That's All, Folks

Aaaand I have reached the end of my solo Central/Eastern European jaunt.

My last like, 12 hours in Prague were amazing. I wrote that we were going to go to the Nutcracker, which had been the plan in the morning. (My Argentinean friends and I split up and they were going to go to the cheap ticket booth to get tickets.) They instead, however, got tickets to the opera Don Giovanni, performed AT the theater where Mozart world premiered Don Giovanni 200 years ago or whatever it would have been. AMAZING.

I have never been to an opera before and was sort of scared. This might make me sound like a pretentious ass, but I really, completely thoroughly enjoyed the evening. They had subtitles up in Czech and English for those who didn’t speak Italian, and had it not been for those, I think I would have been bored stiff/wouldn’t have had the slightest idea what was going on. I’m not sure if it’s just the translation or the style of writing at the time, but someone of the dialogue was so stilted it was hysterical. Characters would say stuff like, “You have stabbed me. My blood is exiting my body. My life is over. I die now.” (I wrote that one down on my program because it was an especially excellent example.) Anyway, it was highly enjoyable. It really didn’t feel like three hours. It was great. Also, it cost the equivalent of 8 dollars. Eastern Europe FTW.

That same night I said goodbye to my Argentinean friends, which was super sad. I woke up this morning and just generally got myself to the airport – pretty boring. I’m waiting to board my flight now.

A couple of general observations:

1) I’m glad I gave solo traveling a try. I would not have wanted to have been stuck in Galway for 2 weeks alone before class started. I’m really glad I got over the, “but I have no one to go with me!” fear. That being said, I don’t exactly think solo traveling is going to become my preferred method of travel. I’ve discovered that I like doing daytime stuff by myself. I genuinely enjoy going to museums alone and I don’t even really mind eating lunch by myself. It gets HELLA awkward at night, though. I mean, there are SO many solo travelers in hostels all over Europe, but I am an exceptionally awkward person even with people I know quite well, so trying to strike up conversation with people in the hostel bar or common area is completely nerve-wracking for me. But I also feel stupid coming back at like 8 and just reading or going to bed, because I feel like… I’m in Europe! I can’t just stay in and read! But that doesn’t make chatting with other travelers any easier. Anyway, I’m glad I did it because now I KNOW I can do it, so if I really want to go somewhere and I can’t find anyone to go with, I know I have the capability to go it alone. But I definitely much prefer traveling with other people.

2) I am absolutely shocked nothing went wrong on this journey. Like, everything went SO smoothly. I was worried about forgetting to book a hostel, booking flights on the wrong date, going to the wrong city, getting pickpocketed, or just generally doing something insanely stupid but very me. (I am not very good at the logistics of traveling. One infamous incident would be May of 2010 when I booked a Megabus ticket going from DC to New York… instead of New York to DC. It was horrifying.) I mean, I shouldn’t say it quite yet because I’m still at the gate in the Prague airport, but it really seems like this entire journey is going to go off without a single hitch.

3) This is more specific, but I have to say it – I don’t terribly care for the Czech people. Our tour guide described them as “dour and sullen” and I’d be inclined to agree. They act really pissed off at you all the time. I don’t think it’s because I can’t speak Czech (kind of like how the French get angry when you don’t speak French) because I’ve tried to start all my conversations with waiters, museum employees, public transportation employees, etc, in one of the Czech phrases I committed to memory (mluvite anglicky?), and they also appear to be super angry at regular Czech people who approach them. Also, paying for services rendered in this country appears to be totally optional. I can think of numerous occasions where I’ve attempted to pay my bill in a restaurant or bar, only to have the waiter get extraordinarily frustrated with me and just wave me off or ask me just to leave. I also can think of times when I’ve been presented with the bill, and the only thing on it is a beer when I ordered a meal as well. When you try to correct the mistake and pay the correct amount, they also get really frustrated and just insist on you only paying for the beer. I also have tried to pay for tickets on the bus, tram, whatever, again only to be told just to get on the bus, followed by an exasperated puff of air. I don’t understand it at all. I guess they don’t quite have the hang of capitalism yet. It’s totally bizarre.

ANYWAY. So that’s the rub. Now I’ll go back to updating this thing like, once a month or so. haha :-) Thanks for reading, eeeeerbody.