Prague, another place that were not on my initial list, but somehow just appeared because  of the suggestion of a friend. A good one indeed. I arrived in Prague after 7 hours bus ride from Vienna. Passing through the beautiful landscape, cities, and villages. There were a few things i could observe around, like how different Western and Eastern Europe, especially in if i compare the condition of their villages. I passed one village which had a lot of brothels. I would not conclude anything at this point, but that what i saw. As the bus approaching Prague, i found something that made me behave like a genuine 5- years old. And, what was that?

Snowing…

Let me rephrase again, not seeing a snow, but experiencing a falling snow.

It was not a heavy snow, instead a very mild one. 3 mm snow falling perhaps. So tiny. But enough to make feel the magic of it. I ran out of the bus once i saw that. Then, like what you usually saw in the movie, put my hand in the air to catch the snow. It was just again … magical.

I realized that people kinda look at me, but i could not care less. That was one of the benefit of solo traveling in such a foreign country, i had the freedom to do what i want without feel embarrassed. Let say there were people taking my picture doing silly things, then be it. I once told by several people that they had friends who look like me. I could easily said that it might be them. There is a benefit of having doppelgänger!

And when i arrived at Prague, i just feel very happy. A beautiful city with its own kind of architecture. Sunset in one of the bridge inside the city. Walking to its old town and just discovery weird things like Apple Museum (in Prague?). A dark clock tower in the middle of brighter buildings (its hard to take a sharp snaps of this tower man!). And last but not least amazing reddish sunset on top of Clementinum Tower; i took a lot of “documentation” here while i was shivering from fear of heights.

I stayed in a cool hostel, called Czech Inn. It had everything i need. A cozy bed, a small coffee shop inside with comfy seatings, ATM in front of receptionist (remember! They don’t use Euro here!), a closed-by grocery store, a super friendly receptionist who helped me book a bus ticket to Berlin, and a great friend i met. I can recommend this hostel for you, but i could not guarantee you the last one in the package. It is something you need to work yourself by your own friendliness and open minded self.

I got to talk to two ladies from my shared room. One was from Slovenia (not Slovakia!) who was on the break of her Uni and love to bake. The other one was Sheyla from Brazil and she was the one i got to talk with. A lot.

Sheyla was more than 10 years older than me. She worked as database engineer (yeah, a lot about servers) for a company in Brazil. But, there was a but here. She had the luxury of flexible working place and most probably time. Flexible how? She didn’t need to come to the office everyday. With connection to internet, she could work everywhere as long as follow the agreed working hour. She communicated with clients and colleagues over Skype. That is really cool, right?

Yes, it is. It is not an easy thing. It requires a lot of coordination and trust. I once had a job using a similar approach and it was doable to manage international project/tasks over the phone. The foundation of it, was not technology (even though technology enable it), but professionalism and working ethic of each member. It was a good old days 🙂

What was interesting with Sheyla was to be introduced in new culture of Brazil, Latin America. On the no pressure for woman to get marry (and without judgement too), on how they enjoy their life (traveling and working at the same time), on how beautiful her country is (she showed me the picture of her hometown with lovely pristine beaches), and at the end i felt how different the society treated women. I would not say that is perfect, but it was a very refreshing insight – compare on whats happening on my home country.

Another weird things that i did in here might be about… food. Ok. I said that snowing was magical, but i did not say i enjoy the cold weather that came with it. It was extremely cold for me, like 30 degrees lower than i used to be. And because of it, i literally hunting down a traditional Vietnamese noodle soups called Pho. I read somewhere that Prague had this nice Pho restaurant and i ate them every single day. I did not go to the same place though, i went to all their different branches inside the city center. And it was really good! With big portion too! If you want to try, the restaurant chain name was Pho Vietnam Tuan & Lan. Just type this name into Google Maps and you are all set!

Oh, if i can conclude, traveling in Prague for me was like falling in love. The sceneries were amazing, the people i met were great, and the food (i know its Vietnamese, but still…) was delicious and cheap! I might want to go back again some time in the future. Perhaps. But, who knows? 😉

See you in “Berlin”!

.runa.