After spending the morning packing and eating an early lunch, we and a large and helpful entourage headed to the Tatran Hotel to retrace our steps and catch a Czech Airlines van to the Kosice airport. Already laden with luggage and souvenirs, we had to decline more gifts, but not before Tessie latched on to a stuffed mouse from Aunt Helenka that she held all the way to Prague.
Leg #6: The very same van as leg #5, but this time driven by an even more aggressive driver. This guy provided a powerful argument against ever driving in Slovakia, as he tailgated ruthlessly and passed on narrow two-lane highways, on more than one occasion forcing oncoming traffic to veer away. We were happy and relieved to arrive in one piece (three pieces?) at the Kosice airport.
Leg #7: Kosice to Prague. Back on the ATR puddle-jumper, this time seated one row behind the plane of the propellers. Nice. (It's an irrational fear of mine. The thought of being separated from whirling propeller blades by a mere 0.02" aluminum aircraft skin makes me a little, um, edgy. I blame Steven Spielberg.) (Airline: Czech. Freebie: a baby rattle.)
We landed without incident, however, claimed our bags and used a van service to get to our hotel, the Hotel Falkensteiner Maria Prag (no, I'm not making that up) which turned out to be both the best and least expensive hotel of the three in which we stayed on this trip. Other than some quibbles about the bathroom layout, it was quite a nice place, with a good location. Tessie was given a souvenir pillow and coloring book at check-in (Czech-in?), and a t-shirt at check-out.
We had a little time to freshen up before heading back out for dinner, where we would be guests of a certain international consulting firm that shall remain McNameless. Tessie's Mom was contacted while we were in Slovakia by a member of the Prague office of this firm with a request to interview her with regard to her current position. The consultant was expecting a phone interview, but when informed that all of us would be in Prague soon, well, we scored a lovely dinner at a cafe near the Vltava River with our new friends Martina and Ursula, and Tessie scored a stuffed Krtek, from which she became nearly inseperable for the remainder of our trip. (She had to: he wouldn't fit in our luggage, so she had to hand carry him everywhere!)
4 comments:
So that driving must have been pretty brutal for you to have been scared by it!
What is a Krtek?
What? You didn't follow the link? Honestly. Why do I even bother...
Here is me, totally oblivious to the fact that there even was a link! I have now followed it and am so much wiser because of it!
I was so absorbed in reading the blog entry that I didn't even realise that the words were in different colours! That's what a good writer you are!
Aww, that's awfully nice of you to say, especially after I was so curt with you!
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