We got off to an early start today. We had to be down to breakfast by 7AM since the bus was leaving at 8AM. It was awful.
Our bus driver was not an old man like the last couple of days, he was young and not too bad looking. Allie and I would comment on this for most of the trip. As we were sitting on the bus waiting for the last bus to arrive, I made the comment to Allie that today would probably be a lame blogging day since all we were doing was driving and driving and driving. Oh, how wrong I was.
Not 30 minutes outside Dresden, we are driving along, minding our own business, when this random van comes out of nowhere and pulls up to the driver’s side of the bus. He honked his horn a few times, and our driver threw open his side window. After a minute of German yelling, our driver began to look panicked and slowed down. He must have gotten ahold of the other buses because we pulled over in a gas station parking lot and he got out. He didn’t speak much English, but a few minutes later when he got on he said to us in very broken English, “Damaged. Not good. Shit.” How wonderful. After just enough time to get all 45 of us on the bus talking loudly about what was going to happen to us, Victoria told us that 15 people were going to have to get on one of the other buses and the rest of us were going to hang out until another bus could come pick us up. So Allie and I waved goodbye to Gabby and Christina and the 13 other people as they, and the two other buses, drove out of sight. It didn’t take long for the new bus and our tour guide to show up, and we were off again.
Today’s tour guide was this super cute, sweet older lady named Gabby. We decided to call her Mother Hen because anytime we were about to cross a street she would step in front of all of us, hold her arms to the side, and wait until there were no cars to put her arms down and let us cross the street. She’s our favorite so far. We took a very short bus tour of Dresden, and then Gabby guided us for 2 hours through the picturesque Old Town of Dresden. We saw some of the most beautiful buildings and churches I have ever seen. I have pictures, but looking through them they just don’t do the places we saw today any justice. It was like walking through a storybook. As Gabby would later say, it reminded her of Disney Land and Beauty and the Beast. The only thing that stood out was random people-statues placed all over; this included a very creepy looking witch I thought was Dumbledore from afar.
After our tour was over, Allie, Carl and I decided to head towards the market to grab some lunch. We got ourselves some brawts and let Carl decide where to sit. He decided on this nice table near a very peaceful looking fountain, it seemed calm enough. Oh no. Allie and I got our butts soaked from sitting on the bench without realizing there was water all over it. And then halfway through lunch, the wind and the fountain decided to wage an attack on me and get only me super wet. I jumped across Allie and she lost half of her bratwurst, and I still got soaked. We decided to move after that. Once we were done with lunch, we decided to walk through the city and go into every building we could. The Protestant church was by far the most beautiful thing we saw all day. The inside was so richly decorated; the pictures I took (illegally) don’t portray even half of the inside’s beauty. After being dark gray and drizzly all day, the god’s decided it was time for us to leave Dresden; and with a downpour that could match Seattle’s worst day, Dresden bid us farewell.
It was only supposed to be an hour and a half drive from Dresden to Prague, but the traffic inside the city of Prague was maddening, so it took us a little over two hours. Just from our driving through the city I can say Prague does not look anything like I imagined it. Finally, I feel like I’m in Europe and not just some city in the United States. That is the one thing going for it- Prague is most definitely an old European city. We had to park or 3 greyhound-type buses on the side (in the middle) of the street to unload our bags, and for twenty minutes all you could hear inside the hotel was cars honking outside at the buses, and 200 college students buzzing about in a hotel lobby. Dinner was supposed to be at 7:30PM, but Audrey and I decided not to pay attention to the clock until 7:45PM so we were a little late. From first impression, I think I’m going to like Czech food better than I did German. But I should really wait for breakfast to decide that.
This hotel, praise the Lord, has Wi-Fi, hence why I am posting the last four days’ worth of blogging now. It was nice to stay in for one night and spend some time just hanging out with the girls and catching up with friends on Facebook. Tomorrow however, we have much to do. It is our only day in Prague and we are determined to find the 5 story dance club so that we can celebrate our last night in Prague the best we can.Thursday, September 8th
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