Confusion in the Streets

So, according to one of our friends here from the States, they periodically reroute all the trams to make it more difficult for foreigners to get around. I'm starting to believe him.

On Wednesdays I help teach English during the midday, then catch a tram to meet with the Impact team for prayer. The number 18 tram goes directly from where I help teach to where we would be meeting, at Steve Cone's flat. Well, normally it does.

As the tram pulled up, I noticed that over the sign where the tram stops for that particular tram are posted, was a large yellow sign. But since it was in Czeck, I causally disregarded it. Mistake number one.

I got on, rode for a few stops, and all was as it should be. Then we pulled into Hradchanska. This is where the tram should have turned to go to Steve's flat. But to my great consternation, we went in what I knew to be the wrong direction! My mind flashed back to that yellow paper in horror.

At the very next stop I got off the tram and started walking back in the other direction. At the place where Tram 18 should have turned, I turned and walked to the next tram station. Just as I got there, Tram 1 pulled in. I knew that Tram 1 also went to Steve's flat, so I boarded and sat down. We started off in the right direction, and all was fine. But presently I realized that this tram was going in the wrong direction in it's circuit. It would eventually turn around and go back the way it had come from, taking me to Steve's. But it would be much faster to get off and board Tram 1 going in the other direction. So at the first opportunity I stepped off.

Tram 1 going in the other direction came along and I boarded with a sigh of relief. I was fairly late at this point, but that was ok. The rest of the team would understand. I rode for a few stops, and noticed that this tram was also going in the wrong direction!!!!!! You must understand, trams only go two directions in their circuit. They either go the way you want to go, or they go the direct opposite way. But here, for the first time, a dreadful new twist had been added to the tram condrum. Of the two directions the trams were running, neither of them were right!

thoroughly disgusted and weirded out at this point, I thought briefly about commandeering a tram and driving myself to my destination. Well, I thought more than briefly about it. But good sense prevailed, and I got off at a place where I knew I could walk to Steve's house.

Since that ridiculous day the trams have returned to normal, and everything is as it should be now. But I will always look with fondness on the day I almost commandeered a tram.

In His Time,