English!!!

I was all set to go to Prague - my first visit to Europe and it was like a dream come true...i was waiting for a number of years for a trip to Europe and i was really excited. Did some research on th net and found that Prague had a rich history and beautiful architecture. The only thing that was troubling me was the fact that only a few locals speak english.

Landed in Prague and wanted to take a taxi to the hotel. Got a taxi at the airport and tried telling the cabbie the hotel address. unfortunately the taxi driver did not speak english - well a problem that can be easily handled - i had the address printed so i had to just pass it on to him and Voila, he took me to the right address. Day 1 went on fine without much trouble

Day 2 - i decided to shop for the basic cooking stuffs so i visited a supermarket TESCO. It just took me 3 hours to get some 10 stuffs - reasons - all the stuffs were labelled in the local czech language. I tried asking the shop employees and the other customers and i got reply from everyone - the only problem was that they spoke back to me in the local language :(

Day 3 - wanted to purchase my monthly metro pass. I was well prepared this time - i asked my hotel receptionist to write for me in a piece of paper saying that i need a monthly pass. Did not expect any trouble. I go to the counter and i see an elderly women in the counter. I hand over the sheet that the receptionist had written for me and the women hands me out a form to fill up. The form had just four columns to be filled out but it was not in English. I decided to try my luck. The first column had four checkboxes so i select one, the next two looked like places for first name and last name and the last column looked like a date column so i write in the current date. I then hand over the form to the lady at the counter - she takes one look at it and she starts screaming at me in the local language and she pushes the form out. i tried pushing it in along with the receptionist note and she pushes it out again - tried pushing in twice but she was stubborn.

I pick up the filled in form and when i reach office, i handed it over to a colleague to ask what was wrong in the details that i had filled out. She laughs her stomach out (along with a few other colleagues) and then she explained it to me

• The first four check boxes were for student, Physically handicapped, elderly people(over 60) and regular. i had checked elderly people
• I had just swapped the last name and the first name (not a big deal!!!)
• The date column was actually for date of birth and i had keyed in the current date

Now i know why the lady at the counter wass so frustrated with the form!!!