So on to Prague.

Staying local in Europe. It still took forever to get there but we did it via 2 airport lounges.  The Newcastle lounge isn't that much to write home about although it minimised time with the chavs but the KLM lounge in AMS is my kind of thing, for the free biscuits alone. You can actually buy them from Walgreens for $3 and they call them the "European Cookie" but they tasted  that extra bit yummy because they were free. I was very excited to go to Prague but I forgot I was going for work. I went from a 5 star hotel in India to the family run hotel with a single bed......single bed. Oh how the tides change! I had a restless night's sleep, tossed and turned and head butted the wall . Single bed, I tell you! This may be too much info but let's just say if you had normal length legs then you would have had to keep the door open of the bathroom. Very reminiscent of The Hudson sans chicness and cleanliness. I made the mistake of "mentioning" that it would be preferable to have a non smoking room the next time. Ha, fool on me because I don't think such things exist in Praha. So as mentioned, of course I was going for work and work I did. Again, oh how the tides change. I spent most of my time in a car between Pilsen and Prague. Pilsen, home of the original pilsen beer and of course, Skoda! And in a garage, sorry, the service room of the customer's facilities. At least it sheltered me from the storms.  So, work was a farce. Set up and packed up the instrument 5 times to get thrown out of the customer account but I am thankful that I did as it meant I got to do some sight seeing.

Prague is nothing more than beautiful. The architecture, the magnificent views and the lushness of the valley mesmerised me. Even the hoards of tourists in the thunderstorm and the millions of mosquitoes didn't disturb me. I had a fantastic tour guide who told me the history of the city and made sure I did the tourist trail. The tour guide was our customer who introduced me to the world of Kofola, the taste of communism (locally formulated equivalent of Coke and Pepsi that was produced during the communist regime so people didn't have to pay the premium for the real stuff), Czech food which was meat laden and devoid of vitamin C and the differentiation of men and women's names in the Slavic area. Did you know that you can instantly tell if somebody is a woman or a man from their surname? The ova suffix is denoting of somebody being female. Ova as in ovum as in the female gamete. Cool, huh? He was going on that the none Europeans go crazy for the narrow cobbled streets. I know what he means but I was I was going crazy for them too.

Prague, you are one beautiful city. I can forgive the 80s fashion and the mullet hair but when you've adapted to a very nice smoke free life it's more than bothersome when it's all about the smoking in that city. I tolerated the smoking for the 3 days and then when I did in true me fashion, piss and moan about it, the locals were shocked to hear that a whole host of European countries have banned it in public places. There is more than enough McDonalds there  and C+A still has a heavy present too but what  did tickle me was that their big supermarket  chain is Tesco! Gotta love Tesco.

A Bientot Prague. Next stop maybe a return to India or.........Belarus.


Praha Pics