21 - Leaving Prague to Poland
Well, we just dropped off a wasp who decided to crawl around one of my legs for awhile, I came out unscathed. This morning we left the old German, who actually
had a couple 2-3 more guests, back to Prague. We missed breakfast, which was the first time we had done so, the place was too new to have a kitchen?
Anyway, we took some underground parking near the castle, and ascended up to it, which took a short while. We passed by many shops and street
vendors. Prices were high for Czech Republic, but still good by US standards. For instance, a coke was about the same price as in US. It started to rain a
little when we reached the top, the entrance to the president's place and offices had 2 guards which were very still, except that (I was told) that if you
harassed them or made faces, they would probably whoop some tail. I saw a girl get real close, and the guard hit the butt of his gun down hard on the ground.
We went inside and got 1 ticket for many different sports, for about 2 bucks student rate.
We saw a very large church, and took photos of the All Saints
Chapel and St. John's bones in St. George's Chapel. We then got into the castle and walked around a while, and saw lots of really old stuff, including Chapels
and furnishings. We took a stroll through the underground crypts and then went through a tight and steep ascent up a tower. We thought the trip up would never
end. When we made it to the top we had a real good 360 degree view of the city, churches, and surroundings. We left the hilltop for some shops and
eventually lunch, I got a chess set made of wood, for about 40 bucks. I know I could maybe have haggled for $30, but the girl had already dropped it about $10
to begin with. This whole shopping trip has been a good bargain anyhow, so I took first offer. Before we left, we picked up a few cuban cigars for about 5
bucks a piece with a metal casing. Oh, I called my dad today, which was probably around 5 AM Dallas time, but I was sure to get ahold of him. We
are now near the Polish border as I write, and I spent about all my krowns for gas fillup (795 kc about 25 bucks). Ah shoot, just remembered
we didn't get any Kolaches! But, none of us remembered seeing any while we were there, strangely enough.
Well, we are at the border, and boy is the line long (well, maybe about 20 cars and 2 buses), I'm expecting a pretty good wait. After this border stop we'll
have to go through another for Poland (I think). We see alot of people walking along the roadside with groceries and brewskies, so we have a pretty good
idea that things we'll be a little more expensive in Poland than Czech Republic. I learned how to ask for 1 beer or 2 (in Polish), and was
reminded how to say I only spoke English, that should be all I need wink wink. Well, I think it ended up being 20-30 minutes. The last guy
seemed like he migh search our car since we had 2 American passports, but then asked for a green card for the car, which we had, so we made it through.
Gas is about 60 cents a liter (or 2.40$ per gallon), which is cheaper than Czech Republic, and cheapest so far this trip. We use more gas than beer, so this is good.
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