“Next stop – Hlavni Nadrazi – Central Station” The friendly translating voice which just a few moments ago filled the Busses interior still echoed in my head when the doors were closing behind me, leaving me standing in an unknown and untranslated strange environment.

From here it`s just a few minutes by foot, at least that`s what it looked liked on Google Maps. Wisely I had made reservations for a small holiday apartment quite close to the city center. At least my first destination in my new hometown to be was well planned beforehand. Everything else I`ll figure out on my way.

After a few minutes walk I reach the building. A 6 stories high house from the early 20th century. The old stucco on the walls is hardly to recognize under the grayish layer of dust and dirt which covers the whole façade. The traffic on the five lane street right next to it has left his marks. It`s five minutes to eleven o`clock, the dark blue sky when I arrived about 50 minutes ago has faded into black. In five minutes I should meet Marek, a guy with short black hair and a mustache. At least that`s the description I got from the company which runs the apartment. Supposably he is very reliable and speaks fluent English. He will bring me the keys and handle the paper work.

It is 20 minutes past eleven o`clock when I see a small bulky man crossing the street hustling into my direction. His dark blue polyester neck tie waves in the wind while he tries to rush through the still busy traffic.

He introduces himself as Petr and tells me half English half German speaking that Marek unfortunately couldn`t make it. I can hardly understand his attempt to explain me in detail the reason for Marek’s failure, however I give myself satisfied with the fact that Petr came as substitute.

After another five minutes in which Petr worked his way through a number of different keys, he finally found the right one and the doors opened…