Bohemian Rhapsody

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We arrived in an overcast, stormy (but hot) Prague last night to be greeted by yet another public transport system challenge. It was late (10pm) and we weren't in the mood to decipher an encoded timetable and so latched onto another lost looking couple of travellers to see whether they could assist. It turned out that they were as lost as we were. They became even more lost when one of them jumped onto the metro before the other could join her, and the door closed. Eek. All's well that ends well though, as they met up later in the evening. We also managed to make some sense out of the system (eventually) and found our way to our hostel sometime after midnight.

The previous day was much nicer! We spent a lovely evening with Arna and Mike, who were kind enough to put us up in their flat in Angel Islington. Very nice to spend our first night in the UK with friends, and in a beautiful room with a view to die for (we could see St Paul's from our bed!). Managed to get all of our UK-related paperwork tied up, and to make it to Gatwick on time to make our flight, and not end up on "Airport" (we were flying Easyjet). There was a bit of excitement, though, as the airport was evacuated just after we went through customs.

Public transport and storms aside, Prague is magical. We walked around the Prague castle for most of the day, and saw the site of numerous key moments in Czech history - not least of which the Prague defenestration, the nadir of religious tollerance in these parts - as well as the remains of generations of Czech royalty. There is also a "golden alley" of 14th century houses (which they charge admission to view) which are actually shops. So, essentially, you pay to be hawked czech memorabilia of varying degrees of authenticity. My personal favourite was when in the "Kafka house" (which, as the name suggests sells only Kafka merchandise - he, of course, being a Prague native) I spent a little too long flicking through one of the books (perhaps thirty seconds). A very direct Czech woman stared at me and said "It's a good book, yes. If you want to read it so much you need to buy it". I'm sure Kafka would have approved - he publicly opined that he did not read advertisements, as if he did, he would spend all of his time wanting things.

Outside of the castle, we saw centuries of architectural histories paraded before us. Prague managed to avoid the physical ravages of WW2 (a side effect of appeasement), and as such remains intact. We have also enjoyed the cheap, delicious, readily available czech pilsners (less than NZ$1 for half a litre - literally cheaper than water!).

Anyway, a line is building for the computer, so I'd better go. No photos for this post unfortunately. The PC I am on has some random linux installation on it, and try as I might, I cannot get our digital camera to talk to it. I'm sure it's just playing hard to get. Will write again soon.

Bec and Mal

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