The Trip to Prague
It took a long time. Yep, no way around that one. Let's just say that I'm glad I don't do much international traveling these days.
I don't know what it is but in every country, the people who are designated to assist the travel process are nothing but crooks and opportunists. I was quoted $5 as the price to get to the amtrak station in Kalamazoo. Of course, the guy has no meter in his cab, and when I get to the amtrak station, he says "$8". I give him a ten and he automatically keeps the change. So I ended up paying twice what the cab company said it would cost.
In Chicago, I'm accosted by every cab driver in the city that is trying to take me to the Chicago Ohare Airport for a gazillion dollars. I finally find a person who worked for Amtrak who gave me directions on public transportation, so instead of paying "$48...really, I give you best price", I get to the airport for $1.50.
Okay, the plane on Air France rocked. That was pretty cool. They have movie screens on each seat, and you actually get to watch decent movies. I watched Chicago (free) for the first time, and I thought that was pretty cool. I also watched an episode of MacGuyver with the woman sitting next to me, and we were both cracking jokes throughout that show. I never realized what a dumb show that was.
In France, well, let's just say that Paris International Airport gets my vote as the crappiest airport in the world (in my little knowledge of the world there is). The terminal where I was at was crappy. They were doing construction work on it which meant you got to listen to the pleasing sounds of drills and saws. To make it worse, they have some kind of bizarre security feature of this airport that indicates that once you get within the security gate, you cannot leave under ANY circumstance. I needed some water to take my medication, and I had no French currency to buy from the one food dealer in that section. The money exchange was just on the outside of the security check place. I was told no everytime I mentioned I needed to get some French money to get water as I was stuck in this terminal for 3 hours, and I needed to take my medication. They could care less. No questions, no attempt to get more info, just no. Finally, I said screw this, contacted the US embassy and told them what was going on. The staff there called to the Paris airport to inquire how they could help me and then out of nowhere a staff member showed up and personally escorted me to get some money changed. I wouldn't be surprised if I had help from the guy running the airport.
Let's just say that I don't really like the Paris airport. It was extremely hot, uncomfortable, and it didn't really look like most of the staff knew what it was doing for the most part. It was quite a departure from a really cool plane trip.
The trip to Prague took a few hours beyond that. The plane was running really late, but I didn't really care as I wasn't on any real schedule on the last part of the trip. At the Prague airport, I found a shuttle service that took me to my hostel for 360 Cz. It was a bit expensive, but it was worth the price. I shared the shuttle with a bunch of travel industry people who really seemed to know the ins and outs of traveling overseas. They were from the states, and I had a pretty cool conversation with them. I get the idea they spend their whole lives traveling wherever they want to go. Sounds pretty cool as an occupation, if you like that kind of traveling.
I stayed in the Arpacay hostel. Nothing special about it, but it was clean and the staff was very friendly and helpful. I'll be trying to find the final part of the trip today as my instructions were kind of vague, but we'll see what happens. At least I don't run the risk of accidentally crossing into a communist country this time around (yep, real situation some decade or so ago for me).
Stumble It!
It took a long time. Yep, no way around that one. Let's just say that I'm glad I don't do much international traveling these days.
I don't know what it is but in every country, the people who are designated to assist the travel process are nothing but crooks and opportunists. I was quoted $5 as the price to get to the amtrak station in Kalamazoo. Of course, the guy has no meter in his cab, and when I get to the amtrak station, he says "$8". I give him a ten and he automatically keeps the change. So I ended up paying twice what the cab company said it would cost.
In Chicago, I'm accosted by every cab driver in the city that is trying to take me to the Chicago Ohare Airport for a gazillion dollars. I finally find a person who worked for Amtrak who gave me directions on public transportation, so instead of paying "$48...really, I give you best price", I get to the airport for $1.50.
Okay, the plane on Air France rocked. That was pretty cool. They have movie screens on each seat, and you actually get to watch decent movies. I watched Chicago (free) for the first time, and I thought that was pretty cool. I also watched an episode of MacGuyver with the woman sitting next to me, and we were both cracking jokes throughout that show. I never realized what a dumb show that was.
In France, well, let's just say that Paris International Airport gets my vote as the crappiest airport in the world (in my little knowledge of the world there is). The terminal where I was at was crappy. They were doing construction work on it which meant you got to listen to the pleasing sounds of drills and saws. To make it worse, they have some kind of bizarre security feature of this airport that indicates that once you get within the security gate, you cannot leave under ANY circumstance. I needed some water to take my medication, and I had no French currency to buy from the one food dealer in that section. The money exchange was just on the outside of the security check place. I was told no everytime I mentioned I needed to get some French money to get water as I was stuck in this terminal for 3 hours, and I needed to take my medication. They could care less. No questions, no attempt to get more info, just no. Finally, I said screw this, contacted the US embassy and told them what was going on. The staff there called to the Paris airport to inquire how they could help me and then out of nowhere a staff member showed up and personally escorted me to get some money changed. I wouldn't be surprised if I had help from the guy running the airport.
Let's just say that I don't really like the Paris airport. It was extremely hot, uncomfortable, and it didn't really look like most of the staff knew what it was doing for the most part. It was quite a departure from a really cool plane trip.
The trip to Prague took a few hours beyond that. The plane was running really late, but I didn't really care as I wasn't on any real schedule on the last part of the trip. At the Prague airport, I found a shuttle service that took me to my hostel for 360 Cz. It was a bit expensive, but it was worth the price. I shared the shuttle with a bunch of travel industry people who really seemed to know the ins and outs of traveling overseas. They were from the states, and I had a pretty cool conversation with them. I get the idea they spend their whole lives traveling wherever they want to go. Sounds pretty cool as an occupation, if you like that kind of traveling.
I stayed in the Arpacay hostel. Nothing special about it, but it was clean and the staff was very friendly and helpful. I'll be trying to find the final part of the trip today as my instructions were kind of vague, but we'll see what happens. At least I don't run the risk of accidentally crossing into a communist country this time around (yep, real situation some decade or so ago for me).
Stumble It!
posted by Duane @ 9:51 PM
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