Day 5 - Prague

 31 December 2024

An so it is upon us - the last day of 2024 and last day of this trip. I am closing out the year as I started it, being somewhere away from home. I suppose I should have expected it but bus travel really isn't conducive for sleeping, especially for a side sleeper and I probably snatched an hour and a half at best and then half an hour here and there after that. Having said all that, the trip has cost less than £30, which saves the price of a hotel room and frees up more time for actually holidaying instead of wasting a day travelling. Think about it!!

As it is only 06:00, I decide to hang around the bus station for a while, snatch a few more zeds, have some breakfast and keep warm. This results in staying in the bus terminus until 09:30 but I do feel more human by this time. I eventually summon the courage to go out into the Sub-Zero temperatures and make my way into town dropping my luggage off at a local hostel for just €4 for the day.

Free from the weight on my back, I stride out for the last day of my adventure. I arrive at the river further north than the main sights. I cross the Vlatva over the lesser known, but no less splendid, Chechuv Most and climb up the hill into the Letna Park, which is as quiet as any of the other parks at this time of the year. I enjoy a really nice walk passing some nice buildings and some crazy guy who decided to break the ice and have a swim in the lake. It takes all sorts!!

My stomach prompts my brain to take a look at my watch. It is actually only still 11:00 but I work out with a slow arc back through the castle. I can make it to the to the Old Town Square and a jumbo hot dog. Pretty much bang on 12:00. The walk up to the castle gives me another reminder that the amazement why slow families feel the need to take up a whole pathway, especially fat ones. As I walk down the hill it's the old town. The fog is clearing. The sun is coming out and the temperature has gone over freezing for the first time in about 3 days. It's nice to have the gloves off.

Because I've slowed down to enjoy the sunshine, I don't get to the square until 12:30 and I am now famished. There are lots of food stalls but there isn't actually much variation. Consequently, I order my 2nd bread and meat meal of the day in the shape of a paprika hot dog. It is nice and has filled me up nicely; I hope I don't regret all that bread!

My next plan was going to be a visit to the Pilsner Urquell brewer, which would have used up a couple of hours. There are no reservations available until Friday though so I'm a bit scuppered. The sun has already started to move behind buildings and the bitterness has forced its way through again.

I am more than a bit fed up with being cold now. So I make the decision to find somewhere for one last pint and will then head for the airport where I will be bored but warm (hopefully). The My People pub is sort of hidden away but not so much that plenty of people haven't found it. They hand out stickers to write your name and date you were there and these cover many inches of wall space. Today, though, they must have run out as I didn't get the chance to add mine.

 

Some random Kafka stuff

The reverse journey by metro and bus is even more seamless than the one last Friday. I even come out of the station straight onto the bus stop for the number 59, which turns up 2 minutes later. The whole trip costs 40czk, about £1.40!

After buying ciggies for my friend and his wife (a standard operation) I find a seat, plug my phone in a settled down for a few hours of boredom. This is punctuated only by sudoku puzzles and WhatsApp chat.

My stomach, once again, decides to break through and orders me to go and find food. There one restaurant and my waiter tells me what is available as the list is significantly shorter than the unavailable list. Top of the unavailability list for me is (was?) the chicken Caesar salad that my stomach had it's eye on and, ultimately, once again I have a plate with meat and bread. Bread offering this time is a pretzel, which I'm always happy to receive. So not a total disaster.

With my stomach happy once more I settle down to wait until the gate opens. In Prague, this is a lot earlier than I am used to as they have the security checks at the gate. This seems an odd arrangement as the results delays at security with somebody or other not following the rules. It takes a full hour to get everybody through the gate. Boarding is fairly speedy though and the captain has clearance so we move off from the gate in good time. The flight is forecast to take an hour and 55 minutes and true to his word. That's when the captain lands it.

The descent into Manchester is the most unsure I've ever been in an aeroplane has the torrential rain is clearly visible in the plane lights. There is no sight of ground but we are clearly heading towards the airport. We drop out of the clouds almost on top of the surrounding buildings and the playing coasts into the landing strip and is perfectly set down. All in a days work for these guys. I expect a full round of applause for that landing, but maybe everybody else isn't as relieved as I am and I'm not clapping on my own.

The rain is absolutely lashing down and between exiting the aircraft and finding my car I am drenched. The journey home is fraught with aquaplaning danger but I managed to escape any major dramas with just one or two deep puddles that I splash through with no consequence.

I arrive home about 01:40 and after some pre-bed administration I am tucked up by 02:00. And just like that, 2024 comes to an end.

Peace and love, bitches