Welcome to the Eastern Block!

Liebe Familie, Mittwoch 22 Oktober 2008
After getting up early this morning I went off to the train station and got on the train. We were all so exhausted from earlier this week, so we just talked and did sudoku on the train. At one point we folded out our seats really cool and all laid down, but by the time we finished documenting the event, we were nearly there and the train was too loud to get any real sleep.

After arriving in Prague we took a subway to hostel, and dropped our stuff off in time for our tour with “Vladimir.” He's this funny old man who waves his umbrella for us to see where he is. We walked around the old town, and saw many beautiful buildings. It was difficult to understand him with us being such a large group, so I didn't really get to learn that much. I did get to run across Charles' Bridge, I don't know the real name of it, sorry. But yeah, within the first hour of our tour it became so dark and cold, I was so glad I had brought my jacket with me, even though it had been so sunny and warm. By the end of the tour we were all freezing and hungry, and very anxious to go pull money out and buy food.

We ran to a grocery store, where a very angry, old, mean man would refuse each and every one of us. As we had just taken out money from the ATM, we had larger bills, but they were the equivalent of $50. He would refuse to take our money, and we would have to keep handing it to him for about 30 seconds before he would grudgingly take it, and give us our change. What a grump! He would then proceed to crumple our receipts and throw them on the ground behind the counter, so we couldn't really see how much money we'd just spent and compare it with the change he'd given us. He has been voted my least favorite person in all of Europe.

At the hostel our floor shares a very gross, small kitchen where we made our pasta. We also have communal showers with no curtain or door, so none of us will be showering all that much. This is the first time we've stayed in a hostel, not a hotel. Which is completely fine, accept for the shower thing. I at least expect there to be some kind of article blocking me from other people.

I am ready to keel over, so I'm going to bed, even though it is only 9. But I need it terribly.
Love,
Anna