A Day of Traveling

Thursday was my last day in Berlin. I tried to see some more of the city, and decided to just wander around. The first thing that I saw when I exited the S Bahn was a huge mass of people surging toward these pallets. Everyone was given a box, so I decided to be a lemming and took one myself; each box had about ten packages of pre-made dumplings. I was kind of excited, but cooked some the other day and they were horrible. Guess I can’t complain though, as they were free.
At the stop, Alexanderplatz, I just wandered northwest. I walked for an hour or two, and suddenly realized I was lost: my goal in the city! I stopped for some coffee, which, by the way, is a lot stronger in Germany than in the Czech Republic, and was asked by a German, in German, why I didn’t speak German. I told him that I was from the states, but my father’s father was German, which is the only German I know from Schubert’s The Erlking. Weird how songs can stick in your head. It was just grand to wander around the city one last time, grab another bite to eat, and just relax. Street food is fantastic there, and I already miss doners....
I left Berlin at midnight, and half-slept on the way home... Dresden looks really nice at 2 in the morning, and I would like to return. I arrived in Prague at 4:30 in the morning on Friday, and since the metro does not start until 5, I decided to walk to a nearer stop. Prague is creepy at this time of night, but it was fantastic to see the center without tourists crawling around everywhere. I finally got home at around 6, and went straight to bed; the rest of the day was all about rest, and watching episodes of Heroes (my new passion).
Saturday morning I had this grand plan to head to Moravsky Krumlov and see Mucha’s Great Slav Epic, but I slept in a little late. I finally reached the bus station at 11, and headed to Brno, where I switched to a train, but did not get into Moravsky Krumlov until twenty minutes until four. I sprinted to the museum, but it closed at four. The lady was very nice, and let me go into the museum until it closed, without paying, but I still wish I would have had more time. I wanted to stay at the exhibition for two hours, but it ended up being only ten minutes. I would have been really upset, but the lady was very kind, and she understood my desire to see the masterpiece. I would have canceled the whole trip, but the museum is closed during the winter months. Moravsky Krumlov is dead, and there is no reason why the 20 gigantic panels are not in Prague, or at least in Brno. After the quick museum tour, I headed back to the train station, returned to Brno, and returned to Prague at 10 pm. On the bus home, my neighbor did not speak English, but I was brave enough to start a conversation; we chatted for two and half hours in Czech and I was really surprised that I could catch most that was going on. I hope that I will have more chances for these long conversations. All in all, it was eleven hours of travel for ten minutes of museum. I didn’t let it put me down though, and had a great dinner party at my friends place, and was able to play a piano and oboe duet with my friend Adam. Completely random, but a nice end to the hectic day.
Everyone is getting back to Prague, and it is nice to be back at home after our week of vacations. I wish that I was in the states this week, but just for Halloween. I hope we can have a good time, but the holiday is not really celebrated here... I’ll eat a lot of candy either way.