BootsnAll Travel Network



What my blog is about

This is a place to tell people about living and working in London, taking holidays in Europe, and meeting new people! It's for all my brilliant friends and family in Australia to keep an eye on what's going on.. seeing as stamps and phonecalls will be too expensive!!! Travelling I always stop at exits - Wondering if I'll stay - Young and restless - Living this way I stress less

Back in London – to now

November 6th, 2007

So, just to summarise things since I’ve been back in London to bring everyone up to speed with events.

Mara & I needed a place to move into when we got back, and so we got a little caught up in a money/housing scam, but luckily after losing £800.00, I then got it back again because I had cottoned-on just in time, and got onto MoneyGram International and they had frozen my funds transfer… so I got it all back before the con-artists could! Police were involved and everything! The case is now closed as I got my pounds back, however it was definitely a close call! Make sure you never put money down for anything without first seeing the property, inside and outside, and make sure the person renting it out actually owns the place! So, that’s all over now.

We are now living in Plaistow, and the place isn’t so bad inside, however the general area is dodgy and quite scary, and last night I was followed home by a guy crawling along near me in a car! FREAK! Prior to that scary event, the flat next to us was raided by the Met Police following a stabbing there, and the Police found the whole flat was a Cannabis Factory!!! The place was under Police watch, and then they came along and boarded up the windows and the inner door etc, but about two nights later the front glass door was smashed in, and someone got into the house, so they obviously didn’t arrest EVERYONE that was living there/involved! I swear druggies still come down the street as I can hear footsteps outside at night time. I feel sorry for the house owners, as it still has the for sale sign up on it!!! Mara and I are moving, again, into a new place this Wednesday night in Bromley-by-Bow nearer to the city which will be nice. I’ll still be near to work as well, which will be good, as I still do not go well on the tubes when they’re packed with no oxygen!

I’m back at work at the Olympics, and I have been moved out to the actual construction site, just near Startford (you can google it). The new office is nice, but there’s not so many young people for me to chat to, and everyone is quite busy none of us even take lunch breaks and everyone just eats at their computers! At least at Canary Wharf there were shops everywhere and people to have lunch with, such as Ali and his mates.

Speaking of him, we don’t actually see much at all of each other since I came back from holidays because, well because he is a male and acted just like a male whilst I was away on holidays – which I’m sure is self explanatory enough of an explanation for the girls out there! We’re still kind of talking, but it’s a bit strange and like a woman scorned I’m not exactly nice about anything much to him just yet so hmmm…. that’s a bit sad cuz he was a really good friend of mine here in the UK. Reminds me of that poem stating friends come into your life, some for a reason, some for a season and some for a lifetime.

Kristy and I have been hanging out quite a bit since being back in London, and other ‘boat people’ have been coming along too! We had a few nights out in the city and at different bars, a movie night in, a cruise boat party down the Themes and a few other things we went to too, but I cannot remember them now! I missed the greyhound races on Friday night in London, especially for the Aussies in replacement of the Melbourne Cup! I would have preferred dressing up and betting on the horses, but the cup happened at night time over here! This weekend just passed Mara and I went to Sutton for our friend Sarah’s engagement party to her man Mike. We met Sarah in NZ in 2006, and she’s so lovely and Mike’s a great guy so we’re all very happy and cannot wait to go to the wedding!!! Hopefully it will happen whilst we’re still residing in the UK!

What else? Oh since being back Mara and I have seen a play called Enchantment (I think) which she got us free tickets to. It was a proper play in-the-round and performed so well. The suject was quite heavy for a Tuesday night, but nevertheless it was worth seeing! Last night in an effort to speak to each other, Ali and I went and saw part of a play called The 39 Steps, a comedy. I say part of a play, as at the end of the first half the play had a big loud gunshot sound, and the speakers crackled REAL bad afterwards… and it stuffed up the whole system for sound and lighting, and being a digital system, the tech guys just couldn’t fix it during the break! Shame too cuz the play seemed good. So now just have to decide whether to see it again, or just the second half, a different play all together, or nothing at all. Still things to be sorted.

So that brings everyone pretty much up to speed in a very abridged version!!! I’m off to make dinner for us. I usually cook these days as I get home before Mara does, but it’s all good I don’t mind. I’m currently looking for a second job in London too, hopefully an easy after hours one that doesn’t require too much thinking!

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Long time between posts!

November 6th, 2007

Well, I do need to apologise for being so slack and not updating this at all lately! I’m surprised that it is still active, and actually pleased about that too as I would have been so annoyed if I’d lost my online journal!!

Well what can I say – to bring you all up to speed, Croatia was absolutely fantastic, and we sailed around to some great islands and got to just relax by listening to music, eating, readings books or swimming in the gorgeous adriatic sea. There was nothing stressful about the trip – except for trying to get back onto the right boat after a few too many drinks at the onshore pubs and clubs in each place!!! Often the boats were tied up along side each other, lengthways out to sea so you just hop onto the first boat from shore, then climb around or walk through all the other boats until you reach your own! Very fun – especially when slightly drunk and people you are with decide to steal other boat’s clothing from their washing lines!!! Not naming anyone.. naughty Kristy! haha. Kristy is a great new friend of mine that I met on the boat, and we get along really well. She’s from Sydney, but Jacqui she reminds me of you on some things she says and does!

So yes, Croatia was great. The people on the boat all got along really well and we had some great times together. I’m still to upload my photos, but if you’re on Facebook, which I’m very sad to say, I now am, there are loads of photos I am tagged in from Croatia. I didn’t take my photos myself in Croatia anyway as there were official paparazzi on the boat! Could not go anywhere or do anything without it being photographed! Well at least the boat toilet/showers were safe! haha. The showers were in with the same little cubicle as the toilets… and the shower water just goes overboard through these little drain slits! Interesting — very scary at first!

The holiday was one of the most relaxing ones ever, and I would definitely recommend people visit Croatia in the Summer or end of Summer season if they’re in this part of the world. The only bad thing to the end of the trip was watching the Rugby World Cup in a bar in Split, and seeing Aussie, NZ and Fiji get knocked out! Oh, I will also mention the Football game that we went to in Split Now that, was a real Croatian experience and a half!!! Proper teams playing, but Flares going off, people throwing chairs, the other team’s supporters being housed in a “cage” to protect them, riot police everywhere and firetrucks with water canons, oh and firemen all the way around the stadium to put out the flare-fires!!! IT was sooo crazy, and the players just continued playing! It was a great night, and we have team supporter souvineers now too, as we wouldn’t have made it out of there alive had we not been dressed in the local (Split) team’s colours apparently!!!

Good thing from the boat too, apart from the tan which is now almost faded, is that nearly everyone on the boat lives and works still in London and we were all Aussies, so we all still catch up quite often! This city is a nicer place with friends around for sure.

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Ancona to Split

October 16th, 2007

Well, the Eurostar train from Venice to Ancona was nice and enjoyable and such a change from the Busabout Bus! It was a little quiet actually after travelling with so many people in Europe.

Ancona really didn’t have much in it – the Lonely Planet was not lying! We got off the train, headed for the toilet (did I mention Mara was ill with some stomach bug!?), went and had something to eat and then headed over to the Internet Cafe… wasted some time there with our limited Euros (didn’t get any more from bank as Croatia has own currency) and then to waste more time we walked to the Ferry Terminal instead of taking the bus! We then hung around at the terminal for a few hours… checked in, went though customs (once they opened the bloody lines up!) and then boarded the ferry at about 730pm. Our room was SO nice! Little beds all made for us, and a nice ensuite bathroom and space to put our bags — it was better than some of the hostels and definitely better than the first Paris hotel we were put in.

Ten hour ferry ride to Croatia was actually good cuz we slept for almost all of it! Had a conversation with soem sleazy guy in the restaurant up top when we were exploring the boat, and then at 0530 they woke up most people for breakfast in the restaurant (all inclusive on our ticket) so we ate breaky, then ran back to rooms and grabbed our bags to disembark. Once through customs again (the ONLY place in Europe to stamp my EU Passport!) we had nothing to do except find our boat and look around Split. At 1230 we were allowed to board the boat and lunch was at 1300.

This brings me to Croatia part of the blog! Which requires a totally different page/style/effect etc, etc!!!

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Section 12 – Venice!

October 16th, 2007

Well, the ride to Venice didn’t actually seem that long (looking back now…) however I remember we got in quite late! Lis Mara and I called a taxi from the camping ground to take us to our Hotel, Hotel Primavera closer to actual Venice! Turns out it’s pretty much on the highway/main road from Venice, but luckily there were buses just down the road. So first night in Venice, because Lis was leaving the morning after the next night (!) we headed into Venice (the actual island) on the first night and walked around, got lost as is usual for there, and found a place for dinner which charged quite a bit for simple food!!! We walked around a fair bit and saw so many nice shops full of shoes, chocolate, bakery treats, more shoes and stacks of glass jewellery! I love the glass jewellery, however this time nothing hugely took my fancy so I didn’t get anything for myself. We kind of rushed back to the main Piazza Roma so that we made the last bus back to the Hotel Road, and we were also rushing because it had started raining!!! We got pretty well drenched, especially on the run back from the bus-stop to the Hotel.

Next day, our whole day in Venice, we started out with breaky at the Hotel (mm quite nice, the usual bread and things to go on top) and then headed into Piazza Roma and caught a vaporetto out to the island Murano – where they make glass. They glassmakers moved to Murano some many years ago so that they didn’t catch Venice on fire! The water taxi (vaporetto) we got there was SO low on the water it was a little scary, and I got splashed when another boat pulled up aprubtly at the street… yes, there are ‘streets’ marked on the water! We got to pass by St Michele which is the Cemetry Island and quite interesting to see how fortressed it is! More so than Venice itself actually. On arrivin in Murano we were headed to a glass blowing factory where we got to see the men in action! It was great to see, but not hugely exciting and we didn’t tip the guys after the ‘display’ cuz well they weren’t even that good looking haha. We then wandered around the factory’s shop (nice stuff there) and then headed to explore Murano for a while, which included going into many many glass shops and running past the rising waters on the streets! We also saw a guy selling vegies/goods from his boat! After a while we got a vaporetto back to Venice’s Piazza Roma, and then jumped on the Vaporetto #1 which took us down the Grand Canal. Might I add, lovely things to see, a cheap way to see it all, and the weather was nice!

It was funny when we got off near St Mark’s that the waters were only just receding and most of the place was still flooded! I wouldn’t have believed the postcards had I not experienced it myself!!! We didn’t go into the Basilca as the lines were HUGE and teetering on the makeshift wooden walkways above the flooded streets/square didn’t really appeal to us three girls.

In all, Venice was great and I encourage you all to visit before it completely floods and goes under! I think in years (years) to come it will be like one of those mysterious underwater cities for explorers – no wonder most people live on the main Mestre!

We said goodbye to Lis on our last morning in Venice together :o(  I was sad to see her go after spending so much time together around Europe! Lis went to Marco Polo airport, also known as Venice Airport (stupid private hire driver!!!) and Mara and I headed to the train station to get the Eurostar to Ancona (via Bologna).

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Oktoberfest! (Munich again, section 11)

September 29th, 2007

Well, the ride from Salzburg to Munich was really quite short, except for the traffic, but we still got into Wombats in good time – and right in the first week of Oktoberfest too! We all got wrist tags on check-in with the Hostel name, address and room number (if you asked for it!) so that you would be let in and so that others coudln’t sneak into the Hostel! Apparently it happens A LOT around Oktoberfest time due to SO many people going there and not enough accommodation, as it gets booked out so quickly every year!

After making the beds, we headed out to get some food – Mara headed down to Kaufingerstrasse (sp?) the main shopping street to get another… winter jacket and then once we’d eaten some pizza we left, in the rain, for the Oktoberfest Grounds! Short walk, about 12 minutes, but pissing down rain made it annoying! By the time I was about 30 metres inside the grounds, my shoes started leaking!!! Damn the mesh parts on top of them! It was like I had walked through a lake in my shoes! You know the squidgy feeling of wet socks and water inside the shoe? Yup, that was it. Mara soon joined me as her shoes also have the mesh top hahahahha.

We walked around the food and rides area, then headed to some tents including Augustina, Lowenbrau and Hofbrauhaus and we never ended up finding the damn Wine Tent! Is it a myth perhaps?? Anyway, inside the tents we got let in the doors fine (group of 3 females, easy done), however the problem once inside is that there are Thousands of people in each “tent” (7 million attend Oktoberfest each year between 22 Sept and 6 Oct this year) and you need to be seated to get served by one of the Wenches (who carry up to 9+ Litre Steins at a time!)…. so trying to actually find a table/benches with space on it was harder than finding a dry patch of floor area, hence why we went though three or four tents, then finally decided we had absorbed the atmosphere and my shoes were now swimming pools, that we headed back to the Hostel to the Wombar to meet up with Guy, Steven and Mark to then go for dinner at a Thai place! Tried following instructions to get to the first one, which failed, so instead we walked back towards Wombats to a little Thai/Vietnamese restaurant on the next street. It proved to be one funny evening…

When we got inside, there was one guy sitting on a 4-table, and being six of us we needed bigger tables (the restaurant was quite busy and small), so the guy moved, and then we just asked him to join us – why not? He was British and said he’d just stay for a beer as he was waiting for a friend… ohhh a date? haha. Had some good banter (happy Ali!?) about how the date was an older lady, from California, with lots of plastic surgery and a huge fake chest! Naturally we all stared when she walked in, poor woman!

Anyway, the food was great – and after a while Ian’s mates (the Brit guy above is named Ian) all came in… quite drunk after a day at Oktoberfest, and it was also Bad Shirt Day, so they all looked hideous! And most were on the father and son trip, so there was 12 of them in total – so they joined onto our table (as we’re nice obliging Aussies) and also took over this other guys table… and after these Brits were all loud etc, the guy whose table they took over, finally spoke, and turned out he was bloody Scottish!!! He’d been sitting there quietly drinking his jasmine tea all night without a word hahaha and gosh the Brits bagged him for it! Uh well. Funny funny guys,,… we ended up sharing (giving?) some of our food to them before they ordered (we’d eaten well enough by then with entrees and mains) and noticed the guys were wearing GIRLS underwear – Lis HAD to notice one of the young guys Andy had ‘white lace’ above his jeans. so off came the jeans to show us hahahaha. Even the Aussie guys at our table were amused. The Brits all had girls undies on for when then went into The Pigpen inside an Oktoberfest tent – when you go in there, you come out with NO underwear on!!!!!  Umm so that was well interesting, and then we got to see some photos of something nasty the guys did to one of the other guys at the table when he was passed out drunk… can’t believe many of them were father and son and they lets things happen like that…. ahhaha it was funny nasty, but still Eww and I’m not mentioning it on here! Almost scarred for life!

Anyway, the whole dinner evening was great fun! After which we headed back to Wombar where we met up with Jeremy and Josh (who we first met in Amsterdam and who borrowed pants from Lis and Mara…) and we drank with them a while at the bar, and also Josh’s brother Craig and his flatmate Rowan – all great guys. Craig and Rowan were pretty damn drunk after steins all day – and even after Josh had returned the steins and tokens and gotten his deposit back (you’d be surprised how many get stolen during Oktoberfest!) the guys still ordered more and just paid another deposit for theirs! Then around 11pm once the Oktoberfest ground “tents” had closed, everyone else staying at the Hostel ended up back in the Wombar too – so we once again met up with Bryn, Ollie, Nathan, Duck and Michael – plus some others and our guide Renee who was to take us to Venice the very next morning — as I said to her about 0300am, if she’s still out there drinking then I knew I was ‘safe’ too to make the morning bus! Ended up having quite a good chat to Nathan for ages before heading to bed.

Apparently most of our London flatmates were also there at Oktoberfest, but we only saw Ado in the flesh, and then he was also on our Busabout bus from Munich to Venice, although he got off in St Johan (whatever for?!?).

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Salzburg – Section 10

September 29th, 2007

Well what can I say… Mara was in her element here! Lis and I just went along for the ride haha.

On arriving into Yoho Hostel in Salzburg, we got setlled (ie made beds), then grabbed a map and headed into town as we were booked on The Original Sound of Music tour for the following morning. After walking a little while we realized it was Sunday and so everything would be closed… so we headed back to the Hostel to move our tour to the afternoon (ie Sunday afternoon). Our guide on the bus had told everyone to be in reception at 1410 for the tour pickup…. luckily when we changed our tour day I checked the brochure and noticed it leaves at 1400, and on asking the receptionist she said it picks up at the hostel at 1330!!! Argh panic mode, well not for us as we knew, but the receptionist had to call the company to reconfirm, and then run around banging on doors of Busabout people to let them know the new time, as many people had booked the tour for that afternoon!

The little red bus arrived about 1350 and 10 of us squeezed in (illegal? perhaps not over here) and then drove around the block to the Big bus. Haha I was cacking myself laughing… seriously a pick up? We could have walked to where the Big Bus left from!!! Anyway we were LAST to board, so some of us had to sit next to oldies, or japanese tourists, or young people from Australia (where one was fat and took up 1/2 of wizzas seat grrrr). So anyway – we headed off on the tour! Ummmm I don’t know what to write about it – Sue the guide was verry enthusiastic and the driver was interesting (in an Odd Austrian way) and some people on the bus shouldn’t have been there as they were dragged along…. the tour was good, and informative, I especially liked learning about the original Trapp Family and the basis for the books (written by original Trapp), which then turned into movies in Austria, when then turned into Broadway, which then turned into a Hollywooded movie. The Austrians only saw THE WESTERN VERSION of The Sound of Music in the year 2000 and couldn’t believe what they saw apparently!

At this point, I’ll just tell you to go onto the link to Mara’s blog and read about the tour in detail there, as I am positive she will write ALL OF IT out!!!

We took the photos at the sites and took in the great sights and even sang along on the bus back to Salzburg! I had thought the tour would be smaller (not 63 people) and a little more fun and light hearted, but hey, it was still worth it! And the Apfelstrudel that I FINALLY got to eat, up in the village of Mondsee was very nice indeed!
Salzburg, even without The Sound of Music is a gorgeous place and just really pretty to be in. The main shopping street isn’t exactly all too exciting, but the seafood was nice! And we got to see parts influenced by Mozart (… the whole city?!) and the main street has actually been preserved in that there are NO neon signs for shops, and even the Maccas has a wrought iron M hanging outside it! Quality.

Met some great guys in Salzburg too; Guy, Steven and Mark. Steven is now known as Frauline due to him being the only male going on The Sound of Music bus tour hahaha ;o) But hey, we’ve all mostly grown up with the movie so why not!? We hung out with these guys, and on the last night headed out to Augustina Brewery as they wanted to drink beer from real original ceramic massts (sp?) which is the other word for Stein. Also at that Brewery you pay the barman and then pour your own drink – Yay! You also have to wash your own Stein… uhh well, people continue to flock there so it must be a fun activity (unless you are the barman, how boring!).

Actually, the final afternoon in Salzburg, Lis Mara and I plus Sarah (lovely Aussie girl from our dorm) headed up to the Castle and saw all that it had to offer, plus the fantastic views (i know, castles everywhere in every city!) and we also bought some Mozart Chocolate (dark outer plus flavoured marzipan inside) and then we headed to Supermarked (Spark) near the Hostel and stocked up on bread, crackers, cheese and wine before heading to the Mirabell Gardens (which feature from The Sound of Music the do-ray-me steps, the fountain and the long vine covered archway they all run through) to have an afternoon picnic! The wine bottles were small and even had a thumb groove on the side, hence to be drunk without the need for a glass!!! haha now that’s quality!

Oh a funny thing about YoHo Hostel, they have a farm and give tours, which includes going to the Austrian town of Fucking – for some reason the town sign is the most stolen sign in the world!!! IT is a real place – can google it if you don’t believe me. The other funny thing at YoHo is the washing room… two washers and two driers and a hell of a lot of graffiti! The walls’ writing warned us that things turn blue and the drier eats your clothes (ie won’t give them back!) HOWEVER we didn’t really believe them all until we got our washing done!!! The Machine took 1 hour to wash (starts at 25 mins, then jumps up, then finally timer goes down), and then the drier took 1.5 hours!!! Lis and I had read ALL the graffiti in the room by then, and were begging the machine to Please Give Back Our Clothes!!! My pajama shirt went pink… her white and yellow undies went blue hahaha and so on – all the stories are true!
So yes… next morning we all headed from Salzburg to Munich – and fun fun we got onto the bus and on it already were Nathan, Duck and Michael, who we thought we’d never see again! Pity Dave and Adam stayed in Vienna but uh well, hopefully see them again someday probably in Australia! Oh two others who I’ve forgotten to mention are Bryn and Ollie – from the UK and both are very nice and Bryn is fu***ng funny – likes his ‘magic’ tricks he does! haha can’t really mention them on here but yeah, interesting guys and as Bryn works 2 days/week in London some of you reading this might even get to meet him. I could write something else about him too hahahha, but no, not really fit for online journal but Mara and Lis  will know the story I’m talking about :o)

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Vienna – briefly, Section 9

September 29th, 2007

Okay so we got into Vienna late afternoon/evening, checked in Wombats (always a great and nice, clean and friendly place to stay whether in Munich, Berlin or Vienna) and then Lis Mara and I headed to the Westbarnhof (i think it was anyway), IE the train station West, and headed into town to then jump on the Number 1 Tram, which goes all the way around the city in a circle so that you get to see all the things worth seeing without paying too much! It was pretty good… we didn’t exactly know all the things to look at but we noticed enough and it was still doing something!

On returning to the West near the Hostel, we headed to the Pink Pub (it has a lady’s name that I cannot remember) for dinner where I had schnitzel and salad (first, and last one in Europe!) and then to the ICE shop, the BEST, best gelati around that Part of Europe! Nothing can beat the shop in Rome (2005) near Trevi Fountain or in Florence where you get DARK CHOCOLATE & CHILLI!!! But this one in Vienna is really nice, and cheap too! Mara and I had waffle cones with two flavours yumm and Wizza asked for littlest cup, and then gawped at how tiny it was! So upgraded to the next size hehehehe.

So that was Vienna! Breakfast at Hostel in the morning, and then another half day bus ride into Salzburg – home to The Sound of Music — imagine Mara’s voice singing every song in your head at this point in time!

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Cesky Krumlov – section 8

September 29th, 2007

Well, the bus ride from Prague to Cesky was really quite short, and I was looking forward to a few days of doing nothing in this little medieval village. The weather was pretty good, especially compared to the crappy weather of Berlin and Prague, and I think there was even rain in Amsterdam at some point! So Cesky Krumlov… you can see all of the town in about 10 minutes, and wandering around the cobbled streets and amber and garnet jewellery shops is just great! Mara and I each bought some things, including my tear drop earrings and a new ring for Kc600 which is about 20 Pounds. The earrings were free with something else I bought but can’t mention as it’s mom’s Christmas present! But yeah, good purchases for good prices and it’s proper Baltic Amber… well from Poland actually :o)  The guy selling it was pretty suave… well tried to come for coffee and ice-cream with us and even hugged Mara haha on the last day when she went back to have bracelet adjusted. We did go to his shop at least once a day before deciding on final purchases so hey yeah.

On our one whole day in Cesky we went into the Cesky Hrad (Castle) and onto an English guided tour – it was great! Shame about the stacks of bloody loud French and Italians from tour bus on it too, but still worth it! The guide was young and funny and also full of the History etc which was really quite interesting. We also walked up to the huge gardens at the back of the castle/town and took some great photos looking over Cesky. It was relazing – only worrying thing was that our room was across the road from the main Hostel, and was broken into by a Gypsy the night before we got there, and the girls from it who had stuff stolen were moved to the main hostel… hence why Mara Lis and I got the 6 bed dorm when we’d actually paid for a 12!!! Uhh well, sleeping with Swiss Army Knives and keeping ALL the doors locked kept us safe!!!

The day we left the weather was crappy, and raining – got to see Dave and Adam, Nathan, Duck and Michael on their way into Cesky then we jumped on the bus (after hiking down to it mind you!) and headed to Vienna for an overnight stay!

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Still on Prague (still section 7)

September 29th, 2007

Okay, I’m going to leave the bottom two entries as they are, as they sum up at least the getting to, and first day of Prague for you all!

Second day in Prague, I headed off to the Na Holmoce Hospital in the morning after breakfast.. well that was the plan but the first taxi never came and by the time the second one got me there it was almost midday! The bloody taxi cost about Kc450 too which was expensive! Arriving at the Hospital, I decided to skip my EU citizen status and go in as an Aussie to ensure I was on the tourist path, literally, the yellow paths in the Hospital! After registering on Floor 5 which cost Kc300 and paying a treatment deposit of Kc1000 I was sent to Emergency Triage, where I was seen by an elder Doctor (all my doctors spoke English) who had a look at me, chatted on his mobile phone, then wrote I had acute sinusitis and sent me to the Ontorologist – he wasn’t at all worried about my acute back pain or that it could be lived/kidney related, nope, just my nose. I headed up to Floor 7 to see the Specialist, who was a lady Dr and examined me, and then sent me on my way to X-Ray on Floor 4 to have my head/nose X-Rayed! The technician was great and thanked me for letting him practice his English haha. Then I went back to Floor 7
and waited another 10 minutes after which my X-Rays were on the specialists computer. She noted I had different or changed sinuses and the matter was not really acute, but not great either, and (broken english people) said that they could operate and puncture the sinus that afternoon – AARRRGGHHH! No thank you!!! I said I just wanted antibiotics, especially if it’s not acute and the pain would go away soon enough! So she settled on that, but said on return to home I need to see my own ENT specialist (yeah,,. i have one of those) and have a CT scan and then an operation on my sinuses otherwise my colds/flu will always turn bad. Hmmm wonder if my bone structure changed a little with my wisdom teeth being drilled out? No idea! But anyway, after 4.5 hours I headed back to the foreigner office, had to pay and extra Kc2300 and then get my medication – antibiotics, clarinase, nose spray and nose cream (never picked up the cream, the other 3 would cover it all I decided!) which cost another Kc400 – so all together I paid a LOT of Czech Crowns, however it all only added up to about Euro100 so just under 90 Pounds which really, for seeing a Doctor, a Specialist 3 times and getting an X Ray wasn’t too expensive at all!!!

Read the rest of this entry »

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Eurotrip Section 7

September 25th, 2007

 OOPS! I doubled up and found a saved (not published) entry – so will fix this up soon when I’m on the internet!!!

Okay, well from Berlin we headed to Prague. Because a lot of travellers, nearly 99% Aussies, are travelling around the circuit at the moment an extra service was put on between Berlin and Prague. This meant that one bus would stop at the half way point during the day, and the other bus would be a more direct service into Prague. Lis Mara and I jumped on the direct service. Both busses stopped at Terezin Memorial camp a few hundred kilometers from Prague and that was again a good experience. Terezin was built by Czechslovakia (when it was still called that) to protect themselves. It was originally a small fortress and a big fortress, although it took years to build and by the time it was finished the WWI was over, and so the fortresses became a military city and military prison. During WWII when the Germans invaded Poland (1939) they also invaded Czechslovakia and took possession of the fotresses. They turned the big fortress into a concentration camp for Jews, and the small fortress into a holding camp for political prisoners, such as Franz Ferdinand.

The tour around took one hour, and was really interesting. I went on it in 2005, but learnt a lot more this time around.

The new Hostel in Praha, Plus Prague is really lovely and one of the best ones so far! It is a little way out of town, but the tram stop is just at the end of the street so cannot complain too much. Last night Lis Mara and I went to see a classical musical performance of ‘the greatest classics’ which included Mozart, Dvorak and …. It was fantastic! The concert was really quite cheap Kc700 and consisted of three violins, a cello and a double bass. There was also a trumpet soloist and a soprano solist – amazing all ’round.

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