Day Twenty - A Roman Holiday

I remember being about 8 years old and watching Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn – this was a time when my family would leave the room the minute they saw the TV wasn’t showing any color or the movie was pre- 1990. I however fell in love with Rome at that point and ever since it has been the one place other than Egypt (blame Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra for that) that I have always wanted to go.

Because of this I feel a bit sorry for Rome, it has a lot to live up to, to match the expectations in my head. Flying in this morning we didn’t really have a good start. Our driver was 40 minutes late leaving us trying to decide if we were going to catch a cab or try a local bus. At the same time reading the voucher it said we must call the company before we make any other travel arrangements if the driver didn’t show but the neither the phone number or the name of the company were on the voucher. Eventually the driver strolled into the arrival terminal, demanded the voucher and said not one other word to us before driving to the hotel. I don’t know about you but a sorry would have made me feel worlds better but ehh, im determined not to let one ill-mannered driver ruin one of the highlights of my trip.

So we arrived at the hotel, which is lovely, it’s an ex-nunnery and the curved ceilings and exposed brickwork made my heart stop. The location is amazing, we are actually bordering on the Roman Forum and maybe a 10 minute walk to the Coliseum. The check in was quick an easy and we finally felt things we going well.  The drama started when we got to the room. It was on the ground floor and we were told it overlooked a garden, what they didn’t tell us was that in the garden was a restaurant and when we opened the curtains every single diner could look in at us. It probably didn’t help that every single travel security meeting has stressed that a ground floor room looking out onto public property was the most dangerous place in the hotel to be. I really tried to just accept it, I’m not the type to stress about a room or request changes but the truth of the matter is that I was really not comfortable. I eventually asked for another room but at this point I had sadly managed to work myself up into a bit of a panic.

We changed rooms and the air con wouldn’t come on – it was 28 degrees outside and really uncomfortable in our room. Hubby tried to console me with a scotch and coke but when we opened the fridge everything was warm. I tried to calm down by having a shower but again everything went wrong, the shower door got stuck, my beauty case got caught on the suitcase and no amount of tugging would let it free and then I couldn’t get anything out of the safe. So I kind of lost it … lying down on the floor and crying seemed like the best thing to do and it took a good ten minutes of sobbing before I realized I might have over reacted slightly to everything. We have since found out only reception can control the air con, the fridge doesn’t really cool, its just there to store the beverages in and the safe doesn’t like you to use the numbers 1, 5 and 9.

We changed into something cooler, went for a wander around the coliseum and then found a cute little restaurant in a tiny little street where we order some lovely Italian pasta and listened to some musicians serenade the diners.

Overall not a good start but I’m a big one for second changes and tomorrow we have a guided tour of the coliseum so bring on tomorrow.

Day Nineteen - Castles, Hospitals and Beer

It would be way to easy to actually spill the whole hospital story out right now but I’m going to start at the beginning. We actually got an early start this morning, Prague castle is the largest castle in the world and when we have been past there before it has been amazingly busy so our plan was to get there first thing in the morning and hopefully beat the cues. Surprisingly it worked, as you can see in the photos we were so lucky, most of the places we visited within the castle were empty or nearly empty.

Firstly we visited one of the smaller churches on the site and it was beautiful. It was quiet and peaceful and we both loved the simplicity of the building.

Next we visited the old palace and the architecture was amazing. The roof itself was almost breathtaking and it was mostly original. The big green tile fireplaces were lovely and the doors … oh my god am I in love with the doors in Prague.

We visited the golden lane, which was a very cute little shopping street and then visited the dungeons, which were just a little bit creepy.

Finally we visited the main church, which was so breathtaking we spent nearly 30 minutes just wandering around amazed at the detail that was put into everything. I don’t think we have the knowledge anymore to do what they did here. Saying that it was only completed in 1920’s and took nearly 600 years to do.

Prague castle is perched at the top of a huge hill looking over the city of Prague and we then walked the copious amounts of stairs down to the bottom of the hill. We stopped half way down for a crepe and when we hit the bottom we found a very creepy pup that had simulated the middle ages with dead animals on the walls, straw all over the floor and a funny smell that made eating not an option.

See this is where it gets interesting, what we have found is that in these pubs and restaurants the toilets are located deep underground and hubby get all excited at venturing down there and exploring so regularly peas whenever we stop. This time sitting there waiting in this creepy pub for him to return I heard a big bang but didn’t think too much of it because I courier had just dropped off some boxes. After leaving the pub hubby decided to inform me he had fallen down the stairs and may or may not have broken his thumb.

Now we all know that men can at times over exaggerate however looking at his thumb which was turning a funny purple red color and swelling quite alarmingly I thought … my god he may have actually broken it.

The foxtel channel “Nat Geo” who coined the phrase “just get lost” probably didn’t have Prague hospital in mind but that is exactly what we did trying to find three different departments over six floors where all the signs were in Czech but we survived it and it turns out it wasn’t broken only very badly sprained.  We were told to ice it and try not to move it if we didn’t need to.

After listen to him whine about how cold the ice was and how sore his thumb was, we finally ventured back out into old town later in the afternoon. One thing Prague is famous for we have not yet tried is Absinthe. We found an absinthe bar that didn’t look too illegal and both ordered a drink. Unfortunately after the fist sip we both determined that we don’t particularly like Absinthe which reminds us of a mix between almost unbearably sour, liquorish and something terrible tasting but unrecognizable.

After slipping quietly out of the absinthe bar hubby then spent the next few hours making sure his thumb worked well enough to hold a beer. Happily we can confirm that we can hold a beer but is unable to use a knife or fork … yay for me.

We did manage to pick up a pretty amazing item to add to our travel collection. Its an egg of sort, well not really, it’s a lovely metal “thing” which has a lovely hand painted image of Maria inside and I have to say, I’m really excited at finally getting to put it up in my house. So we say goodbye to Prague tonight, tomorrow we are off to Rome.

Day Eighteen - Slowing Down

Another day in Prague and you know I just adore the city but its also really nice to have a few days to just slow down a bit. We both woke up with the beginnings of colds and decided to take today slowly. A very smart move however here is my dilemma. I always feel guilty about sleeping in or coming back to the room early because I almost feel like we are wasting what limited time we have in each city. However today we really really did slow down. Late start, early finish, bed and takeaway and hopefully we can convince these colds we arn’t very exciting victims.

Well obviously you know its cold so today I am determined not to talk about the cold but I will mention that today it was raining again.  The rain here is lovely, no one but Australians understand just how much we enjoy rainy days, they mean rain for farmers and greener lawns so hell yes, rain makes us happy. The one problem here is that all of the sidewalks use these lovely cobbled pavers which have been walked over for so long that they are smooth and yes in rain very very slippery. So imagine if you want that today instead of wandering as I like to call it that we are treading very carefully so we don’t fall on our bums! It was almost funny watching hubby tiptoe across the road very quickly to avoid oncoming trams.

Ok now today we again wandered around the tiny little streets, I got us totally lost and spent the next hour telling Ben that I knew exactly where I was and asking him when he stopped trusting me as I randomly turned left and right until by pure skill I got us to the main square (which turned out that if I turned right at first instead of left we would have been there but lets not go there) I think I have found my ornament from Prague, Its this lovely hand painted egg which is housed in this little metal ornate cage. Not the best of explanations but we will be picking it up tomorrow so I will make sure to take a picture then.

We found the farmers markets and the fruit and veg there look and smell so good it was amazing, they had these little mixed berry trays you can eat as you wander and I have to say I could have spent all day there just looking at the fresh food.

We did a boat cruise down the river which was quite short but great for getting another view of the city and then we crashed, we walked home, crawled into bed and are going to sleep hoping that when we woke up his naughty little cold will have taken the hint and gone.

Sorry for the short blog today people, tomorrow we are planning on visiting Prague Castle which is apparently amazing so stay posted for that.

Day Seventeen - Did Someone Say Cold?

I think I should start by saying its cold … no no its so unbelievable cold I swear I couldn’t move any of the joints in my fingers today. So now that we have cleared up the fact that today is so cold its almost surprising let me give you another surprise. We slept in! The bed we are currently on is the first comfortable bed we have had this trip. I will admit hubby and I are quite particular about mattresses and pillows and I think we just accepted that we would not be happy with any of the beds on our trip … cue “Super Bed”. Every single time I actually lay down on “super bed” I just want to drift off peacefully into sleep. What is even more surprising is that hubby feels the same way too.

So we slept in which normally would be fine but today at 10am we had booked a Segway tour and to wake up at 9am knowing we have a 45 minute walk to get their caused a fair amount of panic and lots of moaning from Ben because he didn’t get his breakfast. I on the other hand moaned about how bloody cold it was so it was a very very long 45 minutes.

The Segway tour itself was amazing, it was a private tour and we ended up travelling up the countryside surrounding Prague where the guide showed us all the best places to look at the view. We even stopped at this lovely little bridge and participated in a romantic tradition where you write your names on a lock, attach it to the gate and throw the key into the water. Hubby spent a great deal of time looking at the names so he didn’t attach his lock to a couple he didn’t think would “make it”

The tour also pleased hubby who loved nothing better than hooning around the cobblestones while the guide wasn’t looking. However what sounds just lovely and picturesque is also bloody cold and by the end of the tour which a cant say enough good things about … partly because my lips are still frozen we walked straight into the first restaurant about and ordered soup.

Hubby is an avid Ice Hockey fan and after a bit of google’ing we discovered a team “Sparta” playing. Oh yes, I am the best wife in the world, finally warm myself up and then voluntarily go into an freezing cold ice rink to watch the game. It was a good game where we actually got a bit extra for our money, 5 minutes overtime and then a penalty shoot out so overall hubby is a very happy chappy.

Another early night tonight because tomorrow we are going to try and book a private tour of the old town so we can get a bit more history of the city.

Again I just have to say, I love / adore / am besotted with Prague and this city has so far made my whole tour. I am already planning how to return soon, maybe new years next year?????