Today's pictures can be found here on Flickr.
I had an email waiting for me when I got up, from my host
telling me that the room was vacant the next 2 days and that I could stay if I
wanted (I’d pay in cash at the same rate). The only things really on my agenda
for the day were to do laundry and change my train ticket from Prague-Budapest
on 10/9 at 12:04am to Prague-Vienna on 10/11 at 12:04am. I’d put off the Castle
Quarter for Sunday or Monday.
By asking at a nearby hostel, I found the location of a Laundromat,
which was just a couple doors down from the Museum of Communism which I passed
yesterday. Got some lunch (the Laundromat lady was on her lunch break herself)
and then dropped off my clothes for a wash/dry – the first time they’d actually
go through a dryer since I left, it’s always been hang-dry after the wash. On
my way to the train station, it started to drizzle and I put my hoodie up.
Unfortunately, while crossing the street against a don’t-walk light, my sight
was obscured and I didn’t see the policeman standing nearby. He wrote me up a
jaywalking ticket (I’m sure if I had been a local I would have just gotten a
warning). I didn’t have my passport on me, just my drivers license – I figured
how much trouble could I get in where I needed my passport, just on the way to
the train station? It was an instant fine of 200 Kc, around $10.76 with the
exchange rate, and I was lucky that I had stopped at an ATM the day before so
that I had money. I don’t like to think about what might have happened if I had
no money along with no passport. It was
amusing to hear the cop call my name in to the station using their phonetic
alphabet – “Gregor, Rudolf, Adam, Boris, Otto, Ivan, Stanislaw”. I’m
now an international scofflaw, with an Interpol record for jaywalking.
Sufficiently chastised, I changed my train ticket and went back to get my
laundry (which ran 150 Kc, or about $8, for the wash, dry, and detergent), and
stopped to watch a lady making giant soap bubbles for the kids and the crowd.
I was able to find a way to watch the Texas/Oklahoma
football game online. It was the first time I had watched TV since I left New
York City three weeks before. After a disappointing first half (which
eventually turned into an OU rout) I left for the Indian Jewel, a recommended
Indian restaurant just a couple minutes walk away in the Ungelt Courtyard.
After the gorgeous weather on my first day, a front came
through and the temperature dropped from the low 70s to the mid 50s. My sweater
and a jacket were fine, though I noticed that a scarf would be a good idea
since my jacket didn’t zip all the way up, so I kept my eyes open for the rest
of the stay.
No comments:
Post a Comment