Bound for Prague!

After the obligatory bubbles and beer at the international lounge, we truly realised we were on our way.  What a month it’s been ... in fact, what a year it’s been.

Safely ensconced in our seats; me in “A” a window seat and John in “C” an aisle seat - our strategy worked – a spare “B” seat so three seats to ourselves for the Melbourne to Singapore leg, an eight hour flight.  At 5.15 pm our first meal arrived ... a fruit platter for me.  At 9.30 pm our second meal arrived and for me ... a fruit platter!  I don’t know why airlines have such difficulty dealing with a mushroom allergy even after being advised umpteen times.  So after discussing with them their vast meal options for: Babies, Post-Weaning, Child Meal for Infant, Child Meal, Kosher, Kosher Vegetarian,  Muslim, Raw Vegetarian, Vegetarian Indian, Vegetarian Jain, Vegetarian Oriental, Vegetarian Vegan, Vegetarian Lacto-Ovo, Bland, Diabetic, Fat Free, Gluten Intolerant, Low Calorie, Low Fat, Low Fibre Residue, Low Lactose, Low salt, Non-Carbohydrate, Non-Strict Nut free, Ulcer Diet, Semi-Fluid, Soft Fluid ... truly, check out their website ... and I’m only asking for a meal without mushrooms!  I happily received a business class meal of fillet of beef, mashed pumpkin and asparagus – with not a mushie in sight!

It was a l-o-n-g flight – 30 hours door-to-door but thankfully we got a little sleep on the flights over.  There were three in all, an 8-hour from Melbourne to Singapore, a 12 ½ hour from Singapore to Frankfurt, then an hour’s flight to Prague.

We arrived in Prague and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. We checked into our hotel then walked with the throngs of tourists around the Square ... we tried to resist the slabs of pork, sausages, pancakes, pretzels, and donuts all on offer from tiny stalls with plastic yellow roofs adorned with bunting of the same material.  The donuts were made in a long thin strip, wound around a pole and cooked over an open flame, then rolled in sugar and cinnamon and served in a ‘tower’ structure.  I watched with great interest as a little boy, who had obviously had sufficient, decided to put it on the seat of his trike then tentatively try to sit on it without squashing it.  His mother saw my amusement and stopped him just in time before it became a donut pancake.

We walked the Old Town Square unsuccessfully looking to find our apartment for tomorrow.  More about that later!  We wandered along the side streets looking at the wares on offer – one artist told me she had sold out of "her" work and was selling some friends’ work only to see shortly afterwards many more of those same works of art - ie mass produced crap.  We looked at some crochet work for Miffy – we were told it was ‘home made’ but I was very dubious.  With tummies rumbling, a piece of baked cheese on a slice of rye bread was lunch; a bratwurst in a baguette was enjoyed by both John and myself - amazingly it was quite delicious. 

There are so many homeless people here, mainly men who dive through rubbish bins looking for off-casts of people’s lunches, it is excrutiatingly sad to see.  We bought another bratwurst baguette and gave it to one fellow.  I offered him my half-drunk pilsner, and John reckons he was reaching for it well before it was offered.  We heard tonight that the pension is the equivalent of $13,000 dollars per year and $11,000 of it goes in rent.

We went to Vodaphone to organise sim cards – and found out that Europe isn’t all of Europe when it comes to telephone corporations – there’s EU (Euro Unified) that includes Germany and France for example, and then there’s Hungary and Chechoslovakia ... where different rules apply. Anyway, we bought sim cards to ensure we have backup if we get lost or separated from each other (I’m sure John feels much better knowing that!)

We struggled with tiredness and decided to head for a pub for a beer/wine trying to stretch out our dinner and bedtime.  We managed to get to a restaurant for a bowl of broth, some (very few) julienne carrot strips and (very few again) noodles, and flopped into bed at 7 pm.

Day one in Prague came to an early end.