Everyone waits for man, except time
I don't know what I would have done to Squarespace IT support had I been dressed this way at 12:18pm.
Hen. Knee. Weigh. Let's get on shall we? Marketa and Nat had decided via some rigorous research and cunning questioning that the unsung museum to head to the next day was the KGB museum. It was disappointing then when Anna told me it was more of a let down than the Stars Wars prequels but silver lined it by relaying how close it was to the apartment. Leaving at 2:45pm for our 3pm meeting, I meandered wistfully on the assumption I could take twice as long and still get there early. Indeed I would have been had this been the KGB museum, but this was the Communist museum. Squarespace users: check what posts you are deleting AND double check names of museums you plan on visiting. The Maths inevitably kicks in; I naturally assume a 10min wait time by anyone. I then add 5 mins for having no phone and another 5 mins for not knowing the city at all well. I add a final 2 mins because they are relaxed people unlike me and give myself 22mins to get to 3 Vlasa Place, West Prague and them still be outside. I look at my iPhone; it's a savior that iPhones show GPS location without internet connection. I would tell you why that's the case, but we haven't got time. Not now. It looks like it's about 3km away and it's 3:01pm. Running at just over 10km/hour would do it but arriving sweaty is so unKGB. A helpful lady points frantically towards an underground sign and signals 12 with her fingers. Bingo. I must have completely misunderstood the Czech subway system as there are no gates on either end and so to this day I haven't bought a ticket. Sorry Prague. But if you go to Manhattan, wait for ladies with prams to come out through the 'door' gate, hold the door for them, and then walk through. You don't need a ticket on exit. There - favored returned, and let's move on.
I get to West Prague and as I come out of the station a tram heads in the direction I want but as I look to jump on the moving vehicle, a man who looks like Highlander slowly shakes his head. I don't challenge him as I have a rule never to mess with Highlander lookalikes. I'm running through the cobbled streets (thank goodness for my high tops) and make it to the museum at 3:21pm. Marketa and Nat shout from across the street, 'Oh, hi. We are just getting a coffee, can we get you one?'
Panoramic view of Prague Castle and the Charles bridge below. They'll be at least one person proposing down there.
After the museum Marketa thought we should take a boat on the river which seemed an excellent idea especially with the sun now shining in all evening glory. Then Nat has the worst idea in European naval history; we should take the large floating Swan. I think we're all on the same page here; with a wide selection of rowing and pedal boats, you could forgive the onlookers' sniggers as we moved about as rapidly as an asthmatic ant with some heavy shopping. I've seen glaciers move quicker. Still, it provided a comedy workout and we drank sparkling white wine while we provided amusement to anyone with the patience to watch us, including the unimpressed actual swans.
Fantastically behind schedule, somewhere I am very uncomfortable being, we left the river and with the time around 6:47pm; we had 13 minutes to make it to the Old Town square to watch the changing of the clocks, something that garners a crowd and something I wanted to catch before needing to head home and rewrite my entire journal once more. The next 13 minutes proved perhaps even more entertaining than the earlier rush but of course there was one significant difference. This wait time was zero as time waits for no man - it was 7 o'clock, or nothing. I flagged down a taxi believing, even with traffic, it would guarantee arrival in time, and with a defeatist nod of approval from Marketa, we jumped in. We drove slowly forward for 3 minutes and then turned around into worse traffic. Disaster. Our taxi driver had been pointing in the wrong direction and had driven while waiting to U turn. We argued more in the car but at 6:55pm we'd had enough and so Marketa and I decided to make a run for it. See the next few mins here.
I decided not to wait another hour for the changing clocks again, believing it more important to get cracking on my journal rewrite so I came back to the apartment. Oh yes, that's right, I deleted my entire journal by accident. Character building, or so they say.....