From five star to no star.

Yesterday, I arrived at my hotel in Prague. The bus ride over was hellish, both because the roads were really bad and because of the overwhelming heat. It was 28 degrees Celsius outside but much warmer in the bus. Of course, I was overdressed thinking I would be cold from the air-conditioning but instead I was just about passing out from the heat. At some point, the woman sitting next to me asked the driver to turn up the air and he did, but just marginally. After an hour and a half of this, we stopped in Brno, I went to the washroom, poured cold water on my head, got my t-shirt wet in various places and returned to the bus. There I found out that the air-conditioning was working better at the front of the bus so I moved and the rest of the trip was better.

I took a cab from the bus station to the hotel. It is in the centre of the city but it is more of a hostel than a hotel, no amenities, not even a kettle in the room to make tea or coffee. I met most of the people involved in the program last night including several faculty members from Charles University.

After the introductory session, we walked over to a restaurant/pub nearby to have a meal. The pub was getting ready to show the Slovakia-Russia gold medal hockey game; they pulled down a couple of screens for people to watch the game on. Just as we were leaving the restaurant, Slovakia scored the first goal and everyone cheered. I was happy to hear the Czechs cheering for the Slovaks. Unfortunately, Slovakia eventually lost the game. But a silver medal in a world championship is a pretty good accomplishment.

Even though it is as basic as it gets, the hotel seems pretty popular. Wireless internet is only available in the lobby, we have no access to the internet in the rooms. The lobby is where I am sitting right now surrounded by a large group of people speaking I am not sure what language.

Today was free to do as we wished. I mostly conserved my energy. I talked to a couple of people who were around, I walked the neighbourhood a bit, found one of the main squares and took a couple of trips to the shopping mall next door to pick up a few things. I took it easy because the program starts in about half an hour with a 3 hour guided walking tour of the old town followed by dinner on a boat on the Vltava river. Tomorrow, we start at 8:45.