Go to Week 5 photos on Flickr
We left Calgary on Monday evening and flew back across the Atlantic to London and then directly to Prague (because it was much cheaper to not go back home to Paris even though we already had a flight booked to Prague for the next morning). So in less than a week we put about 16,000km of flying under our belt.
Handy tip: If you're flying Air Canada and the plane has their enRoute on-demand entertainment system, use the back of your plastic cutlery to press the touch-screen instead of your fat fingers.
English English
So we had a 7-hour stop in London which involved traveling from Heathrow Airport to Luton Airport. And since it took a hundred hours by subway to get into downtown, we had only had about 3 hours to spend in the city. Naturally we headed to the most important landmark first...

Technically it's in the wrong location, but kudos to the tourism department responsible for this.

Look at me, I'm Harry Potter!
After this, we traipsed around the train station looking for a pub only to realize that London sucks (or more specifically the area around the train station sucks) and that we genuinely missed Paris and all its obnoxious citizens. We did find a nice place for food and a pint.

What's London without fish 'n chips and a pint?


Let me suggest that if you can, at all costs, avoid Luton Airport. Home to all the budget airlines it is the crummiest airport. Even Buttonville airport with its french fry-making machine (broken) and random Mike Harris sighting (Daniel and Resnick; OntarioForce One) was nicer.

Prior to entering, we were in good spirits.
Everything was going smoothly until we approached security and were informed that it was a one-bag-per-person policy. After some arguing in various languages (and why can't they speak English in England!?) we cooled down and proceeded to stuff all our belongings into one bag each. This meant I was walking around with a half-zipped duffle that weighed about 40 lbs, certainly not fit as a carry-on. I even made it through security however a couple guards commented that my bag shouldn't be allowed on the plane, and my bag also trampled some girl's Guess sunglasses and snapped them in half, but it wasn't my fault. Naturally once through the gate, we ripped everything apart and walked on the plane with several carry-ons, just like everyone else. Stupid Luton.
Out and about in Prague
In Prague we stayed with Nat's Aunt Hella and Uncle Pavel. She told me that they didn't speak any English, which was fine since Nat speaks Czech and could translate. Except that Pavel would occasionally drop English words here and there until by the end of our stay I'm pretty sure he was constructing full sentences. This was a nice surprise.

Nat's Aunt Hella and Uncle Pavel.

Famous 500-year-old astronomical clock. Good luck reading this.

Street meat.

Old town square where a Coke commercial was filmed.

Starbucks.

Lunch with Nat's Bubbie Ruth.

'Doggy bag' dispensers. Complete with cardboard scoop.

Nat's original Lavalife profile picture was from this spot in the Metro.

Oh look, it's Prague Castle.

Nat's cousin Peter does the marketing for this fabric softener.

Every sidewalk is a work of art.
On our second day in Prague we met Nat's cousin Micha who gave us a guided tour of Prague Castle. Micha knew everything there was to know about the castle and he knowledge of history was truly impressive.



Micha explains the story on the doors.

Look at me, I'm a pony.
Micha's dad Ladja called and said we were all going for dinner. We ended up at a nice joint with no tourists and had an authentic Czech dinner experience: starting dinner (on an empty stomach) with a huge shot of Becherovka and followed by a pint of pivo ("pivo" is beer in Czech by the way).

The food hasn't arrived yet, let's keep drinking.
Oh the Czechs love their beer. And according to our Lonely Planet guidebook, they consume the most beer per capita in the world, coming in at 160L of pivo per person per year. But with pivnices and pivovars (pubs which brew their own beer) lining every street, and with beer costing around 30kc ($2 Cdn) a pint, it isn't hard to imagine.
We headed to a pivnice or pivovar (I still don't know the difference) for more beer even though I pleaded "staci" (enough!). Here we had topinki (toast) with cloves of garlic rubbed on top. At this point I was beginning to understand Nat's eating habits. The Czechs love garlic (cesnek) about as much as they love beer and feel it's the perfect cure for the flu.

The boys.

I'd also like to point out that at this point, Hella's fridge was filled with about 24 containers of yogurt and 8 kinds of cheese which also helped understand Nat's infatuation with dairy products.
We chowed down on garlic toast, or in Micha's case just plain garlic, more beer (and yes I was very drunk) and then ended the night with Ladja forcing me to drink a huge shot of Slivovice, 50% alcoholic plum brandy. And just so we're clear, this was a Thursday night; Ladja had an English exam the next morning; Micha had school the next morning; and Micha isn't of legal drinking age (although at 6'4" no one seems to care)! I was reeling and had to make a pit stop at a KFC on the to the Metro.

Begging for mercy.
We spent one of our days touring around the old Jewish Quarter or Prague, which used to be the largest Jewish settlement in Central Europe. The ancient synagogues are now museums and in one case a unique Holocaust memorial.

Old Jewish cemetery.

The cheapest kippa on earth.

I snuck this photo in the Holocaust memorial synagogue. Every wall is painted like this. The name Litvaova (which is really Litva) was the closest I could find, but then again, I'm pretty sure I have no Czech ancestry.
In the evening we went to see the Czech Philharmonic at the Ruldolfinium theatre. We were also smart enough to buy tickets at the box office instead of the English-speaking salespeople (read: scalpers) outside the theatre who sell tickets to naïve tourists at 3 times the price.

Champagne at intermission.

Don't worry, the concert had ended.

And then... more pivo!

They weren't serving food anymore and I was hungry.

So we found some street meat, or street cheese actually.

The most creative washroom I've ever been in.

Obecni Dum, the Municipal House. This is where Nat's parents first met.
Family fun time
We were also in Prague to spend time with Nat's family since she hadn't seen them in over 2 years. Plus the family recently grew when cousin Sasha had baby Philip (called Philipek) back in April. He is possibly the most well behaved baby I've ever met and since he's so cute we must have 100 pictures of him. The weekend was spent on various hikes in the forest north of the city core, family meals, and basically sitting around waiting for Philipek to start crawling (which I'm certain he did the day after we left).

Little Philipek.

Family hike.

Notice that this 'giraffe' has junk.

Hella absorbing cosmic energy at this stonehenge-like arrangement in the forest.

We forced Nat to do one of her token poses.

Peter and his nephew. He never put him down.

Nat and her other Bubbie.

Hanging out with Ladja, Bubbie, and cousin Christine.

Peter and Andrea. They also just moved in together.

Proof that Nat really does like babies (or at least happy ones).

Bubbie on Skype with Nat's mom.

Entire family gathering via Skype.

4 generations.

The girls on hiking day 2.


Let's have a man-to-man chat about why you aren't crawling yet.
Return to Paris
Even though we were returning to the land of the obnoxious (apparent from the chaos at the boarding 'line-up' on a predominantly French Prague-to-Paris flight) we were also happy to be back. But we also noted that, for some reason, Prague has a grand infatuation with Paris and there are several instances of this envy.

View from in front of the castle.
This tower is called the Petrínská rozhledna. We just referred to it as the Eiffel Tower, but we never actually got very close. According to Micha, the Eiffel Tower is based on some Czech designs that Mr. Eiffel had seen 10 years earlier – Wikipedia has no mention of this. The Petrínská rozhledna was constructed 2 years after the Eiffel Tower was completed.

Paris Street, home to all of the ultra-luxe shops.

This isn't on Paris Street and they don't serve French food.

And we're home.
Week 5 photos on Flickr
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