Conflicting Advice
As any expat can tell you, one of the very annoying and very fun things about living in a new country is the fact that you need to rediscover basic things from scratch. You used to know how to catch a train/tram/bus/taxi. You used to know where to get tickets from. You used to know the opening hours for the local shops. This can change from one town to another let alone from one country to another.
As I say, this is something that is fun but only if you have the proper time for it. When you’re late for work and are peering at the loose change in your pocket to figure out its denomination to see if you have enough change for a tram ticket, it is kinda annoying.
Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
One useful source of information is, obviously, the tourist office. In Belgium, I used to regularly pop into the tourist offices to see what’s on and what’s new as this was the perfect way to keep in touch with events and activities that even the local media may not cover properly. I discovered that the Czech tourist office has a detailed guide to staying in the city and this is exactly what I needed at the beginning.
My copy of the guide is now slightly dog-eared but has proven invaluable on many occasions. I was flipping through it the other day to figure out the train system as I wanted to travel a little further than just Prague. There are many different types of trains here depending on the journey and destination. One of them seems to have a dual personality:
The fast slow train. Or the slow fast train, whichever is easier.
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Split personality train?
Yes, it’s either the fast slow train .. Or the slow fast train!
It is part of the adventure, I suppose. Life long learning experiences.
Indeed Henry – you just have to get used to fast slow trains in some countries …
Ha, yep, sell it to us why not! Maybe the slow train is a nifty little mover though?
Apparently this was the fast train in the sixties and they just keep calling it that even though technology has overcome it and it’s now one of the slow ones!