This is us ... Mommy Duck (Melinda) leading her ducklings through the Prague airport, bus, underground and then into the train station to catch our 4-hour train ride to Hradlec Králové (HK for short since none of us could pronounce it!). It seems that our group trusted Melinda to navigate them through the bewildering jungle of concrete known as Prague transport. Her duty was to look back, as we wove through the Czech crowds, to make sure all the ducklings were in a row. Their duty (successfully followed) was to shout "quack, quack" to let her know they were all there. It did not help that our train's platform was the only one not showing on the scheduled train bulletin board! The lady in the information (or was that disinformation) booth was not exactly helpful with her minimalist response "Upstairs". Nonetheless, we did manage to find our train, get on board and settle down to a trip into the past.
As you can see by the image, trains in the Czech Republic are still mostly remnants of the Communist era. The ride through the Czech countryside was equally fascinating as we could glance out at two parallel countries - a fast-forward country with loads of European money flowing in and a country locked in its past.
Arriving at Hradlec Králové train station at close to 10 pm, we grabbed our luggage (not without some struggle considering the size of some of the bags we had) and headed off to find our hotel. At least, we intended to do so. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, at least that is what Hal is convinced of. The adventure begins ...
Mother Duck was tired and allowed her ducklings to separate. Some of her ducklings (Hal, Mitzi and Brock) decided to go down the stairs to the exit, while Mother Duck and the rest of her ducklings took the elevator. We soon discovered the need to know a few words in Czech - starting with the word 'Exit'. Coming out of the elevator, it seemed to be a dead end. But a little investigating (remember, we have great detective skills honed by trying to find airplane flights of grandmothers) showed that the exit was just around the corner and up another elevator. Makes sense - after all, we had to go under the other train rails to get to the main terminal.
Once in the main terminal, the three ducklings (Hal, Mitzi and Brock) were no where to be found. We looked all around the near empty terminal (it was, after all, quite late) and even checked outside. But no little ducklings to be found. Mother Duck parked her other ducks on a bench (except for her brave duckling named Joel, who went with her to save the lost ducklings). The three ducklings, not finding their Mother Duck, and not having learnt the Czech word for exit, went down the stairs but did not find their Mother Duck so they went back up the stairs. Then they decided to go down the elevator after the other group, but did not realise that they had to go out of the elevator and go around the corner for the other one. So they got back on the elevator and tried to find other buttons that would take them ACROSS the railway tracks. Since it was not an elevator belonging to Willie Wonka, this elevator did not go sideways. So they went back down the elevator, their feathers getting more ruffled all the time. Hal decided that the elevator was really Alice in Wonderland's Rabbit Hole and said we don't take that again! Then a nice Czech lady in a uniform happened by. But she did not speak English and really could not understand why they were asking for directions to a town they were already in. When she finally understood that they wanted directions to get over the railway tracks to the main terminal she cracked up. She was still giggling when Mother Duck and Duckling Joel showed up to rescue the lost ducklings. The look of relief on their faces was priceless. So we gathered everyone up and headed to the ex-Communist 'luxury' hotel across the mud-packed square.
As Joel said, it wasn't very hard to find as it was looming up out of the darkness right outside the train station. At the hotel we met up with the other members of the project and everyone decided to catch a bite to eat. Being so late, the only place open was a Chinese restaurant. Nothing like Chinese in the Czech Republic to restore your spirits. But the Spaniards (Joel & Melinda) skipped dinner to stay in the hotel to watch the Spain-Italy soccer match. Spain won after a 0-0 tie that went into overtime and then into penalty shots! Spain moved on to the semi-finals - the first time in 30 years!
The next day, while Claudia (Melinda's research assistant) and Melinda got to spend their whole day here ...
at this boring (but very modern) Education Faculty, the others got to roam around HK and see this beautiful medieval town.
But surprised by a sudden (and I mean sudden) hail storm, the intrepid travellers took refuge in the archways of the main plaza. Later on the sun came back out and they were able to enjoy the city and the theatre festival the rest of the day.
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