Long weekend at hostels in Prague.
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One Swedish Crown is equal to three Czech crowns.
I hadn't slept so well so I was very tired. I therefore asked for a window seat which is better if you want to get some rest. I had a hand baggage and a rucksack. The rucksack I had to check-in at another desk for special luggage.
I had booked my ticket from a new air-company called FlyMe which have cheap tickets comparable to RyanAir. FlyMe was better for me since they fly directly from my city to a lot of places in Europe. If you travel with RyainAir you first have to go to London and change plane there which takes some time.
The departure was 18:30 and on my ticket there was written that we should arrive 20:20. We arrived 20 minutes earlier. I heard an airhostess tell a woman that the time depends much on the wind and it is of course better to write the longest time it takes on the tickets.
The Airport, Ruzyne, which was situated 20 km outside Prague, was very nice and well organized. I went quickly through a passport check and then you had to walk some distance to reach the baggage-claim area. It was easy to find your way and everything was marked out in a good way. My rucksack arrived first on the transportation belt.
I passed the custom without problem. Outside there were both a normal information desk and another information desk for transportations such as metro, bus and tram. At the transportation information I bought a 7-day ticket since they didn't have any 5-day tickets. I also took a god information brochure with information of all communications in Prague. The ticket was valid on the metro and also on all trams and busses. The ticket cost 280 Czech crones. When I talk about crones later in this story I mean Czech crones. I was informed that there were two busses which went from the airport to the first metro station, 119 was the one I should take. The bus stop was just outside the airport, a little to the right, and marked with 119.
The bus arrived soon and it took 20 minutes to the metro station. First there came one train on one of the two tracks but nobody seemed to jump on that train. Maybe it turned and came back on the other track. Some time later came a train on the track to the left and the people jumped on. A display on the train showed which station would be the next and inside on the walls you had also big schemas which showed you all the stations for the three metro lines. Everything was easy. I was going off at the Muzeum station which was the 5th station and it didn't take long time before you were there. It was then around 10 minutes walk before you reached the hostel. You could also take a tram.
I had booked in advance. I suppose you could have booked on www.hostel.com or www.hostelz.com but I booked on the hostels own web-pages which used another hostel site. I was a little worried that something could be wrong with my booking since all rooms were booked. The booking was however OK and I got bed number 4 in room 16 on the 4th floor. The room had 4 beds.
The hostel had 4 floors. On my floor there were three rooms and maybe 12 beds in total. There were also two bathrooms with showers and an additional toilet. Everything was really nice. I had after all been choosing it carefully on Internet which had taken a lot of hours reading guest reviews on the hostel sights.
There were no people in the room when I arrived which was good. Below the beds there were big boxes which you could lock if you had brought your own padlock. I picked up my things, took a shower and ate two breads I had taken with me. I wrote a little in my diary and at 11 p.m. I was ready to go out. Prague here I come.
I went to the Muzeum and all the way to the Old Town square. What a sight. Then I saw the Tyn Church. Holy shit! It was impressive with the towers lighted up in the dark. It looked really ghostlike, like there was some witch or magician living there.
I was back at the hostel half an hour passed midnight. The room was empty. I met two boys earlier, one of them just packed his things since he had a train to catch. The other guy came late in the night. He was really quiet when he went to bed so he shouldn't wake me up.
I woke up 6.30 in the morning and went out for a long walk around 7.30. One bed in the room was in use but the guy who had it had slept somewhere else.
I went everywhere during 8 hours and took a lot of photos of the beautiful city. I came back first 15.30.
I went from the hostel down through the old town square and over the bridge "Cechuv most". I tried to go to the castle but it was difficult to find the way from the park. The park was almost deserted except some people who practised skateboarding and a couple on a bench who did some serious petting which was quite cute to see. I went back again over the bridge and returned on the next bridge, "Manesuv most". I managed to go the wrong way again and had to go back a long way until I found a lot of tourists who went up a smaller path.
I went inside the huge church and had to pay for a ticket to enter. It was difficult to know which ticket you needed since they had probably 5 different tickets and you also had to pay 30 crowns extra if you wanted to take photos. I said that I just wanted to go inside and visit the tower. I thought that I then could go everywhere inside but the church had different zones. My ticket cost 20 crones. I didn't pay for taking photos but took a few anyway.
Going up in the tower was a real exercise. The narrow steps upwards seemed to continue forever. Luckily it was much easier to get down again. The difficult thing was that people went up and down through the same stair which circled upwards and was very narrow in the centre.
I managed to see the changing of the guards at 12.00 which was lucky since I hadn't planned that.
One thing I noticed directly when I arrived in Prague was that many girls where really slim and they looked very nice.
On my way back to the centre I went in and had a look inside St. Nick's church and after that I went over Charles Bridge. Back in the old town I stopped at a shop which sold old erotic 3-dimensional photos and also 3-dimesional photos of the city. Some younger girls were in front of me and I heard that they were going to buy number G-16. I had to look at it and found that it was three nude girls standing on their knees and the photo was taking from behind.
I went a little bit more and noticed that a lot of people were dressed in an old fashioned way. I just continued to walk right through the place and found out quite soon that I had just passed a place where they were making a movie. Luckily they were not filming when I passed by but I stopped and looked when they later filmed.
I hadn't eaten anything during the whole day and bought a sausage and Coca-Cola for 35+40 crowns. A little bit further away it cost just 30+35 crowns. The sausage was quite big, maybe twice as big as home.
Back at the hostel I tried to rest but it was difficult since it was so hot. It was no idea to take a shower before sunset since then you would have to do it again before you went out.
I just read in a book and waited for the sun to go down. After sunset I took the shower and prepared myself to go out. I had marked all dancing places I had found on Internet on my map so I could easily find them. The sight where I found the most information was www.pragueexperience.com.
I first walked to "Karlovy Lazne Dance Club". I had read that you should be there early otherwise you had to queue. It cost 50 crowns before 10 p.m. and 120 crowns after that. I arrived around 9 p.m. but then it looked really empty. I decided to wait a little and sat down at Charles bridge and watched all people passing by.
A quarter to 10 I went back to the disco. It was still almost empty but some people were dancing at one of the dance floors. People dressed in orange t-shirts marked "cleaning service" used baskets when they went around and picked up empty glasses. It must be quite effective.
The place was really big and had four floors with a lot of different dance floors. It was the opposite of luxurious but if you liked to dance it was good.
I first tried to order a "Cuba Libra" but was told that the machine was temporary out of order so I should come back after 10 minutes. Machine!? They had some kind of computerized machine which could make a few simple drinks. I decided to take a Gin and Tonic instead at another bar. It was big and quite strong so I hoped that I wouldn't get drunk because I am not used to drink. I danced a little before I continued to the next place. A lot of people arrived when I left.
11.30 p.m. I entered "Lavka" which was less than hundred meters away. It cost 100 crowns. There were people in my age out in the terrace which had a beautiful view of Charles Bridge. There was quite a big dance-floor inside on a lower floor and a smaller dance-floor outside on the way out to the terrace. A girl worked as a dancer on a little platform at the little dance-floor and only a few persons danced. I danced a little before I decided to go to the next place a quarter passed midnight. On my way I passed "Karlovy Lazne Dance Club" and there was now a little queue.
My next stop was a club called Zlaty. I first thought that it had closed down since there was a hotel or something like that. I then found that you could go downstairs to the club. The entrance fee was 60 crowns. Below were four girls who worked as strippers. They danced on a stage and 30-40 boys sat around and watched them. Two boys gave two of the girls money and the girls took of their bra and after some dances the two girls were replaced by new girls. I don't think they ever took of everything. A little bit further down there was a disco where I danced a little before I continued to the next place.
I went to "Double Trouble" which was more like a bar with no real dance floor. In one of the rooms they played however disco music and they even had a laser show. Just a few people danced. Many watched instead a wrestling competition on TV. I continued to the next place.
The next one was "La Fabrique" where they played "Simply the best" when I entered. Only two girls and another couple danced so I went to the next place.
"N11" was nice with some people who danced. I danced some dances before I went on.
On my way I met a nice looking woman telling a man that it would cost 3000 for one hour.
I was really hungry and ate a bread with small sausages. I found the disco Duplex on top of a building but didn't go in. At the disco Lucerna they told me that they had only dancing at weekends. I tried to find the disco Stonx but couldn't find it.
When I came home I wasn't alone in the room any longer. Three persons were sleeping in the other beds. I was really thirsty but found that I had no water left. I felt like a dehydrated raisin after all dancing and too little drinking. When I drink too little after being out dancing I can sometimes get cramps in my legs in the bed. Luckily I slept OK that night without any cramps.
I slept quite long, until 8.30 a.m., and found that one of the persons was a girl. She looked cute when she slept.
I visited a cathedral and booked a guided tour at the tourist office to the bone church. It cost 990 crowns. I went up in the tower at the Old Town Square and took some photos. I bought some small things and went back home.
In the evening I went to the salsa place called Manes which was situated at the river. It cost 50 crowns. I arrived around 22 p.m. Some couples were already dancing and more people arrived all the time. I sat down and after some time I asked a girl if she wanted to dance. She said no. Her sister joined us at the table a little later and she apologized for her sister and asked me if I still wanted to dance. Of course I would like that so we danced some dances. We talked a little and she told me that she worked with the movie they were making in the city. She showed me some photos from it which she had taken with her digital camera. She worked very much and had to leave quite early. After some time her sister asked me if I still wanted to dance. She told me that she wasn't so good but it was really nice to dance with her. She had a sun-feather which I would like to have. It was just a round circle which you could fold so it became very small. It was not feminine as ordinary sun-feathers so I think even a man could have it. She and her girlfriend left after some time and I left shortly afterwards around midnight. When I left the place was really crowded. They only played salsa music and everyone danced salsa and most of them danced really good. I would like to come back but they only played salsa music on Fridays. It was a pity that it was so warm inside that you couldn't dance so much.
I went to Duplex which was a big, big mistake because I didn't like the people there. It cost 300 crowns to get in. The place was maybe OK and the music was also OK but the dance floor was too small and over crowded. When you go to a salsa place you can see that people like to dance since they are happy, smile a lot and laugh. At Duplex you had nothing of that atmosphere. Some girls seemed to like dancing but the men looked like robots that moved there feet as little as possible to the music. I think that many of them were from England. They had really short hair and looked like escaped prisoners who had been drinking to much so their eyes where just empty and blank. They were showing no signs that they were having a good time. I left quite soon.
On my way to Duplex I had looked at a beautiful girl, who might have been from Latin America, when we met on the street. She had said hello and wondered where I was from. Then she had asked me if I wanted a blowjob. Before I could say no she told me her whole menu of things she had to offer. A little later I heard some other people discussing blowjobs and it seemed that a lot of such things where going on in the city after sunset.
When I arrived at the hostel the other people were out so I started to pack my things. I was changing hostel tomorrow. I had to check out before 10 a.m.
I had to check out before 10 a.m. and I left around 9 in the morning. I walked to the Muzeum metro station where I took the metro to "Nadrazi Holesovice" station. It was a little difficult to find the correct tram stop at first since it was a block away from the metro station.
They wrote me in but I couldn't do the real check in until later in the afternoon, after they had cleaned the room. I got however a code to the door and it was the same door code to the luggage room. It felt unsafe to leave your things in a luggage room at first but then they explained that there were lockers in the luggage room where you could lock in your things if you had a padlock.
After I put my things in the luggage room I took a breakfast. You could eat as much as you wanted for 90 crowns. I was starving so I ate a lot.
After breakfast I took a tram into the centre and looked at some souvenir shops before I joined the guided tour I had booked at 1.15 p.m. The guide company was called "Premiant City tour".
The guided bus to Kutna Hora took a little more than an hour. The guide talked almost all the time. Luckily he spoke English good. I thought that he maybe even spoke too much. I think that many other thought the same since some of them had fallen asleep. At one time the loudspeakers in the bus went off, or maybe the guide accidentally turned off his microphone. It was sometimes impossible to hear his voice but nobody bothered to tell him about it. At another place the narrow road was blocked by a car which had got a flat tire. The guide said nothing about it and just kept talking about historical things. The attention of all other people were of course focused on what was going on outside. I felt a little sorry for the man who guided us since he really wanted to tell us about all things. I suppose he was a little bit of a historical nerd who loved his job. He would have loved if someone asked him a question but nobody did.
The trip was quite good and I got a lot of photos, especially from the bone church.
When the guided tour was over I took the tram back to the hostel and could check in and get my bed. I met two lovely girls from Australia who also just had arrived and lived in the same room as I did. A really nice man from Ireland turned up shortly afterwards. We had a very nice conversation. One of the girls where travelling around Europe for eight weeks and her friend for four weeks. The man from Ireland studied mathematics and he had one year more to study and then he would get a doctor degree.
Later I packed up my things and took a shower. After the shower I dressed up and held some vodka in a 50 cl Coca-Cola bottle which I took with me down to the bar in the cellar. There were the two Australian girls and of course also the Irish man who had bought a big glass of beer. More and more people turned up. There were two people from New Zealand who had been out travelling for two years and didn't know what to do when they came back. Most part of the time they had worked as English teachers in South Korea. There was a friendly girl from Netherlands sitting next to myself. There was a really nice and funny guy from New York. Originally he was however from Siberia and had been living in New York the last ten years. There were some more men from USA and also a couple from Ohio. There were some more people but I couldn't remember where they were from. I ordered a special drink in the bar which many of the others had taken. It was RedBull mixed with something else. We had a really happy time together. The Irish guy and one of the Australian girls decided to play a game of chess while we other sat around a table talking and of course drinking.
Originally I had planned to go out and dance in the centre but since all the others where going out together to a place in the neighbourhood I decided that it would be much more fun to join them. Some time after midnight all of us therefore went to a club called "Cross Club". The entrance was free. It was a really odd place with small rooms everywhere. You didn't know where you were and how to come to other rooms. It was like a labyrinth and I don't think that it was just because I was a little drunk. Everywhere was engine parts from cars. One of the Australian girls and a boy from USA started after some time with some serious petting. I, the other girl from Australia and the girl from Netherlands danced disco at one of the dancing floors. We danced for ages. I wondered if it could be a whole hour, at least it felt so. After the dance we went out where you could sit down and get some fresh air. A boy handed me half a cigarette and asked me if I would like to have some marijuana. I said no but the girl from Australia smoked a little. I sat down and talked a little with the girl from Netherlands while the Australian girl ended up speaking with the nice guy who gave her the marijuana cigarette. After a couple of hours we went back to the hostel. I decided to drop in to another place on my way home while the others walked to the hostel. Just a block away from our hostel was the disco "Mecca" which I had heard and read a lot of. The entrance was free. It was a quite nice disco with a long bar along the dance floor which was some steps down. I just danced a little and ordered a Coca-Cola before I returned to the hostel. The Siberian guy sat in front of one of the computers surfing on the Internet while the others had gone to bed. I sneaked into my room which was completely dark and managed to find my bath towel so I at least could take a shower before I went to sleep sometime between three or four o'clock.
I always wake up early even if I had gone to sleep very late. I therefore woke up around 7 o'clock. I took a shower and went back to bed trying to write down as much as possible in my diary.
8 a.m. the other girl from Australia arrived. She had probably spent the night with the guy from USA. It must be difficult to make love in a bunk-bed. The other person who is sleeping below or over will feel all the bed movements.
I had breakfast and ate as much as possible since I didn't know if I would eat more that day. I met some of the friends from yesterday and we ate together which was nice.
I went inside the big church at the Old Town Square. There was some kind of guided tour with a lot of Japanese people who went inside at the same time as I did. Strangely you didn't have to pay anything to get inside and I took some photos. On my way out a woman asked me how I got in. She and some other people were not allowed to go in since the man at the entrance told them that it didn't open until 6 p.m. or something like that. It was a little bit confusing since it was written that it was open the whole day until 6 p.m. The question was if it was open for tourists or for ordinary people during the day.
When I arrived at the hostel I found many of the people from yesterday, and some new faces, sitting in the outdoor area which belonged to the hostel. They had found that the hostel had a gas-grill which all who lived there could use. They were drinking and had a very nice barbeque. I sat down for a while and talked a little with a really lovely girl from Latvia. All people were so nice so I wished I could have stayed at least one more night. I had in fact booked the whole night since my plane was leaving at 1 a.m. in the night.
The girl from Latvia thought that it was strange that the plane went in the middle of the night. When I started to think about it I also thought that it was strange since I would arrive at Landvetter airport outside my city 2:35 in the night. I thought that they were closed during the night. I started to worry and tried to phone my air-company but they were closed. I bought a 15 minutes card for Internet access for 10 crones and logged into www.lfv.se where you can see all flights from and to Landvetter airport. The time was correct and I am not sure if that was good or not. It would have been nice if the plane had departed 1:05 p.m. instead since then I could have a nice evening and night together with the other people.
I checked with the girl in the reception and found that I could take a bus from the metro station which went two times each hour, a quarter passed and a quarter to. The bus had the sign "AE" and it was an airport express bus. The girl told me that it took around 40 minutes to the airport and it cost 45 crowns. Another option was to take a taxi for 400 crowns.
I took the tram to the metro station where I took the AE bus. The bus stopped at two places at the airport and I managed to go off at the right bus station which was the second one. If you go by this bus you better talk with the bus driver or someone else in advance and try to find out which station you should go off at.
I arrived 3 hours early, at ten p.m. I was really very tired and I had to make a real effort not to fall asleep. Just in case I put on my alarm bell on my mobile. Luckily I didn't fall asleep so I checked in my things one and a half hour later, waited another hour to board the plane and went home.
Luckily I remembered to ask for a window seat so I could rest my head on the wall and try to sleep. I must have fallen asleep quite fast and I woke up when they said in the speaker that it was time for landing.
I had driven to the airport myself so the first thing I had to do, after I got my luggage, was to go to an automate and pay for the parking which was 340 Swedish crowns (skr).
It was really lovely to stay at hostels. Previously I had mostly stayed at exclusive hotels with half board or all inclusive. Now I really look forward to all my other long weekend holidays during the year where I will also stay at hostels. I will write down some things which could be nice to know when you plan a hostel visit.
At some hostels you are not allowed to go out during the night which is really boring. You should choose hostels with no curfew.
Some hostels are closed during the day when they do some cleaning. Most hostels are however open so it is better to choose a hostel with no lockout.
I think that lockers are very important so you shall select hostels where you can lock in your things in a big box with a padlock.
The size of the hostel can also be important. Sir Toby's have 100 beds which seemed to be a quite good size.
It is important that you check out so that no membership is required. Some hostels have also age limits so you cannot stay there if you are too young or even to old.
Bedsheets included is of course good and it is nice if the hostel have a kitchen. 24 hour reception and check in can also be good.
I think that a mixed room where both girls and boys sleep are much nicer than separate rooms.
I am not sure which kind of room I liked best, one with 4 single beds or on with 4 bunk beds (8 beds in total). It is nice with just 4 ordinary beds but it is also nice with some more people in the room if they are really nice.