Life in a Backpack: “Prague, Tell me I don’t have to write today…” (8/24 & 8/25)
Day nine and ten of my three month European backpacking journal
Wednesday, August 24th, 2016
I don’t want to write.
The trouble with being human is that when we’re low on energy, we can’t just plug ourselves into the wall to get more juice. For once on this trip I want to be selfish and disconnect, to turn off the record button and just take a nap.
I’m tethered to this blog.
Always taking photos
Always taking notes
Always writing in my journal
Never taking the time to nap.
That would be valuable WIFI time I could use creating, editing, and uploading. To say it’s impossible would be an understatement.
Before leaving Vienna, I took some time for myself to walk barefoot in the grass and to read a little. Vienna still had its peaceful charm, and for the first time in nine days, I made room for something I really wanted: to relax!
Up until recently, my journaling on this trip had been split in two categories:
1.) my notebook, full of self reflection, scenery description, people watching notes, and other private things.
2.) my online blog, full of photo collecting, daily happenings and details, and descriptions of different, less personal things.
It’s been a lot of work, and I haven’t yet felt like I am on vacation.
After an exhausting five hour bus ride from Vienna to Prague, with
Too little water
No food
Not enough sleep
By the time we made it to our hostel (a 45 minute hike through the old city of Prague) we were exhausted! For dinner I had two Czech beers and a bag of chips (67CZK = 2.5 Euro)
With my only view of Prague from the window of our 4th floor room, I began writing about my travel companions. I actually wrote for the better part of an hour, but felt after reading it to myself, that it sounded more like a gospel song, the kind where the singer sings about how they’re blessed in every way. It sounded stupid. It sounded forced.
That’s why I didn’t post anything for today.
Thursday, August 25th, 2016
I ate the hostel breakfast of bread, cheese, granola, and yogurt and then headed West, toward Prague’s historic Wenceslas Square to begin our Rick Steve’s guided audio walking tour.
This last week has felt as if my companions and I were a tethered ball, bound to a pole of time constraints. We don’t have a choice but to keep moving. But we are moving too fast, and it became increasingly evident how exhausted we all were by the time we got to Prague.
If I weren’t so tired, I may have taken better notes along our walk. Instead, here is what I remember Ben saying about why he liked this city.
“The city makes me feel warm with the tones of the buildings, cobblestone streets, and accented green and red rooftops.”
The tan and greyish tones reminded me of an overcast day in Florida, a welcome escape from the tortuous August sun.
And then the tourists…
As soon as we crossed Manesuv Most bridge into the Old Town, we stepped into a tourist feeding frenzy.
Tourists lathering milky sunscreen on their pink necks
Tourists stuffing Trdelnik into their mouths
Tourist children looking upset and disappointed as tourist fathers read aloud from guidebooks
Tourists stating questions over and over again to confused Czech shop keepers, even louder each time
Tourists taking selfies
Tourists literally in herds grazing along 11th century cobblestones streets…
There were so many tourists that I began to reflect heavily on how I might be perceived. I suddenly became aware of my silly straw hat, my wrinkled khaki pants, my notebook with a hundred scribbled notes on Prague, my backpack with the lock on the zipper, and my phone with 67 photos saved.
How am I any different to the citizens of Prague? Do I look exactly like the 12 million tourists who have already visited in 2016? I felt self-conscious and began to restrain the urge to snap photos or write impressions of the city in my notebook.
I spent the rest of the day just taking pictures of tourists… and have no photos from the guided tour we took. Oops!
Here are the photos I DO have:
Czech favorite: One scoop banana, one scoop strawberry
When we finally made it back to our hostel (without getting lost this time) we were all ready for a break.
From 3:30 PM until about 4:30 PM, I took my first European nap! It was better than sex.
The rest of my evening was spent hanging around the hostel without shoes, socks, or obligations. I caught up with friends and family. For dinner we went out for pizza, directly across the street from the hostel and shared some Pilsner Czech beer, toasting to a day well spent.
As the sun set over Prague’s spired churches, we took a leisured walk along the Vltava. While staring out into the slowly darkening European city, my brother Chris said something that perhaps sums up the entire trip up until this point:
“This is the first time we’ve stopped long enough to really appreciate where we are and where we’ve been. I finally feel like I’ve arrived in Europe…”
