breakin' free

The good news is I'm sitting here with a Czech beer in hand. The flight over seemed really long. It started with a 2 hour wait on the tarmac in Adelaide as the crew inspected a prior bird strike on the wing - then once that was deemed ok they had to wait to get clearance, etc. Then there was the unexpected stopover in Melbourne and then the flight to Hong Kong, where literally had time to walk from one end of the airport to the other before catching the next 10 hour leg to Helsinki. By the time I got to Prague though (bang on time) I'd had enough sleep to be feeling fine. Liduska and her husband Beda picked me up and took me to their big house on the outskirts of Prague. I thought of you because Liduska had made this beautiful cauliflower soup and fried cauliflower (she fried it in this little deep frying machine she had) with boiled potatoes. The weather is stunning. Blue skies, birds singing, the smell of spring in the air. Not only was I overdressed and sweating i didn't really packed anything suitable in my suitcase, as I'd packed according to the weather forecast on the Internet. Which up until yesterday has been miserable, cold and wet. The only thing i had was my short black skirt so whaddayaknow, i went shopping with Liduska looking like a fox! Quite a novelty. We found some beautiful linen pants which are far more decent and I bought a SIM card. I'm really struck by the range of clothes available in Prague now. When i first lived here with Kat we despaired of the cheap crappy choices. Now you'll find as good as you would back home. And not just clothes. Food. Coffee. Stuff. The Czechs have moved up in the world. There was even a fountain in the middle of this glass-domed light-filled shopping centre! How civilised. I still find it a little bit frightening talking to the shop assistants. They speak so fast and they're more gruff than friendly. But they are helpful. And I was touching this wrapping paper and the assistant came over AND DIDN'T TELL ME OFF FOR TOUCHING IT!!!! That's a change too. I have to share this with you though. Liduska and I were on the bus when he slowed down for the next stop. This woman at the back started shouting "You idiot, you're braking like a mad man. Can't you drive normally?" We turned around to look at this loud interruption, busdriver included. The lady's shopping bag had fallen to the floor and she was pissed off. Liduska and I agreed the busdriver hadn't been driving erratically but the woman kept complaing loudly. The lad behind us said "I'd like to see you grandma get in the seat and drive the bus yourself, see how well you do it". Classic!!! In the late afternoon we visited their sons' house - they're about a 15 minute walk away and both Ondra and Martin and their families live next door to each other. Their houses are amazing. Big, two storey, massive garden, lots of windows (the natural light, i love natural light), lots of wood and pot plants and plantation blinds. I was impressed. So that's day one. Tomorrow I'm having a day out with my good friend Labus. I'm hoping we might head out of Prague, do some walking or something. Have an adventure!