Orientation - Prague and the Czech Republic - page 36

Main Station (Hlavní Nádraží): The station's creepy, low-
ceilinged hall is the work of communist architects, who expanded
a classy building to make it just big, painting it the compulsory
dreary gray with reddish trim. An Italian firm is currently refitting
the station to Western European standards, temporarily turning it
into an overcrowded construction site with rare empty spaces filled
by fancy clothing stores. An ATM is near the subway entrance.
The station's baggage-storage counter is reportedly safer than the
lockers.
The Wasteels travel office may offer friendly assistance or
surly service, depending on which agent you get. You can drop by
here upon arrival to get a transit ticket without using the ATM
(they take euro coins), and to confirm and buy your outbound train
tickets. They can help you figure out international train connec-
tions, and they sell train tickets to anywhere in Europe—with
domestic stopovers if you like—along with tickets for fast local
trains and cheap phone cards (no commission; Mon-Fri 9:00-
17:00 or later, Sat 9:00-16:00, closed Sun, tel. [phone], www
.wasteels.cz). You can even leave your bags here for a short time.
The information office for Czech Railways (downstairs on
the left) is less helpful, and the ticket windows downstairs don't
give schedule information. The windows marked vnitrostátní sell
tickets within the Czech Republic. You can also wait and get your
tickets later at the centrally located office of the Czech Railways
Travel Agency (see page 153).
The AVE office on the main floor books rooms in hotels and
pensions, and sells taxi vouchers—for trips into town—at double
the fair rate, but still better than you'd get directly from the cabbies
themselves (daily 6:00-23:00; with your back to the tracks, walk
down to the orange ceiling and past the “Meeting Point”—their
office is in the left corner by the exit to the taxis; tel. [phone],
fax [phone], www.avetravel.cz, [e-mail]).
If you're killing time at the station (or for a wistful glimpse of
a more genteel age), go upstairs into the Art Nouveau hall. Here,
under an elegant dome, you can sip coffee, enjoy music from the
1920s, watch boy prostitutes looking for work, and see new arrivals
spilling into the city.
The station was originally named for Emperor Franz Josef.
Later, it was renamed for President Woodrow Wilson (see the
commemorative plaque in the main exit hall leading away from the
tracks), because his promotion of self-determination led to the cre-
ation of the free state of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Under the com-
munists (who weren't big fans of Wilson), it was bluntly renamed
Hlavní Nádraží—“Main Station.”
Even though the Main Station is basically downtown, it can
be a little tricky to get to your hotel. The biggest challenge is that