Along the way every traveler's path will cross with that of another. In most cases this is an uplifting part of the journey - the meeting of kindred spirits....or Americans ;-p But like all things in life, the travel coin has two sides. And in some cases the chance meeting of traveling strangers can also be described as the nature of the beast. And as my luck would have it...
I have not met many people during my stay in Prague. This is mostly due to the fact that I ended up alone in a 6-bed dorm room. Not to sound anti-social, but not meeting potentially friendly fellow roommates was a small price to pay for a bit of privacy at the end of a long day of sightseeing. Call me old before my time but traveling at 29 is not quite the same as I remember traveling at 21 to be...die ou lyf word moeg mense! By 10pm I'm ready for cuppa tea and a warm bed... (Toemaar, vanaand ontmoet ek vir Annelé in Reims - all is not lost! :)
The only place where I encountered a few of the other hostel residents was at the internet corner. There are 2 PCs placed very close next to each other making it inevitable not to have the random conversation with your nextdoor surfing neighbour. A charming Nigerian-looking American with a funky braided bowlcut hairstyle helped me fashion a mousepad from some leaflets. I tried assisting a girl from Vegas in finding the @ sign on the weird Czeck keyboard. And then my luck turned.
I was innocently minding my own business yesterday morning when a friendly man in his mid 40s sat down next to me.
"I knew a girl who also hid behind a hat."
(I was wearing hat)
(I fake laughed)
"I'm actually just hiding a bad hair day."
(He didn't get it and continued with his story about the insecure girl who wore a hat.)
(I pretended to listen)
"So, where are you from"
"South Africa."
"Oh. I saw an American movie where they showed a guy in Cape Town. It looked dark and ominous. Very dark and scary. I love American movies."
(I fake laughed again...annoyed this time)
"Well, I guess you shouldn't always believe what you see in movies. Cape Town is actually very nice - beautiful place."
"It seemed so ominous. And then I saw this other movie where people got highjacked."
I get tired reliving it.
The dude is from Canada...or Turkey...but ended up in America. I wouldn't be surprised if illegal money exchanged hands in the process. Despite myself trying to look really busy the man talked incessantly. He jabbered on about the exchange rate, how he does business from his laptop from the room upstairs (!!!???), how wonderful America is, how dangerous South Africa seems (again), why I'm hiding behind my hat (again). Eventually I didn't even look at him anymore in the hopes that he will get the point and move on. But nope. Instead he tried to make me watch "Complete the danged fence" - a "brilliant" YouTube video of John McCain's stance on illegal immigration. I excused myself.
So you'd think that was the end of the Turkish-Canadian-American wouldn't you? But the same damn Murphy who made me miss my flight on Monday caught up with me in Prague as I ran into the talker on a random street in the city center at 10pm last night.
"You shouldn't walk around with your camera in the open like that."
(I was taking a photograph).
"Why do you have such a big camera? Mine does the job just fine."
(He shows me his cellphone camera).
"Do you make money from your camera?"
"No."
"Then why do you have such a big camera?"
So. My last day in Prague. No sign of the Turkish-Canadian-American this morning. But I don't dare relax. I still have 3 hours left before I go to the airport.
I have not met many people during my stay in Prague. This is mostly due to the fact that I ended up alone in a 6-bed dorm room. Not to sound anti-social, but not meeting potentially friendly fellow roommates was a small price to pay for a bit of privacy at the end of a long day of sightseeing. Call me old before my time but traveling at 29 is not quite the same as I remember traveling at 21 to be...die ou lyf word moeg mense! By 10pm I'm ready for cuppa tea and a warm bed... (Toemaar, vanaand ontmoet ek vir Annelé in Reims - all is not lost! :)
The only place where I encountered a few of the other hostel residents was at the internet corner. There are 2 PCs placed very close next to each other making it inevitable not to have the random conversation with your nextdoor surfing neighbour. A charming Nigerian-looking American with a funky braided bowlcut hairstyle helped me fashion a mousepad from some leaflets. I tried assisting a girl from Vegas in finding the @ sign on the weird Czeck keyboard. And then my luck turned.
I was innocently minding my own business yesterday morning when a friendly man in his mid 40s sat down next to me.
"I knew a girl who also hid behind a hat."
(I was wearing hat)
(I fake laughed)
"I'm actually just hiding a bad hair day."
(He didn't get it and continued with his story about the insecure girl who wore a hat.)
(I pretended to listen)
"So, where are you from"
"South Africa."
"Oh. I saw an American movie where they showed a guy in Cape Town. It looked dark and ominous. Very dark and scary. I love American movies."
(I fake laughed again...annoyed this time)
"Well, I guess you shouldn't always believe what you see in movies. Cape Town is actually very nice - beautiful place."
"It seemed so ominous. And then I saw this other movie where people got highjacked."
I get tired reliving it.
The dude is from Canada...or Turkey...but ended up in America. I wouldn't be surprised if illegal money exchanged hands in the process. Despite myself trying to look really busy the man talked incessantly. He jabbered on about the exchange rate, how he does business from his laptop from the room upstairs (!!!???), how wonderful America is, how dangerous South Africa seems (again), why I'm hiding behind my hat (again). Eventually I didn't even look at him anymore in the hopes that he will get the point and move on. But nope. Instead he tried to make me watch "Complete the danged fence" - a "brilliant" YouTube video of John McCain's stance on illegal immigration. I excused myself.
So you'd think that was the end of the Turkish-Canadian-American wouldn't you? But the same damn Murphy who made me miss my flight on Monday caught up with me in Prague as I ran into the talker on a random street in the city center at 10pm last night.
"You shouldn't walk around with your camera in the open like that."
(I was taking a photograph).
"Why do you have such a big camera? Mine does the job just fine."
(He shows me his cellphone camera).
"Do you make money from your camera?"
"No."
"Then why do you have such a big camera?"
So. My last day in Prague. No sign of the Turkish-Canadian-American this morning. But I don't dare relax. I still have 3 hours left before I go to the airport.
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