Hello everyone,
I just posted this on the workshop on genomics facebook page and figured it might be useful here as well!
I plan on writing a more complete blog on how to get to the workshop 2014 edition but for those of you who will be enroute when I post it that doesn’t help you a great deal now does it?
I will be posting ‘how not to get lost getting to the workshop’ around the 8th or 9th of January. But for those who will miss it, here’s a tip:
Tip #1: If you are coming into Prague and taking the student agency bus, the signs are small and slightly faded as of last year.
As you can see you should be under a bridge looking at a sign vaguely like this…
And when you look back toward the airport you should see this…
The buses themselves are big and yellow, hard to miss; but if you aren’t in the right spot they’ll leave without you and it might look a little odd chasing a big yellow bus down. Also, if you have a reservation for one bus but happen to catch an earlier one, they are usually packed but if they have space they’ll take you earlier which is what I did last year. If you haven’t reserved your ticket for the Student Agency bus do so ASAP they fill up fast and they are indeed the most comfortable and economic way to get to Cesky Krumlov!
Bear in mind the route is Prague Airport to the Metro/Subway first, so you have to get off the bus at the metro and they’ll just keep pointing at you to go into the metro and you’ll probably look at them like an idiot (as I did) before figuring out you actually need to TAKE the metro to get to the bus stop where you catch the Student Agency Bus that’ll take you to Cesky Krumlov. Last year I basically went up to the guy at the window and pointed to my ticket so he could read it and he motioned to me how much I had to pay –language barriers are FUN, it was an exciting game of charades that ended in me just dumping a load of coins onto his counter and he just taking what he wanted. He could’ve taken me for all the coins I had and I wouldn’t have known better! But he was a nice fellow and just kind of shook his head at the silly American tourist. TIP #2, get small change at the airport if you can. The metro guy will give you ‘side-eye’ if you give him a big bill as they don’t carry a lot of change. Once you get your metro ticket (not included in Student Agency bus fare you pre-paid) make sure to scan it/punch it before heading down to the metro…I’ll have more on this in January.
If you are stuck at the bus stop waiting for a good bit there is a pub that was cozy right across the street from the bus stop lot…I forget the name but if you are standing at the Student Agency stop look left to the line of buildings and head to the one that infers there is a bar there, when you go in there will be a very packed (usually) restaurant on your right and a bar/pub on your left…head left. Great place to make random friends as I did since I had 4 hours to kill…might as well kill with a pint no?
Well that should get you all started…as always…more to come…
Cheers! …Dr. Mel