visit my blog post Lost part 1 for the beginning
My Lost in Prague adventures continued…
Before the start of our honeymoon William warned me about pickpocketers; he instructed me to have my passport and autism card “on my person” and to not leave it in my purse. So from the first day of our trip I had been pinning a pouch with my ID and ASD card to the inside of my pants. I had stole the idea from my grandma who pinned a pouch with her ID and medical info onto her underwear. I always thought this odd, but for the honeymoon trip I saw it as a rather ingenious idea. I, however, decided to pin it to my pants- pinning it to my underwear seemed a bit odd. Anyways, back to Prague…. so until now I had been pinning that pouch into my clothes. I changed clothes when we arrived at our Airbnb and I didn’t want to mess with trying to unpin and repin it to my pants. So, as William and I headed out that first evening in Prague I left my passport,ID and ASD card behind.
On our way to the city center we stopped at a few corner stores and a grocery market in search for oatmeal and bananas for the the next morning’s breakfast. I was not entirely regulated so I took a considerable amount of time at each place. William was excited to see the city and wanted me to hurry but I was dysregulated and hurrying me made me slower. So, by the time we got to the city center we were both frustrated. William stopped to take a photo and I kept walking. He then followed behind. I noticed my brain was turning into Swiss cheese and stopped to put in my ear plugs (when I am auditorily overstimulated my brain becomes like Swiss cheese- meaning the pictures I think in develop holes and I also get blurry vision, I’ll expand on this in a future blog).
William didn’t see me stop so he went on past. Once my plugs were in, I looked up and no William was in sight. I knew he had bypassed me, but I saw no sign of him. I decided to keep going in hopes I’d catch up. Just so you know, walking in the streets of Prague is like driving in rush hour traffic during a rainstorm. People are everywhere and no one sees anyone. I eventually ended up in the courtyard where there were some festivities going on. I saw a thing that looked like the marshmallow man, although I discovered later it was a giant polar bear. I also saw a man playing music with glasses. And, my favorite, I saw a man making huge bubbles. Hundreds of shiny bubbles floating in the air dancing, in the wind! I was mesmerized for a good 10 minutes before I remembered I needed to search for William. I decided to go back to where I had seen him last. I made it back there but no William in sight.
Then pictures flashed in my head of the steps we went over to take if I were to get lost. Step number one was to find a uniformed person such as a police officer, so I searched around until I spotted one. Step number 2 was to inform the officer that I have autism and that I am lost. I knew that the officer may not speak English, so on my phone translator app I typed that I have autism and I am lost.
I was right, the police officer did not know English very well but he was able to understand my words through the app. The officer took my phone and typed in that he needed to see my passport. I knew that was step number 3, but I also knew that I left my Id pouch behind. I typed in that I didn’t have my passport but that I needed help finding my husband- step number 4.
He looked at me for a moment and then phoned two officers who knew more English. He typed help was on the way. The two officers drove up in their police car and I was ushered in. They asked me many questions and I answered the best I could. After 15 minutes riding around in their car I showed them my phone that had William’s number on it. The officer let me use his cell phone to call William. William picked up and I said “I am in a police car where are you?”
He struggled finding a street name but after a 5 minute convo with one of the police officers his location was known.
The officers sped through a crowd of tourists with sirens blaring and I hung on for dear life. A few moments later they came across a very concerned looking newly wed. They parked and got out to see William. They told me to stay put. Then the door opened and they said I could reunite with William and to have a good honeymoon. As they drove off William turned to me and said, “you are very lucky they were nice and didn’t take you to jail for not having your passport.”
What a first day in Prague that was…and it still wasn’t over. Here’s what happened later that night and some pointers if you ever go to Prague.
-Watch out for cab magicians- William and I took a cab back to our place after the lost ordeal. It was late and we were tired. He haggled for a fair price when a cab driver tried to initially overcharge us. Once the price was set, we got in and boy howdy did we go for a ride! The street lanes seemed to disappear and all rules of the road lost. We both feared for life with that crazy cab driver! When he pulled up to our stop William paid him and even gave a very generous tip. The cab driver took the money, counted out our change, fanned it out and showed it to us, folded the money back up, and handed it to William. It wasn’t until a few days later William noticed we were short 1,000 Czech dollars. That cabbie pulled a slight of hand on us when he folded up the bills.
-Don’t fall into the museums trap- There are several museums that look interesting, but are nothing more than nothing. We went to an interesting looking museum that was supposed to be an underground tour of the city and it’s hauntings. It was very lame to say the least and something I could have constructed myself. The chocolate museum is another rip off example. After coming from Belgium and eating very yummy chocolates, I was excited to see a chocolate museum in Prague. They advertised that entrance into the museum would include learning how to make chocolate and all you can eat samples of the different kinds of chocolates. It was not that at all. It was all you can eat of the chocolate CHIPS that they melt to make the various chocolate delicacies.
-The museum of communism, the Jewish cemetery, and the castle are all worth seeing. You can even get free entry into the castle if you walk up the back hill. There are also several great restaurants and cafes to experience.
-The Petrin Hill Park is fun to explore and great to hike up; although, if you don’t feel like taking the steep 1.5 mile uphill path you can either take a cable car up like William or make your own path straight up like me. William was too tired to walk the path, so he said he would take the 15 minute cable car ride up and wait for me at the top. He was really looking forward to resting and reading while he waited. But, when he got there, low and behold there I was trotting gleefully towards him. He accused me of running up the path, but I assured him I didn’t- I just made my own path straight up!