Christina’s parents were beginning their European vacation a week after Christina and I and we decided to rendezvous in Prague for a few days.  Instead of renting a hotel, they picked out an apartment to rent.  We arrived in Prague Friday afternoon and after a traffic-filled taxi ride arrived at the apartment without incident.  The apartment is fairly nice with a few flaws but none as terrible as the toilet — for whatever reason, it smells exactly like the sewer and the smell creeped out into the other rooms.  It did start a somewhat comical search around Prague for candles.

Saturday, the first morning, Christina’s parents managed to upset a few Czechs before Christina, Will, and I had even woken up.  The ATM doles out Czech koruna (they’re not on the Euro yet) and asking for 2000 koruna, the ATM promptly provided a 2000 bill (just over $100 USD).  As we have come to find out, the Czechs prefer to pay in coins and do not readily agree to break larger bills.  Most places have tried to accommodate us but only grudgingly.  Anyway, they went to a cafe and the lady reluctantly and rudely broke the 2000 bill for their coffee and breakfast.  Not wanting to upset her further, they took their dishes outside where Christina’s mom managed to break one of their cups.  Needless to say, we have avoided that cafe since then.

Later, all five of us took a bus tour around the city which was a pretty nice way to get a feel for the city.  The headphones at each seat could be listened to in 20-30 different languages so there were all kinds of tourists on the bus with us.  The headphones at my seat were missing the ear pads and late in the trip, I found one of the pads on the floor.  As I was trying to affix it, the bus driver must have noticed what I was doing (I was in the very back seat but in the middle, directly in his rearview).  He stopped the bus completely and came back to fix the ear piece for me.  However, he didn’t speak English so he just pointed at me and it seemed like I had gotten in trouble.   It was a bit embarrassing sitting there w/ all these tourists from around the world staring at me, probably not understanding what I had done (or not done) to cause the bus driver to stop the bus during the tour.

We walked around later and saw much of Prague.  All of my pictures are now online.  That evening, Christina and I went out with Will to Coyote Ugly.  The ladies were all dressed as characters from movies and Will was shunned by Miss Congeniality.  It was actually pretty fun though and Will and I even took (double) shots of absinthe.  At one point, they were even tossing flaming bottles and creating fireballs at the bar — most likely activities that would be prohibited back in the states.

Today is our last day in Prague — we leave tomorrow morning for Wiesbaden, relax for a day, and then fly back.  As nice as the trip has been, I think it will be nice to get back.  Christina talks about the cats everyday — how far she’s come from when she was so jealous of them.  Well, I’m sure she’s still jealous but at least now she likes them as well.