Prague rhymes with blog

Well everyone, I am officially here. It has been a very very long two days. I know people (read: my mom) are curious about the full story, so here it is. Don't say I didn't warn you about the length.

I got to the airport around 2:15 PM, only to find out that my flight to DC was delayed until 5:15 PM. My flight from DC was supposed to leave at 7:15. So, while I would be cutting it a lot closer, I'd still make it. And it took some running, but I did make it. I realized about 20 minutes into a conversation with the really nice Polish lady next to me that we weren't moving, and it was past our departure time. Turns out there was a problem with the circuits on the plane, something like that, and they were trying to find the part to fix it. After a long wait, they decided to move us to another identical plane where we'd keep the same seats. Except we had to walk a freaking half mile through the airport to get to the new gate, only to find out that they were making us wait a half hour to board.

45 minutes later, we started boarding. Except we all only had the stubs of our boarding passes, so they boarded us by groups of rows (e.g. rows 30 to 39 boarded first). In order to verify who we were, they checked each name against a roster they had going by seat number. And that's how we proceeded - with each person on this huge aircraft going through line, and a guy reading every single name out loud and checking it against the roster. *sigh*

But this plane worked. Mariola the Polish lady and I watched Nights in Rodanthe together on our individual little TVs, and she said how much she loved Richard Gere and Julia Roberts together. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was Diane Lane. Her English was not very good and after I gave her a piece of gum, she reciprocated with a piece of marzipan, which I really hate. "This marzipan from my country, you take! Is... *kisses fingers*.... marzipan delicious... you do know marzipan?" I nodded and smiled. She said, "Tell me name your boyfriend, you so beautiful. You marry my son!" You can see why I didn't want to break the woman's heart, she was adorable.

The flight itself was uneventful - I slept most of the way and eventually got my favorite airplane treat, cran-apple juice. We landed late in Frankfurt, which caused pretty much everyone on the plane to miss their connecting flight. After sorting through that chaos and getting yelled at by a 200 year old German man on a power trip, they found me a flight at 4:35 PM (it was about 12pm when we got off the plane). I went to the transfer desk (which took forever to find, and felt like it was miles away), and the woman gave me a new boarding pass. Then she asked, "Did you check any luggage?" I said, yes, two suitcases. She said, "What are the ID numbers for your bags?" I said, "I was never given any, just my boarding passes. They said it was going straight through to Prague." She said, "You will need those numbers, otherwise your luggage will likely not arrive."

Then I asked the inevitable question: Where can I get the ID numbers?

The answer? Here's what she should have said: Walk effing 20 miles, leave security. Once you get lost twice and have to backtrack, ask a random German where you're going and have him point in the direction you just came from. Arrive at the ticketing desks, wait in line, only to have each girl you talk to tell you that you have to speak to her "colleague, who is just around the corner." Arrive at one glorious angel of a woman who can finally give the ID numbers, and then come back to the original transfer desk to have them track it. Then walk another mile through the airport down to gate A17, which may or may not be your gate, and wait there until someone shows up. When they do, go to your real gate, A13, where someone can finally confirm that your luggage is actually in Europe and will arrive in Prague.

That said, with all that hassle, I am just reeeally grateful to have my luggage. I'd get by on what I had in my carry-on, but I feel so much better having all my stuff. I'm completely moved in (as much as one can be in a hotel room) to my new home for the next two months.

Shortly upon my arrival and entrance to the hotel, I headed out to the streets. I needed shampoo, conditioner, and dinner. Dinner should have been easy; I passed about a hundred restaurants here in the hotel's vicinity. However I kept walking and walking until I spotted the drugstore, where I learned the Czech words for "push" and "pull" (on the door), and "shampoo" and "conditioner". By the way, it's true what all my friends told me - Czech people do not smile at you on the street like everyone does in Pittsburgh. I caught on after a feeling dejected after my first few excited smiles at strangers, and I put on my grumpiest face even though I was screaming on the inside over how beautiful this city is.

I ended up eating dinner (and more importantly, having some wine) at the hotel restaurant. A little expensive, but I'm still under the alotted limit for the day and I just needed something easy today. My feet are so tired, man.

The hotel is really nice - it's simple but pretty, and very modern. The lobby kind of looks like an Apple Store. Jaromir, my new buddy at the front desk who is really nice to me and I can tell is being kind despite the fact that he does not smile, hooked me up with some wall converters so I can plug in my laptop and other stuff, an iron and ironing board that I can keep in my room, and even a key to the hotel's laundry facilities so that I can go wash my clothes whenever I want for free.

I'd love to write more now, but it's almost midnight here and I still have a few things to do around here (I want tomorrow morning to be easy, that means everything unpacked and organized tonight).

I'll try to update this every day. Shout-out to Maira, the only one who stuck with this from the very blog-beginning, even though it was boring and I was just playing around. :) Miss you, 'sposa. I will give everyone hugs for you tomorrow at work.