Friday 1 February 2013

Karel for President!


Day 24-26: Oslo Airport / Prague

After no sleep following our huge final night out in Tromso, we boarded our plane and fell into a deep and ignominious sleep within seconds of finding our seats, expecting to wake up in Oslo ready for our connecting flight through to Prague.




Waking up mid-flight and checking the watch was a shock – our Prague flight was just about to take off - we’d snoozed through a 2 and a half hour ground delay in Tromso as the runway was cleared of ice. It seemed Norway wasn’t done with us just yet.

To the credit of Norwegian Air Shuttle (and possibly our drunken amusement amongst other grumpy travellers at the help desk) we were assigned $40 of food and drink tickets and a replacement flight on full-service airline Lufthansa later in the evening. It’s hard to imagine the likes of Tiger or Jetstar doing the same.

6 hours later, we made it through security and looked up to see the fateful message- 18:45 LUFTHANSA FRANKFURT – CANCELLED. Sometimes you just have to laugh, and we had a lot of fun sorting out a free overnight hotel stay and next morning flight with an eccentric old man at the SAS help desk.

Artist's Impression


After a very refreshing stay including separate rooms and free gourmet dinner and breakfast buffets, we were back at Oslo Gardemoen, finally getting away on our flights to Prague via Zurich as scheduled.

The drama wasn’t over though as Coppo’s bag missed the short connection and we were forced to organise a return to Prague airport later that night to collect.

Luckily we had our bouncy and delightful Czech host questie Marketa to cheer us up with a homemade sign (WELCOME THE BEST AUSSIES EVER!) and an introduction to some glorious Czech cuisine on the way to her dorm.



We were also convinced to get on her side in the upcoming presidential elections, wearing bright Karel badges with pride.



With Marketa modest to the point of embarrassment of the place, we were tentative as we went to Czech out (ha ha) where we’d be sleeping on the floor for the next 2 nights. To our delight the room is a pretty typical dorm, cosy, comfortable and most importantly warm.




After some catch up chats, a trip back to the airport and some cheap Vietnamese food on the way home, we were back on the beers with a plan to head out to drink and dance with Marketa’s roommate Nella.




We went to Popo, a small bar filled with travellers from a nearby hostel and a stream of men in suits going in and out of the toilet in conspicuous teams of 2. Welcome to Praha!




We had some $1 beers and spent most of the night on the dance floor, enjoying some dance beats circa Ministry of Sound ’03-05 followed by a frenetic mix set that included a childhood-destroying mix of Thomas the Tank engine theme and Missy Elliot’s “work it”.




After a falafel and some sing-alongs on the long walk home, we organised our cosy sleeping situation and nodded off, keen to explore the city the next day.



Explore we did. After meeting questie Petra for an amazing Czech lunch, we headed up to enjoy the views and some history of the country and its royalty at Prague Castle.












We explored through the Castle grounds, including climbing to the top of the massive St Vitus Cathedral and taking a stroll down the famous golden lane with a hilarious armour museum and tiny souvenir shops built into many brightly coloured houses.
















After grabbing a full table’s worth of delicious bakery goods for less than $10, we set off to finish off the night exploring central Prague.














We tried one last Czech dish, Kürtőskalács, a sweet baked treat that looks like a toilet roll but tastes like a crispy cinnamon donut.





With vague plans to head out again that night, we had some beers over dinner but ended up calling it quits on the basis of exhaustion and possible minor alcohol poisoning.

Cheap, with very nice food, public transport and architecture throughout, we were extremely impressed with Prague. Still, the visit would have been nothing without our crazily enthusiastic tour guide Marketa, whose bouncy antics were just as entertaining as her beautiful city.



Onwards to Edinburgh and the ger-rels!

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