My trip started in the morning at 8:30. Originally the plan was to leave at 8:45, but my sis decided that we would leave earlier, so I had no choice but to adapt. So at 8:20 I was frantically trying to install a wireless printer on my laptop so I could print a map to O2 in case they couldn’t sort it out for me at Nova Karolina, but in those few minutes I didn’t manage it.
It did find the printer and asked me to press the WPS button, which I did, but then it just displayed Error occured and the only visible button was Close. I barely even had time to brush my teeth before I had to pack everything I needed into my bag and pockets. That is, the USB modem with the SIM card, the charger for the Chromebook, the Chromebook, my phone charger, my phone, my wallet and also my Android phone.
The reason my sis had to leave earlier so suddenly was that she wanted to buy five soy rolls at a village shop on the way. And sure enough, about 5 people came out of the shop one after another, but no sign of my sis, and she was in there for maybe 15 minutes. As always, she dropped me off at the stop by Nova Karolina Park, and I walked around the corner and another one to Nova Karolina.
Right around that second corner I was surprised by such a strong, sharp and cold wind that I even slowed down a bit, because I was worried about the computer and the chargers in my bag full of holes. In NK I asked where the O2 store was, the lady gave me perfect directions as always, and I found O2 very quickly. There was nobody in the store, so I went to the first desk and started explaining my problem.
First he surprised me by saying that the SIM card worked in his modem. But then he surprised me even more, and at the same time contradicted what he had said before, when he told me that the SIM card was not a contract card but a prepaid one and that it had long since been deactivated for inactivity. After that it all dawned on me that I had probably mixed up the SIM card with my contract internet plan with a different one, and I tried to smooth things over somehow diplomatically and disappear as quickly as possible.
I left NK through the same entrance (it annoyed me that even though they had at least 6 doors in two rows, at least 1 door wasn’t working and it was exactly the one I tried to go through both on the way in and on the way out), bought a one-hour ticket for public transport for 26 CZK at a newsstand and went to the Karolina stop. I shared the internet from my Nokia Lumia 520 and turned on my Samsung Galaxy S+, where I had installed Pubtran.
I tried to look up a connection from the Karolina stop on my phone, but it simply didn’t know the Karolina stop! So instead of staying at this stop and finding out when it left from the next stop, Namesti Republiky, I went straight to the Namesti Republiky stop.
First I went to the middle platform (I didn’t know yet that it was exactly there, so for me the middle one was the right one at that moment) and tried entering MBOu Jih on my phone. NOTHING. Then OMBu Jih. NOTHING. OBMu Jih. NOTHING. I was absolutely convinced that the small letter at the end of the abbreviation was a u, so I didn’t try putting it anywhere else, but with the other letters I tried every possible combination.
In the end I wanted to check it in a normal browser, because at home I had found the stop on the map, so I opened my Chromebook and in a moment I knew the stop there was called UMOb Jih!!! I had barely found out about the direct tram 12 at 9:56 when that very tram left right in front of my nose.
So I looked at the next connection, which had a transfer at Nova Ves Vodarna, namely trams 11 and 17. However, I got it wrong again and saw 11 and 12 – it didn’t occur to me that if it were the 12, I could get on right here, because it’s direct. I would have done better to wait for the next 12, which was coming 6 minutes after the 11, but as soon as tram 11 arrived, I got on.
Inside, I started quickly checking on my Chromebook where the tram stop Nova Ves Vodarna was and whether it had more than one platform. Of course it had 2×2, so 4. I got off there and looked at the trams that stop there. The 12 wasn’t among them. I started to panic and went to the other stop, in the direction of Poruba. The 12 wasn’t there either, and it wasn’t in the direction from Poruba either.
So I went back and tried the last platform as well, but tram 12 wasn’t there either. I looked at the Chromebook again and saw that it wasn’t tram 12 but 17!!! Then, just to be sure, I asked a lady who was waiting for her connection there whether I could get from this stop to UMOb Jih on the 17. She said yes, and it was coming in 6 minutes. I arrived at this stop at 10:10 and was supposed to leave at 10:15, but I didn’t leave until 10:25. At 10:34 I was finally at UMOb Jih, and from there I could see Grandpa’s apartment in the distance.
So I walked there, rang the bell, Grandpa let me in, and at his place I took out the Chromebook and started showing him what the Tesco Mobile self-service portal can do. For example topping up credit online, credit balance, remaining free minutes, overview of used services and so on. I also registered Grandpa so that next time he could log in with just a username and password without having to have an SMS sent to his phone, and then I also wanted to get the code from the top-up, but it was no longer among the messages, so I got nothing.
At the end, as I was putting on my shoes, Grandpa complained to me that he didn’t know whether he would spend Christmas in the hospital, and he gave me 1000 CZK for presents for the 3 of us, which I’m supposed to give to Mom. We said goodbye and I went back to the UMOb Jih stop. While still at Grandpa’s, I had checked public transport and saw that several trams were coming and then bus 96, which takes only 6 minutes and would be ideal. Again I approached a lady who was at the stop. But her tram was already coming, so I told her to run and that I would ask someone else where the UMOb Jih bus stop was. However, the tram left right in front of her nose, so she threw herself into helping me. She didn’t know where the UMOb Jih stop for buses was and only kept pointing me to Samova.
So I looked at the map and saw it. In the end she told me she had just remembered that some small buses do occasionally stop there, and I just said goodbye to her and ran off, since it was leaving in 5 minutes. I got there in a minute, waited a little, then called Mom, and while we were still talking the bus arrived, so I got on and ended the call during the ride. I didn’t have a new ticket, so I rode on the old one and was shaking, hoping that no ticket inspector would show up during those 2 stops.
Fortunately nothing like that happened, and at 11:21 I was right in front of Vitkovice station. I wanted to buy a ticket, but the counter window was covered, and there were about 7 people around. The train to Opava-Vychod was leaving at 11:25, the one to Tesin at 11:29. People were nervously knocking and pleading that their train would leave without them, but even when the curtains opened, the lady behind the counter was still trying something with some card together with another railway employee, probably an IN-Karta. First the lady who was at the very front bought her ticket, then a girl cut in front of me, and then I bought my ticket.
I went to the platform and the train left a minute later. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to sit, so I stayed in the corridor and, as usual, only sat down in Havirov, where most people get off. I was already writing this post during the train ride, and now I’m just finishing it. I arrived in Tesin and stopped by the dermatology clinic to ask when I should come in, just because they have an amazingly beautiful nurse there 😀 even though I already knew everything, I called Mom to ask if someone could pick me up, and when she told me that only Dad was home, I decided to walk instead :).