In Prague

I travelled to Prague, Czech Republic yesterday. I'm here for a business conference, so unfortunately I'll be spending most of my time inside at meetings. My adventure, however, started as soon as I landed.

We were instructed by the conference organizers to NOT take a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Apparently, it is a largely unregulated industry here in Prague, with a propensity to over-charge and/or rip off foreigners. So, we were given instructions on how to make use of the abundant public transportation found here. Now, I purposely did not over-pack, but I had 1 suitcase, a hang-up bag, my laptop bag and a carry-on bag. And now I was going to try to get on a bus into the city center, then transfer to a tram, then walk about 3 blocks to the hotel? Fun. Kinda made me want to take my chances with a cab.

But, being a good and fiscally responsible employee, I heeded the advise of the trip planners and decided to take the bus. This is my bus below.

I bought my ticket (280 Kc, which is about $14 US, for the whole week - not bad, as it covers all buses, trams, and subways), and found the bus stop no problem. When the bus arrived, I turned and picked up all of my luggage, and right when I got to the stairs, the bus driver looked me in the eye, closed the doors, and drove off!

Great! Is this how my stay is going to begin?!

Grumbling, I sat back down and waited another 10 minutes for the next bus.

I should note at this time that I had just gotten off an 8 hour flight from Atlanta, I hadn't really slept in almost 3 days, it was 8am local time, and it was about 30 degrees outside. I was not in a cheery mood.

When the next bus showed up, I grabbed my bags and headed for the door. As soon as the other passengers boarded (I was not the only one waiting, but I WAS the only one with luggage.) the driver (new driver this time) looked me in the eye, closed the doors, and drove off, leaving me standing there holding my bags again! I yelled something at the departing bus (could have been English, but might have passed for Czech) and scared a lady with a couple of small kids that was walking past, and started to formulate a plan for the next bus. I was determined to not miss it again.

When I saw the next bus coming 1/2 block away, I picked up my bags (all of them at once) and pushed my way to the front of the line. Noone protested, but it's possible they might have sensed my precarious mental state. As soon as the doors opened, I vaulted myself onto the bus and into a big pile on the floor. Then the bus sat there for about 5 minutes while a passenger in a wheel chair got off. I had to move my bags out of the way so they could disembark. But I made it! And that's what is important here. Victory was mine.

The rest of the journey to the hotel (right) was quite uneventful. Despite the apparent rudeness of the airport bus drivers, everyone else I have come in contact with here has been incredibly helpful, nice, and accomodating.

Prague is a very beautiful city. I took some time last night to walk around some of the historical parts of town, and I am greatly impressed. Found a nice little restaurant right on the central square of the old city. The picture menu helped. Lots of old buildings and cool architecture. I can't wait to see more!

In trouble in DC

About 3 weeks ago, my wife and I went to Washington, DC for a little "us" time away from the kids. Well, actually, I was going anyway because I had a meeting there, but we decided to take advantage of the already-being-paid-for-by-the-company airfare (for me at least) and fancy hotel and, for minimal additional cost to make a week of it together.

We had a grand ol' time seeing our nation's capital, sampling many of the museums and historical sites, not to mention the many fine restaurants. It was on the way to one of those fine culinary establishments that I forged the lasting memory of our romantic stay in DC.

See, we did not rent a car for this trip, on the advise from the travel agent, as parking is expensive and virtually non-existent in DC, and for the fact that the DC Metro (subway) system is quite extensive and easy to use. So we pretty much got everywhere we needed to go by either taking the Metro or by walking. And we did a LOT of walking.

Anyway, I had been in a boring meeting all day long, and finally I was free and we were now on our way to a South American restaurant, Cafe Atlantico (http://www.cafeatlantico.com/), recommended by the guidebook. We decided to take the Metro, as it was way too far to walk, and our journey beneath the earth would require a transfer to another train line in order to get where we needed to go.

Upon disembarking the Red line, we made our way to the platform for the Yellow/Green line and there awaited the next train. Now, it was only our 2nd day in DC, and we were still getting used to the Metro system. So, I checked the signs and positioned us on the platform to catch the train to our destination stop. The train arrived and we shuffled aboard. At that time I decided to check the map posted inside the train to make sure we were headed the right way, and quickly discovered that we were in fact heading the wrong way! So I quickly said to Melanie, who was standing right next to me, and right next to the still-open door, that we had made a mistake and that we should get off the train, and then I bolted off the train. Just as the doors closed. Melanie did not make it off. I will never forget the look on her face as the train pulled away and she mouthed to me, whilst pointing to the spot where I was standing, "Stay right there."

So, I stayed right there. For over 20 minutes. The next stop down the line was not very far away, and I figured an average person could probably make the turn around and be back to the platform in about 5 minutes. Well, I waited a long time, searching every train that came through (easily 15 trains), and I could not find her anywhere. I knew I was in big trouble, but was unsure how to fix things. Our cell phones did not work in the Metro (T-Mobile - go figure. Although I did notice a number of Verizon customers that had plenty of cell coverage down there!), so that idea was out.

Finally, I decided that the best thing I could do was to just go to our destination stop and wait for her there. And lo and behold, as I came up the long dreadful escalator at the Metro exit,

there she was, my sweet little buttercup, with flaming hair and red darts for eyes. Apparently, she had been waiting for about 20 minutes. Hmmm. Sorry about that honey. Say, which way to the restaurant?

Dinner was fair at best. I had some weird chicken dish. Very expensive and not nearly enough food. Mel really liked the arugula salad, though.