let us feel amost as in „Schengen Zone“... through Zachód, Hradec Kralove, Podebradý, noticing worrying more and more raindrops at the windscreen we arrived to UAH Florenc in Prague at 5:45 pm... at the station was already waiting my friend – Helena who was not only a guide but also a host of us. After short instructions about buying and using „listký“ (tickets) for underground after 25 minutes the train stopped at Flora station where we - lazy changed to tram and took one „zastavka“ (stop) to finally sit on the sofa in „our“ flat at Kouřimska ulice... Shower, something to drink, pictures, talk... and Helča had to leave back to her home in Plžen, leaving us alone in Prague ...:-)
Still with metro tickets – what wouldn’t be so obvious later - we came to Mustek station (our favourite, because it was the fifth-last station which our ticket was valid for) – faithful to our travelling rule – that to get to know, you must feel it.. – we walked down on Vaclavska ulice – which during our first meal was temporary renamed to „Kabanosova“ :-). When our stomachs were half-full filled we decided to follow by multicultural crowd, beliving that it will take lead us to the centre. And that’s the fact – very quickly we found the town hall and the view known from the pictures became truth. After several minutes welcomed us Karluv Most (Charles‘ Bridge)... British, Spanish, Czech, Portuguese, Asians, Poles, and I bet much more people from other countries created the river on the bridge... the flower thrown near the bridge’s gate will soonely set sail on the second side... musicians, dancers, painters selling their arts and unforgettable view of Hradčany by night... that is only part of all things which hide behind the name Karluv most.
But what is coffee near Colloseum for Rome, the same is Czech beer near Karluv Most for Prague... and because the second rule of traveller is to eat and to drink only there were native-citizens do it... we found easily nice bar without foreigners.. and let „gold liquids“ to adopt us in Czech Republic. (look for: Pivo)
At about 1am by tram, with good mood we came home and in the moment fell asleep... :-)