The Wild East

"It is already 25C at 8.30am"

First Glimpse of Prague
I'm getting slightly worried after all this confusion. Czech guy (who is obviously isn't Czech) says something in German, and the girls sigh in relief. I think they were worried that they had missed their stop.
One hour later, having passed into the former East Germany, German guy, NL, and TT all get off in Halle. Me and Taylor have the compartment to ourselves, and are able to lie down.

It becomes light, and we go through Leipzig, and Dresden. The scenery is different from 'west Germany'- everything is covered in graffiti, concrete is the favourite building tool. At 8.00 we cross the border into the Czech Republic.
We have to show our passports twice to 2 different sets of border guards (Mark is woken up) and wait for 20mins. It was not the hassle I was expecting- I was predicting that we would have to get off the train, be searched etc. This may have happened before 1989 and early 90s, but not now. It is already 25C at 8.30am, it will be a hot day.

It is uneventful until Prague. We haven't eaten properly since Brussels, and in the heat I don't feel hungry- anyway there is nowhere to buy anything. CZ looks moderately well-off, not much different from 'East' Germany. When we get into Prague at 10.30 I feel nervous- there is a specific warning in my guidebook about Hlavni- Nadrazi station being full of thieves, and being unsafe even during the day.
I also read this last March.
People keep walking past our carriage (looking at what we've got?). We get off and are immediately accosted by hoards of people attempting to sell us a room for a few nights, we go down the concrete stairs into an open hall, where there are more people touting.

The station is functional, but certainly not pretty, but there are not as many beggars/gypsies/skinheads as I was expecting, although there are a few.
A tanned man offers us a room, and will take us on the metro. Another man offers to drive us to a room across the river, and is continually making and receiving calls on his mobile phone- We are wary of him- he could drive us anywhere, and rob us (with the colleges he is ringing up?)- and why is he rich, when everyone else is poor?- he looks suspect to me.

We decide to go with the Metro man. The Prague metro has amazing acceleration/braking (I'm nearly thrown off my feet). We go a few stops to Krizikova, an average suburb about 3km from the centre. The man is called Hans and he seems fairly friendly. He says he has 2 people from USA in his flat. The room is in a family apartment on the 2nd floor.
It was once a grand building, but has peeling paint, dingy corridors, and looks dilapidated. We pay 2100Kc for 2 nights for 2 of us (60 Kc = £1). Han's wife(?) and children are home. There is just the 2 of us staying here. The Americans don't exist, and must have been Han's trick to get us to go back with him. We dump our stuff and go down the main street to get something to eat....

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