Christmas Holiday Part I (London and Prague)

What a break! Christmas holiday was non-stop, it started on Friday 12 December. Lindsey and I left that Friday for a few days in London. We met up with my friend Zaid who I met in India, and stayed with a friend of a friend of Lindsey's called Joey. We stayed in a house he lives in with a bunch of other people about 20 min from central London, in the living room, which was fine, and cheap so aside from the fact that we had to have a day tube pass for everyday, and it was hard to go back to the house and then back into town it was fine. I took Lindsey to all of the usual places, Big Ben, Buckingham, Tate Modern, ect.... And we found some new places with Zaid, like a museum that featured an exhibit of wax old men in electric chairs moving around the floor. it was weird. and we had the best cookies ever at Uncle Ben's. We went on the London eye, which was cool, but not really £12.50 cool. It was a whirlwind trip but also a lot of fun.

We came back on Sunday the 14, Lindsey left Monday the 15, and I went to the GP to see if I was anemic, they told me I didn't have a bladder infection...no really? The rest of the day I spent preparing for Tuesday. on Tuesday the 16 Rayna and Casey got here, I picked them up at the train station at 12ish, and we found a bus (that was almost and adventure, sonme buses say they are running over uni break, but they aren't), and got back to lancaster. On 16 Wednesday, we got up early to get to Birmingham international airport to leave for Prague. The flight took off on time, and everything went smoothly until we landed. By landed I mean until the plane fell onto the runway with a very loud "Thump!", so loud and hard in fact that everyone started clapping. Never a good sign. But we all survived and we were in Prague.

From the airport we took the Metro to a stop that was completely unpronounceable, since it was a stop we needed to remember I started calling it the closest english word to what it looked like 'smirnoff'. And so started the renaming of all the Metro stops we used. The common ones were 'jello and pudding, stair master, music, and milkshake' sounds stupid, but it kept us from getting lost. Unlike what lonely planet claims, not that many people in Prague speak English, it happens, and its doable. The metro was busy, so we implemented 'emergency emu', in the event that you get separated from the group and can't see anybody you hold your hand up in the shape of an emu, and anyone who sees it follows suit. We got some interesting looks from people around us, but it helped a few times so it was worth it. The hostel was not to far from the metro, but up about 74 steep steps, unusually unpleasant steps. The hostel was cute there were 7 beds, and the most people in there were 6, including the three of us. We did unfortunately have the 30 year old drunk guy, but he was pretty harmless. The hostel had free breakfast so everyday we had breakfast, and made sandwiches to take with us for lunch. Prague was gorgeous. There was a christmas market in old town, that was very cute, and busy, and at night it was lit up. We went around and saw all the stuff your supposed to see, the random art around the city (which included two guys peeing into a pond, babies on the TV tower, and a freud look-a-like hanging from a pole) We also went to the castle which was interesting because it isn't just one main building, its almost like a city within the walls. We also went to Franz Kafka's grave, statue, and bookstore. the 3 of us are now major Kafka fans. We spend most of the time just wondering around climbing hills, and finding new things, somehow we managed to go to Prague and not go to a jazz club, or any club of any kind for that matter, still not sure how that happened.

We left Prague on the 21 December, to go to London. (this was my 3rd time in London, for anyone keeping track) The first night there, I dragged for Casey and Rayna all around, from Russel Square to Buckingham, on the way back, I got us lost, but we found a bus and made it back to our hostel. We stayed in Smart Russel Square. Which had pod beds.....i can't describe it so I'll post a picture. we were tightly packed with 21 others. It was 'smart' russel square because it was a green hostel. Apparently this means that the showers should be in the basement? I don't know why, but they were, down 2 flights of stairs, around a corner town 2 more flights of stairs, down a long white hallway, and another hallway and then on the right. Not only did we have to hike 6 miles to get to the showers (which was not that big of a deal) but the showers were 'push-on', you know, like the sinks, where you press the button and the water stays on for 90 seconds and then turns off....yeah but a shower. The first night this was interesting, especially since it was all open and the only changing area was outside of the main shower room. By the second night we had a routine, and figured out the best way to keep the showers on, it pretty much involved a dance, but I'll spare you the details.

While in London, we took a duck tour, which was fun, who knew the going into the water part actually was dangerous, went to the florence nightingale museum, saw, big ben, and buckingham changing of the guards (they played Santa Baby, as one of their songs) and walked around alot. We left london on the 23 of December, and headed back to Lancaster