We are back in London (and thrilled to be). It was such a lovely feeling, getting off the plane (finally) and taking the trains back to our apartment, everything seeming familar and comfortable. It's amazing, I said the same thing about our time in Osaka, but it is amazing how quickly a place feels like home. Of course, we wish we had all of our friends and family here to share it all with us! So, this blog will be wholly focused on our half term one week trip to Prague (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria) and Budapest (Hungary) For those of you as geographically impaired as I am, all three of those countries are a wonderfully manageable train distance from one another, and a two and a half hour flight from London. Yay! Our trip was a wonderful one, enlightening, exciting, breathtaking, a bit educational and, unfortunately, at times, a bit taxing (and not to mention fruitful - we now have fridge magnets from three more countries to add to our 'fridge in the garage when we're old and grey' collection). I think it's best if I start at the beginning...or as I fondly call it...the madness. We were booked on a late afternoon 4pm flight from Gatwick Airport in South London to Prague. We arrived about two in the afternoon, online check in receipts in hand, ready to embark on our adventure. Our first mistake (OK my first mistake, I'll let Ross off on this one) was to only do online check in for one of us, which meant hurriedly making our way to the Easyjet checkin desks...where we were met with absolute pandemonium. I have never seen anything like it in my life. There was people and luggage sprawled everywhere, passengers chanting and yelling, mass confusion and mass crowds...and no information at all. Our flight wasn't up on any of the screens - not even a delay message - and when we approached the few staff we could find who weren't being mauled by angry passengers, they would wave their arms vaguely and tell us to line up 'over there'. We joined several lines unfruitfully, tried to log on to the internet and do our online check in again, and made conversation with strangers in a similar situation and went mad worrying about missing our flight...only to find out it had been delayed. And this, friends, was not just any delay. No, they had delayed numerous flights due to some kind of technical failure and at that point (when they finally gave us some information) they announced they would pursue WRITING EVERYONE'S BOARDING PASSES BY HAND. Sheer madness. We were in that line for two hours before we were finally served, passed through, then made it into transit land. It was mid sandwich (post duty free shopping) when we heard mad cries of anger, rushing of crowds and general disbelief on the floor below where we waited for news on when we'd be boarding...and found out that ours was one of three flights (later to become six flights) that had been completely cancelled. On a Saturday night. In an obscure (and closed) London airport. General pandemonium broke out as people screamed and yelled and got angry and did their best to enact an episode of 'Airport' . We were ushered out of transit and back into the airport where madness ensued as people scrambled for paperwork from the airline and available internet portals to try and book other flights, some way out of Gatwick, or any other airport. Easyjet (a budget airline whose greatest claim appears to be that they are not Ryanair, their budget competitor) officials handed out apology-like forms and encouraged us to book ourselves on to whatever we could, that the airline would cover the cost...but i have to tell you, amidst that kind of madness coupled with an airline that had already been very uncommunicative, passenger, including us, were really panicking about whether it was truth, whether we'd be reimbursed at all...and flights the night before are expensive...especially if, like us, you accidentally book yourselves speedily on to the next flight leaving at 7am from Heathrow...business class. Whoops. So, that's why it was so expensive. In the midst of this madness, we befriended a lovely old lady and her camp teenage son, an angry couple and their genius daughter and four ladies attempting to fly out on a girl's weekend. I deeply appreciated their company, and the fact that we were all 'in it together'. It's amazing what power a group mentality gives you, what confidence. If in doubt, we'd turn to one of our new friends 'So, you're flying with British Airways...and they said any flight, any time...? OK, we'll do it too!' I have to say though, the solidarity didn't seem to cover the fear we felt when we'd discovered we'd booked such expensive flights...a sick feeling came over us...but we didn't have enough information to cancel the flights...so what do you do? If you're me, you head home from Heathrow on a late train, after taking down everyone's else's names and details, you get into bed at 11pm after a dramatic night's events, and your husband wakes you us 15 mins later saying 'Get up! Get up! We have to go to Heathrow NOW! The buses don't run early enough for our flights and the last train leaves the station in nine minutes! Go!' It was as we ran through the darkened streets of London, rushing to catch an impossible-but somehow possible in the end-thank goodness for sheer luck- last train that I started to laugh uncontrollably. I wasn't so much seeing the funny side as descending into hysteria. We made our first train, rushed to make a connection, and I made it. Only to turn as see Ross, on the other side of the train door. Oh dear. Upon recollection, that may well have been the funniest moment of the whole debacle. Me on the train. Ross not. Neither of us quite sure what the other's first move might be. As it was, I tuned into Ross' subliminal messages (incidentally, they work on the tube even though mobile phone reception isn't great) and got off at the next station, and boarded the next (and very last) train to Heathrow that Ross rode in on. We arrived at the airport, a dark and dead and empty ghost town of an airport, and made a space on the floor where we slept (and froze) all night. First thing in the morning, when the desks opened, we cancelled our business class ticket, demoted ourselves into some of the last tickets available on economy and breathed our first, albeit exhausted, sigh of relief. Our flight with British Airways was (of course) mildly delayed, but uneventful and the kind people at our hotel in Prague agreed to give us an extra night free so we didn't lose out on our accomodation - yes! things were looking up! Our time in Prague was gorgeous. We stayed at a Boutique hotel just out of cental Prague and spent our time marvelling at the exceptionally beautiful streets and impossibly gorgeous historic buildings. I spent most of the time there saying 'Ross, Ross, quick, that building looks beautiful, it must be important! Take a photo' only to discover the building was just some non descript government building or university...and to marvel as the next building that struck us. Prague is predominantly divided into the Old Town and the New Town - the Old Town featuring the exceptional castle and surrounds, rambling old streets, Mala Strana, the famous city square and wonderful rich food. (My first and definitely not last experience of goulash) My favourite was Nerudova Street and Mala Strana. Nerudova Street is set on a rambling hill near the castle and features homes still with their traditional method of distinguishing one from another. Each house, pre house numbers, was labelled in some special way. So, we visited the 'House of the Golden Harp', the 'House of the 3 Violins' and 'At the Golden Cup'. It was really quaint. Mala Strana translates into 'lesser quarter' and was one of the areas close to the famous Charles Bridge, where street market stalls are set up to sell to tourists, and the streets lead to the riverside. My other favourite thing was discovering Prague sells Aloe Vera yoghurt...a favourite from Japan days. Sounds bad. But so good. Our time in Prague was so relaxing and calm and we had all but recovered from the madness of our departure, when the lunacy reared its ugly head as we arrived at the station Wednesday morning, bright and early to get on our six am train to Vienna. It was there that we realised we'd left our passports in the safe in our hotel room...was Easyjet in some way to blame? Unfortunately not. What followed was poor Ross rushing through the streets of Prague on train, foot and by taxi to make it back on time for our train...which he did. Just in time to see it pull away from the station, leaving us with two hours and only enough Prague crowns to buy a min croissant between us. Whoops. With the train that we rode to Vienna, we watched the landscape change from gorgeous building to snowy fields to snowy mountains then back to beautiful buildings again, and with the change of place came a renewed sense of positivity. The madness was over. Vienna would bring new fun, new sightseeing (hopefully a Von Trapp child or two) and a new McDonalds' menu to sample. Vienna was incredible. Just beautiful street after beautiful street, breathtaking architecture, fabulous fashion and fabulously dressed men and women, gorgeous patisseries and chocolatiers. It was such a beautiful place, and I'd love to someday return there. A favourite there was the Viener Schnitzel dinner, the strudel afternoon tea, the Vienna Coffees...and the incredible palace. Also the toilets at the strudel cafe, where the doors to the cubicles were clear...umtil you locked the door. Disconcerting. Vienna also heralded the return of my curly hair...which has been unruly and unpredicatable for most of London (such hard water) and Prague (too much goulash?) Vienna made me sigh and smile. It is another lovely city. It was probably in Vienna though, in all honesty, that we started to reckon with the sad reality that once you leave the main centres and tourist attractions behind, much of both Prague and Vienna are quite dirty and ill cared for. There is certainly a significant amount of graffiti in these cities. This was also true of Budapest. It's quite sad, especially when you consider how Melbourne is such a beautiful city...although, there is Eastland. :) Budapest was our final destination, and we travelled there on a deluxe train, met our favourite part of that leg of our trip, and ate a fabulous (thank you Vienna) breakfast. The morning we left Vienna, it felt like all our challenges had melted away, and this carried through. As we arrived at the station to catch our train and realised that one was leaving in four mins, a familiar dread came over us, but we hustled and bustled, grabbed food and made our way to the platform, to discover our train was (thank you Vienna) fashionably late. Our luck continued as we befriended a lovely Turkish man who gave us his card, offered us any assistance we needed, and kept us company for much of our journey. My other favourite part of that train journey was when Ross requested a 'Schnickers' (snickers) from the waitress who came to sell refreshments...he picks up people's accents often, with hilarious results. When we arrived in Budapest, he walked us (and my suitcase!) through the city streets, hailed us a cab, paid for it in advance, directed its driver to our hotel, and wished us well. He was a truly lovely man. I've kept his card and will send him a little thank you soon. Unfortunately, (though kind of fortunately, as we had a free tour of Budapest) our taxi driver (who kept slapping his head and gesturing wildly to make this abundantly clear to us) was not as familar with Budapest as one might like their taxi driver to be. We travelled across the river twice before reaching our hotel. Hilarious. In Budapest, we were shocked to find that there was an incredibly active (wrong word choice?) sex trade, with loads of human trafficking taking place through the city. This was a sad discovery, but immediately evident in some parts of town. Our time in Budapest was, in some ways, a bit disappointing. It was our least favourite of the three cities, but still had some amazing food and some lovely people. The weather also just wasn't on our side; the fog so thick our second day that we couldn't see each other, let alone the bloody castle we were visiting. A favourite for Budapest though, was the Gellert Bath in the city centre. Budapest, when controlled by Turks, was established as a bath city, and there are still loads of natural hot springs operating all over the city. We spent a leisurely afternoon in the city baths, but must admit, Japan does them that little bit better :). We feel a bit ungrateful actually, saying things like ' We went away for a mid term trip to Prague and Vienna and Budapest and Budapest was a little disappointing' (say it like Prue or Trude from Kath and Kim...and you'll know what I mean. But, I have to be honest and say that though all three gave us amazing experiences, I wouldn't hit Budapest again. I will go to Turkey though, thanks to that kind man who helped us on our way. We headed home on the last Saturday of mid term break, and after a familiar delay at the aiport boarded our flight home. It really was lovely coming back to London. For those a bit doubtful, as I certainly was, about the land of whinging poms and men in funny black fluffy hats and cold, grey weather...but I have grown very attached to this city in a very short time indeed. I'm sorry about the wait on this blog guys, i know many have been waiting with bated breath, but we've been back at school and things have been busy busy. I am really enjoying schoolm feeling settled and thrilled to announce that an Australian girl, roughly my height has joined our faculty. For those that don't consider height important in developing friendships...consider your friendship group. I have found in most cases that alike height = friends. It's a simply, and quite possibly very exclusive equation, but it's working out ok thus far. It's great to have another Aussie around, to be just as confused about the curriculum and terminology, and to laugh at my jokes when the Brits just look at me strangely. Ross is settling into the rhythm of supply work, and loving the freedom it offers. He is employed primarily at 3 schools and is becoming a familiar face for the students and staff there. OK, as always plenty more photos will be put on facebook, but some here too. Love to you all.
