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.
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| 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.
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!
