I've got the Czech Blues

I was out the other night and caught a metro home shortly after eleven, giving me enough time to catch a bus home before they close down at midnight.

The typical morning metro experience is very cold and impersonal - people are tightly contained within themselves, no eye contact, no laughing, no smiling - no conversation even. Business suits and rigid bodies - impeccable posture and and air of the solitary... not a truly inviting experience unless you really like to be left alone in the a.m - rather cold. But it's warm... I haven't seen a heater yet, but inside of the train it's warm.

The night metro ride is totally different - first the smell of alcohol is probably the strongest sensory experience of the journey. The laughter, sprawling bodies, an air of giddiness, the noise of 50 conversations in just as many languages... people dressed up to go clubbing, bar hopping, the theater, or the symphony... it's tourists and locals after a long day of work or a walking followed by more than a few beers. Smiles across the aisles, and somteimes strangers even speak - totally un-czech!! The night metro ride can be almost fun.

So, the other night I caught a metro home by myself. The platform had a fair amount of people trying to get home, like me, before the buses stop running. I got into the nearest least crowded car I could find - and the doors shut behind me as I slid into an empty seat - and the noises started... at first laughter and then melodic undertone - until I realized there was a group of men with a guitar or two standing a short section away from me, leading a rather raucous rendition of the Blues - the majority of the car joined in... in czech.

We carried on through a few stops like this, with the newcomers joining in, until the men reached their stop and departed to a huge round of applause... and the car fell back in to the familiar nighttime cacophony of conversation.