in Prague

Most of the people I came here with are still upstairs. Haven't heard a peep from the yet. We are planning on meeting for bfast at 9 and then we are going on a bus+walking tour of the city and the prague castle today, in the morning. Then Lunch, hopefully not pizza or pasta, and then no plans till 8pm, when we are going to a Marrionette theatre thingy called the Magic Flute by mozart. Fingers crossed.

Yesterday was great fun. Morning till 10am was an excercise in breakfast hunting. our hotel breakfast wass too expensive - 25 eur per person; so we decded to get to the city centre. only how to get to the city centre? the receptionist said take a tram to the national museum and you'll find lots of food. so we went to the tram station, and then we found out that we had to get tickets before we got on, not after. so we went back to the shopkeeper we passed on the way there and with a lot of gesturing and finger pointing and calculater typing we for 9 adult and 1 child tickets, with 2 going free. yay. we got there with peripa talking about how the place needed to have fruits. and the fiirst three didn't pass muster for the fruit reason or the cost reason or whatever but we finally had breakfast. eggs and toast and honey and muesli and yogurt and fruits and coffee and tea and chocolate. and the we walked.

we walked down to wenceslas square, past beautiful buildings and and many many tourists. we walked some more and reached a great mass of humanity, all standing around andwaiting for the clock to strike 12. and it struck twelve and kept ringing for a while. we all aaahed and oohed and pointed a the girl with blonde hair in the large window next to the clock tower looking much like the princess of legend, locked in a tower, waiting for her prince to rescue her. or waiting for the clock to finishing ringing so she could continue on the tour, i guess.

we went on to the river Vltava after some beer and margarita and tequila and waltermelon juice. the children were fed and we walked around somemore. and we took the metro back to the mall near the hotel where some of us split from the rest of us for sandwiches and icecream and then slept for a couple of hours.

the evening's entertainment was pretty boring - a musical fountain, though the bus ride around the city was nice. we came back to the hotel after another italian meal and crashed.

stuff happened the day before yesterday. mostly we just walked a lot before finding that the restaurant we were going to had closed and had dinner at what would be the first of many many italian restaurants we would grace with our presence in the trip, i'm sure.

i'm going to see if i can scare up some coffee from these people.

On packing

I packed for my trip to Prague & Budapest last night. I will be gone for 10 days and then back home for a couple of days and then I'm off on another family trip to Nanguneri. That one is going to be one for the records. More about that after it happens. I don't have all the details yet. But I do know that about 30 -35 members of the extended family are going to Nanguneri to visit the temple there. I tried to get out of it. But no can do. Something big is happening apparently. Not entirely sure what.

So, back to packing. I am a terrible packer. I always pack more than I need and don't always take everything I need. Like raincoats and spare specs. So this time, I made a list a week ago. Now I can't find that list. So I started making another list - it became less of a list of things to take and more of a list of things to get/do before I left. It sort of goes like this:

Clothes for 10 days
Raincoat
Cap
Medicines - listed
Plane tickets
Hotel confirmation
Train to Budapest - tell the damn agent to BOOK!
Airport pick up!
Tour vouchers - printout - Tell tour operators to pick us up at hotel
Vegetarian restaurants!!
Ready to eat food - check with the aunts
Cash
Spare specs
Shoe
Socks
Phone - intl roaming? Do or do not?
Guide books
Laptop - to take or not?
Chargers - phone, ipod, camera
toothbrush, shampoo et all

I know I am going to end up with a suitcase that weighs as much as me and still find that I didn't take some very basic stuff. Happens every damn time. Joy. What's the worst that could happen? The airline could end up loosing my baggage. Or my bottle of Betadiene could break and spill and make everything smell like medicine. Or, like in my visit to London last month, my trousers could tear (on the side of the leg, not the crotch, thank you god) in a public place and embarrass the hell out of me. I'll let you know.

on stuff

I like kottke.org very much. Where else would I find out about Dinosaurs that were shapeshifters or the typographical mustache?

I'm going on an Eastern European vacation this weekend, for 10 days, with assorted members of the family. 9 adults, 3 children. 4 over 60, 4 in the between 35 and 45 group, me and a 2 yr old, 5 yr old and 6 yr old. I promise pictures. We are going to Prague and Budapest. Somehow, I got volunteered to organise this thing. It is terribly stressful. And of course somebody wants a first class ticket, somebody wants to go to Italy on work, somebody want to go to London after the trip and they all tell me only after the tickets are already done. And we are going to places with names with so many vowels and weird marks over the letters - I have no idea if I have booked a tour to the same place twice. I am going to need a vacation to recover from my vacation. All of this while using a travel agent. Who annoys me. Anyway. Prague & Budapest. This is working out to be a fairly expensive holiday. About Rs.1,20,000 per person, including plane fare - a little less than it could have been as we are getting senior discounts on all our rooms.

Next time I'm take a long vacation, I'm staying at home and sending everybody away. Everybody except the cook and the maid. Just me and some pot boilers and ice cream. A girl can wish.

I'm watching season two of MI-5 currently. I like Mattew Macfayden in this role. He is so much better as Tom Quinn - Lead Spook than he was as The Hon'bl Fitzwilliam Darcy, of Pemberly. His range of wooden expressions goes better with this role. Season 3 and 4 to go. And then I will go back to Hustle, Season 2.

Did they make all of the Adam Dagleish books into TV movies? I saw the one with the murders in a seminary with the guy who comes in Dr.House. In Dr.House, he was supposed to have spent time in a seminary and decided against becoming a priest, I think. Was good. Want more. And the Inspector Lynley series as well. They come on and off on BBC, but I want more. I like watching all of it together, rather than 1 or 2 a week.

I also have the first season of Merlin, which I haven't seen. And the first 3 seasons of Mad Men, also which I haven't seen. So much to see, so little time.

And in this section we shall review my current aches and pains as if I am an old lady and not just 27 years old. Why? Because I said so.

I have a sore throat. I have had it for about 45 days. The first doc prescribed whatever they prescribe for the common cold, because at that time I had a cold as well and he told me to gargle. The second doc, a week ago, made me say aaah, took some blood, said I didn't have an infection, that there was no problem and that I was a little anemic and maybe I was spending a little too much time in air-conditioning, so why don't I have an anti-histamine and some iron. The anti-histamine makes me so sleepy I can hardly get up in the morning. The third doc, who I saw earlier today, said that I had ulcers in my throat and pharynx and I should have vitamin C and a germicidal gargle and eat bland, soothing food for a while. So I went home and the cook promptly gave me molagu rasam. I had it with lots of thair. That's bland right? How the hell did the second doc miss ulcers when I did aaah?

I've been buying so much Strepsils this past month they should gift me some stock. Who knew it came in so many flavours - of regular, orange, lemon & honey, ginger and lemon, my favorite is ginger and lemon. Which is weird, because I don't like ginger otherwise.