Vienna to Praha, Czech Republic...and unexpected destinations!

(Vee reporting) 4/25/06 - Today is my little sisters birthday. My first thought when waking up in our vienese room was my little Sandra, but strangely I had her 5-year old self in my memory. She is not a little girl anymore, and I felt sad for all the birthdays that I have missed.
We were checked out and ready to go by 10:30am. Our Eurail-pass schedule said that our train was leaving at 11:08am, so we hurried to find a taxi only a few blocks away from our hotel.
We were at the train station in no time, and found our platform very quickly. Something didn't look right though...uh oh...Cliff and I have come to develop this sort of "sixth sense" when something isn't right. I double checked at the ticketing office, and was happy that I did. We were on the wrong platform, our train schedule had been changed AND we learned that eurailpass doesn't cover the Czech Republic!
With tickets and schedule in hand, we quickly grabbed some coffee, bread and headed towards our real gate.
What the ticketing officer didn't explain to us, is that this new train had also a different route. After an hour in the train we arrived to the station where we were told to switch trains. Hmm...we thought, this must be a small Czech village, and since we had a full hour before our train to Praha arrived, we wondered around a little bit outside the station.
It was only a few moments before stepping into our train (which was delayed by 15 minutes) that Cliff noticed the map in which this little village was located. The country map had Budapest as the capital! What?!...we were in Slovakia! Ha! Bratislava, Slovakia...CHECK! I wanted to take some pictures, but it was too late. Inflation in this country was obvious, and they probably have also a poor exchange rate. Cliff purchased a small coffee for SF32!..which was the quivalent of 50 cent EURO. Yup...we were in east europe, and we were happy to be there.
Once on our way to Praha, we were asked to show our passport to the train officer. This part of the ride has been smooth so far almost everywhere (by exception of our arrival to Germany), I showed them our passports and as always Cliff's got looked and checked in no time, and then the dragging 10-minute inspection of my passport begins. Being a bolivian in 2006 is not a very popular thing to be, so as expected my passport was checked, re-checked, a magnifying device was used to make sure that it is not fake....oh gosh I thought. I had my marriage certificate and birth certificate copies ready by now, and it was just then that they decided I was ok to go.

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(Cliff reporting)
As we made the final approach into Prague, the train slowed, and we passed over a river. I happened to glance at Vee and saw her face change from one of content, to one of curious surprise, and I asked her what was going on. She explained that as we passed over the river, she was looking down at the river banks and saw a man, completely naked, lying there, and a fully clothed woman spooning with him, right there, beneath the train. Now it was clear: Prague was going to be a very interesting city. We got off the train and noticed right away that things here were different. This would be no Bern, Switzerland. This was rough, gritty, Prague. But, as we would quickly learn, there is a vibrant luster burning through the surface. Our first mission was to find a map. A little shop in the station had just what we needed, but after waiting in line to pay, we learned that they did not accept Euros, only Czech Crowns. We walked back into the terminal and exchanged 40 EUR for 1,010 Crowns and went back to pay for the map, no prob. Next mission, after analyzing the map, and determining our current location and that of our pension, was to decide how and with what means we wanted to get there: walk, tram, metro, bus, or taxi. It was hard to know how far of a walk it would be as the maps for each city seem to differ greatly in scale, so with the fatigue of travelling all day settling in, we opted for a quick taxi ride, hoping it wouldn't be too far and/or expensive. We waited at the taxi area for a while, and with each wasted minute, we gathered more willingness for trying public transport. Our map indicated a metro stop right there in the train station, as well as another that popped out within a block of the street where the pension was located. Fumbling with the Metro ticket machines, the first of which wouldn't accept any of my Crowns, we finally broke down and bought a Coke from one of the vendor stands nearby so that we could acquire the necessary coins for buying the tickets. The ticket-purchase instructions were in an alphabet completely foreign to me, and I found the shredded English translations beneath them to be less than helpful. Finally with tickets in hand, we poked the flimsy scraps into the yellow validation box and descended down into the subway tunnel. The subway cars looked as if they had arrived through the ground from the factory rather than the subway stop before us. Absolutely immaculate. How about that!?! We climbed aboard and two stops later, got off at the Florenc station, and once above ground, started walking with determined confidence in the direction we hoped our pension would be. To our grateful surprise, 'Alice Pension' was only about 2 blocks away, in fact it was so close to the station, that we thought it was a mistake, and that there must be more than one hotel named 'Alice' in the viscinity, but after double-checking the address, sure enough, this was it. The folks at the front desk were very friendly, quiet and gracious. The man who greeted us then came around the desk, and lead us up the spiral stairs, carrying Vee's bag at his insistance, and took us to our room. We passed a nice little terrace on the way, and were then astounded by what would be our accomodations for the next few days. Already, we knew we were both thinking about extending our stay, without having exchanged so much as a word. This place is awesome. Our own fully-equipped kitchenette, a beautiful brand new full bathroom, and not just one double bed, but two, plus a double pull-out futon. And, all sorts of storage and closet space, and cute decorations, a table and chairs, plants, locker, and a chandalier. This place in no way reflects the price we are paying for it. Once the giddiness wore off enough for us to want to get outside, we cleaned up, and chose a few destinations to which we'd wander. As we began walking, it took no time for us to realize that Prague is a very special place. There is lots of construction going on, and it looks like alot has already been built brand-new, or recently restored. There are lots of young people bouncing around, music pumping from many of the bars, cafes and restaurants we passed, and then once in the center, the spectacular architecture from centuries past. Everything is just so rich with character, and life. We were buzzing, and we hadn't had a drink, yet. We found the jazz club that I wanted to check out, and discovered that the show would be starting in a little over an hour, which was a perfect amount of time for us to find a nearby place to eat. I had an unexpressed craving for pizza, and coincidentally, Vee picked out an Italian place that suited perfectly. The meal was delicious; we shared a vegetarian pizza, minestrone soup, and bruschetta. I had a delicious Czech stoudt called "Kelt", and Vee had some Coke Light. We paid, and asked our waiter how we could say thank you in their language, and he said something like "hey-kwee"(phonetic spelling, obviously), so we exchanged mulitple "hey-kwees" and made our way back to Reduta Jazz Club, where President Bill Clinton made appearances in 1994 and 2005, on the sax. The cover charge totalled 400 Crowns (approximately 15 EUR) and there was a self-serve bar inside with draught Pilsner Uruquell for 80 Crowns. The 4-piece band played 3 sets, for about 2 1/2 hours, and they rocked the house. Each individually was amazing, and together wonderful to watch and hear. Numerous times, my hair stood up on end with the electricity of their performance. At midnight, the show was over, and we bounced outside and ambled blissfully back to the hotel, where we quickly fell asleep in our bed on cloud 9.