As promised, here is the video of my recent travels in the last month. One month ago I was in Prague for a conference and some sightseeing, then went to Greece for a weekend a few weeks ago and I spent last weekend in the Bulgarian countryside! I’m having a great spring!
Since I didn’t upload any pictures yet, I decided to 1 UP my promise and to deliver a video. 🙂
Enjoy!
Or go see it on YouTube or Vimeo.
So, before I write about the joys of Prague last week… I want to get something off my chest first.
The public transport in Prague is not too expensive, although some people would disagree with me. The problem is the availability of tickets at night. There’s no machines available, no shops open, metro stations where there are offices: closed. If you can reach machines, but don’t have exact change: good luck. Even the guys from the tram/metro service won’t change money with you. Oh, and the tramdrivers don’t sell tickets.
So if you don’t have a ticket already, sometimes you’re more or less forced to ride the tram illegally, or put yourself in danger by walking through a city filled with junks and bums for 1.5 hour. So you get on the tram, but a lot of trams at night have police officers in them… who help to enforce the public transport company’s rules. By helping controllers fining you for more than 25 times the price of a ticket. That, by my book, is fascism. Using state security forces to enforce corporate interests at the cost of civilians.
There’s the option to send an SMS to a number to buy a ticket ‘code’ or something, but we were told this only works with Czech numbers… and at the information display at tramstops, the number to SMS is not mentioned. Great job, guys.
Yes, we got fined.
More about Prague soon! It was awesome. So was the 24 hour busride through Europe 🙂
Photo by Tsvety.
I’m about to embark on a 24 hour busride to Prague with my girlfriend. I’m invited to speak at a conference about social dynamics and hope to change some lives with the speech I will give there. I’ll be staying with a friend of mine who’s a DJ and who’ll be playing at 3 gigs that weekend, but before having a blast in Prague, I’ll have to make the best of my time in the bus.
I believe it will be a wonderful trip. Instead of flying across Europe from the south east to the center and seeing only clouds, we’ll be driving through a bunch of countries of which we’ll be able to see the beautiful landscapes and nature that they offer. Last summer I got in a car that was going from Holland to Bulgaria and even though it was exhausting, it was a great experience to witness the diversity of Europe. It made me feel a lot more European at the same time.
Also, when we arrive, a day after leaving, we’ll really have the feeling that we’re somewhere else – which I sometimes miss after a 1 or 2 hour planeride. Let’s hope all goes well and it won’t be too boring. 😉
I’ll be publishing some pictures of the trip if I manage to get any interesting shots and else expect a bunch of pictures from Prague up soon!
Wish me bon voyage and I’ll speak to you soon!
Image by René Ehrhardt, shared under a Creative Commons license on Flickr.
Welcome to the first edition of blog carnival Expat Experience!
Expat Experience is a collection of the web’s best blog posts about life as an expat around the world. What is it like to move abroad? What are the joys and difficulties of emerging yourself in a different culture? What about food, culture shock, language problems, or making friends abroad? How about maintaining contact and relationships with people back home? But let’s not forget the adventures one experiences as an expat… travelling in ones new home country, the social life, going from outsider to insider in a new environment.
Expat Experience is a reflection of all of this and more. We all have different homes and different destinations, but share one thing… We have made the move abroad. Whether you’re a long-term or short-term expat, serial expat or just someone that’s interested in the life of expats… Whether you’re interested in the lives of expats in your home country, an expat that wants to read about the experiences of fellow expats, or you just want to network with other expats and gain some attention for your own blog… Expat Experience offers a fascinating insight into the lives of expats globally.
Enjoy the read, enjoy the adventure! Enjoy the Expat Experience!
Some of you might know I have quite a bad SoapBoxxer addiction. Well, I was just having a discussion and it offered me a good opportunity to flex my wit muscles / muscles of wit, whichever you prefer. The conversation went as below.
Topic: Holland WILL win it all (Eurocup)
Patofeo2: they won’t
Spartz (that’s me): I doubt it, but odds have gone up considerably.
Patofeo2: I have a feeling czech rep. will win all
Spartz: Get real.
Patofeo2: What’s the wager?
Spartz: five!
Patofeo2: please write the team you think will win. That way I can talk shit to you when they loose 😉
Spartz:Czech Republic
Patofeo2: u bastard!
Checkmate. 😉
.
UPDATE
Looks like i can relate this post to Turkey after all. Turkey just eliminated the Czech Republic from the Eurocup in the most spectacular fashion!
Turkey last night made history in the most dramatic fashion imaginable by overcoming a two-goal deficit to emerge triumphant in their winner-takes-all Group A showdown with the Czech Republic.
Jan Koller and Jaroslav Plasil had put the Czechs on course for a quarter-final meeting with Croatia, but Turkey discarded the script in an unforgettable final 15 minutes with three goals, including two from Nihat Kahveci, to progress to the second stage of a European Championships for only the second time.
Fucking awesome! Since I’m going to Turkey this September, I’m rooting for both Holland and Turkey! It’s great to see ‘my teams’ book succes 
Picture: Telegraph
