As a traveler I think the most important phrase is “Thank you.” That was what I learned to say before each country we traveled to. Even if you can't speak the local language and talk in English or gestures, it is nice to be able to thank someone in their native language. Second most important for me is “I'm sorry” or “excuse me”. That is very useful when on crowded buses or trains and you have to push by someone to get off. Third is probably “where is the bathroom?” or simply “toilet?” which gets the message across.
Anyway, here is how to say “Thank you”, in every country we visited, at least how it sounded to me. Please don't get too offended if I mangled your native language, I was trying 🙂 :
Taiwan (mandarin), China: Shi-shi
Korea: Gamsameeda
Egypt (Arabic): Shockram
Zurich – Switzerland, Vienna – Austria (German): Danke
Geneva – Switzerland (French), France: Merci
Spain: Gracias
Italy, Vatican City: Gratzie
Hungary: Kusonome
Czech Republic: Dekuji
Poland: Dziekuji (very similar to Czech)
Norway: Takk (pronounced like talk)
Denmark: Tack (like tact)
Iceland: this is the one I didn't learn. Supposedly it is similar to Danish (tack) but they add several syllables to differentiate from Denmark. Just saying “tack” is frowned upon, so I went with “Thank you” which everyone understood.
For the next leg we had booked a night train from Prague to Kraków, Poland. After the previous bad experience on the night train I wanted to abandon this plan. At least we reserved bottom bunks, but it was still couchettes not real sleeping berths.
A little while ago my brother Chris suggested we take a ferry from Swinoujscie, Poland to Ystad, Sweden. Ystad is only about 90 minutes train from Copenhagen. We need to end up in Copenhagen because that is where our flight out of Europe leaves from. I also thought taking a ferry would be fun, so I tried to arrange this plan. Swinoujscie is on the north coast and Kraków is in the south of Poland so it is a long journey. There is a night train that connects the two, but it turned out to be sold out on the date we need. So I looked into a day train. There is nothing direct so you have to make connections, and one of the connections was sold out, meaning we'd have to stay over night in another town then catch an early train the rest of the way. I even contacted a Polish travel agency to help. Eventually we felt like it was just too much trouble and stress, which is not what we wanted so we gave up that plan. I wanted to give up Poland entirely and just go through Germany to get to Copenhagen. Yanmei didn't want to skip Poland so she devised a new plan that we could live with. I won't spoil that yet though.
Anyway we checked out of our hotel at noon and had 10 hours to kill until the 10pm train. Unfortunately it was cold, rainy and windy, and also most museums were closed because it was Monday. I suggested we do an escape room. I've been wanting to try one for a while, but we always have higher priorities. There was one close to the hotel called MindMaze so I reserved a time for us and we braved the rain to go there.
An escape room is a live puzzle game. Basically you get a team and are locked in a room and you have to figure out how to escape within a time limit. The one we booked was for 2-5 people so we could do it as a couple. The theme was an alchemist's laboratory and we had 60 minutes to escape.
In the room there was a locked chest a locked desk a locked wardrobe a locked dresser and various other stylistic things such as jars with chemicals, old books etc. It was very fun. We had to work as a team and we did. Yanmei would notice things that I didn't and vice versa. For example I figured out how to open the first lock, and Yanmei found an important clue hidden behind a painting.
In the Alchemist's Lab
We ended up escaping in 58 minutes although we needed two hints to do so. The time seemed to fly by. I think we could do better next time now that we understand better how clues link together. Apparently many people don't escape even with the hints. Anyway we want to try more of these, and they have them in most cities now. It would also be fun to do it with a group of friends. I know there are more difficult ones designed for larger groups with longer time limits.
We still had some more time to kill and considered going to see a movie such as Jurassic World, but ended up just doing a bit of shopping instead since the rain stopped.
Finally we headed to the train station to catch the night train to Poland.
The train from Vienna to Prague is about 4 hours 45 minutes. For some routes a reservation is required, but not for this one. However I suggested to Yanmei we get a reservation anyway. A reservation provides you with a seat number, otherwise you just sit wherever there is space. Our Eurail pass is for 1st class, but they ticket lady said they only had one 1st class seat left, so we reserved two 2nd class seats. I was annoyed at myself for not making the reservation the previous night when we got back from Budapest and walked past the ticket office. However the 2nd class reservation turned out to be money well spent since the train was packed. People were sitting on the floor and standing in corridors, not something we want to do for nearly 5 hours.
We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, since it was supposed to be nice. The service was great and they had live piano music, but the food itself was just okay. I had a Czech hanger steak with dumplings and Yanmei had a mushroom risotto.
Castle gates guarded by fighting giants. Hapsburg crown in the center. Restoration going on in the first courtyard.
The next day we did a tour. We started at the Prague Castle. Inside the castle is the Saint Vitus Cathedral. The construction of the cathedral started in 1344 and was only completed in 1929, 585 later. You can see in the picture that we were under serious threat of rain.
St. Vitus Cathedral. In the bottom right you can see a direct connection to the castle complex.Close up on the gargoyles on the church. On the right you can see two men in business suits. These are the final architects indicating this part was finished in the 20th century despite the gothic style.View of Prague from the castleJohn Lenin wall
Once we got down to the river we took a 40 minute cruise on the Vltava river.
Yanmei and her Taiwanese friend she met on the tourCharles bridge in the background. It was so hot I put on sunscreen. This jinxed us and it started to rain heavily a few minutes later.Roof closed to protect from the rainCharles bridge across the Vltava. It was the only bridge across the river for 500 years until 1841.
The river floods periodically. The most recent was in 2002, which they called a thousand year flood, because it was the highest water ever recorded in the city's history. If you go to YouTube and search for Prague flood 2002 you can find some videos of it.
Markers on a building showing the flood levels. The smaller one highest up is 2002. The very small one lower is 1890.Another perspective to show how high the water was, river is on the left and the markers on the building are on the right.
Finally we walked across the famous Charles bridge.
Yay the sun came back out!Astronomical clock of Prague
As part of the tour we had a late lunch in a “medieval restaurant”, and then finished up with a quick walk through the Jewish quarter.
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