Traveller, Travail, and Travelin'
If you could fly anywhere in the world for your birthday, where would you go? Sarah had that choice, and
chose our flat in Ipswich. We were honoured, touched, and a little stunned. But we offered the traveller
some birthday cake and a fold-a-futon to sleep on, and she seemed happy enough. It was a small gesture
compared to the one Sarah had made, but how could you even come close?
Sarah picked a particularly significant week to stay with us, as it was the last week for both of our
contracts. She got to meet some of Andrew's workmates when we all went out to dinner to celebrate. We
also met up with some of Kate's workmates on another night, but Sarah narrowly missed them, as she had
a better offer. It wasn't much of a week for eating at home.
They say all good things come to an end, and work for both of us finished. And we marked the first day
of our freedom by flying to Prague. It was our first trip to anywhere in Eastern Europe, and it gets
two thumbs up. Yeah.. so there are tourists everywhere, but that's because it's good. The most disturbing
tourists were actually English football supporters, and there are lots of those back here anyway.
Prague is a city of the arts. Every day there are shops and stalls selling artwork and crafts, and
every night there are concerts and performances in clubs (there were plenty of musicians on both
the flights in and out of Prague). We listened to some jazz in one club, but it was a mellow duo of
double bass and jazz guitar, and Kate almost fell asleep. It was good though!
Another night we had a less impressive experience, going to a "black light theatre" performance. It's
apparently a Prague thing. They light the stage with only ultraviolet light, and flourescently-painted
props and people appear to dance and defy gravity. Had potential, if only there was better acting,
choreography, music, dancing, or plot of any kind. We were tempted to walk out. Some others did. But the
mostly local audience loved it, shouting Bravo! and giving multiple curtain calls. At the end, the (I
guess?) artistic director received three separate bouquets. Must be a Prague thing.
We didn't stay only in Prague. Co-incidentally, Josie had recently started working in a Czech town within
an hour of Prague. It was great to see her, and she showed us around on our first day in Prague, then
a few days later we visited her in Mlada Boleslav (that's probably Czech for "soviet industrial town").
However, she had the inside scoop on something like a Czech national park, called Cesky Raj. We caught the
bus there and walked around until it got dark. It was amazing to be standing on top of one particular
rock that had been hollowed out with passages and rooms. We couldn't read the signs, but it felt like
it had been a secret hide-out. The forest around it was beautiful, too.
Anyway, we're back in England now. Kate is away on a National Trust working holiday, and Andrew is looking
for work (but at least has regular access to email again).
- 26th October 2004
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Hopefully we look as relaxed as we feel |
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