Train to Prague

The train ride from Freiberg to Prague was yet another little adventure in a honeymoon full of them.

This is a driving map, because I couldn't get one that had the train route highlighted.  The train routes are a little straighter.

After going to Feri and Róz's sealing on Wednesday afternoon, we hurried and got to the train station, where we actually got on an earlier train that we anticipated, but that didn't stop us from taking pictures at the train station while we were waiting for the earlier train.

 

Sarah wouldn't stand on the chairs and point to the sign, so her picture doesn't get put up.

We had already been to the train station to change our ticket from an earlier train, paying 16 euros to do so.  When the ticket checker came by on our way to Dresden and also after we switched trains onto the one going to Prague, we were fine once we showed them the new ticket.  This, however was not the case once we crossed the border into the Czech Republic.  When the ticket checker came by, we gave him our new and old tickets, and he informed us that the old ticket was for an earlier train (yeah, we know, that's why we bought the new one), and that the new ticket only covered what was in Germany.  

He told us that it would be 350 Czech crowns for the portion of our ticket that was in the Czech Republic.  How are we supposed to have Czech crowns?!?  It's not like you have an option at the ATM in Germany: 'Would you like this withdrawal in euros or Czech crowns?'  So, I informed Mr. Ticket Checker, that unfortunately, we don't have any Czech crowns.  He said we could pay in euros then.  I asked him how many euros and he said sixteen (convenient exchange fee of a euro and a half).  As luck would have it, we only had three euros and some change since we had already paid for our Friday night with Mrs. Klausnitze.  Oh great, what do we do now?  The last thing we need is to get arrested for not having the money to pay for our train.  In an act of desperation, I asked if he would accept American dollars.  He said yes.

I then looked into my money belt to find that we had exactly $23.  What in the world are we doing traveling with $23, a handful of euros and some Hungarian forint?  We should definitely have more money on us next time.  If there is a next time, after we get out of the Czech prison for not paying our full price for our train tickets.  I pulled the $23 out of the money belt so I'd be ready to pay once he told me how much.  He sure has been pounding away at that calculator of his for a long time...

Then the response came: "Twenty-three dollars."  How convenient, I have exactly that much right here.  I handed money over and he gave us our second new ticket for the train ride to Prague.  Wait a minute, we totally just got hosed.  I wonder if the price would have been $30 if I pulled out $30 or $20 if I would have pulled out $20.  Oh well, at least we made it there safe, and as it turns out, $23 isn't that much more than 16 euros.