Plane, Trains and Cultural Commentary

Well, we’ve made it to Prague! We haven’t seen enough to give you a good rundown of this city yet but we did spend some of our 15 hour travel day yesterday talking about differences in the places we’ve been so far especially in the realm of public transportation. Here’s what we decided…

London
In London it feels someone took the time to carefully plan out the most efficient tube routes, talk it over with some colleagues, develop an implementation strategy and then made it happen. And before construction of that line was done, they were busy modernizing a different one. Their ticket system is fair and consistent – to get into the Underground, ticket. To get back out (and so they know what to charge you based on where you went), ticket. Their escalators were not built for lazy people. They were built for busy people. They are the fastest escalators I’ve ever been on and nearly everyone jogs up or down them. The tube cars themselves are clean and quiet. Everyone is dressed conservatively and professionally while they read the paper or listen to a podcast. In short, the Underground is “practically perfect in every way!”

Paris
The Paris metro stinks. In so many ways. It literally smells like human urine and feces so strongly in some hallways that I felt zero embarrassment about holding my arm over my nose as I walked through. Maybe that looked rude to some Parisians but, good heavens, people! If that smell doesn’t embarrass you a little right now, let me help you out. It goes along with the feeling that they just don’t care about the same things. Three guys just hopped over the turnstile without ticket? Oh well. You bought a ticket to take you down the block but really went all the way across the city? Eh. The overall layout of the metro is not as user friendly either. I mean, we certainly got the hang of it quickly but it was built for locals. In fact, I’m pretty sure the city planners just said, “well, zees is where I want to go today so zees is where we will build. Whaaat? You don’t like? Ugh! Well, we don’t care what you zay! Stoooopid Americans!” Also the Paris metro is loud. People meet up on the metro, kiss cheeks, talk and laugh and then get off at different stops. They point, they laugh and they talk. They talk to everyone. Except you. Because your tennis shoes clearly define you as an outsider. Parisians only wear tennis shoes that include a 4 inch heel on the bottom of them. Seriously.

Switzerland
Switzerland was a bit interesting. As you can imagine, all trains, bus and cable cars ran exactly on time. Never mind the fact that the driver sees you running to the bus only to close the door in you face when you’re steps away. No, no. There is a schedule to be kept! This train leaves at precisely 6 minutes and 36 minutes past the hour, every hour! Except when it doesn’t. Because clearly the driver will need to take a break so he can go home for lunch. So! There will be no busses during the 12:00 hour! Or 1:00! And no restaurants or grocery stores open then either! Yes, we know this is a tourist town but when else are Gertie and Hans supposed to have lunch?? Oh and no trains after 6pm. This is a family place after all so there will be no cavorting about after dark. If you’re really up to something big at night, you can walk down to the only Chinese Restaurant for 40 miles and get yourself and ice cream bar. Until 8:00. I would have to say that the Swiss have been the most welcoming people we’ve encountered as well as the most willing to mix broken English, broken German and Spanish into a coherent conversation. Maybe this is why virtually every car we saw in Switzerland was a hatchback – so at any moment they could just pull over, open the door and yell “trow yer stuff in da back and joomp eeeen! Ve are going up da mountain!”

It’s interesting, our observations about public transit line up pretty similarly to our observations about these cultures in general – London was neither warm nor harsh, simply formal. Paris was a place of boisterous gatherings for insiders only. In Switzerland we were welcomed to come along and experience life as they do and only as they do. None of these bad, just each different. I wonder what America’s public transportation (or lack thereof) says about us? The words “fiercely independent” come to mind. I guess sometimes that means we blaze new trails and sometimes in our desire to have things our own way we just create traffic jams **ahem, congress, anyone?**

More later when we have real updates from Prague!

This one’s for you, Pacetti!

The living room of our apartment in Prague. I think we’ll survive here.