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You can
run all you want,
but you won't make the train if you read the schedule wrong.
My bad. We were just in time for the imaginary 10:42 but we'd already missed
the real
10:28. With no schedule posted at the
Cirkvice
station, we decided to wait. Hopes rose with
each clanging drop of crossing gate, but no trains stopped, neither passenger
nor freight.
A cold wind blew across the fields and through the holes of piss stinky
plywood
shelter.
My fingers went numb waiting because again in my wisdom I'd brought no coat
to the CR
because I'd mistakenly thought it would be hot. Sarah occupied herself with
iPod
Czech
lessons, asking me to test her new knowledge of numbers by reading off
random digits.
I alternately scribbled
in notebook or sat thinking no-thought. Hope sparked again
when an old man arrived carrying two shopping bags, but he didn't know the
schedule
either and wisely concluded, So, we must wait. After almost two hours,
the 12:27
arrived on time and we were on our way to Prague. The connection in Kolin
was
delayed and then we unwittingly boarded the local instead of express, so
all in all
we managed to stretch the 61-minute trip to four hours. Prague is not too
happy
a place. Beautiful, yes,
but there seems to be sadness on most of the faces. It's
not a money thing; the economy is on the upswing. What is it that's
missing?
There's anger, too, manifested especially (as usual) by
drivers.
But of course
it's not totally grim--there can be anywhere flashes of good feeling and
magic.
Two men are walking down a side street full of enthusiasm, gesturing
broadly,
when one says in Czech, apropos of nothing, Some blue garden.... What
does it
mean? It hardly matters--it's a beam of pure poetry and we go to eat. We
got to
Prague too late to run most of the errands we had planned, but we did
manage
to accomplish one ironic task: we'd travelled from country to city to buy
seeds.
The trip back was a lot quicker, and when we got off in Cirkvice it proved
much wetter. As we walked the 15 minutes back to Jakub without umbrella
we passed a group of better equipped
youngsters on
their way to the station....
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