`Don's Impressions of Prague.

The heat buildup was getting intense, 35degrees the day before and same forecast for the day, apart from this a good cycle road into Prague was hard to find, so we took the train from Kolin.Val marched up to the ticket box with a cartoon, two bikes and two people in outline. No English in the ticket booth, as expected, but tickets emerged. We hoped the bikes were included.

Getting to Platform 3 in the middle of a five platform cluster, meant bouncing down the stairs into the access  tunnel. There's a train sitting on No 3, could be ours, but to get up the stairs meant unloading panniers, however another cyclist sprinted over, grabbed the back of Vals bike, panniers and all and between them they landed on the platform above. He then dashed down the stairs and did the same for me.
Val is talking to the guard, the door of the train is open and our bikes are on board in no time.
Wow, a guard that is helpful. No English, but it's obviously "Tickets Please"
Val has trouble finding the tickets, turns everything out on the floor of the goods carriage, the Guard waits with a patient smile and just when we thought we'd have to pay again, the tickets flutter out from the pages of a notebook.`

Forty five minutes later we are trying to get out of the Prague Central Station and into the city, without navigating stairs proved a challenge, but we soon found ourselves in a rubbish strewn park, looked like a camp ground for street people and there were quite a few, more than we'd seen elsewhere (other than Paris and Los Angeles).

We needed a break and so (wash our mouths out) we stepped into a Starbucks, where Val had a mint tea, I had a coffee and the Chocolate cake got an 8/10 

In St Wenceslas Square we came across two German touring cyclists who spoke English and they put us on track to the camp ground, where we booked in and were braceleted on the wrist for the duration of our  stay. Security was tight here, we were even challenged when leaving and had to produce our receipt before security man would open the gate.

We though the small tent area was overcrowded when we arrived, but each time we came back there were another ten or twelve tents crammed in.

Alongside us we had a young South Korean film maker, on his first trip to Europe and was negotiating with the Camp Manager to put on a selection of his films to the campers. (See last paragraph)

We explored Prague on a very hot Sunday, lunched on top of a hill overlooking the city alongside a replica of the Eiffel Tower and were entertained by a street performer who alternated between two types of bird before donning a set of Elephant ears. He was low on the ladder of mime, but at least was working for his zlotties (or whatever) as opposed to those begging for a handout.

In Cambodia they have a small denomination note worth 100 "thingies" (which are less than a US cent), my daughter in law told me to carry a wad of these around and give some to everyone, which is quite a nice way to behave. Carrying a bag full of copper coins would be rather uncomfortable, especially when, like us you are still struggling to know the value of them when you cross a border.

Somehow, and she always manages, Val found the way to the Gallery of Modern Art, a massive building which has now been converted into the most spacious art gallery we have ever seen. The building had sinister overtones though, as it had been a central point for holding people bound for death camps during Hitler's reign of terror.

Oh, and they did have a Henry Moore and some strange Doggy Sculptures.

We emerged into a violent thunderstorm, leaves whipping around corners, people running for cover and down along the river branches were being torn from trees and strewn along footpaths. In the gloomy light of premature evening, we managed to make our way back across the city (Val's navigation skills to the fore once again) arriving back at Sardine Camp, to find out tent quite unscathed.

That night we watched Avant Garde South Korean movies with titles like "Know You" and "Mumming", the multi-cultural audience somewhat bemused, if not confused, the message lost in the night air, technical aspects looked really good and our young neighbour was ecstatic at having the opportunity to show his work and seemed to be pleased with audience reaction. To stand up in front of the audience and in shy broken English tell us something of the background to his project was very brave. He packed up and headed for Vienna the next day with a big smile on his face.