Prague Blog - in words - arrival

We have been transported back from another land, in this case one of a feel of being in a fairy tale, rich culture, baroque architecture and a midweek excursion to the Czech Republic. Prague is a very historically deep city, a castle dating back to the 900's, cathedrals from 1400's, a synagogue that has been active since the 1300's and all of the governmental history from the 20th century. Picture it, we get off the subway at 10:00 P.M. walk up the stairs of Palmovka station and find ourselves in a city where we don't know the language, don't understand the culture, and don't know where Spojavaci street is at, or how to get to it. Sure there was plenty of graffiti on the walls, a number of seedy establishments, and an eeriness of not much traffic, but in the end we knew that we would find the Hotel Step, it was somewhere in Praha 9. After a jaunt down Sokolovska street we saw a sign for the hotel and pointed to it, then a couple across the street said "Looking for Hotel Step?" we said yep (rhyme not intentional) and we followed them under a bridge, down the street and up 69 steps to the Hotel Step, it is appropriately named. I attempted to chat with the couple but they did not understand even "how are you?" so we did not get too far. Anyway we checked in, found #228, realized there was only two english speaking stations on TV, and decided to call it an evening, looking forward to the next three days of sightseeing and being on holiday.