Final thoughts...

Today marks a week that I've been back home. I'm of course having mixed feelings as I spent the last 5 months of my life in Deutschland. Struggling through tough times to build a circle of friends and a support group I could rely on. Now I've had to say my goodbyes to them and find out where I rank back here. I've definitely come back to a topsy turvy world. Obama is president elect, someone got hired to take the supervisory position that was supposed to be mine, I filled my gas tank for under $30, and grizzly adams has a beard...
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Of course there were hard times and I complained about them... to anyone that would listen... I complained at length... hehe... it's ok though as it has been an eye opening experience. To have a completely different perspective on life here and 'the American way.' Not to mention that regardless of how little travelling I did compared to what I wanted to do, I have still seen more of the world than most people will ever see in their lives. Hehe... I'm even in discussions with Ryan about possibly doing panama for a January/February vacation. Lets just say that when the travel bug bites it sinks its teeth in deep.
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There are plenty of things that I would change and do differently, but hindsight is 20, 20 as they say. Who they are I'm not exactly sure. But I've learned to really appreciate those good friends that I have and to cherish the time I have with them. To have a better perspective on wealth and what it means to be poor... and a miser (for you NicBunny).... I'm thankful for everyone's support and those new friends whom I miss dearly, but will see again as this is truly a small world.

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This brings our story to a close... Thank you constant reader for your attention, albeit silent without comments from most of you slackers...

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Actually... as some may know, some may not, I will be returning to ze father land the day after Christmas. Does anyone even read this anymore now that I'm back? Purplemonkeydishwasher! I didn't think so... For those wayward souls that find themselves here perhaps this is not the end, but the beginning of another tale?... Perhaps you'll have to stop by on occasion to see if this truly is the end... or at least to find the link to my new blog covering the new adventures of Livonia Brown... Mostly because I hate blogger and it's auto formatting that won't let me insert spaces between paragraphs without periods...

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Cheers,

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-Livonia Brown

For NicBunny (5)...

Ladies, gentlemen, and Chris, we reach the final installment of our For NicBunny series of ridiculous and silly things I've seen along the way. Of course there's more in my mind, but sometimes my camera hand wasn't quick enough or it was just that inappropriate I couldn't bring myself to capture it on CCD. Without further ado the finally... which would have been way better if I hadn't wasted the Nazi Raus picture on the last one... oh well... cest la vie...
Children make excellent foot stools...

Since I've ridden a turtle, it's not so much of a stretch to ride a skull...

This one actually turned out worse than I was hoping for... that or I need to work on my choking techniques...

I'll save you!

Lili got in on the action too... grr... Unfortunately all of their outfits were too crude for me to purchase any swag...

Well... not much needs to be said about this lovely hooded sweatshirt...

The last picture isn't that funny, but an interesting look into the mindset of the European. Note the historic statue in the foreground and the building sized bottle of beer on the side of the building in the background...

Statues of the Charles Bridge...

Now for a serious and funny perspective of the statues that line the charles bridge. Although wikipedia tells us that pretty much all of the statues pictured below are replicas of the originals... weak... This bronze piece is the oldest statue on the bridge and probably the best picture I took from the bridge.
I'm not sure why they locked in these statues at the base of a larger one. I don't think they could really go anywhere being made of stone and all...

I forget the name of this particular statue, however Lili really liked it and was looking for a certain one and I think this was it.

And Saint Attila raised the Hand Grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy Hand Grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies into tiny pieces... in Thy mercy.' one... two... five...

In case my blaspheme wasn't quite enough take a close look at this picture and guess why I found this particular statue hilarious...

Every time we crossed the bridge there was a seagull perched on the head of a statue... graying the hair of the statues...

This was the first statue we came to and the interesting part is that I'm really about 3' off the ground level of the bridge. All of the spectators were quite amazed, and the ones trying to take pictures of this were quite pissed... hahah

Happy Halloween...

Everyone enjoy the holiday weekend. I'm back on Monday at 7:05PM...

Bittersweet...

Last night I said my goodbye to Kai in the case that I don't have a chance to see her this weekend. We met in Köln and I was only 20 minutes late due to traffic. Although I did get stuck on the northern bridge across the Rhein with a wonderful view of a night lit Dom. Other than the time I went to the wrong gym first, she never beat me to a destination. She got me a very nice cutting board with a map of the innen-stadt of Köln and a postcard with the Köln coat of arms and a goofy caricature drinking a Kölsch. Her gifts were thoughtful and wrapped, whereas I just got her climbing gear which I hid under her jacket when she got up from the table... She was very pleased after I explained what the gear was used for and provided the proper warnings in usage. As usual she picked an excellent restaurant. Parking was a little tight and I had to get up at one point when the police started ticketing cars (all of them) on the street I parked on. For dinner I had a penne noodle with turkey breast in carbonara sauce and she had a giant dumpling. It was a lot of fun, but very sad at the same time. Now that I have a social life here I kind of want to stay longer and spend just a little more time with my new dear friends. But alas, with good friends, distance is not a problem.

If I could get the link on this computer I would post the video for 'Bittersweet symphony.' So if you're reading this, go to to youtube and listen to the song for me.

Prague Day 3...

We got back around 6am from the club, but at the same time Sunday was our final day in Prague. I set my alarm for 9:30 so we could get a decent amount of sleep in when including the time shift for daylight savings. I figured that my phone would automatically adjust for the time shift, but I was sorely mistaken at 8:30 when we headed down for breakfast... It was fine though. Breakfast included many nice cheeses and breads. I didn't eat the eggs or bacon though, but Lili said they were fantastic.

A shower and haphazard packing later we were back on the street headed directly to the Jewish district, Josefov, as it was our last chance to see it. Although Prague was occupied by the nazis and most jewish ghettos were destroyed as part of the holocaust this section of town was supposedly preserved to be a 'museum of the exterminated race.' The messed up part is that it is now a major tourist attraction full of museums...
Major highlights of this section of the town are the 13 century old new synagogue which we went to first. In order to enter I had to wear a yamecha which made for some hilarious pictures. Then we went to another synagogue which was converted to a museum. Inside you can find pictures drawn by the children held in the ghetto during world war 2. Apparently there was about 4000 children and less than 500 survived. It was very sad and I didn't want to stay long. This was followed by the old Jewish cemetery. This cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe and it was amazing to see how the headstones were basically set up like dominos with no real space in between.
The Maisel synagogue was unfortunately closed due to technical difficulties, but we did make our final stop at the Spanish synagogue. Although you won't find the Spanish synagogue named that way in wikipedia nor on most city maps. I'm not sure why it is called that way, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the facility. A really interesting thing is that most of the museums and treasuries of the Jewish synagogues did not have very many opulent treasures. Sure there were a bunch of silver Torah pointers and a few silver Torah shields. I confused the first with a back scratcher the first time I saw one... The main items are books and pictures that are under the glass cases in the museums. Of course part of the history is that when money etc. was needed the expensive items were melted down and sold or traded.
Time ran out on us and after a brief stop at the astronomical clock to watch it ring in the new hour, I had to make a quick trip to the airport. I asked the lady at the desk of the hotel the best way to the airport and she said I could take a taxi for about €30 or a train to the bus station and it would take about an hour. Not wanting the hassle I opted for the taxi and was at the airport with 1.5 hours to spare before liftoff... or so I thought. I got inside to find that my flight was canceled. I went through the massive check in line to try for assistance and I got passed off to another line. They gave me a new flight with Lufthansa, but it left more than 3 hours later. Which was just enough time to piss me off and not enough to get to the city and back. I went to my gate and hung out. I spent the last of my Czech money and waited with a red bull in hand. About 5 minutes before I was supposed to begin boarding the staff finally arrived at the desk. It was about the time where you second guess yourself whether or not you're in the right location.
A short announcement was made. The flight has been delayed, more information will be given in 40 minutes... scheisse... I was out of money and fading very fast. I managed to stay awake reading an interesting book about a non-fiction view of Lord Byron. Finally I got on the bus to the plane after hearing 3 other flights get cancelled due to the fog. See I told you we'd get back to that. In the end I got on the smallest plane I can remember flying on and it was quite rickety and I feared for my life. But it did the job and I got back to Deutschland ok.
Finding my auto was another issue. Turns out there's multiple parkhouses in the same area that look vaguely similar with the same numbers on the spots. So when I got to the spot marked 4.547 and there was no car there I was quite upset. I went to the SOS phone and the gentleman spoke no English, but I was able to understand that I needed to go to parkhaus 3 to make a police report. On the way out I called Kai and explained the situation which she found hilarious. The good news is that on the way to the other parkhaus... well the direction I felt was right... I recognized the on-ramp I had used days earlier. Sure enough I was in the wrong parkhaus the first time. After that I forgot to get the receipt for the €63 parking bill, but I did take a picture of the screen as proof... But at least I could blame a long weekend ;-)


That about sums up my Czech adventures... I'd go back... even move there if I could for a short time as that city is alive. Anyone who has the chance, should go.


I also apologize for the spelling... once I get a chance to use my laptop again I'll come back through and fix the last few posts. It just goes to show how illiterate I've become here...

Prague Day 2...

After catching up on some zzz's after a slew of late nights in Kutna Hora I was ready for day 2 in Prague. A short walk awarded us the dazzling view from Charles bridge of Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. I plugged in the general direction into my internal Navi we began the trek up the meandering streets to get to the castle. I'm not 100% sure which was the castle proper, but I'm pretty sure that everything on top of the hill was part of the complex. That and Guinness puts Prague castle as the largest ancient castle in the world. They even had London type guards which I wanted to pose for a picture with, but I figured they wouldn't know I wasn't going to hit them... Oh well, maybe next time.

Prague is supposed to be a city of music. Indeed there were quite a few street musicians on the paths of our exploration, including a quintet of classical musicians whose music greeted us on the castle summit in front of the main gate. Not to mention every cathedral had 'live' music each night we were there. The band was very nice, and so was the main gate, but St. Vitus was my goal and that is where we went first. The exterior is a great Gothic structure (largest church in the country) completed in 1344 similar to, but not as good as, the Kölner Dom. The interior was a little bit of all right with a very nice gilded silver sculpture tucked away in the back corner. In order to really enjoy the sculpture we climbed up on a small step of a chapel and stood above the slow moving procession of tourists who would snap a single picture and move on. But after watching a group of people cut in the line upon entry to the cathedral with no protest from the masses I decided it was OK for us to take our time. Lili was now carrying a large quantity of free pamphlets and information so we finally had other objectives. The first being the ascent of the Great Southern Tower of St. Vitus... but much like the royal garden, part of Charles Bridge, and the castle Powder tower, it was closed due to technical difficulties.

Disappointed as the view should have been spectacular, we moved on to the next objective which was St. George's Basilica. After being turned away by the need for tickets we moved on. When we were denied the next objective of the Golden Lane by a need for tickets I broke down and bought us 2 and we headed back to St George's. St George's is the oldest church building within Prague Castle, originally founded in 920. According to the pamphlets it was the best preserved baroque structure in the country. I wasn't seeing it though... I took 2 half hearted pictures inside and both ended up being very blurry. Although the scary looking skeleton statue I took a picture of in the central knave(?) was morbid and awesome. Also, I think it may have been made of jade. Everything else about the place was pretty blah and uninteresting so we quickly moved on.

Other interesting points of note were the Dalibor Tower which had various instruments of torture on display including a rack, but no thumb screws or iron maidens. We also took a trek down the Golden Lane which is an old street that has a house where Franz Kafka wrote some important books. To be honest, I had no idea who Franz Kafka was, but Lili knew his work very well and it turns out that he is quite the important author in the 20th century. It was interesting how short the doorways were and how low the ceilings were. I can't believe the giants here originated from that stock... We finished with a quick walk through the history of Prague castle museum full of interesting treasures. There was of course no photography allowed and the lighting was actually poor enough that I didn't bother taking pictures.

About halfway through the museum my stomach and feet told me it was time to go and Lili agreed. We ended up eating some Italian food near the castle. Much like the eatery outside of the Vatican in Rome I left with a lot less money and ready to eat again. There was a brief debate about whether we would go up the Prague 'Eiffle tower' or head back to the Jewish quarter. The tower being uphill and the Jewish quarter being downhill we decided on the latter. Plus the previous day we were turned away from the Jewish quarter due to everything shutting down at 6pm. We got there and, what a shocker, it was closed. Turns out that Saturday is the Jewish day of rest, not Sunday...

A little disheartened about missing out again, we moved back towards the old town square. Being denied the ascent of the tower earlier in the morning I wanted to get a better view of the city. I picked the astronomical clock tower as it would provide a nice view of Tyn Cathedral and the old town square. It turned out to be a good idea, except for the overcrowding in the 1 person wide isleway at the top. We soaked in the spectacular view and I snapped about 50 pictures with different angles on all of the interesting sights in the town. Exhausted from walking all day on hard and uneven pavement a short nap was in order since the game plan included a nigh of dancing at a club.

I asked the guy behind the desk for a good electronic music club but he was a bit too old for that I guess. He did show me on a map the location of a 5 story club with a different DJ on every floor. That sounded nice so I had him write down the name and general location on the map and we set out once again. On the way to the club we stopped for dinner at a jazz restaurant. When we got in, the lady told us that at 11 they were done. I figured an hour would be enough for eating and enjoying the live band. We had passed up on live gypsy music only because I couldn't find the restaurant a second time. After about 10 minutes and the waiter saying the tourist menu was closed the band packed up and left so we got to dine in silence. I ordered the rabbit which smelled bad and tasted worse... Luckily Lili didn't mind it so I ate her fillet. After getting the bill which was another whopper I had to take a picture. The final total was 768 and a note said service of 10% was not included. The waiter was kind enough to write in '+service 860' on the bottom. I'm not sure what kind of gorilla math they teach in Czech schools, but 92 is not 10% of 768... Figuring I would just correct him when he brought my change, I found out that he kept 860 and gave me a giant stack of CZK 2 coins... In Kutna Hora 3 of us ate 3 course meals with lots of booze for my two colleagues for less than 1300...

We finished the night, or rather began Sunday, at the club. 5 stories of DJ's and all kinds of different nationalities were present at the club. We started at the bottom for some reggatone and dirty dance music. On the second floor they had electronic music and a decent DJ. The dance floor was kind of scary with a large crucified robot looking thing with lasers for eyes... All I want is a freakin shark with a laser beam attached to its head, is that too much to ask for?... The third floor was oldies with some swing dancing and disco, but neither I nor anyone else in the club actually knew how to dance to that music properly. The fourth floor was the hip-hop, R&B floor which reminded me a bit of the Post in Novi... both the clientele and the music. The 5th and final floor was called the chill out room where there were couches and a great house DJ. Of all the floors I think we spent the most time there as it had the best music and I could actually sit down.

Finally at the ripe hour of 6am we were back at the hotel and sound asleep... This weekend should be the last for a long time where I get back from a club after 3am.

Prague Day 1...

My train from Kolin to Prague was delayed and it actually worked out for the best. It put me in Prague at about 10:30am (I know... don't tell anyone I didn't go in that day)... Lili's train was supposed to arrive at 10:45 so I did a quick sweep of the train station to find the area we had planned on meeting at. Since the station was under construction I failed in finding it, so I scoped out a spot where I though all arriving passengers would pass by and set up a lookout. Unfortunately Lili and I are both short in a land of giants, but right before I was ready to give up looking since I figured I'd missed her, (Prague main station is one of the busiest in Europe) she appeared and we left.
Turns out that Lili had forgotten all the material she printed off about sites and maps etc. Since she was supposed to do the research on this trip I did nothing but book a hotel. Having looked at the general layout of the city when looking for a decent hotel I had a vague image of the stadtplan in my head... I actually can't think of the English word for stadtplan, heaven help me... Of all the trips other than Rome this was the only European trip where I actually had sunshine and no rain. So I simply looked to the heavens, making adjustments for the winter position of the sun, a Rodney Dangerfield check of the wind, and we set off in the direction of the old town... ish... first place we ended up was Wencelas square which is like the Czech Champs Elysees and center of the 'new town.'
Of course with my experience in travelling random cities without a map I got us to the Charles Bridge after only one wrong turn corrected by a U-Bahn map. Lili wanted to buy a map at a tourist stand, but I said to wait for the free one at the hotel even though I didn't have the hotels address or know where exactly it was... just a general area near the bridge. It wasn't quite check in time, nor did we actually find the hotel, so we continued deeper into the town. We went up a tower for a great view of the bridge and city beyond and to kill the time for dumping our luggage off in the room.

After exiting the tower we asked a local police officer where the hotel was and he laughed. 'I can't know everything.' I kept my snide comment to myself, tested the air again, and picked a direction. Upon reaching the next intersection I looked left and bam, there was the hotel. The location couldn't of been better since it was right on the river 30 meters from the western foot of the Charles bridge. Spectacular! We dumped our luggage and freshened up then it was back on walkabout with free maps in hand noting all of the major attractions. Also, on the rim of the map advertised was day trips to Kutna Hora. As with every major city I suggested we hit the big items first which meant the Old Town square. It was quite frigid out and joking around I tried on Lili's hat. I then wore the hat in our wanderings which drew quite a few stares and laughs, which was great.
We went back across the bridge in the direction of some sweet looking towers I could see over the buildings and towards the astronomical clock. In no time at all we were there and taking in views of ancient churches, the clock, and the main square of Prague's old town. One note about the clock is that every hour the windows open up and you can see the 12 apostles. Without any other information than that of wikipedia, I figured we'd see some interesting bells and whistles with dancing prophets etc. But it turns out to be pretty lame and I was truly confused as to how it could draw such a huge crowd. I digress...
Once again I took pictures inside the beautiful Gothic Tyn Cathedral when it was forbidden. The Tyn Cathedral was actually the towers I could see over the buildings and it was great. I think that God would really want me to share the sights with all of those people who can't make it on their own. That or I'm just building up a whole lot of bad Karma which might explain Sunday night... Anywho... we saw the sights and all of the major points of interest on the eastern side of the tourist map, including St. Nicholas church, Astronomical Clock, Jewish Quarter, Powder tower, another tower I can't remember the name of, and of course random interesting architecture. We finished the night with a walk through the park where I fought some statues and even Lili took part in the ridiculousness. I did manage to get some spectacular sunset shots of the Prague Castle (the largest castle in the world), but mostly what you notice is St. Vitus Cathedral which we saved for the second day.
Tired and hungry we found a nice spot for dinner... well it was the next spot we passed by, but it turned out to be nice. We both had some excellent goulash and apfel strudel. Then it was a night time stroll back through the old town finished with a nice long sleep to recuperate for the following day which we planned on going out dancing and seeing everything we failed to catch the first day.
It's really hard to pick just 5 or 6 of the best pictures from any given sight seeing tour. I'm not sure though if this crazy idea of taking up photography is warranted. What do you think? Do your think there is hope for my photography, or am I just fooling myself?

Goodbye Köln...

Today was my last day in my apartment. Everything is coming full circle as I've moved back into Der Club, zimmer 9. As before Heiligenhaus is a dead town and after taking a walk I'm back at the office using the internet struggling with the Deutsch keyboard. For those of you who have never used a Deutsch keyboard the y and z are inverted and all special characters except the period and comma are moved...

I had planned on making a final trip by the Dom and stopping off at the mediamarkt downtown before leaving the city. I slept in a little since I didn't have to go to the office today, plus I needed it and realized it was too late in the day for shenanigans. After a rousing game of what clothes are bad enough that I can justify throwing them away so I don't have to pack them, I took off to get my deposit back on my keys.

On the way out I filled the better part of the cardboard recycling trash bin with empty water bottles and red bull cans from my collection over the past few months. I wasn't sure which was the plastic bin and which was the paper, but in retrospect I'm pretty sure I messed up. We'll find out if the landlord sends a big bill... Which wouldn't really make sense since some (maybe all) of those bottles was worth something. Oh, and I need to find a place to dump the contents of the smart...

Regardless, when I turned in my parkplatz key the staff said, 'ok we'll credit your account with the deposit, have a nice day.' I laughed and said, 'no I brought cash for the key. If I didn't expect cash back I would have kept the key.' 15 minutes later with two trips to the bosses office upstairs and my version of compromise, where they paid all the fines and deposited the US equivalent of €40 in my US account, the lady came down with cash. Hopefully this is the last bit of stupid German crap I have to deal with... probably not though since I've still got 6 days to go.

After that it was off to Heiligenhaus and the medimarkt in Velbert to get a bigger USB card to backup all of my pictures. I got an 8Gb card for €15... actually I got two of them. So it's almost 33% full with pictures. I'll fill the rest with music from Joerg's computer. At least the next few nights will be good as I've got dinners and parties to go to for the rest of my time here. I'll get the post about Prague finished today, but probably won't have much time for posting or email until I get back stateside.

Uh oh... Spell check is not functioning... and I copied and pasted everything into a word document and every word was underlined red... stupid Deutsch computer.

Kutna Hora

Last Tuesday I had just gotten back to my apartment from work and was packing for my trip to the Czech Republic when I got a phone call. It was the head of the facility I was going to visit the following morning. I had thought everything was all set since the head of global engineering, my boss here, and the guy who was showing me around all were ok with the travel. My flight, taxi, and hotel were all booked, even the hotel for the weekend in Prague was booked on my expense. The plant manager calls and asks, 'Hello, is this Scott Brown?' Pretty sure of the answer I said yes. 'Who are you and who said you could come to my facility?' Nice! So after listening to a 15 minute rant about me not being allowed to come and how there will be no support for me etc. He told me to cancel my trip. He told me he thought I had no arrangements and it turns out he couldn't get ahold of his secretary who booked my trip in time to cancel everything. I made a short call to my boss and he actually resolved the issue for me. Regardless one would assume that was not a good start to a plant visit.
The work aspect was fine. I basically chilled out for a while and made observations since I wasn't allowed to take pictures and nobody was allowed to give me any documentation. In the end it was useful, but stupid at the same time. The positive aspect was that instead of staying in the usual town that is close to the plant, at the suggestion of Marek (the guy who showed me around), I stayed in Kutna Hora which is an old mining town whose hills are the scraps from the mines. I did not get to go on a mine tour due to lack of time, but Kutna Hora's downtown has been deemed a UNESCO world heritage site and wikipedia tells us that Kutna Hora used to battle with Prague for cultural and financial superiority back in the day. I don't feel so bad about missing the mine tour since I did get to see some spectacular views, sculptures, and architecture including a pillar built post Bubonic Plague seen here... sweet!
The first night Marek and I went out and did the brief tour after I checked into my totally sweet hotel room. Lucky number 13... The first site we hit was the Gothic Church of Barbara after a nice stroll down the lane in the first picture. Inside was beautiful and the exterior was amazing although half of it was under construction. The structure itself is not quite as imposing as that of the Dom, but the interior was a little bit better with more interesting chapels. We saw some stunning views of the valley the town was built in and a pleasant view from the opposite hill of the Church after dusk. I think that the other church pictured here is the Cathedral of our Lady, but that doesn't sound right and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. The mushroom cloud is indeed a mushroom cloud, but from a coal power plant not an atomic bomb...
For dinner I had a traditional Czech dish which I can't pronounce, spell, nor remember what I did with the sheet that Marek wrote it all down for me on. Regardless it was a tasty treat with meat from near the spine of a cow that had to have fat inserted into it to make it tender. A wonderful brown sauce with cranberries and some dumplings that looked like bread. Although it's apparent that it's a common mistake to call it bread based on the ire from Marek when he said it was a dumpling... hehe... We hit a few pubs afterward then it was time for bed and work the following day.

On the second night... work was lame and I don't think anybody cares about what I do at work anyway... Marek and I looked into me taking a driving lesson and rolling over some cars in a panzer tank. Unfortunately, I would of needed 5 hours for training and driving around which I didn't have. Instead we settled on the Ossuary where an acient partially blind monk made some beautiful artwork out of the local ingredients... Basically, at one point in time, some earth was brought to the area from another holy site and a graveyard was formed. Over time as the old were forgotten and new people needed burying the bones began to pile up. So what does the industrious monk do? He makes some pyramids, a chandelier, and an awesome coat of arms out of the remains. Very, very morbid, but beautiful and interesting all at once. Definitely something that you don't see every day, nor can you see in many places on this planet... unless the predators have some trophy cases yet undiscovered.

After the Ossuary we parted ways for a while and I went on walkabout for some more sunset photography. That's where I captured the gem with the mushroom cloud. We met with another colleague whose name I can't pronounce, nor remember since it's too foreign, for dinner at my hotel. I had a boar steak with peppered potatoes and a herb butter sauce. Delicious! Then it was off to yet another pub for some interesting conversation. Of course the election came up, but I also got to dispel some interesting myths about America and the obesity of its populace amongst other topics. After a late night and a short nap, it was off to the train station for Prague to meet up with Lili and the last hurrah of my travels in Europe. My train was delayed due to fog, which seems to be a common issue for the Czech transportation as we'll get to at the conclusion of my Czech adventures...