Beautiful train ride but a rough landing

     We had our first train this trip (we'd flown Copenhagen to Berlin), and I remember how much I love train rides (especially in Europe). We passed some beautiful scenes and learned about places known only from history books and maps. 

     Dresden (whose famous firebombing played in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five) was on the beautiful Elbe River, which we followed almost all the way into Prague. 

     We also saw some Soviet remnants trackside. 

 

     I have been to Prague and loved it, but it was a rough entry this time.

     Our host told us not to pay more than 300 Czech Koruna (Crowns) for a taxi to the apartment. We got off at the train station and asked at the taxi stand. "500." "No," we said, "300." "Okay, 400." "No, 300." He sighed and went over to a waiting taxi. "OK, my colleague will take you for 300."

     Then when we got to the apartment, and the manager made sexist comments, implying that Mary (1) would not be able to figure out how to use the key, (2) would want to spend her time and money shopping in Prague, and (3) "If you say the apartment is okay, I ask you [i.e., me, the man] to pay."

     We shook it off and went to see Prague. We had a vegetarian Czech goulash, which was more like a Beef Bourguignon sauce than the tomato sauce "goulash" I have had in the U.S. We walked up to Wenceslaus Square 

 

and returning got to see the famous astronomical clock ring 19:00.

    

     We fell asleep feeling like the trip was righting itself.

     We woke up just a couple hours later feeling like we were in a karaoke bar. A live band nearby was playing loud covers of standards, and the crowd was singing along. I put on clothes and found the culprit: the apartment building was right behind Caffery's Irish pub. The apartment had been advertised as "soundproof" and "quiet."