Planes and Trains

Have you ever tried to cram yourself into a Parisian metro car during rush hour? More than once I've been booted out. The times I manage to squeeze through I've either been plastered to the wall, pressed up against the pole in the middle of the car, or forced to remain on the tips of my toes, feet stuck together, hands glued to my sides in a sort of toy soldier stance. It was even more fun when Amie and I took the metro to Charles de Gaulle airport to catch our plane to the Czech Republic because I was wearing a bulging backpack. Poor Amie, who was carrying a true "backpack around Europe" hiking backpack got shoved off the metro after one or two stops. In the end, though, we made it to Charles de Gaulle together, safe and sound, and boarded our plane with no problem. If you have a choice, don't travel during rush hour. Even during particularly crowded, uncomfortable rides, though, I still think that public transport in and around Paris is more convenient than that of many other cities. Just a few stops on the metro got me to Gare du Nord, and from there I took the RER over to the airport, which probably took an hour or so total.

The plain ride was perfectly fine. We had booked our tickets in advance with Smart Wings. I've found that, within Europe, Smart Wings and eDreams are the websites to check, along with all the major airlines that go along with each country (Air France, Lufthansa, Alitalia etc.).

This was all in a city and with a system I've grown accustom to. So, part 1 of our journey was no problem. Part 2, however, proved to be a challenge. We had started researching our tickets early, so as to get the best prices. There are tons of great ways to get around Europe by rail, but it seemed that going from Prague to Amsterdam direct was limited in options. We found DB Bahn and HiSpeed to be our best train options (and flights were far more expensive so we ruled them out early). Both of these websites will make any foreigner turn red in anger and frustration. If you are particularly prone to frustration, you may find seam shooting out your ears or your eyes bugging out of your head. Since calling the Hispeed office costs about 50 cents per minute, you may do what we did and choose to just let your brain boil rather than pick up the phone. I believe DB Bahn's problem was that for each ticket the price was "not available", so we were unwilling to click one step too far and get an unreasonable charge that we didn't know about. Hispeed's problem was that you must put in a Netherlands address to receive your ticket. So, we waited. We kept checking other websites, but these were the only two that went direct. Additionally, the price we found for Hispeed--only about 50 euros per person for an overnight train--had us pretty hooked. We decided to go to the train station upon arrival to book our tickets.

We arrived, happy to be in Prague and excited to start our journey. We found that the train station was only about a 10 minute walk from our Old Prague Hostel, and we set off, leaving ourselves about 20 min in the train station so we could walk back and meet a friend at the hostel. Only, we didn't find anyone to talk to. We found two empty information kiosks and no help in sight. Even after talking to a cashier working in a shop at the station we couldn't seem to figure out what to do or why everything seemed to be closed. We went home disappointed and ticket-less.

Day 2. We found the train station again. This time we even found where to buy the tickets. However, the woman behind the counter told us in broken English what our option was. There was an expensive ticket for a reclining chair, and expensive-r for a bed in a sleeper car. This was 3-4 times more expensive than the original price. We went home confused and ticket-less. As we needed to get from Prague to Amsterdam, we just had to buy the tickets. We eventually found the DB Bahn tickets online that the women had mentioned, and we stomached the price difference and bought our tickets. In just a few days our glorious 50 euro tickets skyrocketed to over three times that. Buy your tickets early, travelers.

Also--"reclining chairs" on overnight trains are not what one might imagine. At best I was picturing a reclining chair that might go as far back as a comfy family room chair that pops out a foot rest upon reclining. At worst I was picturing an airplane chair. No such luck. The back of the chair is glued to the walls of the compartment and the most "recline" you get is the four inches the seat of the chair slides forward, which means the chair is still in its full, upright position. Notice in the picture that the second and third chairs are "reclined" and therefore jut out a couple of inches more than the first chair. So: get a sleeper car if you want to sleep. Luckily Amy and I got the compartment to ourselves, so we each took three chairs and spread ourselves across them to sleep. I have to admit, at least, that traveling with a friend in a private compartment across Europe, playing word games and devouring chocolate, is hardly a bad way to travel.