Started packing for Prague on Tuesday night, the night before I was supposed to leave. Thank goodness my sister is the best or I would have been screwed. Britt was a trooper, folding and sorting, offering advice on what I should bring. And while I was packing, my dog Jake kept his vigil over me as he laid his head on my leg and looked at me with his brown eyes as if saying, 'Please don't go Erica'.
My family and I left at 1:30 for the airport. 3 hours and 1 stop at Popeyes later, we finally arrived. After having both suticases a few pounds heavier than the limited wieght allowed, I ended up leaving my shampoo and blanket behind in the States. My socks and swinsuit became stuffed in my backpack which was already full because my laptop is a monster (really really big). Saying goodbye to my parents and my sister was so hard. I almost started crying.
While waiting at MCI for my flight, I met Sister Margaret, a 90 year old nun from Eugene Oregon. She was telling me about her travels throughout the world and her ministry in the jails and prisons of Oregon. She was a wonderful and spry woman and I swear to you, she didn't look a day over 74 : )
My plane boarded without any problems. But as soon as everyone sat down, we recieved the bad news. Chicago was having bad weather so there was a groundstop on all flights to Chicago until the weather would let up. I blame myt dad, Earl for it. He jinxed the flight by talking about Jetblue and missing my flight. Thanks dad.
After wainting on the runway and the gate for over 2.5 hours, we were finally given the go ahead. Oh, but wait. some pricks wanted to get off and caused an even longer delay of the fllgiht actually leaving.
Finally got to Chicago at 10:00pm. Guess what time the flight to Copenhagen left? Yeah that's right, 10:00. Erica missed her flight along with 4 other people. One of those peeps turned out to be a girl from St. Joe named Kristen. We were both headed to Prague, me to live and her to visit. Needless to say, we joined forces to deal with the situation.
After whining to the United and SAS reps, we ended up booking flights the next day at 6:30pm to Frankfort and then on to Prague. United is a bunch of pricks so please avoid them at all costs. SAS is wonderful. They ended up giving us a hotel room to share and meal vouchers. A nice hotel with a cool new friend. Might be the end of a bad expeirence and the start of good.
After waking up the next day, Kristen and I decide to be adventurous and take the Metro into downtown Chicago. We had an amazingly fun time walking around and seeing the sights. Little did we know, the journey was going to get worse.
We made it on the flight on time and it was realitvey ok for being almost 8 hours long. Frakfort airport was a nice change from spending time in O'Hare. But as we were boarding the flight bound for Prague, We found out that United screwed up on my ticket. Of all the luck right. After a few frantic minutes of not knowing if I was goign to make the flight to Prague or not, the stewardesses allowed me on the plane. A brief hour later, Kristen and I arrived in Prague.
Well, the fun didn't stop there. Our baggage ended up lost somewhere in the great unknown. That delayed us from seeing if anyone was still waiting for us. Thakfully, our friends had reiceved our emails and were waiting for us when we finally left the baggage area.
All in all, Prague is amazing. My roommate Peter is funny and really helpful. I fell indebted to him already because he is taking me along wherever he goes. We do not have the internet right now so the internet cafe is where all the fun happens. Everything is fine though. I am in good sprits even though my bags are still lost and I have a friend who is teaching me Czech.
I have already been to my first Fotball game to cheer on our favorites, Prague Sparta. THere are two teams in Prague but we have to support Sparta because they are within a 10-15 minute walk from our flat. Oh, and you can walk around drinking beer and not get an open container! Beer is 1 USD here and is cheaper than buying water. I do not know if that is a good thing or not but hey, at least it's good beer.
Ok, I am ending this on a sappy note. I love and miss everyone. Prague is amazing be it would be better if you were here with me. I will write more later abour my flat and how amazing Prague is but I have written too much already. Dequay and Dobre den!!!
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Everyone always raves about Prague so I was excited to be finally going there for a long weekend. The weather was excellent, the city was interesting and we didn't have any trouble with pick-pockets. We ate a lot of dumplings and drank a lot of beer, we stayed at one of the good Prague hotels, but not so expensive. It was an interesting few day and we did fall in love with Prague like most people do. It has a fabulous Castle, Cathedrals, Squares and it just did capture our heart.
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