SkyEurope Takes Us to Prague

It was an early morning departure from Amsterdam to Prague, which meant Sal and I needed to be at the train station by 6 AM in order to get to the airport in time. That was weighing heavy on my mind at about midnight...I always have this fear of missing flights; specifically as a result of oversleeping, or having my car break down on the drive to the airport. And in this case, oversleeping seemed a very real possibility. After having dinner at Humphrey's the night before, several of us went back to our hotel and partied into the early morning hours. I'm not sure what time I eventually went to sleep, but it was long after midnight. At least I had the comfort of knowing that if I didn't wake up, Dr. Sal would. As it turned out, we were both up in plenty of time.

We boarded our plane that morning to discover we each had a row of seats to ourselves! Needless to say, the flight to Prague was quite comfortable. It wasn't a long flight, though. In an hour and a half we were landing in Czech Republic. The one thing I'll never forget about arriving in Prague was going through customs....actually, the absence of customs would be more accurate! We went right into the airport without seeing a single customs agent. I was rather disappointed because I had hoped to get my passport stamped, but no such luck. The next step was to exchange some currency since CR doesn't use the Euro. And then we had to figure out our transportation to the hotel. We checked several options before deciding on a train/bus pass that we could use all weekend for one price.

To get to our hotel we needed to change trains several times and finally catch a bus on the last leg. Thank God Sal was there, or I think I might have been lost all day!!! Stepping outside for the first time, we discovered that what we thought was cold in Amsterdam was no where close to how cold it was here.

We checked into our hotel and then didn't waste any time catching the bus/train into old town Prague. This would be a short visit in CR and we needed to take advantage of every single minute. We both agreed one of our first stops would be Eva's (cvok00) restaurant, the Karavangeraj. Eva (my adopted cousin) and I had chatted on TB for a long time, so this was a pre-arranged meetup. I must admit I was terribly excited to finally see her.

The abbreviated version of this story with us is that Eva used to live in Missouri (of all places), and my grandmother was from Czech Republic.

We found the restaurant without too many problems; the Kasavangeraj was just down the street from the famous Charles Bridge. This restaurant specializes in Turkish food, something I was rather new to, but it was spectacular food! And I intend on doing a review, too. We found a table near the front and ordered some appetizers and beers. I waited anxiously for Eva to make her presence. She knew we were to be there, but didn't know the exact time. So when she came out, I think we she was a little surprised to see us sitting there. We recognized each other immediately and it truly felt like I was meeting a family member.

We visited for a few minutes and took pictures. Unfortunately, Eva had work to do. But she came back to visit a few more times as we ate. And then we visited again before leaving. We told her we would be back for supper the next night, along with Mike. FYI: Mike happened to win the farthest traveler award in Amsterdam.

We did a little sight-seeing on our first day, but was saving most of it for tomorrow. It had been a long day and it would be another long day tomorrow, so we caught our tram back to the hotel fairly early. I had a Bailey's for a night cap, bought some postcards at the hotel gift shop, and finally we ended the evening by opening our laptops and logging onto TB!