I'm writing this on the train from Berlin to Prague, though I'll post it when I'm able. Talking with a Swiss guy yesterday I find out that we're both taking the same train to Prague, his name is Dario, he's couch surfing in Prague for a couple of days and then moving onto venice I think.
Dario and I pile into a second class cabin, along with the majority of Berlin and (somehow) secure seats. The train is the type where a small corridor runs down one side and cabins with six seats take up the majority of space. The size of the corridor makes it near impossible to turn around while wearing a backpack, even if you could turn around there would be no point as you can't move past the people behind you anyway. I actually saw two backpackers attempt to get past each other and effectively get stuck, blocking the entire corridor as they attempt to free themselves, as one of the seated few I laughed to myself. A woman in our cabin mentioned its always like this.
About a hour in, the train stops in what seems like the middle of nowhere. We wait about thirty minutes when another train, similar to ours but moving in the other direction pulls up along side. It too has people lining corridors, unable to secure seating. There both trains sit, inhabitants of both trains unable to communicate to each other, but seemingly knowing what the other is feeling. It turns out that the train staff change trains at this point, the German staff from our train move to the other, to ensure they stay in Germany, the Czech staff returning to the home land. We're finally on the move again.
For the next hour or so we wind our way through a beautiful valley, with steep tree filled sides and villages scattered through out. I try on several occasions to take photos but a tree or a passing train always seems to block the shot, like those dudes at the museums that prevent you from taking photos of some of the exhibits (aka: pricks).
We just stopped at another station, looks like we're in the Czech Republic now, as I can't read the signs anymore. The building have a certain eastern bloc flavour to them too, with apartment blocks and light industry where small houses and farms were only 20 minutes ago, the valley mentioned before continues.
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