Why hostels are better than hotels

Day 232
In the morning I packed up my stuff. I couldn’t believe that it was actually time to leave Olomouc. I had simply fallen in love. I had an inkling that I would be back before too long though.

I had one last thing to see, the history museum. I didn’t really care for it. It was mostly taxidermy animals and prehistory stuff. The bit that I did like had some of the old parts of the town clock.

After the museum I grabbed lunch and managed to finish my book. This was good because I didn’t want to carry it with me. My train to Prague was about an hour late, I think because of the weather. It had been raining quite a bit, but had calmed down by the time I actually got there.

I found my hostel easily and decided to stay in for the night. I had purposely gotten to Prague late. I was meeting a friend and didn’t want to start seeing things without her. Instead I spent the evening watching movies. One of them was the movie with John Cusack called 1408. It’s about an evil hotel room. I was really glad that I was in a hostel and not falling asleep by myself that night.

Missed Signals

Day 231
Today was a holiday. I think it was the 90^th anniversary of independence or something. Everything was closed. Even the internet café was closed. There were activities planned during the day though. I got myself together slowly in the morning, who am I kidding, I spent most of it reading PS I Love You.

For lunch I went to one of the breweries and had some yummy honey beer and some food. I took my time and got a lot of my book done. After lunch I went to the main square to listen to the live music and check out the food stands. The music wasn’t that great, but I did buy myself a cookie.

I really did want to continue reading so I spent some time at a teahouse before heading back to the hostel. I read and spent some time chatting with Jess, an Australian who has been traveling like me but is currently working at the hostel.

We eventually headed out with some other people to see the fireworks. Problem is that we went the main square, where we thought they were. Turns out they not only started the show ten minutes early but that they were near the cathedral. We, along will all the others waiting in the square, missed them. We drowned our sorrows in a glass of mulled wine.

After dinner I headed with a few people to the second brewery in town and then we all went to the rock climbing bar. An Aussie girl in our group rather loudly started saying that Czech women are unattractive and don’t know how to dress. Neither of these things are remotely true. Jess and I tried to point out that everyone around us spoke English, we were in a student bar, but she didn’t seem to care.

It wasn’t too late that we called it a night and headed back to the hostel.

Bats!

Day 230
When I woke up I knew that I had to accomplish something, anything really. I couldn’t look for a water pump or send another day doing nothing but drinking tea and reading. This blog is about to get really boring if that is what I do every day.

I decided that it was time to go to the zoo. Looking at cute animals, and trying not to talk out loud to them, is a great way to spend the day. Perhaps it also makes me seem slightly less crazy.

The zoo was a bit out of town, but the bus ride was actually pretty nice. The first thing I found was a bunch of monkeys. It was lunch time and they were all fighting over carrots and bananas. The petting area was a bit weird, I think you were meant to climb over something, but I didn’t bother. I just tried to reach the llamas and goats from where I was. They didn’t like me though; I didn’t have any food for them.

A lot of the larger animals seemed to not care much for the cold and were in hiding. I did see a bear and a lion though. I soon found more monkeys and a giant anteater. That is one crazy looking animal. Kinda like a dog, I want one. The reindeer and the bison didn’t seem to mind the cold all that much.

I walked by one of the concession stands and couldn’t help but buy myself some cotton candy. I don’t know why I do this. It always gives me a stomach ache. Maybe one day I will learn. I felt even sicker as I watched something that looked like a prairie dog tearing into dead baby chicks. The small cats were carrying around bloody hunks of meat in their mouths. Some of them really looked like house cats to me, I suspect they where simply feral.

After more monkeys, one was trying to knock over a tree, I found the nocturnal house. It took me a minute to realize that the bats had free reign in the place and I didn’t want them flying over me so I left. It was really creepy.

The cold was getting to me at this point and I headed back. I got to the hostel just in time, because they were just cutting a birthday cake for Joseph, one of the other guests. When the cake was gone we headed down the street to the movie theater to see The Dark Knight, it was even better than the first time.

As we did have a birthday to celebrate we went to one of the breweries for a couple of beers before looking for karaoke. We never found it, thank goodness, and ended up at the cheap beer bar. Beer here is only a dollar!

On the way back we all wanted kebabs but were forced to settle for hamburgers before calling it a night.

All I want is a blue water pump

Day 229
It was around 9 and I had to wait a bit for a shower. Ahh, the fun parts of staying in a hostel. I thought that I would go to the zoo for the day but I got a bit distracted at the internet café. I also ran into Layne and Frank again.

The three of us decided to go to lunch at one of the places that I had eaten at before. The food was good and cheap, a perfect meal. I really like them both and lunch went on longer than I think anyone had anticipated. By the time we were finished it was too late for the zoo.

I decided instead to give the scavenger hunt one more shot. The only thing I had left was a blue water pump. Soon I got really frustrated with it. I had literally walked every street in Olomouc at least once, if not two or three times. I also began to think that I might be loosing my mind. I did just spend two days in Wroclaw looking for gnomes. Perhaps that is what 8 months of travel does to a person. I won’t be going home smarter or more confident, just ready to be admitted to the loony bin.

It was time to do something that I’m not very good at, I gave up. I went for some tea. Of course, saying you give up and actually giving up are two very different things. While I wrote in my journal I came up with a few more ideas of where to look. One of them was so good that I really thought that it was is. I drank up and paid quickly. The pump wasn’t there; I went back to the hostel rather frustrated.

No one seemed to be going at so after dinner I sat down with a romance novel from the book exchange at the hostel and read it straight through. It was just as ridiculous as those books tend to be, but it was a nice way to spend the evening.

Scavenger Hunt

Day 228
I really wanted to try and complete the treasure hunt. As soon as I had my act together I went out to do just that.

Breakfast was first on the list though. I had some type of nut and raisin crepe, it was really good. I then began knocking off the streets I hadn’t been to before. I was such a dork about the whole thing, I highlighted as I went. Olomouc is a really pretty town; it wasn’t hard to quickly fall in love.

It took some time but I eventually found two more of the objects. I also found a balloon on the side of the wall. A few hours later I had found two more of the objects.

While heading for where I thought the eighth one would be I found a leprechaun and a lizard. My hunch about the eighth one was right and after taking the picture I headed to the supermarket for some dinner.

Just about everyone was at the hostel ready to leave for a hockey game when I got back. I don’t really get hockey and I tend to think that it is really on the violent side, but it was cheap and something to do. A bunch of people in the group were drinking cheap beers during the game, I was so cold though that I didn’t understand how the beer didn’t freeze. We were rooting for the white team, but I don’t really know why. They lost even though they had dominated throughout the game.

I had planned on my typical hostel dinner of pasta, but instead was invited to dinner by Frank and Layne, both Americans. Frank is traveling like me and Layne teaches English in Prague. We went to a coffee house and got some really fabulous couscous thing, it was surprisingly filling.

I tried to go to a local bar with live music when dinner was I done; I thought that most of the people from the hostel would be there. I couldn’t find anyone though and ended up just going back to the hostel. This was where I found everyone. We talked about playing trivial pursuit, but for some reason a group of Canadians decided to play dress up with the free clothing bin. I just didn’t get it.

Around midnight everyone called it a day and went to sleep.

Flying High

Day 227
This hostel is just fabulous. Over breakfast I spent some time checking out the map and a book on what there is to do that they put together themselves. There was also a treasure hunt, find 9 things scattered around town and get a free night. This sounds like fun.

I set off thinking that I would just pay really close attention to everything as I walked around. At the St. Moritz Cathedral I climbed a 225 step tower for a fabulous view over Olomouc. This city is kinda like Prague before the tourists invaded. I am, of course, a traveler and not a tourist. Tourist is a dirty word. I also found a Donald Duck statue sitting over a doorway.

The next stop was the main square and the astronomical clock that was really only worth watching because it is so bad. The inside bits are about 600 years old, but the outside was damaged during WWII and had been replaced in a communist style. The little guys that walk around carry the hammer and sickle. The musical part goes on for about 3 minutes while the figures move in a circle. The best part is at the end when the rooster crows a few times. The figures themselves look really worse for wear, they all need a paint job and for someone to wash away the pigeon.

After some wandering I had located two of the objects as well as a dog and sun on the sides of different buildings. I then headed to the Archdiocese Museum and the St. Wenceslas Cathedral. The cathedral was ok, the museum was rather nice, mostly. I had been warned already that the women who work there are rather rude. Any time you got within two feet of the paintings an alarm would go off and they would yell at me. The thing is that the stupid information cards were so small that I couldn’t see them without getting close. I got kinda frustrated with the whole thing. I also had to put some strange slippers over my shoes for part of the museum. Luckily I was able to take pictures of everything.

When I left I found my third and last object for the day before having a nice Czech lunch. I took a walk through one of the gardens, I had thought one of the objects had to be there but it wasn’t. I ended up just going back to the hostel and after some reading I made myself dinner.

Around 9 a big group of us tried to go bowling. The 24 hour place seemed to have shut down and we put our name in for a lane later in the night. We all then went to a bar to pass the time. About 5 of us got stuck there, none of us really wanted to go bowling anyway so it was easy to stay behind. Eventually we headed to the climbing bar and all learned first hand why climbing and beer don’t go together. I also learned that I have no upper body strength.

The last bar of the night was in an actual Russian airplane. It’s so weird. One person in the group has to go up the steps and ring the bell. The bartender then unlocks the door and lets you in. I swear this place is run by the mafia. The beers here were 30 crowns, all the others have been about 20, or about a dollar. It was also canned beer. There was a small dance floor with some very large scary looking men on it. One of the guys randomly hit another that was just sitting. We decided to leave after that. To leave we had to ask the bartender to unlock the door, this happened, eventually.

I headed back with one other person and the other three people in the group decided to party on.

Trains, Trains, Trains

Day 227
The plan for the day was to wake up early and go to Brno in the Czech Republic. The problem was that there weren’t any hostels, the cheap hotels were full as were all the couch surfers I contacted. I think this is why I kept hitting snooze, my roommates were at class at this point, and just ignored the problem for a few hours.

When I did wake up I grabbed my guide book and the hostel computer. I tried all sorts of things in Hostelworld and the train website. I even looked at going back to Dresden for a few days, it was only four hours away. There wasn’t any hostel availability though. In the end I went with three nights in a little Czech town called Olomouc that I had never heard of.

I had some time to kill and went to the post office to send a package home as well as send off my absentee ballot. When this was done I felt like I had done my job as an American. There was still some more time so I went to the mall and picked up some food for the journey and used up that last of my zlotys on a book.

There was some confusion in buying my ticket. I couldn’t find the international office for the life of me. Once I did it was ok though. I spent pretty much the entire ride reading a fabulous book called Dreamland about 1910 New York. It was a great way to kill the eight hours it took me to get to Olomouc.

Once in Olomouc I was greeted by Francis, part of the Australian couple that runs the fabulous Poets Corner Hostel. In minutes it became one of my favorite places ever. Everyone had gone out for someone’s birthday and she made a few calls trying to figure out where they were. In the end she figured that they were in an underground bar and didn’t have any service. She gave me a great map though and I set off to the places looking for a large group of English speakers.

I never found them. At the first bar I went, a rock climbers bar with a free rock wall, I ran into two Americans who were also at my hostel and had gotten separated from the group. We ended up meeting a few locals and heading to a different bar. After some nice Czech beers we were ready to call it a night. One of the Czech guys was a bit crazy and gave us an impromptu tour that included where all the wastebaskets were. Luckily he also told us where to get the best kababs.

The American guys had to get some stuff out of their rented car and I headed up to sleep.