Backpacking Prague (Part 1)

I arrived in Prague at night, about 8:30pm. I initially planned to take a tram to a hostel that I'd found on the internet. How, I dont know. I had the address: Delnicka 24, 17000 Prague 7....

Righty-ho. Apparently it was 2 tram stops from Prague Ruzyne aiport, a change, and another tram, and a little walk. I didnt expect it to be as dark as it was when I arrived, so I thought it most sensible to fork out some extra cash and get a taxi instead. A tram in the afternoon, fine. Tram at night, with the potential of walking around completely lost, not a good idea! (Tram would have been 40 koruna, taxi was 500 (about £12). But nevermind. Better safe than sorry.)

Good thing I'd written down some handy phrases. I groped around for my little notebook which I'd scribbled dates and times and reference numbers on. (Note to the reader: whereas one can always travel around Germany or Austria with a handy language phrase book, the Czech language is a whole new ball game! Some say that the Czech Language is the most difficult European language to get your head around.) True enough, I couldnt read my translations well enough to make sense of anything. To say: "Where are the taxi's?" I'd somehow have to maneouvre my tongue to utter: "Překládané, ani podobné slovo nebylo v databázi nalezeno?"

(Above: It is worthy to mention that the language goes beyond apostrophe's and Germanic umlauts. What we have is a whole new world of squiggles above letters.)

No use. Okay, okay. Resort to age-old tourist remedy of flagging arms, using basic sign language and grunting in the most sane way possible. I saw a man near the bus stop, and tried "Mluvíte anglicky?" (Do you speak English?) He smiled. I said "Taxi? Delnicka 24?" He smiled. Righty-ho. He pointed to a woman in a suit across the road, who looked like an air stewardess. She was holding a clip board, and a walkie talkie. I walked over to her. "Taxi?" She nodded, mumbled into her walkie talkie, and before I knew it, my bags were being loaded into the boot. The taxi driver looked at me from his rear view mirror and I said "Delnicka 24?" He shifted into gear, and drove on without saying a word. I thought "Lord, I dont want to die in Prague. Please dont let him be a serial killer. Please get me to Delnicka 24!!"