20 minutes of excerpts from the Gilligan's Island theme song dance through your head along with regrets of not bringing a compass, a map and a candy bar. A train from nowhere pulls up. You're not sure where it's going, you're not sure it's safe, but you've gotten just about all the information you can from rusty, and anywhere is better than here and now. On the train you try to sleep between the bumps, you lose your sense of time and direction, you write your will, but mostly you question your sanity. Many stops are made at many rusty signs, with many faceless people writing their wills as the train bounces along. This is transportation, Czech style.

You're late, of course, for a meeting with your guide. He probably left and you will be alone. The only thing holding you together is one single nerve and it is all tied up in knots. What have we done? WHAT HAVE WE DONE?

But Wait! Planned drainage ditches. Power lines. Someone is speaking English. A city! Civilization!!! Eh, that wasn't so bad. We weren't nervous at all.

Yes, we were a little late, and our first dose of the Czech Republic was a little scary, but we did meet up with our guide Jiri, and it has been a great day.

We started by touring Budwiser Budvar in Czecke Budejovice. We discovered that the brewery is a very popular stop for German tourists, so our tour was conducted in German. Our guide doesn't speak German, and the brewmaster didn't speak English, so we caught bits and pieces and that was all. We were just glad to be there to pay homage to the great Budwiser Budvar, the ORIGINAL King of Beers. Doug bought large amounts of tourist items, and much tasting was done by all. We then went to a brewery in Pilsk called Platan, which was started in 1598. The brewery itself was closed, but we still had the opportunity to taste. Again, we missed the Polka band by about 10 minutes. We did however hear lots of Shinia Twain on the radio. Somehow it's not quite the same.

Our first European supermarket experience was had when we went to check out the selection of beers. Aye, the land is filled with strange and mysterious things. They had 26 different types of bottled water. All of them "had gas," (meaning they were carbonated). We didn't find any "gas-free" water. Other oddities included: they put theft devices on all their liquor bottles (like the ink tags they put on clothes at JC Penny), they had swimsuits and pet food in the same aisle, juice and milk come in boxes, and all the check out people get to sit in nice, comfy chairs instead of standing all day.