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Sometimes you let your guard down at the most inopportune time and you get burned.  This happened to me one time in Prague.  I was just getting into town and getting oriented.  It was my first visit to Prague.  I was glancing about the bustling train station and trying to figure out my next move.

I left my duffel bag on the floor and went to a soda machine to get a drink.  Someone starts talking to me while I am getting my soda.  He is asking directions and schedules in a mix of Czech and Broken English.  I’m trying to understand them and help them out.  I can barely understand what they are trying to ask me.

I turn away after the conversation to go back to my bag.  It is gone and I don’t know what the Hell is going on.  The person that was questioning me is long gone and I’ve been had.  So now I’m standing in the train station in Prague.  I’ve been ripped off on a scam that I should have seen coming.  But I guess that’s what it’s really like in the big city or small one.

I really ought to know better but somehow or another I let my guard down and got ripped off.  Excuses can be made but they don’t make me feel any better for being such a dimwitted fool.

It’s just a bitch to get rolled in Prague on my very first visit to the city.  I think the shame of defeat and owning my own foolishness is worse than anything I actually lost in the bag.  And it really sucks when I have to tell all my city friends how I got conned in Prague.  They all will just howl with laughter at my foolishness.  My suburban naivety will haunt me as I try to overcome this setback.

11-22-97