The last day part 1

The last day began with the sound of multiple alarms at 5 in the morning. How I hate the sound of alarm clocks. I quickly made sure all my stuff was packed. One of my roommates didnt manage to wake up with the barrage of beeping that came from the alarm clocks, but instead got woken up by the grumpy old woman who was going around checking that the rooms were left how they were before we arrived in Dobruška. Her moaning voice was much worse than any alarm could be.

Once my room was given the all clear from the grumpy woman I took my stuff down to the lobby and left it there before going for one more brief walk to the town centre. I took a photo of the tower in the centre of the square and then went back to put my bags on the coach.

The coach journey was long and boring. Most people slept but I couldnt so I listened to music. I wasnt looking forward to arriving in Prague because I knew it meant I had to navigate my way through the different methods of transport within a limited time.

When we arrived in Prague I got all my bags together and then wondered where the metro was. I had about 2 hours to get my bags to a friends shop and then back to Prague castle for the finishing ceremony. I was shitting myself.

Ï walked in a random direction and made it to a big bus and train station which I had been to once before. I remembered there was a metro somewhere in the station. The problem was finding it because everywhere looked the same. I carried on walking around randomly and after about 5 minutes found it. I bought the tickets and got on the metro train. The Prague metro is really easy to use. I got where I wanted to go without any problems. I wish I could say the same thing about the buses.

When I got out of the station I went looking for the bus stop. I could see the tram station but no bus stops. I wandered around with my bags digging into my shoulders. I wish I hadn't brought so much useless crap with me. It was really embaressing. My belt was really loose and I could feel my trousers falling down but I couldnt pull them up and tighten my belt because of all the bags I was carrying. The way the bags were hanging from my shoulder and lying on my back had also caused my shirt to get twisted in a weird way which looked really stupid.

After about 10 minutes I found a bus stop but noticed it was going in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go. So I asked someone with my limited czech where the bus station going to the stop I wanted was. The woman kept saying I should go to the tram stop, which I thought was a bit weird, but I did it anyway and kept looking for a bus stop.

I decided to look along the road opposite the one where I found the bus stop going in the wrong direction. I walked up and down the road for what seemed like ages, exhausted, in pain from my heavy and uncomfortable bag (which caused me to get bruises on the parts of my shoulder it dug into) and with my trousers still falling down.

Eventually, whilst making one of my many visits to the tram station, I saw a bus stopping at the tram stop. It was my bus. I ran to it and just made it on. There was no bus stop where it had stopped so I didn't see how you were meant to know bus' stopped there. But I was finally on the bus and time was running out.

The bus journey was short, only a couple of stops. Once I met up with my friend at her shop I quickly dropped my stuff off, said hello, then goodbye and left to make the journey to the castle.

The tram journey to the castle took about half an hour. Luckily the tram went from the tram station with the invisible bus stop so finding it wasn't a problem. At the stop before my destination stop a police man got on. My travel ticket, due to my inability to find bus stops, had expired and therefore I was riding the tram illegally. He walked to the other side of the tram and was slowly walking in my direction checking tickets. I remained calm, hoping my stop would arrive before he got to me. If that failed I was preparing to do the whole 'sorry I can't understand what you're saying. Oh i'm meant to buy tickets and stamp them' routine although I doubt that would be succesful.

I was lucky. Just before he got to me my stop arrived and I calmly walked off feeling relieved. I made my way towards the castle and navigated my way through the different courtyards to the meeting place under a balcony. Luckily that wasn't too hard but because of how long the tram journey to the castle took I was about 15 minutes late. I had to look for my group who were already touring the castle. But I wasn't the latest to arrive.