Hostel Plus

October 30^th 2011

I think I may finally fave a place to stay!! I'm so excitied I hope that it works out. But all the best laid plans of mice and men right? If all works out I will be there on Thursday so some more nights in Hostel Plus... woo. Now I don't pretend to be a hostel expert by any stretch of the immagination but no kitchen? No area for hot water? You are going to make me pay as much for a beer as you would for hot tea??? No. No thank you sir. I understand this is one of the cheaper hostels, now I know why.

However the people coming through are very interesting. The turnover here is much higher than I have seen at any of the other hostels i've stayed in, which is a little strange for me. The last four days I've had three different groups of people in my little six bedroom dorm. The first couple nights were some crazy party people from Brazil and who were very nice but smelled like traveling boys... (note to all traveling boys out there, please wash your socks... they is pew..) The second night there was a gaggle of Chinese women with one man. Yes I belive gaggle is the word I will use for them. I've never "not spoken" to my room mates before that day, but every time I tried to communicate with them all I got was a blank stare. Which I wouldn't have minded if they really didn't speak english but when they were leaving they received two different calls in English... oh well fine. -On a side note I think that there should be a movie or documentary or something showing how some women get ready for a night out... it was like a Zoo.. very strange- The women and their token man left promptly at 9am and I must admit it was nice having the room to myself after having to share for so long. But once I was ready it was time for errands, so I loaded up my backpack to travel the city. Coming back after a long day of traveling around the city all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but when I opened the door I was greeted by one, two, no three Austrian boys here on a holiday weekend. They were couch surfers who didn't plan out their couches well enough and were now hostel bound. They were looking to go out and party it up, unfortunately for them they didn't realize that Prague sleeps on Sundays. Anything worthwhile is going to be closed and I warned them of the expensive beer and food to be had at the in house bar. So they putzed around and talked back and forth with grand plans of the city and then just plopped down to bed. Who will it be tomorrow I wonder??

Long cold nights of October the 23rd

I blame the majestic lady on top of the building..

Why is it easier for me to stay up all night and do normal errands the next day? Its as if the Czech Republic has cast a spell of different Zoe... whos' toes are freezing!!! Yikes! Its getting cold fast here!! This morning I found something interesting about living in a different country.. you know those crazy bums in the metro tunnels and on the streets, the ones who yell about how god will smite you and other incredibly horrible things... I can't understand them any more!! HA! Its nice to hear the crazy and just not worry cause you don't know if maybe the person is just mumbling about a grocery list or how shaved cats are going to eat your brains :) Life has lots of lovely little good moments!

..funny side note.. somehow my computer thinks I should be spelling in Czech and so when I went to spell check this document the whole thing lit up :) So if you notice a spelling error just let me know so I can correct it and not feel like a total idiot!

Always look on the bright side..

    Well I finally feel settled and then my life takes a turn. Well this is what I wanted right? Hell yes I did!! And tho I've run into some road bumps all in all its not too terribly bad. Yes having my wallet stolen really sucked, but after I got over the initial violation of it all it wasn't that bad. For one, they didn't get my passport, and two it has shown me new ways to up my personal security.
   Originally I had my wallet, passport and locker key on a purse that I slept with, which would have been just fine excepting the fact that I did not zip up the zipper on the purse that was available to me. So my hypothesis of what happened is that while sleeping and moving about as I do in the night I must have kicked my wallet out from my bed upon whence it fell upon a dangerous floor.. and into the hands of an opportunistic asshole...
   But bottom line is I only lost USD $211 not everything so all is well! From now on I will have my money split up between my luggage and only a small bit I will keep on my person. An expensive lesson yes, but it could have been much worse. And now I'm preparing for school and trying to figure out where to stay.

I cheated on this picture... this bit is from Amsterdam :)

   Originally I was prepared to stay in this hostel, despite the theft and the water in the shower that only sprays for 2 minutes before you have to depress the button again... yes I know. Really flippin' irritating. Its just like the old faucets that some of us had in elementary school and I suppose some Americans will remember then from all sorts of other venues, but bottom line is you just never get enough water. You push the button and then get your soap and then shit! No water! I understand the concept (its a form of water conservation) but I wish I could see myself naked with my head covered in shampoo so I dare not open my eyes fumbling for that little freakin' push button... yeah that was a fun first day here.
   However my reason for staying is leaving on Monday. I met a really nice Czech guy who has been teaching me a bit of Czech and I've been teaching him a bit of English. Its a good trade and he is from what I can tell a really good guy, and its nice to have a local friend. But he is running out of money himself so back home to Brno (still in the Czech Republic) just not Prague. So I think I will be moving on from here.. where to I do not know.. but that's how I'm rolling over in Europe! Keep you posted! Or at least try to!!

Musings for no good reason!

Yes I realize that I haven't posted since i left but its all on paper that i must transcribe it... so for those waiting here is some wisdom from my new friend Miroslav who has taken it upon himself to show me about the Czech Republic! :)

In English....
Just shape the experience of your soul, mind, and your body. The word has no power, but it acts. Walls not stand the word, but his hands. So do not be like a lot of uneducated people, but show that you have your head and your mind !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In truth you have to go. It will be a long way! But when you come to the end, you will be filled with everything! I went on that way, and now it's up to me if ever I reach the end .......

In Czech....
    Jen zkušenosti formujou tvou duši, mysl, a tvé tělo. Slovo nemá žádnou sílu, ale jsou to činy. Zeď nepostavíš slovem, ale rukama. Tak nebuď nevzdělaný jako hodně lidí, ale ukaž že máš svou hlavu a svůj rozum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Za pravdou musíš jít. Bude to dlouhá cesta! Ale když dojdeš na konec, budeš naplněn vším!! Ja se vydal na tu cestu, a teď záleží jen na mě jestli někdy dojdu do konce.......


He's a funny guy :)

A very bad day... October 20th 2011

Today is a very very bad day. I hate it. I hate it so much. I think it may be karma from being so harsh with the older man yesterday. Albeit he was being lazy and all the advice I gave him, he should really act on. But. Well shit. My wallet is gone. Yes gone. There is a little boy of about 19 years old in my room with a gambling problem. He doesn't wash up his dishes and he has no idea the value of money. Something went missing a few days ago as well right after he checked in, the men here think its him. It very well may be. They kicked him out. But then the old man was here as well and same with another shaddy character across the bunk from me (who had a large shopping spree today I might add) The bottom line is that I don't know what a thief who takes something away from other people looks like. My card hasn't been used yet. But my 4,000 czk is most definitely gone. Ouch. Expensive lessons can go bite my bumm. They could have just taken my money and left my wallet and card! Cause now I have no idea of how to get at my fundage... I'm going to have to email Neville the guy in charge of my course today and explain to him what happened so I can pay for my course at a later date. Why do they always have to take the whole fucking wallet?? My card hasn't been touched, no transactions off to cancel it now... today is shit.

To top it off
The old man in my dormortory has absolutely terrible gas... all day and all night long
A dear friend of mine is getting married to an asshole (found out this morning)
This place smells bad....

I miss Sir Tobys....

My bed is the one on the very top right hand corner next
to the wall, this a a deceptively appetizing picture, go
jogging and smell your sock afterwards... then make
the sheets all REALLY old... 

This hostel is well... awful... it smells terrible.. you have to push a button to get the water to come out... yes just like in some really annoying public bathrooms and yes just like in those annoying bathrooms the water will only last for a minuet and a half!!! What the hell!!! I miss my old hostel Sir Tobys... Oh well Senior Hostel you get me for one week then BAM! I'm out, room rented or not. If you want to know what hostel this is then E-mail me, the guys working there are really nice and I don't want them to know i'm talking smack about their hostel.. but it's seriously shit.

Sleeper train from Amsterdam...

Well look what I found in Amsterdam! Awesome!

    Okay so I ended up staying for the rest of yesterday and all today in Amsterdam. and now all aboard for the night train! Yep that's right! Zoe took a sleeper train!!! Let me tell you what... weird... super weird experience.. but yeah okay lets rewind the days.....

Amazing Bar!!

     

 
     So I left to go get myself some train tickets, I found out also that the station was stupidly close to the hostel :( not more than a five minuet walk... you're killing me Amsterdam... seriously killing me.
 
    However that is not what I'm talking about, that's stuff of being upset from yesterday not today! The point is that at the train station the only tickets for Prague were tomorrow afternoon for 189 euro or tomorrow night for 145 so hell why not :) Course that means that i'm going to have to hang out in Amsterdam for basically another day... ;)

Arabic toast that Nassim taught me
and I promised him I would not forget!

 
 Well red light district here I come! I don't know if its cause it was the middle of the day or what but it deffiniatly wasn't nearly as entertaining as I thought it would be and every museum is super expensive to boot so I jotted back on down to the Hostel to see if anyone had any cool ideas. So sitting at this little table in the common room I meet my new friend named Nassim! He is from Algeria which is in North Africa however he has been living in Paris for a bit and get this... he learned english from watching American movies!!! What?? Absolutely fantastic!! The multilingual culture over here makes me feel like an idiot.

Part of the lovely walk!

     Anyways he sat down at the table I was sitting at and we got to chatting and ended up hanging out  for the rest of the day! Come night time we decided to meander into a bar we found along our wandering and it was insane!! Well just really cool looking really. Since the night was fairly dead we were able to sit up at this crazy round table set like a window display! Upon which we were soon joined by the local cat of the establishment. One thing about Amsterdam is that there are sure a lot of cats! All over! Not that I am complaining I am simply making an observation!