I found Melissa last night here in Cesky Krumlov! I will eventually get my hat back, yessssssssss! Anyway yesterday was quite an adventure! I somehow managed to get my silly ass up pretty early to show, but I didn't have time to shave. I packed the rest of my things and made my way out of the hostel. I saw Michael and the Idahoan before I left. Hopefully I'll run into Michael down here in Cesky Krumlov before I bail out to Italy. Anyway, the day before I had purchased my ticket at the Florenc station and also figured that the bus would be leaving from Florenc. Well, 10:30 rolled around and I'm sitting on platform 14 and I'm the only person there except this other lady. I had showed her my ticket and everything seemed to be in order, so I was just sitting there staring off into space and wondering why I was the only person there. After a while she tapped me on the shoulder and wanted to see my ticket again. She only spoke Czech and she was trying to tell me something about the metro. I didn't understand and she went and found someone who spoke English to tell me I was at the wrong station. It was really funny so I went back to the ticket office to attempt to explain my predicament and eventually had to just buy another ticket. It was taking a long time to get the ticket and I probably pissed a lot of people off. The ticket lady and I took a long time to got over the location of the bus station. Anyway after I finished my conversation with her some other kind Czech lady walked up to me and asked if I needed any help and if I understood where I needed to go. I pretty much had figured out where I needed to go with the ticket lady so I thanked her for the offer of help and headed towards the metro to catch my bus. After getting on the wrong metro I eventually made it to the bus station at about 11:00am. My bus was at 3:25pm so I caught up on my reading of Ivanhoe and nearly finished it sitting on the floor of the metro station.
There were quite a few people on the bus heading to Cesky Krumlov. I sat next to this young Czech girl, she was 21 and talked to her the entire ride. Her name was Alena and she is a student studying economics. We had a great time talking and making jokes. Anyway when we got to Cesky Krumlov we got off at the main bus station and I tried to get into Hostel 99 but they were booked so I made my way over to the Travelers'' Hostel. These guys at the hostel know Petr! We were talking about the Czech Republic and Broumov when the bartender was asking me if I know about the "multicultural center". It was nuts! Both the bartender and the reception guy know him. Anyway, Ben, this Aussie and I went out to get something to eat at some cafe. It was majorly cheap. I think Cesky Krumlov is cheaper than Praha. I had Kung Poa chicken and potatoes and a few beers and I think it was only 100 Kc. Ben and I then headed down to the Snake Bar and had a few beers there. I had neglected to mention that while we were sitting and waiting at the bus station I met a few other people from the States. We were talking about where we were staying in Praha. When I told them I was staying at the Clown & Bard they asked me if I knew Melissa, a Canadian, I couldn't believe it! I told them she stole my hat! I also told them she will likely be staying at Hostel 99 and to let her know I want my hat back.
Anyway, after a while when we were at the Snake Bar in walks Melissa, without my hat. We were harassing each other about my damn hat all night. She won't give it back to me until I answer some silly ass riddle about some burning string. I may never see my hat again, d'oh! We hung out there with some pretty cool Aussies until they kicked us out. Ben and I headed back to the hostel some time after 2:00am and pretty much crashed. It's taken a few hours to write this entry since I've been interrupted a dozen times. There are two Spanish speaking guys in my dorm today so I hope we hook up for some cerveza later on. I also finally finished Ivanhoe! I traded it for a book about the Dutch Trading Company. Anyway, going to do some light reading and possibly surf the Internet.