Back in Prague...

Back in Prague, we now appreciate the less humid, no mosquitoes, being able to walk around from the bathroom and the bedroom without having to be fully clothed, and having a clean bathroom. Plus, we enjoy cooking our own dinners.
We visited the Prague Zoo on a rainy daya and got wet. We did bring an umbrella though, on Munkee´s advice. Even though it had rained, we still had a really good time and spent almost 5 hours altogether in the zoo! Our favourite animals included the cockatoos, the North African Macaques - one of whom we caught having sex with another female! - and of course the big cats. We came face to face with magnificent animals like the giraffe, tigers, and leopards, with only a double, sometimes, triple glass pane separating us. It was definitely worth the visit as the layout of the zoo itself was very well designed. Better than the TO zoo, we say.
The next day, we ventured out to Petrin Hill. Climbing and sweating, we finally reached the top, where we saw spectacular views of Prague. What a gorgeous sight! Apart from the mirror maye, there was onlz the mini Eiffel Tower, which we did not bother to climb. The descent was a lot easier, all downhill, leading us to Mala Strana, the Lesser Town, as it is referred to.
That night, we ate out at a place Judy and Ron recommended to us, Giallo Rosso and had pizza and pasta. We each got 30 min free internet with the order of a beverage and food. Then we walked around the Old Town Square and waited for 10 pm since we wanted to see the Astronomical Clock move at the hour.
What we thought was going to be a breathtaking event turned out to be underwhelming. Usually, the 12 apostles take turns and show their faces, while nodding their heads in denial as death rings a bell. The apostles, instead of doing that, just circulated within the clock while nodding their heads. So, they really did not come out of the clock that much.

Smartwings is a misleading name!

We're back from Venice and now I can complain about Smartwings Airlines without feeling worried about them. What a fiasco!

It started out for us pretty simply: we bought the tickets, celebrated the discount and bragged to all of you about he amount we are saving. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" is a perfect saying in this case.

We got to the airport and discovered that our flight number was not there. After yelling at an information attendant (she was rude and yelled at me so its only fair that I yell back) I found out that the check-in desk was nearby. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone there, so going back to the info lady, I discovered that we were a little early. We were never worried so when we found out that our flight was delayed and the number was changed. No problem. The next part was a real piss-off. We were redirected to ROME!!! Instead of a simple flight lasting 1 hour, it took us over 5 hours. Looking at Rome from the sky is nice but it really irritated us when we were supposed to be looking at Venice.

The food was ridiculous. A single hamburger bun with a single slice of meat and SAVOY cabbage! Yummy and gassy too. One drink and the rest you must pay for. Horrible. "Yes, I know that it's a discount flight company."

They double booked all the seats and they had to wait for all the people going to Venice from Rome to board. All this resulted with us arriving in Venice at 11pm.

Venice was an unbelievable time, so I am not going to add that part here.

Flying back, I thought I was going to die.

Getting onboard was a little easier but the descent was A TOTAL nightmare! There was enough turbulence to make a milkshake. The plane was pitching left and right. Just before we landed we even wavered a bit prior to touching down. I'm a good flyer and I like to travel but these types of situations always make me dread take off and landings.

So a warning to all: Smartwing is less than good.

If you're budget concerned then good luck and enjoy the flight. For the rest: Take a bus.

Last full day in Venice

Today is our last full day in Venice and so after seeing the Basilica de San Marco, having a capuccino and getting groceries, we are heading to Lido beach. The day is gorgeously sunny as usual, lots of sweat and water. We have found some easy ways to get around in Venice, like taking the traghetto, which is a gondola essentially. Instead of walking all the way around until we find a brigde, we take the traghetto and it crosses the river for us. Voila! Then, we also avoid the throngs of tourists by taking shaded streets and alleys that lead to magical places like an ATM machine.
We have already visited the Murano island yesterday, and on the way back, we took the long route, and for 5 Euros, we got a round trip along the Grand Canal, the lagoon, and the bay. It was gorgeous.
Going to the grocery store, Billa, which is in Canareggio - same place where you would find the Jewish Ghetto, it is so much fun to shop for food. Everything is so interesting. Like the tuna that we bought, it comes with green peas (Erin, we know you would not like this, but it was good!) and tomato paste. It tasted like the sardines in tomato sauce, minus the fishiness. As well, pasta here is light - unlike the heavy ones we have in Canada. Our lunches are usually salad, cheese and some sort of cold cuts. We go out to eat for dinner.
Last night, we were pressed for time so we went to a Chinese-run Italian restaurant. It had a limited menu selection but had basic stuff like pasta and pizza. Man, we do not recommend anyone to go there - Piccolo Martini. The pasta sauce was runny, and probably ready to pour onto pre-cooked pasta. But we ate it anyway and swore to return to the first place went to.

We are definitely Canadian and made from snow and ice. Everywhere we go, we look at the people around us and see that NO ONE is sweating. We are constantly melting. The water pours right out of us. I know that its hot (around 33 celsius) but this is crazy. I am currently looking at my arm form puddles on the table where my arm rests.

Off we go to the beach!

Venice

Here we are at an Internet cafe in Venice, just behind our hotel. Our flight here was safe and sound. However, we both decided that we would call yesterday D-Day - for the day of delays. It was a complete write-off yesterday.
We left the apt in Prague a few hours early since we have decided to take the public transportation to the airport instead of a taxi (40 Crowns vs 400 Crowns). We got to the airport 4 hrs early so we just hung out, read, played scrabble, ate our packed sandwich, and roamed around the airport.

Our flight, as it turned out, was combined with anothe flight - a stopover at Rome. We were not aware of this and so changes were made, obviously, much after we had booked the flight. Never mind that, there was also a 50 min delay as well. Great. We go to our departure gate and learn that there is another flight departing from that same gate. We are very confused right now and so we kept waiting. (I am also finished my book that I just started 2 days ago - mostly reading at the airport. Naomi, thanks a lot for the recommendation of a great book, The Kite Runner!). We finally hear our boarding call - at another gate and we finally take off.
Flight was going well, we land in Rome, pick up some more people, who are also going to Venice, and continue on our flight. We even met a really nice couple from California, Ron and Judy, who were sitting in front of us. They gave us some tips about places in Prague to go see and eat at, as well as a hidden laundromat.
Everything was going well until another passenger sat in front of us and the stench was so horrible I was gagging. Can you imagine withstanding a smell for a flight over an hour long?
Phew! We landed finally and I was glad to be our of that plane and smell some new air - even if meant I smelled the canals. A water taxi, we found out, costs 140 Euros from the airport so we opted for the water bus instead, which cost us 22 Euros. Much more affordable. The bus made many stops and we did not know how much longer or many more stops till ours - San Marco. Finally, at 11:50 pm, we arrived at the San Marco docks.
Looking for our hotel proved to be a small challenge, partly because of all the hidden calles, some of which are so narrow you would not even know they were there if you did not look. We stopped in a nice hotel to ask for directions and finally found our hotel. The front desk was unoccupied though so I started getting worried that we might have arrived too late and would have to stay out till the next morning.
We had heard some cutlieries clanging upstairs so I went up to investigate. I found an Indian man and it turns out that he was on night duty at the desk so he came down to help us. Getting into our room, we find 2 single beds on oppsite sides of the room and the door frame was broken. We unpacked anyway and decided to go for a walk - in search of some air and some food.
We were so starving and we walked around but did not find anything open except for a couple of bars. One pizzeria, we walked by were just starting to close up. Too bad for us. We walked to the bar in the San Marco Square, ordered a Fanta and a Coke, had some of the nibblies out, and sat in the patio to enjoy our found food. 6 Euros for 2 glasses of pop. We figured having some sugar would at least give us some energy and eating the nibblies (japanese rice crackers which had gone sticky from the humidity in the air,dried fruits and nuts, and corn nibs) was better than nothing. In fact, it felt satisfying for us.
Sleep last night was almost restful - except Michael was too hot and kept feeling itchy even though there were not any mosquitoes around. This morning, on our way out, we asked the desk if we could switch rooms, and they happily said yes. We are excited at the prospoects of a cooler room.
Off to see more of Venice!

Old Town, Charles Bridge and McD's

SO, like we said in the last entry we got up late and headed out the door totally off schedule, but thats what it means to be on vacation and not on a schedule.

Our place is so close to the centre of town that when we step out the door, we're practically there already. Actually, the reality is that it takes about 10 minutes to get to the "Powder Tower". Named for holding gunpowder in the past. Once we got there, we headed to the closest information office. It turns out that most of them are runned for profit so they constantly try to sell you something. Maps are like 5 bucks etc. Oh and there are tons of Fake concert sellers who stalk each tourist that walks by.



We decided just to go around and check out all of the sites that are close by. While walking down the amazing streets we found an ice cream parlor that was totally awesome. After spending 150 Krowns, we headed over the the main old square where they have the famous astrological clock and the Tynsky Cathedral. It's really great to see. There are the usual cafes and buskers. But there are lots of differences. All the historic buildings are is very gothic. There are spots where they tell you where people have died defending their religious beliefs and there is also a Meridian marker.

Off we went again in search of interesting things to look at. We wanted to find the Charles bridge but we ended up at a different one. It turned out to be a great spot to shoot the bridge. Finding our way over to the famous bridge we were interrupted by a black man dressed in a sailor\s suit. Very nice guy who offered us to go on a cruise in a small boat for $40 each. Nice but not today.

The bridge was very interesting. Armed with our mini-guide book we went through the whole bridge and knew who all the statues were. There were tons of artisans along the bridge who infact pay for the upkeep of the bridge through their fees. Lots of interesting pieces. We took notes on how they displayed their work. There was also a special Brass plate on one of the statues that was worn shiny by all the people touching it for good luck.

We were getting hungry and tired so we ended up leaving the bridge in search of some place to sit so that we could figure out where to eat. Heading back to the main squre we found a bench next to the observatory. THere we figured out a couple of places to eat. Unfortunately, after going up and down the streets, and trying to find these places we ended up going to the end of the street across from the Museum. There we spotted a lovely restaurant with big umbrellas and lots of people. As we neared it, we were surprised to se ethat is was a McDonalds. Giving up we bought two meals and ate them. The staff didnt understand any English so it was a bit of a challenge telling them that I wanted Tomatoes on my Big Mac. They also gave Lew Fanta instead of Coke. And, on top of that, they charged 33 crowns for ea ketchup packet, which was not even Heinz!

It was 10pm by the time we ate dinner. The ambience though was definitely upscale for a fast-food joint. The furniture was made of either granite or laminate for the tables, and leather for the seats and stools. Talk about fancy!

We walked back after, with our bellies full of food. Unfortunately, we tried to take a short cut and had to go through an underground pass to cut across the park on the way home. Along the highway, Michael spotted inappropriate behaviour in the unlit park. We picked up our pace in hopes of getting home sooner. We are not going to take short cuts anymore.

Sleepless in Prague (Lew's version)

Our regular routine of reading before bedtime was carried out in the apartment, just like back in TO. True enough, this tired out our eyes so we hit the lights, rolled over and fell asleep...or at least we thought so.

2:45 am. Both of us woke up to several noises outside. I was having paranoid feelings of people coming in to our apt, mosquito's biting, and hearing lots of people's voices from across the street in the pub. What we both heard were people's voices talking, some techno music, which we first thought were the slot machines in the pub, and some cars passing by. There were moments of utter silence, with the high frequency white noise, and a loop of techno music playing over and over, no lyrics.

The windows were ajar, for fear of bugs coming in and biting us. We had no fan, or a constant hum that comforted Michael. I was up so that kept him up, too. Funny enough, he claims that my snoring comforts him and lulls him to sleep. So sweet, I think. (I think he also means it sincerely.) So we tossed and turned, with a t-shirt to cover our eyes, our arms to cover our ears, and we still were wide awake.

Since we could not sleep, we ended up talking - Shabbat practices, Kashrut, plans of raising our future families, and about our families. Lots to talk about. When we exhausted our topics to talk about, we thought of a plan for the next few nights to survive the night and have a good sleep. We would go in search of a cheap classical or relaxation CD and play it so we could sleep.

5:00 am Eventually, Munkee decided to just closed the windows, and that did it. It blocked the sounds of the techno loop music and we were able to finally sleep.

Last Night a 2:24am

No A/C, no Fan, and no loud noise might sound like a really good thing but at 245am I woke up and couldnt get back to sleep. Not really a problem right? What woke me up was a dream that was part reality. I was dreaming that I was Harry Potter (cuz I am reading the fifth book) and Voldemort was attacking me. He forced me to do a challenge involving music. I was to conjure up fake humans who where the notes in the music and then I had to arrange them. I needed some magical software like Garageband for mac so I was off in search of it when I woke up. The music was actually coming from a shop across the street. It was a gambling machine that was constantly playing the exact song that was in my head. EVERY 24 seconds with a 6 second delay. IT was a total nightmare. I obsess (no surprise) over musical noise that repeats itself. Thats one of the reasons I dont go in to Casinos. The music makes me go into looping dreams when I sleep and it drives me crazy. It wasnt going to stop and I wasnt going close the window cuz it was too hot. Lew also woke up but due to all the people that were making noise eariler.

We ended up talking and remaining awake it the sun started coming up. I was wishing for noisy traffic, or static from a bad channel on the TV. Oh it was horrible. Then Lew suggested that I wrap my head with a T-shirt (common activity by me) but that didnt help. The only thing left was to...CLOSE the window and sweat to death. Surprisingly, it wasnt hot and the noise was gone!!! We fell quickly asleep and woke up the next day. AT 12:51!!!!!!!!! Oh crappy. So here we are, 5pm in a internet cafe.

First night in Prague

Once we landed, the border guard looked at our passports, stamped them and we were off. Easier to get into Czech than Germany. In Frankfurt, we were interrogated, where are we staying, showing the map, how long etc.

We were totally quick getting our luggage. We went in search of our driver. No where to be found, we waited for a little while before he showed up with a sign with Lew's name on it. He was cubby, mustached and very European. He grabbed my luggage (big one) and off he went to his car. At first he wasnt very talkity but I once I told him that I speak Russian, thats when it all started coming out.

Getting to pour apt was not bad by taxi - took about 20 min. The lasy who met us seemed nice and the place was exactly what it looked like on the web. It was clean and the bathroom was almost brand new. We unpacked quickly as sweat dripped down our faces. By the time we finished unpacking, we were cooled off. Showered and changed, we headed out to check the neighbourhood. At this time it was already 9pm and were starving.

There were lots of pubs and small stores but were closed already so we kep walking. We came across this Chinese take-out place, with menus that are pictured and numbered, so that your eyes can communicate to your brain and your stomach whether what you were looking at was appealing or not. We ended up ordering rice dishes - Szechuan beef for M and duck for myself. Add a 0.5 L of beer can with it, we were happy. Not bad for 200 Kcz (which was really $12).

Somewhere between me trying to speak to the lady in Mandarin, askimg her whether we are allowed to take the beer on the street and where good places to eat for breakfast are, she gave us a small discount and charged us 8 Kcz less. We're happy.

That dinner did not feel heavy at all. In fact, as we continued walking, we said to each other how the food we ate a few minutes ago does not even feel like it's there. That's Chinese food for you - easily digestible, and Michael hoped there was MSG in it.

We walked as far as our tired feet could take us, staking out some places we would check out the next day. Saw a couple of nicer hotels (one charged 2200 KZc for 3 nights, ours was 24000Kcz for 27 days) and grabbed some local maps and brochures. We also saw lots of sports stores, pub and bars are crawling everywhere.

On the way home, we decided to sip another can of beer to cool us off as we walked back.

Lufthansa flight

Our flight from Frankfurt to Prague was uneventful - in a good way. Flight was short and sweet - Lufthansa gives such great service!

We sat beside a japanese lady who fell asleep for most of the flight. The worst part of it was when the flight attendants came around to offer snacks and beverages, we tried to wake her up bec we felt bad that she would miss out. Upon gently touching her and trying to wake her up, she slowly rose from her comatosed position, with eyes still closed. She started fumbling inside the sandwich bag, fishing through it, prob thinking that it was the bag of dried mangos we had offered her earlier. She took the Twix out and said thank you sleepily and proceeded to go back to sleep when I explained to her that it was hers to take. Then, she ate the Twix quickly and went back to sleep.

We found this whole thing really funny. So, here is what she looked like.

Frankfurt for 1.5 days

Arriving in Frankfurt airport, we were armed with a sign we made so that the lady who was to pick us up could spot us. Her name was Ira, a friend of munkee's uncle's. She was easily spotted while we pushed our luggage cart around slowly looking for a Russian-looking woman. Presto! Found her.

We had 2 things to do before we could leave the airport - confirm our flight was leaving from the same airport as where we arrived at, and check in our big luggage that we did not need for the 1 night we were going to be in Frankfurt. It took us a little longer than it would have if it was just the two of us, but what the heck.

Next challenge was to find our way to the hotel by public transport and again, it took us a little longer than expected. We even went the wrong way at first and had to get off and take the right train.

After much sweating and feeling lost, we found our hotel, which happened to be in area that is mostly commercial buildings. Hotel itself was nice and verz funky. Though it was small, it was functional - bright, happy colours to wake up to and eat breakfast to. We loved it there. And the best part of it all, it was air-conditioned. Goodness knows how hot it was in Frankfurt!

We were starved from walking around so after visiting the Romerplaty, which was gorgeous, we went in search of a place to eat. Has anyone ever told zou how many doner places there are in Germany? Well, that was what we ended up eating! And were the doners gigantic for 4 Euros, too.

On our own we went to walk the streets of downtown Frankfurt some more, until we got tired and decided to head back home. Bussing it sounded like a good idea since our feet were tired, but the bus was taking a while so we walked back instead. Was our sleep that night so restful though!

The next morning, for 6 Euros each, we had breakfast downstairs in the hotel, where the room was so funkily designed and everything was just cool looking. We took our time with breakfast, enjoying the ambience and the food - cold cuts, cheese, bread, yogurt, coffee, tea and hard-boiled eggs. Yum!

We checked out of our hotel by 10:30 am and were on our way to downtown Frankfurt. We walked all around, admiring the shops and having ice cream, and walking by the river. It was a very hot day. Somewhere in the downtown, we saw a metal structure, enclosed, and 4 or 5 men in black suits and sunglasses approach the structure. They had with them a metal briefcase each and proceeded to conduct investigations on the object. We could clearly see that it was all a setup and they were pretending so we went over to look at the laptop and it wasn't even on!

Day of departure

So, we still packing. We have now progressed to checking things off our list and going through everything to make sure we have what we need. Maybe another 2 more hours of packing....we were also cleaning up the apartment.

Preparing for the Trip

It is less than 2 days from our flight and we still have not packed yet. Our bags are out though - just needs to be stuffed. Been having a lot of late nights, must be the tea. Had mom over and drank 2 cups of green tea - we were wired till 2:30 am.

We confirmed all our flights and hotels already so we feel safe that everything will be fine.