My Mama Taught Me Better Than That!

What does it take to make you happy?

How greedy would you say you are?

What lengths does it take to satisfy you?

And how far are you willing to push the limit in order to get what you want?

I know some people who are willing to push their luck until it runs out and those my dear readers, are my travel partners from this weekend.

9 of us took to an industrial van and drove 5 hours to Prague. The Spanish crew spearheaded the trip and 2 girls from Jordan, 1 girl from Malaysia and myself and my other American roommate came along for the ride. Our scheduled leave time was 5pm. Of course when you're traveling with anyone of Spanish descent you will automatically be running at least 45 minutes behind schedule, so we didn't hit the road until 6:45. After mastering the stick shift and making stops at a gas station and McDonald's we made it to our hostel.

Now I wouldn't say that common sense is one point that I triumph on. In fact, my genetics almost dictate that I have none of it. My great-grandmother was driving by a lake and saw a small building in the middle of an island on the lake. She asked out loud, "is that a garage out there?" For those that are as just as dense as me, why on Earth would a garage be on an island? Last time I checked there was no possible way a car could drive out to the middle of a lake. This fact is backed up even further when I was at a birthday party and the guest of honor decided to invite strippers. They passed around a hat for all of us to chip into in order to pay for the "interesting" addition to the evening. When the hat came to me I asked what it was for and they told me it was a fund for the strippers and I asked, in all seriousness "oh so the strippers can go to college?" I honestly thought the money hat was for the strippers to take and put to getting themselves out of relying on this profession. Nope, it only aided it even more!

So now that this fact is out in the open it is easy to understand why at times I become so impressed with my instincts while traveling. I haven't been mugged, kidnapped or taken by any shady person on the street.

It is very easy to assume that anywhere you travel uses Euros as their currency because you get so accustomed to using it in most places you go. Obviously that is not always the case, especially the further East you go. Again, this surprises me that I thought of this and set up a budget and exchanged my money for Czech Crowns before we left. Especially because none of my other travel companions did such a thing.

It's pretty crazy because 1 Euro is equal to 26 Crowns. So a Liter of gas is something like 35 crowns and a typical fine dining bill is 1,115 Crowns. It throws you the first few times you see a bill. So because of this exchange rate we trekked all over the city trying to find the best exchange rate. Most offered a rate of 24 Crowns for 1 Euro, taking 2 Crowns for commission. As we stopped in the city center with multiple exchange stores in sight, a man speaking fluent Spanish struck up a conversation with a few of the Spaniards. He promised them a 26 crown commission so 3 of them, altogether exchanged 150 Euros. I don't think anyone could find the bargain price they got for their money. This mysterious man not only gave them Hungarian Crowns, which are very similar looking to Czech Crowns, but he only gave them 5 Euros worth.

Now how they didn't find something fishy about

A) a man in the Czech Republic who could speak fluent Spanish (not all of your own kind should be trusted!)

B) the fact that they exchanged 150 Euros and only got 4 bills and a few coins in return

C) or that he immediately took off the second he gave them their fabulous exchange

is beyond m. Especially b/c the Spaniards are not stupid. They typically have great intuition and have no problem telling you to go off yourself if they don't like you.

They kept searching and searching and passing every exchange shop trying to find one with the best bargain. They didn't want to pay a commission and because they kept pushing the limits they ended up with nothing. This reminds me of a joke I heard about a woman who comes across a door with 2 options. A man who liked to clean or the option of going through the door to find a better man. She takes option 2 and is faced with a similar question except this time the man likes to clean and cook. This pattern repeats until she gets to a level where the man loves to cook, clean, holds down a steady job, wants kids, likes her mother, showers her with gifts, is good looking and makes sex all about her. She can either have this man or enter through the last door to something possibly better. She forgoes this man and enters through the door, where there is a sign saying, "are you crazy? what are you searching for, you already have a man who likes to cook, clean, has a job, is handsome and makes sex about you and you still want more?!" "Sorry, too bad, you got greedy and now you can have nothing!"

I am pretty sure that same lesson applies to this story. You can't have it all. You have to be happy with the cards you're dealt and enjoy the cards you're dealt. There is no such things as perfect! You can plan and prepare (by getting your money beforehand at your bank that doesn't charge a commission) but life isn't seamless. And it never will be if you keep pushing the limits to your own happiness and level of wanting and greed!

That isn't all though. After we got through this mess, we bought our subway tickets and went towards the Jewish Quarter. As we got off the train a man with an obviously fake badge came up to us and demanded to see our tickets. 3 of us just flashed him our train passes and walked away not wanting to get involved, but other members of the group let the man see their tickets. One of them didn't have it stamped by the machine as you enter the station so the man asked to his ID. Again, I can't believe he let someone else even remotely touch his ID. I kept trying to tell Jordi to translate in Spanish to Guillem that he should grab his ID and run for it. But it was too late, the man had two other "colleagues" block the exit so he couldn't escape. Because Guillem didn't have his pass stamped this crazy man came up with a crazy fine of 700 Crowns (about 35 Euros) as a penalty and poor Guillem paid it!

Our members of the group who let themselves get scammed really letting out their anger! I hate to say it, but in the words of Destiny's Child, "my Mama taught me better than that!"