Austria and Prague 2019 - Taxi!

We entered the historic street level of the Prague train station. It's beauty had faded over time. It seemed tired, careworn and a little dangerous. We could find no sign directing us to a taxi stand. Leaving my husband above, guarding our bags, I descended to the modern lower level and inquired of a young salesgirl in one of the shops where we might be able to procure a cab. She pointed down a passageway and said "Down there and to the left". I went back upstairs, retrieved my husband and our luggage and we headed off down the corridor.

There was, indeed, a taxi symbol where she had directed us but following it took us upstairs to the train platforms. We returned to the lower level. The modern, lower level of the train station was a scene of chaos. Hundreds of people representing a multitude of  ages, stripes, colors and income levels raced by in all directions. We asked person after person in the shops that abounded in the station where we could get a taxi keeping a watchful eye on our bags the entire time. A young man in one of the stores informed me that we were not in a taxi stand but a book store, perhaps thinking that I may have confused the two. Another pointed to glass doors, through them we could only see a rather seedy looking park.

In desperation we stopped in the Alamo Car Rental office as the word Taxi was printed clearly, in large letters, on their windows. The young lady told us she would be able to phone for a cab and the driver would pick us up at the office. We breathed a sigh of relief. The sense of relief, however, would only last a moment. After a couple of phone calls she told us that all the cab companies they worked with were busy.

We were now trying to suppress our panic wondering if we would spend our time in Prague sleeping on top of our bags in the train station. After a couple of more inquiries someone gave us a complete set of "find the cab" instructions. Go through the doors several others had indicated, traverse the seedy looking park and we would see a taxi stand on the left. Following the instructions we did, indeed, see the stand and a lone cab, it's driver engaged in a heated exchange with an Asian man. The Asian man stormed off, the driver turned to us, we must have looked like lost sheep at this point, and asked in accented English, "Do you need a taxi". We asked the fare, although we were in no position to haggle, and he told us the amount in Czech currency. I had no idea of the exchange rate but if he had asked for one of my molars as payment I would probably have not only agreed, figuring that I would still have several more and would not have to sleep in the train station, but also extracted it then and there myself.

I apologized for the weight of our main bag as the young, wiry driver hoisted it into the trunk. "Is okay", he said, "I very strong man".  He pointed out places of interest along the way, a museum, a public square, drove us across the river that runs through the city and we presently found ourselves at our home in Prague,  the lovely, baroque Riverside Hotel.