Jac’s Journey

Well, it’s been a crazy few months. Work has been so busy and there have been times when it’s really got me down. A huge change programme on the go has meant more than the occasional evening in front of the laptop and the odd sacrificed weekend! It was particularly bad when Erin first arrived and her innocent question ‘Do you work 24/7?’ was a wake-up call to some of the bad habits I’d fallen into.

So when my well earned break turned up and Mairi suggested we get away somewhere, the first place to come to mind was wonderful Stobo.

A delightful Victorian castle near Peebles, this is the place where you can chill out to the max. The dress code is a bathrobe and the essential accessory a great book. Beauty therapists on hand to massage backs, necks and shoulders and lots of other people to talk to – or ignore – as the mood takes you. Terrific food and even a cheeky wee glass of wine… Heaven!

As we only booked last week, there weren’t too many rooms left – so unfortunately we had to upgrade to a higher spec room than the usual basic room that I go for. An extra tenner got us a ground floor castle room with ceilings so high you could fit in my whole house! A canopy in the bathroom and big squashy sofa in the bedroom provided us with a lovely place to lay our heads.

We chilled. We swam, sauna’d, spa’d and steam room’d. I was ever so proud of myself when I came over all energetic and went along to a ‘Body Balance’ class. Hadn’t tried this before – bit of tai chi, bit of pilates and bit of yoga. Not a patch on a good yoga class but it was enjoyable.

Time for food; we joined three sisters and two friends at the communal tables for dinner. Tentative politeness quickly developed into friendly banter and much sharing of wine. We ended up spending the evening with these girls and a great time was had by all – especially Mairi, who fell asleep in the chair! Made us both laugh that the two girls from Fife kept saying they always meet girls from Glasgow at Stobo and end up getting drunk. We had so not planned to drink copious amounts of wine. We think the two maddies from Fife are the common denominator – leading us Glasgow girls astray and then blaming us!!

Today, the hangover was treated by a back massage and Indian Head Massage. Both lovely. The Indian Head Massage girl commented on my seriously stressed out shoulders and I decided to book an appointment for another massage later this week. Bruce does a mean Indonesian/Thai massage so need to call him tomorrow!

And now, having spent the last 2 days doing nothing but chilling out, I find myself exhausted! Time for an early night!

See ya

Shakespeare at the Castle was…interesting.

Prague Castle was stunning.  Amazing huge buildings, gorgeous Cathedral and particularly striking at night.  The views over the city were amazing.  The Shakespeare play set in the third courtyard was very atmospheric.

However, not always the easiest to follow at the best of times, imagine trying to follow Shakespeare in Czech!!!

It did look very good – for people who understand Czech.  I had expected to be able to follow it as the play was Othello, and I have read that one, albeit a good few years ago.  However, was very distracted by laughing at a Czech Othello who had covered himself in boot polish to make himself black, but had left his hair blond!  We were all very concerned about him sweating under the lights and leaving big black marks on Desdemona’s white dress!

As night fell and it got colder, we shivered and most of the hens had had enough after an hour and a half.  A good attempt at culture, but the beer was calling, so we answered the call! 

Walking back across the Charles Bridge, I was counting the statues to try and work out which one Neil proposed to Nichola at.  Nic – I told all the girls and they were all very envious of your lovely romantic proposal.  When we realised it was in front of the Holy Family statue we were all particularly impressed with that romantic man of yours.  One of the girls has asked me to check if Neil has any single brothers!

Some of the group sloped off after Shakespeare, as they had been out until 6 the previous night.  I lasted until about 1am, but a hard core of hens went clubbing again until 5am. Respect! 

Like the bunch of troopers we all are, there was a good showing for breakfast and we were out of our rooms pretty much on time.

We wandered back down to the Old Town Square and were met with the Prague 10k run.  Not just any old 10k…there were international teams and everyone looked really fit!  I was delighted to be just in time for the start of the men’s race, and had plenty of opportunity to admire all those fine legs!

A meander round the shops was in order, and as with most walks around the centre of Prague, I was really enjoying the jazz bands scattered around the square and the surrounding streets.  The perfect accompaniment to last minute shopping. 

All followed by the long trip home.  Delayed getting on the flight, then once we were on we sat on the tarmac for another hour.  Yuk.

A great weekend had by all.  It really is a beautiful city.  Will definitely visit again.  Lovely to be home.

See you soon

Jacsxxx

Oh what a night.

Yes, there was a singing…we may even have sang ‘Oh what a night!’

There was also Becherovka.  A Czech firewater, blending herbs, aromatic oils and alcohol.  It tastes like it would leave third degree burns on your throat and has a very serious kick.

We all had a lie in this morning! 

It all began when 13 glamour-pusses headed to the pick up point for our boat trip.  The bus that took us to the boat on the other side of the river did a little tour of Prague before dropping us at the boat.  It could have been tourist hell.  We all had a set of headphones with a recorded commentary in a choice of 8 languagues, that has the bizarre effect of making everyone on the bus turn their heads at the same time when the man says ‘and on your left you will see…’  I refused to turn my head when I was told in protest!

Luckily we were only on the bus for half an hour or so.  Arrived at the boat where we had dinner and sailed up and down the Vltava for three hours, enjoying the sun set over Prague and the city turn to night.  It was fabulous. 

Arrived on the boat to be welcomed by a small glass of Becherovka.  (it was to be the smallest of the evening)  From there the beer/wine/becherovka flowed.  Our highlight was when we started singing and the wee man playing the accordion came down to accompany us!  Imagine our delight when he played a tune we recognised…and all thirteen of us yelped with delight and started singing ‘Well, it’s a grand old team to play for…’  Seriously – he must have been a Celtic fan!

We think the other people on the boat were either highly entertained by us or slightly irritated that a bunch of Becherovka-fuelled weegies were on the same boat.  We think we were entertaining! 

Luckily we did have our own section practically to ourselves, and anyone who had harboured hopes of a romantic evening for two were in the other section.  I think the boat people knew what we would need – we were beside the food and the bar!

The barman became a great friend and the Becherovkas just kept coming.  As the bride-to-be, Mairi got several freebies.  When her eyes started to roll about independently of one another, we relented and let her have a glass of water.  There was no music on the boat so when the man with the accordian had finished and everything was coming to a close, the barman got very creative and held his phone to the mike and played a couple of mp3s he had on his phone.  So the dancing had started…

The walk back to the Old Town Square was hilarious.  Having spent the whole day staring at and photographing tourist attractions, it was wonderful to turn into a tourist attraction ourselves.  As we walked up the street in true Glaswegian fashion…singing…we were tickled pink at the number of American tourists who began taking photos of us.  We made friends with some Texans and a couple from California. 

The night then moved to the Irish bar in the Old Town Square.  I know, I know.  All the way to Prague and end up in an Irish bar!  But it is a hen weekend!  Much fun, singing, dancing and drinking.  Even a scary moment when we thought we’d lost one of our hens.  She shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, but after a prolonged absence we went looking for her all over the bar.  Nowhere to be found!  Out searching the streets.  Nowhere to be found!  I don’t panic about stuff like this generally, but after a good search myself and no sign of the nameless person, I started to worry.  We hadn’t sought out the seedier side of Prague, but it is there.  Had she been kidnapped to work as a sex slave for 40 korunas per hour?

Eventually we found her – talking to god on the big white telephone – in the gents!  Clever girl had decided not to hog one of only 2 ladies cubicles.  I have wonderful friends…considerate even in their moments of illness!

The night went on to a club although by now it was 2.30 and the beer and Becherovka had given me my ‘home head’. I headed back to the hotel.  A fantastic night had by all.

Tonight is slightly more cultured.  A Shakespeare play at Prague Castle.  No doubt the culture will stop at the end of the play and the beer will flow once more.

Bye for now!

Jacsx

Had a lovely day today.  Did the full-on tour of Josefov, the Jewish Quarter in Prague and a stroll across the Charles Bridge.

The Jewish Quarter was fab.  4 synagogues and a cemetary later, was officially all synagogued-out and had a beer on Maiselova to recover.

There was a very moving synagogue that had been turned into a museum in remembrance of holocaust victims.  I walked into a room that was covered with names, in tiny writing, of all the people who lost their lives.  The people in that room were just from Prague.  I then walked into a larger room, with more names, in the same tiny writing, then another room upstairs and then another room.  It was a very moving experience.  I felt a real deep sorrow for all these people and found myself thinking about recent events in Israel and Palestine.  How fine the line between persecuted and persecutor.  I wonder how the centuries of repression and brutality faced by Jewish people changes their perspective on the recent acts of the Israeli leaders.

Anyway, enough of the deep stuff.  There was this amazing cemetary in the Jewish quarter, where the headstones were practically piled on top of one another.  It’s not been used for a few hundred years, but the overcrowding in the cemetary paints a picture of the overcrowding in the Jewish ghetto, as it used to be.

The buildings were all overhauled in the 18th century and there are amazing tall apartment blocks, some of which reminded me of Barcelona.  A lovely day and a great place.

After being reinvigorated by my glass of Budvar, I wandered down to the Charles Bridge and joined the throngs of tourists there.  Browsed through paintings, jewellery and other trinkets, with the 1920s style jazz band playing in the background.  Really lovely.

I’m truly blown away by the beauty of Prague.  And I still have two whole days to soak it all up!

Gotta dash.  Need to go and get glammed up for our big night out tonight.  Will defo be more exciting than last night, as we won’t all be recovering from such an early flight.

Will try to post again when I can

See you soon

Jacsxxx

Hello again!

I’m in gorgeous Prague and decided to revive the travel blog.

Yesterday was a looooong day.  We had really great flight times from Glasgow direct to Prague…until Globespan decided to change them.  Up at 2.30 am to meet Pauline at 3.30, airport for 4, flight at 6am!!

All was on time, so that’s good, but exploring all day and bed after 1am meant a very sound sleep last night.

Am sprightly and up and around this morning, so off to do some more exploring.

Yesterday we arrived and were delighted by the hotel.  It’s fantastic.  There are 13 of us and we have three big rooms, two of which are adjoining, so it’s a big like renting a huge apartment.  Breakfast included, all for the bargain price of 75 quid for 3 nights!!  Canny say fairer than that!

Prague is just beautiful.  I have been completely blown away by it so far.  We walked from the hotel down to the shopping centre and Wenceslas Square, then over to the Old Town square.  The Old Town square is just stunning.  I started to take some photos and then realised that I could take photos of the square from any angle and the shot would be stunning.  We sat in the 30 degree heat, drinking our first czech beer in the middle of the square.  It was amazing.

An hourly event is the gathering of the tourists for the chiming of the astronomical clock.  Of course, fully participated in the growing throng and marvelled at the 12 disciples popping out to say hello from behind the camera lens.  We then spent so much time in the beautiful square, we saw them three times in the same day!

Off exploring solo today – keeping my energy up for a big night out tonight.  We have booked onto a tour where we get a tour of the city for an hour then a boat down the Vltava river and our dinner.  No doubt we’ll be tormenting poor Mairi with lots of daring comedy escapades as we go.  We have already had her doing the entertaining sport of mullet spotting and challenged her to get a photo with each mullet she sees.  It’s amazing how many there are!

Anyway, got to get going now – will try and do another update before the weekend is out.

Take lots of care

Jacsxxx