So I decided to take a short daytrip out to Plzen, the town where Pilsner Urquell is made. Arguably one of the protobeers responsible for the beer revolution we had in Europe and without a doubt something which should be considered historically relevant. Interested in history and the origins of things, nothing could stop me from going here.
When I mentioned this to the cab-driver taking me to the hotel the first day, he offered me to drive there, wait for whatever I did and take me back for 2400 Czk (around 100 euros). He advised against taking the train, since it was slow and unreliable. He said train was about 2 hours, and he could get me there in less than 1.
It sounded like a very generous offer, but when I checked the train-fares, the price was around 290 Czk or something like that, ridiculously cheap, so I went with that anyway.
I had from several people (including one geeky girl from Plzen working the night-shift at the hotel) that Plzen itself wasn't really such a interesting place to be, so I just went for the important stuff. You know, the brewery.
I got lots of insight about how the beer is made, how it is different from most other otherwise similar beers. Evidently the water they use for the beer is even healthier than the one that would you give babies. Moral of the story: Urquell is veru healthy. I also learned that the Pilsner Urquell bottle is green, not for any beer-technical reasons, but purely because of marketing.
In general the girl doing the guided English tour around the brewery was very funny in her own awkward way. My favourite moment was probably when she mentioned how the Czech phrase for "Cheers!" meant "For health!". She then admitted that it was probably only healthy in moderation, something the Czech had a "slight" problem with.
Despite her troubles with the English language, very cute and funny in her own way.
About midday I decided it was about time to head home, I went back with the train and what was supposed to be a day-trip turned a "tad" longer. The train broke down after a few stations and we just had to leave it, sit on the tracks and wait for the next passing train.
Ofcourse none of the in-train staff knew English so it took some time before I figured out what was going on :)
Anyway, it broke down near a restaurant. A restaurant serving beer in free, plastic glasses that is, so we all managed while waiting in the sun, on the track.
I have to say trains in Central Europe certainly are different.