[Cesky Krumlov]"Getting in touch with my inner tube"

I steal DeAnne's famous line as the title of this blog. I met this cute little Aussie (Mary) on the bus over here, and we planned to meet up again for dinner tonight. But, I ran into her this afternoon, and we all (she, mates from her hostel, and me) agreed to go innertubing down the river this afternoon. The tubes were provided for free from her hostel. So, that's what we did. the city looked amazing from the water, altho the water looked incredibly dirty. Something that looked like a rock floated down the river with us most of the way. Styraphome (sp?), apple cores, and other bits of trash floated around too. Riding through the dams was loads of fun, altho I wimped out on the second one "because I didn't want to lose my hat."

My guidebook says that this is the prettiest town in Europe, and I believe it.

I keep thinking of things I haven't mentioned about past places. In Prague, pet dogs are welcome on all forms of public transit. Steve saw a large dog with a rat riding on his head on the tram. In addition to being an outragous sight, this reminded me of Kevin's nighttime stories about the dog and the chicken. Steve suggested Kevin write a series of children's books.

Speaking of public transit in Prague, I was very impressed by it. I was impressed by the idiot-proof nature of the metro. Not only are the lines color-coded, but so are the stations. Stations along the yellow line have yellow signs indicating themselves. In addition in the middle of each platform, there is a sign displaying all the line's routes on the line, where you are on it, and where you will be able to transfer to a line of another color. Steve, a representative resident and sample of 1, prefers the trams because the metro is too deep. He finds it hard to get to. The elevators move so fast it feels almost dangerous to me. But I wouldn't want it to take any longer to get down there. Back in 2002 they flooded, though they must be below the water table now. Steve says this an example of work under a communist government where there is no accountabiliy bc no one will be fired for poor work. You know I have mixed feelings about this statement.

Eddie, one of the Swiss guys I met at the conference, suggested the European companies run American transit systems. I thought this was brilliant.

Well, I've got to go meet those Aussies for dinner in a minute....