Euro Cup Fever

Greetings all,

It's been a few days of jam-packed excitement, so here we go...

Prague day #3 was spent on a trip to St Nicholas church - wonderfully old and extravagant, then on to the Jewish Quarter for a more intensive look-see. Mike went on a tour of the old synagogues, and I went back to one of the garnet jewellry shops for a closer look.

As I was leaving the jewellry shop was when someone tried to pick-pocket stuff from my bag! I was about to cross the road when I heard one of the zippers on my bag moving, turned around and some %$@$ing chick was trying to rip me off. The outer zipper on the bag had been opened [thankfully, there wasn't anything in there apart from some free tourist maps, haha sucked in!] and she was trying to give me a little-miss-innocent face. Yeah, right. She even tried to sign-language to me that her jacket [oh-so casually held over her arm on the warmest day in 2008 - was I born yesterday?] had brushed up against my bag. As if! I was pretty shocked - you are told that this sort of thing happens but I had thought I was being careful so it wouldn't happen to me! So I chased after her for a few metres, yelling and waving my arms around - it was probably pretty funny for someone watching. I holed up in a cafe for Mike to finish his tour, and we did some more wandering. After dinner we went to the Absinthe Bar and Mike enjoyed some of the fine local product.

Now, when I'm walking around, I've started doing a kind-of swishing from side to side, trying to put any would-be thieves off. Bastards.

We really enjoyed our last day in Prague - wandering around some more in the old city, and I went on a solo expedition to try and find some baby sling fabric at local prices, for the special sling-wearers in my life. Unfortunately, the local prices included the 19% VAT, so it wasn't really worth it. [I may need to do a co-op shop when I get home.] I was pretty proud of myself for NOT getting lost and not getting robbed again. I made it back to the hotel, just in time to check [haha] out and jump on a metro train to the station [accompanied by The Ace of Spades - sometimes my i-pod has a delicious sense of timing. Like when I'm walking to work and it starts playing Queen's I've Got To Break Free] We jumped on an inter-city service to Brno, got a taxi to the airport and met up with Craig & Eva and their bus-load of wedding guests. It took about an hour to reach Lednice where we checked [haha again] into the hotel.

The only down-side to leaving Prague was that Mike now had my serious head cold - poor baby!

C & E had arranged a lovely dinner in an old wine cellar, and they kept the local wine flowing! We met some of their friends and had a really great night.

Wedding Day.

In keeping with the holiday theme of "Sleep, Nah, Who Needs It?" and with poor Mike feeling unwell, we didn't get too much rest. I'm pretty sure the wine from the night before had nothing to do with this! Mike and I wandered into Lednice in the morning and managed to find the only pharmacist in town - and god bless him, he could speak English. We loaded up on cold & flu products, did a quick stop at the local supermarket, and went back to the hotel. I managed to have a nap, and Mike had some quiet time with his book.

Then it was wedding time! We dolled up in our finery - Mike looked VERY spunky - and went to meet everyone downstairs. After wating for the thunder storm to pass, we all walked up the hill and across the road to the Lednice Chateau, an old house/castle/gorgeous old buidling & gardens. We had to wait a bit for the bride, and she arrived in a horse-drawn cart looking so happy and gorgeous I got a little teary.

The service was kinda funny - the local priest was trying to conduct the service in two langagues and bless him, he did a pretty good job. The poor man seemed embarassed about his english - but it was WAY better than my Czech! The sun came out and my heels kept slipping into the grass. Eventually I just dug them into the turf and then couldn't keep my balance! I ended up hobbling over to the path way and stood [well, more shifted-around-in-the-one-spot for a while] in the shade.

After the service I hobbled back down the hill to the hotel for the reception. I'd been warned by one of my buddies that heels and cobble-stones do not mix - she was right. I went up the elevator for a quick shoe change and, back downstairs, enjoyed heartily the champagne & finger food that was on offer until the happy coupld finished their photos, etc.

I have to say - I LOVE finger food! Even more than real food! There's just something about people offering you food from a platter, and balancing the glass of wine with the napkin, that really strikes a chord with me. There was lots of happy conversations, bubbly wine, yummy food, more wine, laughter, wine... A fab time.

When Eva & Craig arrived back, there was the ritual humiliation of Catching the Bouquet. I normally don't DO this sort of thing, but this time I thought, What the hell?, and wouldn't you know it... I caught it! Mike went a VERY interesting colour, and much joking followed.

Dinner was great, as was the beverage accompaniment. We shared a table with Patrick & Ann who we had met the night before, as well as John & Pauline, all from London. The speeches were funny, and we were completely full by the time we left.

For the first time in ages, and probably thanks to the copious amount of wine and ex-Soviet flu tablets, we had a really good night of sleep!

Day... Whatever We're Up To

Today we got up fairly early, packed up our stuff and left Lednice. Craig & Eva saw us off [they are SO in love it's really cute!], we caught a tiny-and-shaky train to Breclav and then on to Vienna. We DID have some Austrian police storm the train at the border - probably looking for football holigans - but it was pretty clear training to Vienna. We found a post office, sent our wedding clothes home, jumped on the metro, settled into our pension, and now we're out and about checking out Vienna [less funny when you;re not in Czech].

The Euro Cup final is being held here tomorrow, and the whole city is buzzing. There are about 15 gazillion people in supporters' gear wandering about, all of the bars are jam-packed with people singing rousing songs [mostly in German - maybe the Spaniards are arriving tomorrow], lots of police. Everyone seems so happy and excited, it's a good time to be here.

We have a half-plan of finding one of the Fan Zones tomorrow to watch the game, but only time will tell if this works out...

Lots of love to all, we miss you!

H