Sugar Cubes

In Prague, one of the iconic landmarks is the Charles Bridge and I was fortunate enough to have stayed only a few meters from the entrance.  I happened upon this hostel by way of a fellow traveler met on a train who let me tag along with him to see if they had a vacancy.  They did and here I am.  This hostel was beautiful and clean and perched above a jewelry store with windows that opened out to view passers-by on the street below.

The room that I was staying in was fantastic.  It was a shared room, yes; but there were private lockers, bunk beds, and a chandelier!  The room was incredible and had some really cool people in it, to be honest.  As with most hostels, there were personal lockers for each bunk that was rented.

So, one day, I'm downstairs in the open area enjoying a Nescafe and the hostel owner comes down and sits with me.  Smiling and very friendly, he asks me if I was enjoying my stay in Prague.  He had dreads so long that he sat on them and his tattoos were beautiful!  He was the picture perfect owner of a hostel in Europe and he was wonderful.  As we sat there and enjoyed our coffee, he was telling about the different types of travelers that he meets staying at his place.  He started to look around in the open space where we were sitting and got immediately aggravated.  He got up quickly and walked into the building.  I thought that I might have said something wrong, but before I realized it, he was back and sitting again.  He had some stuff with him, though.

I looked at what he brought and he had a bowl of sugar cubes and a slingshot.  Deeply confused, I ask him what the deal was.  With a little chuckle and a sharp eye, he looks up at the pigeons that have settled on the windowsills.  "The birds poop on my customers," he told me.  Still somewhat confused, but starting to put it together, I see him grab a sugar cube and hold up the slingshot.  Now, I get it.  He cracked off a shot at the first bird, but missed.  At this point, I can't contain my laughter anymore.

After taking a few shots, he offered the slingshot and the bowl of sugar cubes to me asking me if I wanted to try.  I gave it a shot, pardon the pun, and also missed.  With a lot of laughter and the bowl of sugar cubes gone, the hostel owner went on to tell me that the trumpeters on top of the Old Town Hall annoyed him when he could hear them and he wanted to nail one of them in the trumpet with a sugar cube.  He even went so far as to offer free room for the night to the guest who could make the shot.  Yet more evidence that people in other countries are exactly what you think, just people.  There are so many traits that we share with each other that bring us closer together as a culture and exploring those during travel is the best part. 

Keep traveling and be sure to keep reading.  Pass this stories and others along to the travelers in your life.

Thanks, y'all!