I get what you get in ten years, in two days...
LISTENING TO: Chris Brown (feat. Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes) - Look At Me Now
When we last met, things were different. Rachel and I had just gotten up, ready to take on the Prague Castle, which, by the way, was one of the high points of this trip. It was gorgeous and ginormous, and although very, very cold (you could see your breath while we inside) was definitely worth the trip up the mountain. I'm so excited to see the film I took there - I can't even describe how great it was. Not to mention the view was something amazing - you could basically see all of Prague, which was beautiful. After walking down these really cool stairs and eating trdelnik (which is basically a funnel cake doughnut with cinnamon sugar and chocolate filling), we walked through Old Town and made our way to Palladium, which was the mall, which was insane but really cool. And huge. Like 200+ stores, four floors, really cool escalators huge. After speeding through there, we bought some hot wine on the street (which sounds super creepy when you type it and then read it out loud, but in actuality is pretty normal in Prague - not to mention cozy and awesome in the middle of January), we watched the astrological clock strike 5pm in Old Town Square - which was really fun and cheery. We then walked home, buying a mole stuffed animal and some puppets on the way (including the stop in the one souvenir shop so filled with pot smoke that we basically walked right back out again). Other highlights of the day? The one metro station with the sign of the waterline of when Prague flooded back in 2002 - completely unbelievable. Like, scuba-diving for your train - Day After Tomorrow-like water levels. Crazy.
Anyhow. Long story short - I was informed after we returned home that Belgium is apparently going on a national strike tomorrow. Tomorrow, as is, my layover flight home to Newark tomorrow. So now, instead of getting up insanely early to make it home in time for lunch, I'm getting up extremely early to wait eight hours in the middle of the Brussels International Airport to then fly to Amsterdam (the irony of my vacation somehow ending up in Amsterdam is not lost on the part of my life that follows the guidelines of every single Eurotrip-vacation-comedy movie ever written), which will vaguely end up in Newark by 7:35pm. I say vaguely, because no one can really tell me when the flight from Amsterdam to Newark leaves. Probably because it doesn't exist yet.
So yeah. There's that.
As I was freaking out over this, Rachel kindly made me pasta, we had some chips and salsa/guac, and wine. And the taxi comes to get us at 4:30am tomorrow. I can't wait to figure out how to get home... yay.
Last thing: funny things I've noticed about Prague and London:
-In London, you don't say to-go when you're picking up your coffee. They look at you funny... it's either take-away or stay.
-Traffic lights are as follows: green, yellow/red, red, yellow/red, green. Super helpful.
-In Prague, there's this crazy clicking noise as you wait to cross the street. It gets faster when its green... it's like your life ticking away, but it really helps when you stop paying attention.
-There are foxes in London. They walk the streets at night.
-Rachel calls Prague polite, but not friendly, unless you know who you're talking to. The environment totally agrees with that - when you look at the country's history, it really makes sense. Also, Prague has some of the most beautiful (and bountiful) graffiti I've seen in a long time.
-CD and music stores EXIST here. The number of cd stores I've seen in both London and Prague trumps everything I'm left with back home... it's kind of heartening, even though I really can't find anything to really match it in the U.S.
-Prague keyboards are just as strange as French ones. Just saying.
-TV commercials in Prague are also really strange. If you have a commercial in English, it'll be dubbed, with the written language on the screen appearing in Czech (especially if it's for an English speaking show), but when they actually air the episode, it'll be in English, without dubbing or subtitles. I can't figure it out.
I'm sure I'll think of more later, probably during my eight hour stay in Brussels tomorrow. If I can get to wifi, you'll probably hear about it. If not, I'll catch you when I'm back in Jersey. Til then...
When we last met, things were different. Rachel and I had just gotten up, ready to take on the Prague Castle, which, by the way, was one of the high points of this trip. It was gorgeous and ginormous, and although very, very cold (you could see your breath while we inside) was definitely worth the trip up the mountain. I'm so excited to see the film I took there - I can't even describe how great it was. Not to mention the view was something amazing - you could basically see all of Prague, which was beautiful. After walking down these really cool stairs and eating trdelnik (which is basically a funnel cake doughnut with cinnamon sugar and chocolate filling), we walked through Old Town and made our way to Palladium, which was the mall, which was insane but really cool. And huge. Like 200+ stores, four floors, really cool escalators huge. After speeding through there, we bought some hot wine on the street (which sounds super creepy when you type it and then read it out loud, but in actuality is pretty normal in Prague - not to mention cozy and awesome in the middle of January), we watched the astrological clock strike 5pm in Old Town Square - which was really fun and cheery. We then walked home, buying a mole stuffed animal and some puppets on the way (including the stop in the one souvenir shop so filled with pot smoke that we basically walked right back out again). Other highlights of the day? The one metro station with the sign of the waterline of when Prague flooded back in 2002 - completely unbelievable. Like, scuba-diving for your train - Day After Tomorrow-like water levels. Crazy.
Anyhow. Long story short - I was informed after we returned home that Belgium is apparently going on a national strike tomorrow. Tomorrow, as is, my layover flight home to Newark tomorrow. So now, instead of getting up insanely early to make it home in time for lunch, I'm getting up extremely early to wait eight hours in the middle of the Brussels International Airport to then fly to Amsterdam (the irony of my vacation somehow ending up in Amsterdam is not lost on the part of my life that follows the guidelines of every single Eurotrip-vacation-comedy movie ever written), which will vaguely end up in Newark by 7:35pm. I say vaguely, because no one can really tell me when the flight from Amsterdam to Newark leaves. Probably because it doesn't exist yet.
So yeah. There's that.
As I was freaking out over this, Rachel kindly made me pasta, we had some chips and salsa/guac, and wine. And the taxi comes to get us at 4:30am tomorrow. I can't wait to figure out how to get home... yay.
Last thing: funny things I've noticed about Prague and London:
-In London, you don't say to-go when you're picking up your coffee. They look at you funny... it's either take-away or stay.
-Traffic lights are as follows: green, yellow/red, red, yellow/red, green. Super helpful.
-In Prague, there's this crazy clicking noise as you wait to cross the street. It gets faster when its green... it's like your life ticking away, but it really helps when you stop paying attention.
-There are foxes in London. They walk the streets at night.
-Rachel calls Prague polite, but not friendly, unless you know who you're talking to. The environment totally agrees with that - when you look at the country's history, it really makes sense. Also, Prague has some of the most beautiful (and bountiful) graffiti I've seen in a long time.
-CD and music stores EXIST here. The number of cd stores I've seen in both London and Prague trumps everything I'm left with back home... it's kind of heartening, even though I really can't find anything to really match it in the U.S.
-Prague keyboards are just as strange as French ones. Just saying.
-TV commercials in Prague are also really strange. If you have a commercial in English, it'll be dubbed, with the written language on the screen appearing in Czech (especially if it's for an English speaking show), but when they actually air the episode, it'll be in English, without dubbing or subtitles. I can't figure it out.
I'm sure I'll think of more later, probably during my eight hour stay in Brussels tomorrow. If I can get to wifi, you'll probably hear about it. If not, I'll catch you when I'm back in Jersey. Til then...
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