Chaos Leaves Town

I was having an excellent time in Prague, and I really appreciated how stuff was so low cost here in the Czech Republic. I also met so many happy 20 somethings, well aware of their luck of having been born too late to ‘enjoy’ the ‘benefits’ of the Soviet brand of communism. They have a mostly socialist state, but now with western style open market consumerism alongside. Hordes of tourists are now flooding into CR because it’s easy and fun, especially Prague. With all their money, they are causing the current building boom, refurbishments, and long neglected restorations. This helps keep many employed. As does the expanding service sector mostly there to service the tourists.  The city is no longer the dull and drab gray that personified a typical Soviet satellite city for so many decades.

The city is charming, though I was hoping for the opportunity to go into the country and browse around a small village or two. And the next day I just wandered around, eventually ending up in the old town square. Where stuff happens. I happened to notice a flyer that there was to be a presentation of Bach and Mozart in a church right on the square. It didn’t start until 18:00 so I planned to show up in the square around 16:00. On the walk there, happened upon a crystal shop and this is their stuff. Wow. Gorgeous.

You can see all the tents set up. This was the day before a special soccer game day or something. I forget. Lots of stuff going on in the town square. Over where those trees are, to the right of that church, is a restaurant with bunches of outdoor tables set up inside that area, which turns out is a park. That’s where I wanted to eat because their menu featured Beef Goulash. Now I’m aware there’s several ways to make goulash but I especially wanted to try the goulash here in Prague since I believed they invented it.

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My room was very nice…along with the rest of the hotel, it had ultra hip drawings, paintings, and color scheme. In their ads, they call it a ‘Funky Design Hotel’. Some of the quotes painted on the walls were thought provoking, but most were funny. Nearly all of them in English. The bathroom had a very dark color scheme which didn’t quite go with the bright and airy room, but, it served it’s purpose. If you’ve never stayed in a hostel, they really do save you quite a bit of money. For instance, I was paying 22€/night here for a shared room where a private room would have cost me 55€. And the 22€ per night here is kind of spendy as most hostels charge under 20€. Can’t remember why I chose this one as it was a spur of the moment decision to go to Prague. But I did tend to read all reviews about a potential place I’d be staying. I pretty much only used hostels.com. If I was to go back to Prague this coming May, I’d stay here: Prague Tyn. It’s only $22/night for a private room, comes with breakfast. Should have stayed there instead of the Fusion.

When you’re a sightseeing traveller, you hardly do anything in your room except shower and sleep so having other people share the space isn’t that big a deal. In my room, there were 4 beds, but most people only stay one night and travel on, there were two nights here in Prague when I had the room to myself. Sometimes you’ll have women roommates, other times someone will be a snorer (all hostels sell foam ear plugs, this hostel had them at 3 freaking Euros !!! a pair when all over the world they are usually much much less).

Next morning, I wandered downstairs (my room was on the 2nd floor) and ordered a breakfast prominently featured on the menu board. This place didn’t have free breakfast like most hostels. I ordered scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, and toast. For around 5€. It was terrible. The eggs were under cooked…ruiny. The bacon…way undercooked, the fat was still white. Toast was under cooked. Coffee was weak. Gah. Horrible. The cook had no idea how to prepare a breakfast. Guess that’s why I saw so many people ordering porridge or cold cereal for breakfast. I picked at the meal and did find the sausages eatable, and a bit of the eggs. The bacon? No.

After that poor assed excuse for a breakfast, joined the tour group of about 25 people and off we went to join our guide. Hostel staff guided us to a street corner and then we waited for our tour guide. We’re standing around, I’m noticing many notices and street signs and I’ve now been here in Prague for a few hours and have noticed that I cannot make sense of a single word in Czech that I’ve seen. In Italy and France, at least once in a while I could make out a words meaning, a street name, a service, a type of business, etc., but not here in Prague. I could not figure out a thing. So I asked the tour assembler, are there any tricks to trying to figure out your language you could teach me? Any simplified rules? He looks at me in all seriousness and says, “Don’t even try”. Hah! Funny.

And, “I could not figure out a thing”, is “Nemohl jsem přijít na věc” in Czech. See what I mean? Where’s the pronoun? So street names, signs on buildings, menus, etc. were just Greek to me. Here’s a building. Loved the pattern.

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As I said last issue, my last two days were not all that noteworthy. I just wandered around town, took a 2nd leisurely trip out to If Castle, gawked at the ocean and the cool sailboats in the harbor, and the beautiful women everywhere, etc. I did do my laundry the day before I left so I’d have a bag full of clean clothes when I got to Prague. I walked over to the north side museum and fort, but just couldn’t bring myself to spend my last few hours in Marseille inside there. Sort of walked around it and then just walked on.

The morning came to take the subway over to the Marseille airport and since my plane didn’t board until 10:45, I had plenty of time. When I did get into the security line, my computer went in one bin, luggage bag in the next, then various other items not usually separated from your bags at other airports in a 3rd bin. They had strict rules (I thought) about what had to be removed from your luggage and placed in separate bins.  I had my small can of shave cream confiscated, and when I quietly complained, the agent says I can buy mini cans anywhere. Bullshit. I’d looked in at least 50 stores around Europe by this time in my trip and that simply wasn’t true. BTW, they have a much simpler way to handle the bins at this airport, down below the roller tables were ‘return’ roller pathways where you’d put your empty bin when you reached the end of the line and it would make its own way back to the beginning. No running out of bins like they do in US airports all the time. Eventually we made it through though and soon we’re on the plane.

When I’d arranged this trip, I had found that the Prague Airport is miles outside of town, around 20KM. Way too far for a taxi to be economical. Originally I was planning on taking the bus, but then I found a shuttle service on the internet that would take you right to your door. Nice new vans or cars, uniformed drivers, and quite inexpensive, comparatively. It was still early in the day when I got down to the area in the airport where I was suppose to meet my driver (pre-arranged online). I see a line of 20 drivers from my service, and other services were there as well, holding up signs, but my name was nowhere to be found. So I just hung around and nearby bought some Czech money. The driver was suppose to meet me soon after my flight landed. After an hour, I’m starting to wonder. So I go and ask 2-3 of the drivers still there. Most of the other drivers had picked up their rides. They sort of just shrugged or said they didn’t know or whatever. None of them offered any suggestions or reached for a phone to call their office. Well, crap, something screwed up about this. So I go outside (beautiful weather, shirt sleeve) where the buses and taxis and locals picking up family are. I see a bus I can take but I really don’t know where I’m going so not quite sure the bus idea will work. I’m aware that the taxis from the airport to downtown are very, very expensive and every travel guide I’d read told me to avoid them at all costs. On the other hand, I had the address to my hostel and they could take me right to the front door.

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So today’s plan was to walk past the harbor, visit the fort overlooking the harbor entrance, retrace my steps back to board the subway, to the train station, hop on the Cassis train, make my way to the Cassis Harbor by bus or taxi, buy a boat ticket to visit the French Fjords, spend a couple hours on a boat, have a nice dinner there in Cassis, then back to Marseille. That was my hoped for adventure.

Early in the morning, near 8 AM, I’d already walked the couple miles from my apartment to the southern tip of the harbor. The Fort St. Nicolas complex is a fort built atop an outcropping overlooking the sea at the mouth of the Marseille Harbor. There’s a museum in the area too. I’d hoped to be able to tour the entire complex over a couple hours but when I walked up to the forts gate, a construction manager shooed me away, because they weren’t open yet. I could see lots of interesting stuff though. The construction manager had his office in an old rock carved room with a desk, drawing table strewn with drawings, a landline phone, a strangely anachronistic computer and printer, etc. I ask if I could go into the courtyard for pictures? Not for another year he tells me. I saw a sign to that effect just before entering the open main gate, but didn’t really pay attention. They do allow people to wander around the outer grounds of the fort, but not the inner section. Here’s a shot just after entering the main gate on the right, climbing those stairs and up the path to the main fort entrance.

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Another beautiful day in Marseille…I was NOT regretting my decision to travel down here. Another beginning to what looked like a weather perfect day. What was happening though was that we had a very early morning rainstorm. I could feel it and smell it on the breeze when I got up. And see the puddles down on the street. Storms heading north to Paris it turned out.

As you might imagine, after a month doing the tourist dance in Europe, I was getting to a point where I wanted to take my time and spend more time sitting than walking. I felt I should leave walking, jogging, and running to those times I’d need to catch a form of public transportation or escape a band of thieves. Not that I worried much about thieves, but doesn’t hurt to be constantly prepared and vigilant.

Today was going to be a tour bus day, but not until after I visited the outdoor market for some fresh fruit and veggies.

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The previous evening, I’d enjoyed eating out and then an excursion to the bar at the park before settling in at the apartment. My host didn’t get home until around nightfall, which at this time of the year was at 8:30 PM or so. Turns out he’s a scientist. Spends all day doing sciency stuff. At a science lab. I’m trying to remember what type of science but I’m drawing a blank. The guy was Argentinian though. Very good English speaker. Emigrated here to France to go to college, liked it well enough to stay. He was letting his flat [renting his apartment; louer son appartement; Vermietung seiner Wohnung] to people like me in order to save enough money to move his girlfriend and future wife over to France with all her possessions. All during our talk, the sun was setting in the west over the Mediterranean and a gentle breeze was wafting in through the large windows. Very nice. Soon I toddled off to bed in the bedroom while the host made himself comfortable on the couch. I have to say though, it was comfortable, so he wasn’t putting himself out much. Turned out that he was working on an experiment and he left early in the morning, came home for a couple hours in the afternoon, then went back to work until 8ish. So I had the place to myself, most of the time.

But I wasn’t just going to sit on my butt the whole time. The next morning, I quickly rose, dressed, made myself breakfast, and headed over to the harbor. Really took my time because I didn’t arrive here until after noon and I’d left the apartment at 9:30. The boat tours leave at odd times but average one departure per hour all day. My ticket had an open departure, meaning I could board any one of the 21 departures for that day. The boat went to a populated island, and also to the If Castle, which is where I was headed, landing at the castle first on the outbound voyage. I had to catch the return boat at one of 4 return times up until 18:15 (6:15 PM), which would be the last boat. If you missed that one, you’d get to spend the night sitting on a rock as the Castle would be closed and locked.

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The day arrived, and off I went to the Gare Lyon train station to get out of this wet weather by traveling to Marseille by high speed train. Cost was 93€ for a 1st class ticket. First class gets you better, less crowded cars, with few stops, and higher speed. It’s a 3 and 1/2 hour trip so I didn’t feel the need to get to the Lyon train station in downtown Paris until 9:00. Train left at 10:37 so I had plenty of time to browse the train station and enjoy some espresso with a breakfast pastry. See those people looking up at something? They’re looking at a huge board with arrival and departure times for the many trains this station handles daily. One of the busiest train stations in the world. Naturally, the day I leave we had blue skies and sunshine. But the weather prediction did show rain later in the day so I didn’t regret leaving one bit. I’d had my fill of rain. There’s something I haven’t mentioned about Europe, there are many, many different travel discounts for seniors and tourists. But you have to get in the habit of asking. Not every place has them, but those that do are happy to oblige, if you ask. They won’t ask you. Took me a while to get use to asking while in Rome, but once it’s a habit, it can save you a bit of money. I’d been in Europe for a month and two days on this fine morning.

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After my day off, due mainly to weather, I couldn’t just sit in the house another whole day, even though the weather was just as bad as yesterday. I did ask for, and received, permission to stay another 2 days in this apartment. The owner was very happy to allow it, and gave me a 25% discount. Neither of us had to pay AirBnB so we both saved money on the deal.

Anyway, carrying my umbrella and wearing my hooded jacket, I braved the wind whipped rain and dashed to the subway station 10 blocks away. Off I went on an excursion to Notre Dame.

There is Notre Dame, after a short walk from the Metro. Those double towers over past the bridge. 

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I took another day off, my 8th day in Paris, because it was stormy and raining like crazy off and on all day. Stayed in the apartment and researched places to travel and things to visit, collected and saved new links into my travel bookmarks, got caught up on all my daily comics, did my banking, repacked my bags, showered and generally had a relaxing day. But I was getting a little tired of the tiresome rain! Gah!

It got very dark and dismal after that picture was taken. And the weather report didn’t show any letup all day.

Now some of you may be wondering why I didn’t take the regional train somewhere outside of Paris into a small distant village, the type of place I prefer over large cities? (Which is kind of what I’d planned for this day). Fair question. This is my first ever trip to France. Actually my first trip to Europe! I wanted to visit many of those historical places and museums I’d been reading, seeing on TV, and hearing about my whole life. Then sometime in the future, with the knowledge gained by my experience on this trip, find a nice house to rent somewhere in the countryside, rent a car, and explore. This trip was like a scouting expedition sort of. Of several places in Europe. AND, it was raining bad!

I think I will just make this post an informational post. No museums today. One thing I’ve been asked by friends and acquaintances about this trip is my luggage. Two full months? How much luggage did you take? Well, all I took was a carry on bag that I could store in the overhead on a plane, and my computer bag which you’re allowed to take aboard airplanes and store under your seat. That’s all the baggage I took, along with the clothes I was wearing.

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I wanted to visit Versailles, often recommended by tour guides and travel experts as a must see attraction in not only Paris, but France, and all of Europe. OK, well, with all that hype, it must be pretty special. From where I was, Porte d’Orleans, south of the city center, I had to head south west to reach Versaille. Here’s a map…Porte d’Orleans to Versaille. It’s not that easy to get there if you don’t have a car. I tried to talk my host, Youssef, into taking the day off from work and driving over there with me, but he couldn’t.

The next morning really threatened rain, but I had an umbrella and a hooded jacket so I walked to the subway station, the Metro, traveled to a nearby RER station which is the Regional transport system, bought a ticket and board RER-C for a 12 mile ride to Versaille. Recall that the King disliked the palace in Paris. What he didn’t like was that he thought the buildings ugly, than he hated the stench of city life in those days, the usurping of the courts power by the royalty, and finally he hated the hordes of people asking for something. By moving to Versaille, he could have his ministers greet and meet at the Paris palace while he hung out at Versaille. Wasn’t as stinky either. And he had a hand in deciding decor. Wasn’t that simple of course, and the whole story took a hundred years, so here’s a wiki article: Palace of Versaille History.

The station where you arrive is well marked with signs to the palace and it’s just a few steps from the station to one business that sells entrance tickets. I’d known about the different tickets but I didn’t realize that getting there at 9:30 would be too late to get the package I wanted. Still, I wasn’t going to miss Versailles so I just bought a general admittance ticket. Then you walk up the street 100 feet, and take a left onto this street and you can see the palace in the distance. Five minute walk. Versaille use to be a sleepy hamlet outside of Paris. Now it’s part of the suburbs.  

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