Had a final early morning cuppa in the garden of my hostel and it was nice to have a chance to say cheerio to the nice Brazilian couple I'd often see there in the mornings and evenings. Me with a nice cup of tea and biscuits and them chain smoking. We were joined by an amusing Argentinian guy and a lady from somewhere in the Czech Republic, but who unfortunately didn't speak much English, so I have no idea where.
One of the genuine highlights of hostels like this is meeting people from all over the World and realising just how much you have in common with them when it comes to humour and values etc, particularly people prepared to get off their behinds and see new places. They all seemed especially pleased that I fitted their stereotype of an Englishman, drinking tea and talking about the weather!
Visited the usual place for breakfast and was greeted like a long lost friend and asked if I wanted another four rolls. Hilarious! They did bring me a nice breakfast and added a few extras with huge apologies for their wind up yesterday. They hadn't bargained on me just tucking into the rolls and not questioning it. For the record, it seems the closest thing they could equate to my breakfast order in Czech was a car wash!
On getting back from Dresden yesterday I had nipped in to see the lovely ladies in the Tourist Information shop in Prague Station to get confirmation of the bus details for the airport and as usual the advice was spot on. Always worth a little trip to see the ladies there whether you need any travel advice or not to be honest.
It's a pretty straight forward bus ride from right outside Prague Station, which has an amazing decorative interior in the oldest part of the building, which is sadly hardly used now. Unfortunately our bus driver wouldn't leave until there was literally no space left on the bus. No requirements for holding onto handrails etc as we were wedged in. A bit unnecessary when buses leave every half hour.
Found myself at the airport in plenty of time and able to check in with SmartWings very quickly. The guy at the counter weighed my luggage, told me it was over the limit, but said I could take it on anyway. Top man. Hadn't even noticed a weight limit for hand luggage when I booked the flight.
I got talking to a nice young American lady who had been on her first trip away from the USA and had loved her trip to England, Scotland and Dublin especislly. She had hired a car and driven from London to Edinburgh and had also encountered roundabouts for the first time. I had no idea that they were not common in the States. She looked horrified at the thought of taking on the infamous magic roundabout in Swindon.
She had also enjoyed Prague, but had a very different experience of Paris, where she was mugged within 30 minutes of landing in Paris. Not one person on the busy street had stepped in to help her and the kindest thing anyone did was to step over her rather than on her while she was on the ground. How sad! I can't imagine that would have been the case in the UK and she certainly had the same opinion as she was raving about the kindness she was shown here.
All my doubts about SmartWings following the reviews were unfounded as the plane was decent and the stewardesses were even better looking than on their website! Free water was provided as well, unlike on the Easyjet flight out to Munich. Just goes to show that people are more likely to write reviews after bad experiences I guess. The flight arrived on time and I was able to get on the off peak rattler back to Norwich before rush hour.
So that's another couple of new cities visited and Prague and Dresden are two places I'd certainly recommend. I'll be looking to travel to more European cities again next summer and will be looking to take on more train travel. It's definitely the best way to get around without the hassle and stress of airport security checks.
Next trip for the blog is another big one down under to Australia in January. No avoiding airport security for that one, but well worth all the hassle and a first trip to Perth to look forward too.......