WE CAME.....WE SAW.....2018 (PART 1)

           

Guess what?

We were in Prague last week! When I say ‘we’ I refer to a group of tight friends who have morphed into ‘fam’ over the years. We are 8 adults in number and 6 young adults under the age of 20. So basically 14 of us ‘took on’ Czech Republic!

 

    Team Prague minus one!!!
 

Now I'm not really sure which direction this blog will go as I am no Trip Advisor, neither am I a tour guide so what I intend to do is give you a general overview of our trip. There will be no descriptive  ‘the hills are alive with the sound of music….’ type of narrative. Neither can I guarantee that I even know the names of some of the tourist attractions that we visited. 

I do have a lot to write though, so potentially this could end up as a 3-part post over 3 weeks or lazy me may just decide to squeeze the whole trip into this one post and then end abruptly when I get bored. 

    Team Stanstead

So let's start from the beginning, last year when we took on Amsterdam (see here ) and had so much fun it was agreed that we would be visiting another destination come 2018. So in January the ball was set rolling, Whatsapp group was set up with title ‘Portugal 2018’ as that was the initial planned destination. It took about 2 weeks before we could unanimously agree on a final destination, Destination changed from Portugal, Morocco, Florence and then eventually Prague, Czech Republic! I generally sat on the fence while destination was being thrashed out on group chat, my only spec was that I was on a shoe string budget and not willing to budge even to the tune of a £5 Deficit. So when we received a quote with a £10 deficit I was whingeing on and on about affordability, the group got so irritated with me that they said they would pay that £10 difference on my behalf, such a generous bunch. My second spec was that the hotel booking must include breakfast.😐

    Tega and Gabbie @ Stanstead

Anyways after pulling my finger out and getting over that £10 deficit shenanigans, I had a panic attack as Czech Republic conjured images of a police state in my head. I imagined men in Nazi uniforms, marching in the streets dragging me away for some misdemeanour like maybe dropping litter. Ignorance my people is bliss! I discussed these fears with The gang and was told to stop being stupid and to get over myself for once. They advised that I visit my friend Google and do some research….which I did and I was pleasantly surprised😲

    Ada, Uloma and Olabisi @ Prague Airport

One part of me feels that this particular blog requires a glossary listing names of our group members and their temperament….but I feel as I go along you'll get the general vibe of each of our characters. As I will be mentioning names, none of that coded use of initials stuff I used to do when I first started blogging. 

   Bus station at Prague airport on way to hotel. 

D-Day arrives and 12 of us head towards Stanstead Airport and the other two face Gatwick en route Prague. Our respective homes bases are Nigeria, Croydon, Stevenage, Chelmsford, Rochester and Stratford, how's that for diversity?

Abracadabra…..we arrive at Prague Airport and team Gatwick made up of Aunty Olabisi and Sholar are already waiting for us with their Kim Kardashian-inspired luggage heaped up on a trolley! Team Stanstead have all travelled light with only our hand luggage. So we do a double take and ask what's going on with all the load, they ask us to mind our business. The amusing part is their luggage is designer brand so each suitcase is wrapped in protective purpose built ‘gown’ to stop it getting scuffed. Na wa oh!

We initially got off to a rocky start at Prague airport due to an incident that happened upon arrival,  this left us hanging around the airport for about 2 hours (don't you just hate it when people do what I have just done? You know mention something…but not really mention it! If that's not attention seeking, what is?)

    Rimi, Fimi, Tega, Tosin, Gabbie and Funlola on night out💃

For any holiday if you don't want spend a fortune on tour guides or become a hotel bumpkin you need your own, someone with a head for maps, travel guides etc. We have have few in our group namely Gabby, Sholar, Ada and Uloma. After figuring out that we can start off with a 3-day travel card costing 310 kc (Czech Koruna) i.e. equivalent to about £10 and covers bus, trams and the metro trains! They also sell a cheap 90 minute time bound ticket! Could never work in the UK as one would spend the whole 90 minutes waiting for 1 bus! We head out to the airport bus-stop and and ‘wear’ the bus to our hotel, ‘Vienna House Andel’s Prague’, this is a one hour ride. 

We arrive at hotel and it’s business as usual, our young adults are allocated their rooms and off they go, there are only 2 rules for them:

Rule one: You can do your own thing, but you MUST stick together at all times (There is safety in numbers)

Rule two: See Rule One!

Literally (I so love this word) we don't really see them till check out day, they all have their mobile phones and money. End of discussion!

As usual they are located another floor away from we the adults 👀

    Yemisi and Uloma with us 'supporting' at Mexican restaurant

    Cheers 🍻🍷

We all head to our rooms to freshen up and let's get this party started…it's around 19:30 we are hungry and out of the hotel like a shot, hotel is in centre of city, Andel. We’ve never really understood why anyone would go on holiday and with the exception of breakfast be eating hotel restaurant food….what’s the point? Over priced and unadventurous if you ask me!

We are so spoilt for choice but eventually settled for a Mexican restaurant….yeah yeah I know your thoughts; why dine at Mexican restaurant in Prague right? ‘Kam’ down I shall be keeping the best part about our Czech Cuisine dining experience on another evening for much later on blog!

    Yemisi, Ada, Moi and Uloma: Late night shopping

I could write for a blog post on each of our dining experiences as they were ‘lit’ and  conversations were ‘turn up’ and thought-provoking. We order our food (I'm fast-tracking now, no time for details) we decide to test the local beer while some of us opt for shandy. The drinks are served in tankards…wasn't expecting that! We clink them and say our ‘cheers’ as we get this show on the road. We leave restaurant around 10:30pm and the city is buzzing, no sign of anything slowing down. We’re strolling casually taking in the whole thing, there's a patisserie I enter and buy myself a pastry (yes pastry that late night!…is it your money?) There is also a local supermarket open, we pop in to get a few things by now it's approaching midnight, we have a wander around in the store, take a selfie for OUR blog! 

    Brekkie time: Gabby, Fimi, Uloma and Ada

    Tega, Funlola, Tosin and Gabbie: Girls wanna have fun!

We turn in for the night (quick tale about the phrase ‘turn in for the night’ A friend of ours says he once used the phrase to test the vocabulary of a local babe he was toasting… when he asked the girl when would she be ‘turning in for the night’ she went silent on the phone, this confirmed his suspicions that she was ‘razz’, did not understand the expression and therefore was not his type. The end…. True story I did not make that up!) 

   Moi, Olabisi, Gabby, Sholar, and Ada: Catching Fun.

    Tosin, Rimi, Tega, Gabbie, Fimi and Funlola

       Rimi, Yemisi and Fimi.

     Gabby, Foluke and Olabisi

 And here's Uloma!

    Prague Issa Goal!: Foluke (at last) Sholar, Ada, Olabisi and Gabby

We agree on time frame to meet at breakfast next morning. Bed was comfy I slept like a boss! 

Next morning I go charging down to breakfast which is served between 7:30 and 10:30. I restrain myself from giving you blow by blow account of what was on offer otherwise we will be sleeping here today. All the adults in our group come trickling in and sit at the table. A few of the young adults come straggling in as well looking worst for wear! The whole idea is to fill up on the breakfast, as during the day time we don’t eat a main meal but simply ‘small chops’ like cake, coffee, ice cream, pastries, fruit etc. We save the main meal for a fine dining experience each evening. 

    By now if you don't know our faces I can't help you: Elusive Foluke in centre though👀

    Sholar on way to Prague Castle. 

    Ada with the greedy chinchilla!

    Uloma with adorable Chinchilla

    Awkward moment I drop the chinchilla🙈

    Jack, Janet and Jill (struggling) up the hill 😐

Our in-house tour guides are mapping out where we will be visiting, it's agreed that Prague Castle is the place to be, they plot the route we will be taking by metro and we all agree to meet at hotel reception for 10:30am for take off. That hotel knew they had some guests!! The trend most mornings was to sit and chill (make noise) in reception before we ventured out. Olabisi and Ada had one peculiar morning ritual when they meet….they both insist on outdoing each other with Yoruba style ikunle (kneel down) style of greeting, the competition is to see who can get lower on the floor…quite embarrassing to watch and particularly puzzling for foreigners. Most times it ends with both of them stretched out laying flat on the floor to greet each other (yes in hotel reception! Also done at Prague airport too!)🙈👀  

    Leg stretch after steep step climb: Ada, 'hidden' Sholar, Olabisi and Gabby.

Uncle Gabby (short of blowing his whistle) frog-marches us to the metro to start the days activities. 

Piece of advice: Anybody visiting Prague please take sensible walking shoes or well cushions trainers, whole city is paved with cobbles, flat pumps or hard soles are not the answer, your foot bones will be ‘shook’ to their foundation. You will be limping like a sick dog. I had been warned and advised by friend before my trip, did I listen though? that is either another blog post for another day or maybe later in this one if I finish up today. 

    Sholar, Foluke, Olabisi and Uloma: Planning next activity @ Cathedral 

    Say a little prayer!

    Confession time: Sholar and Uloma

It’s a Tuesday morning the metro (underground) is not that busy, stations are wide and airy. A number of people are staring at us on the tube/metro, one little girl has her mouth agape as she looks on. 

I don't think they are used to see ‘people of colour’ we are 8 in number. We change connections underground and eventually emerge from ‘a station’ I cringe as I type this phrase as I picture Gabby reading this, shaking his head and asking Ada ‘Couldn't Ola have done a little bit of research and found out what station Prague castle is?’ Sorry Gabby😩🙈

   St. Victus Cathedral: Gabby, Uloma, Ada and Foluke.

En route to the castle we met a chap and his chinchilla (I still insist it looked like a squirrel!) it was a good photo op and there we were taking pics with this creature in the palm of our hands while the owner fed it until he told us that he would be charging us for the privilege😳😲.

At which point I nearly dropped the chinchilla on the floor🙈(the photo speaks a thousand words)

    

    Ada with 2 tonnes of silver @ St. Victus Cathedral

The castle is quite a hike from ‘the station’, and now for a quick interlude while I quickly google route we followed to get to the castle. As we climbed the craziest number of steps I have ever climbed in my life to get there. These were not for the feint hearted, I thought I was going to have a heart attack, but Sholar and some others in the group were really showing off sprinting up the steps like ‘no biggie’. And I refused to be shamed.  Meanwhile when some of them reached top of the steps they were now stretching their legs😐🤔🙄

    Matylda's 419 Palour😱

    Part of Gabby and Uloma @ film house

The grounds of Prague Castle Complex house St Victus Cathedral. This was a magnificent sight and rather than babble on and I’m just going to let the pictures do the talking. 

One thing I like about our group is that we do not really do follow-follow, in as much as we do things together at times when we’re about to embark on an activity those not interested step aside. Like when some of us decided they wanted to climb the South tower of St Victus Cathedral, why would I want to climb 287 steps” what's my offence!

    Take a break, Take a kit-Kat!

We did visit Golden lane though which is also situated in Prague Castle, built in the 16th century (God bless google) it takes it’s name from the goldsmiths that once lived there. Consists of brightly coloured houses that are numbered. We visited house number 14 as you will see in the pics, this housed one Matylda in 1914 who was basically a fraudster, she wore black clothing and used the alias Madame de Thebe, pretending to be fortune teller and card reader for a fee. She was eventually tortured and executed!

Another house was the home of a filmmaker, the rooms were filled with his reels of film and housed a white screen which mirrored as a cinema back in the day, see Uloma in the photos with half of Gabby sitting in front of screen. (Gabby why are you so elusive in photos?)😡😡😡

    Golden Lane!

We take an alternative route and catch the tram back to the hotel….transport in Prague is cheap, cheerful and super efficient. I don't think we ever waited for more than 3 minutes for any mode of transport. Transport for London and other networks in this country should take a leaf or two from Prague transport! Imagine, we witnessed the tram tracks being repaired in between arrival of trams!! As tram pulls away from the tram-stop, work men appear out of nowhere and bish-bash-bosh they are banging, repairing the tracks with tools in hand until another tram pulls up and they just move away! If that were here, health and safety brigade would bring out the violins, giving us 12 weeks notice of their ‘intention’ to repair tracks and then seal up the while area with red, yellow and black tape as a 'pre-pre' warning of their ‘intention’. Need I say more?

We jump off the tram besides our hotel and head to a local Starbucks for a drink and snack before retiring for an early evening as we will be regrouping later for our day 2 dinner date. Tonight it's a highly recommended Thai restaurant we plan to visit. We agree to meet in hotel lobby 19:30 to set out. 

     Starbucks to re-energise before evening activities. 

Guess what? I'm stopping here….for now! I've covered two days, 3 more days to cover and I'm exhausted. I promise it will be worth the wait. More pics and tales to follow. 

    3 sneak preview pics from blog post part 2 next week!

    Every pic tells a story!

What are your fondest holiday memories?

Have a great weekend 💋

💅🏾

It's better to let someone think you're an idiot than to open your mouth and prove it~ Unknown