3:27am

Feb 19-Feb 20, 2013 (early in the morning)
The line—or rather, the mob—at the coat check area was almost as packed and uncoordinated as the dance floor. Everyone was pushing and shoving towards the window to get their jackets. There were only two girls working the coat check and they were retrieving jackets one at a time.

As I waited, I tried to read Lad’ka’s notes. I wasn’t going to make the 2pm bus that stopped right outside the club, but I might be able to catch the 2:15 that came down the street.

Putting the paper in my pocket and retrieving my claim ticket, I pushed my way into the mob. As I did, I ran into Aaron.

“You headed out man?” he asked.

“I am,” I said. “Are you?”

“I don’t know,” he replied.

As we got closer to the front, he turned around and said, “Give me your ticket.” I did and he handed it to the girl behind the counter along with his own. She brought my jacket first and he handed it to me.

“You want me to wait for you?” I asked.

“It’s up to you,” he said. I was heavily trained in a program that taught us it is always safer to travel with a buddy. I decided to wait.

We walked out of the club and around the corner to the bus station. “We take bus X58 to,” I couldn’t pronounce the name of the station. “Then we transfer to tram 58, and take it to Flora, to transfer to the 56 night tram which takes us back to the dorm.” The 56 was the only night tram that made runs out to our dorms.

“We could just walk to Wenceslas Square,” he said. “The night tram stops there every thirty minutes.”

We waited for a bit, weighing our options. It didn’t look like a bus was coming anytime soon and there wasn’t anyone else waiting at the station. A man came up and asked us for a lighter, but other than that, we didn’t see anyone.

“I say we walk,” Aaron said.

“Yea,” I agreed. “I think you are right. Do you know which way it is?”

“I think it’s that way,” he said.

There was a group smoking outside of a pub across the street. I went over to ask them. Their English wasn’t very good and they didn’t understand when I asked, “Which way is Wenceslas Square?” After a few confused looks, I said “Wenceslas” in Czech and the all pointed the way Aaron had guessed before.

Starting out, the city was dark and desolate. The few street lamps  cast shadows which made the winding cobblestone roads far less inviting than they had looked in the day light. We wound through several alleys and in between buildings. Occasionally we would come to a small square that was lit better, but most of the streets were dim and haunting.

We passed groups of drunkards stumbling in and out of pubs. There were also a few homeless people that would wake up as we passed to raise a hand in our direction.

“I think we took a wrong turn,” Aaron said.

I agreed. “We need to get over like a block, I think.”

Taking a turn that went North, we quickly came to an area that looked familiar. “Look,” I said. “There’s the clock.” Straight ahead, behind a few buildings, The Astronomical clock rose up out of the shadows. We walked across Old Town Square, past the Jan Hus memorial and towards the narrow alleyway that connected this part of town to Wenceslas.

The familiar route that I had walked several times during the day—both with Ivana and on my own—now seemed exceptionally creepy at night. There was something uncanny about it. When we walked past that little market that sold toys, it was like running into an old friend and seeing that they hadn’t aged well. Homeless people and drunks littered the sides. One man approached us ranting in Czech. We didn’t respond but he followed us until the road took a sharp turn.

“My one travel book actually advised tourists to stay out of this street at night,” I said.

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Aaron said.

When we came into Wenceslas Square, it only increased. Walking into the square, two different men approached us from either side, both talking about their “women.”

“Boys! Boys!” one of them said, “We show you nice women. Very beautiful and very fun.”

We walked past, straight-faced, and they both wandered off. As soon as they were gone, another man approached. “Boys! You need to see my women! They are right over here come with me.”

“No thanks,” Aaron said, but the man didn’t let up. He started walking closer and closer to us, forcing us to walk closer to the wall until we were practically cornered.

“You need to come with me boys,” he said.

Great! I thought. This is how it ends. I’m going to get mugged, or raped, or both here in Prague.

“Come on boys, we show I show you girls and you have good time.”

“You know what,” Aaron said. “We’re really busy tonight. How about we come back tomorrow?”

“Oh come on boys!” he said. We kept trying to walk away but he was persistent.

“Not tonight man,” Aaron said.

The man reached inside his trench coat.

Oh man! I panicked.

He fiddled around a little and Aaron and I continued to try and get passed him. As he pulled out his hand, he held, a flyer. “You come back tomorrow,” he said.

“Ok, man. See you tomorrow,” Aaron said taking the flyer. The man ran off to accost some other tourists.

“I’m not going back tomorrow,” Aaron said. “But if you don’t agree with them, they won’t let you go.”

“Well I’m travelling the city at night with a New Yorker from now on,” I said.

When we got to the tram station, we found that the 56 didn’t come for another 25 minutes. We mulled around a little trying to stay warm. I looked in the windows of a book store. Most of the titles were American.

“They have some weird games here,” Aaron said, pointing at a rack of board games inside the store window. One was called Titanic and looked a lot like Battleship.

“Ivana said that Titanic was her favorite movie,” I told Aaron. “When I watched it, I got bored and starting hoping the boat would sink faster.”

As we waited, a bus pulled up. It was number X56.

“There’s a bus 56 too?” Aaron said.

I couldn’t remember if it was bus X58 or x56 that we could have caught back at the club. “I think we should get on,” I said. “Worst case scenario, we get off at the next stop.”

We did, and when we sat down, I pulled out the sheet of paper from Lad’ka. It was bus x58. Crumpling it up and putting it back in my pocket, we wondered if this bus would still get us home.

“Excuse me,” I said, to the girl sitting across from us. “Do you speak English?”

“I do,” she said with a Czech accent.

“We’re trying to get to Chermlnice,” I said. Her face looked confused.

“Chermlnice,”Aaron repeated.

“We aren’t saying it right,” I said. I showed her the paper from Lad’ka.

“I think you do not want this bus,” she said. “Get off at the next station and wait for Tram 56.”

“Thank you,” we said, and when the bus pulled up to the stop, we got off.

“It looks like a lot of students are getting on here,” Aaron pointed out. We looked at the window and saw the girl we’d been talking to frantically waving at us. When we made eye contact, she started shaking her hand to motion us back onto the bus.

Jumping between the doors, we got on.

“I think this bus is running the tram route instead tonight,” she said.

I noticed Tibault from my Czech class was standing next to me. We quizzed each other on the few phrases we’d learned and talked about how hard it would be to get up in the morning. He hadn’t had much to drink either. In fact, it seemed that most of the European students had only had a small amount of alcohol.

All of a sudden, the bus made a sharp turn left and started heading up hill. We definitely weren’t supposed to be going this way.

While I can’t understand exactly what they announce on the trams, I do recognize the phrase “next stop” when I hear it in Czech. I couldn’t say it or reproduce it for you, but I’ve heard it enough that I can now pick it out when I hear it. The driver announced—in Czech—that the next stop was “Flora.”

“Aaron, I think we get off here to transfer,” I said.

“Here?” he asked.

“I think so.” I remembered hearing “Flora” before when talking to Lad’ka, and it was one of the few words I could read on the paper.

We got off and just as we did, Tram 56 pulled up to the station across the street. Jogging over to it, we got on.  Within about 10 minutes, we pulled up to our stop.

After taking a shower to wash the club off of me, I collapsed into bed. It had been a great night. I laughed—partially out loud and partially to myself—at ever feeling nervous about going to the club. It proved to me yet again that if I “said ‘No’ to fear” I could have new experiences that were both exciting and fun.

Checking my watch, the time was 3:27am. Within seconds, I was fast asleep.