Wednesday 19 May 2010

Deja vu, the good kind

I sometimes wonder how it works at all :). Believe me when I say that I'm about the laziest person in the world. If you just let me be... A bag of owed MnM's will testify to that :P. Yet somehow, there we were, way out in the middle of nowhere (well, somewhere on the outskirts of Oslo) looking for an elusive go-karting track in pretty much broad daylight at 9pm!
Well, we found it, and the whole thing amounted to about 3 hours of travelling for 9 minutes of 'track' time :D. And then first thing Saturday morning, five somewhat bleary eyed people got on a flight at Gardermoen and promptly dozed off as the plane took off for Prague!And as soon as we'd made our way to the heart of Old Town, it all started coming back to me :). It helped, of course, to know my way around. I only needed the occasional look at the map to know which way to go, unlike the last time :D.I don't think I'll bother with details.... or maybe I will :). Well, of course we went down to Old Town square, and up to the top of the Town Hall tower. Unfortunately though, most of the square was taken up with this huge rock concert stage. Or at least something that looked and sounded like one. Oddest of places for a rock concert, but hey, that's what it's like in Prague, people queue up for a look at a skyline hundreds of years old, and they also get some heavy metal to go with the view :).We did look at some places I'd missed out on the last time around. And a lot of walking along the river Vltava. Tourists, locals, young folk dressing up for the imminent zombie parade, it was all a happy mess. And through it all there was the imposing profile of the castle and the cathedral looming over the horizon.All you need to do in Prague is walk around. So that's what we did. And while at it, we even managed to pack in an opera performance on the stairs of the National Theatre, and an interesting black light theatre production called Cats in Prague. The former was genuinely impressive. The latter, well, I'll just leave it at interesting :P.While in Prague I had to drag the others to the top of Petrin tower, for the majestic view of the entire city, with the river snaking its way under the many bridges. This time around though, I didn't stay for sunset :).One of the things I was really happy to be able to do was find my way back to the Vrtbovska garden! Last time we'd more or less stumbled into this terraced garden that is practically in the middle of the city, yet secluded and hidden away. The gardens and statues were as I'd remembered them. Just the colours were different :). And from the top we could look out to the hustle and bustle all around from within a little bubble of peace and quiet.When we finally made our way onto the Charles Bridge, I was happy to see that the parts that had been under wraps for renovation the last time were all open. Unfortunately, other parts of the bridge were now fenced off! I guess at least in two trips I managed to see all of it uncovered :). And this time I checked if we could go up the tower on the Old Town side of the bridge, and we could!! So we did :D.
I suppose the only thing not too great about the weekend was the weather. For the most part it was overcast and a bit chilly. But then again, at least it never rained! All in all it was a brilliant trip. I managed to stick entirely to various forms of goulash for the meals :D. And this time around, I didn't miss out on the green fairy :P. Scary stuff, that!
It was a bit of a full circle when we ended up nursing one of our ranks (who was feeling rather overwhelmed by the flaming shots of the previous night) in the shaded park at Namesti Miru. It was the same square where we'd started off our trip through the city last time :).Now if only I can get through the rest of this week. It's always a hard awakening after these getaways to paradise :-< Currently: waiting for I don't know what
Listening to: The Weepies - Happiness

2 comments:

  1. Can i take a wild guess at whom you've been nursing after the shots? :p

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  2. :D oh come on, be nice!

    but here's a clue, you can get the details first hand in a couple of days! ;)

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