Czech please!

Well we just spent 6 days in Prague - three of them in the worst heat wave Prague has seen since 1982. That was okay until the air conditioning broke in our hotel room. After a cold war stand off with the management and the "maintenance" man, the heat wave broke and we drank some Pilsner and got over it : )

The buildings in Prague are amazing - topped with onion domes, or spiky points with little balls or bingles on top (these are not technical terms, I assure you), laden with intricate carved stone statues and ornate railings. It is wonderful it all survived two world wars and communism mostly intact. We went up to the old castle and popped into numerous ornate churches, and Miles went into a meltdown taking architectural photos.

And we fueled all our walking with goulash, dumplings, apple strudel, and other sundry pastries, washed down with delicious Czech beer. The food and beer was not expensive, but everything else was. We were a bit surprised because clothes, shoes, accessories, etc. were higher than in Spain and France. Lots of high priced boutiques but nobody really in there buying anything.

We mostly kept our wallet shut (no surprise there, especially with Miles : )on the shopping front and concentrated on beer and goulash.

Fortunately, there was also a free folk dancing festival on right around the corner from our hotel. That may send some of you screaming into the night, but actually it was really good. They had dance troupes from Russia, Czech Republic, Romania, Italy, Mexico, China and more. They were all in traditional costume, singing, dancing and wearing silly hats.
Even the town drunks got into it and often did their own dance steps at the back of the crowd. Hilarious.

Overall, we really liked Prague, even though it was a bit touristy and overcrowded with tour groups - hold up an umbrella and I swear you'd find 50 bewildered Italians following you around within 5 minutes. But as much as we enjoyed it, we couldn't live here because you would have to join Weight Watchers after just two weeks. I'm sure it will be much better in Munich where the beer, sausages, strudel and pretzels are very slimming - NOT!!!

Yodeleheehooooo!

The hills are alive with the sound of wheezing as we climb up to 3226 metres in the French Alps. Okay, let's not exaggerate, we didn't climb the mountain of Aiguille Rouge - we took 4 ski lifts and climbed a bit, but still it was pretty frigging high, took our breath away quite literally with its thin oxygen levels, and had an awesome view of France, Italy and Switzerland, looking straight across to Mont Blanc.

We have just spent a week in Les Arcs at Arc 1800 (1800 metres high obviously, duh!) at our English friend Paul Irwin's ski apartment. He never goes there in summer so we were not sure what to expect as he couldn't tell us. Not to worry, the studio apartment was cute and comfy - straight out of 1974 and never renovated, with plenty of pine and a definite Brady Bunch 70s kitsch feel - bright green kitchen and flame orange fibreglass bathroom anyone??

But the real star of the show was the Alps. Amazing views, pine tree covered slopes, vertical green meadows, how now brown cows with giant bells, and a new species we discovered - THE ALPINE DORK.

The Alpine Dork is almost invariably French, wears super long shorts (really they should be called longs) brand new hiking boots fresh out of the box, nerdy spectacles, is paste white, reed thin, and has Nordic walking poles to help them walk - even though they rarely go further than the supermarket in Les Arcs. Hilarious.

We also discovered another creature that is an Alpine favourite - the Marmotte. No, we are not making this up. Marmottes are like a mountain prairie dog or woodchuck - they live in the meadows from 1000 to about 3000+ metres, eat grasses and wildflowers, and are chubby, furry and cute when they pop down their burrow. You can spot them from the lifts as you drift over the meadows and Miles even managed to get a photo - not an easy task. It is much easier to spot an Alpine Dork.


We enjoyed the mountain air (always tinged with cigarettes courtesy of our chain smoking French neighbours), the stunning Mont Blanc views, the hiking, the hot chocolates, the wildflowers, and most of all the Marmottes.

We are now at Aix Les Bains, where we have stopped on the way back down from the mountains for two nights. We just spent the whole day today at the thermal baths and are completely water logged and crinkly. It was great floating in the thermal pools, and wearing the obligatory swim cap - so chic.

Next stop, Prague. So be sure to Czech back with us soon - GROAN. C'mon, who can resist a Czech pun??? : )

Russian Roulette de Mar

Suppose you were spinning the wheel, letting lady luck lead you to the perfect holiday spot. Somewhere where it was peaceful, beautiful, filled with cute cafes and shops, and a tranquil beach.

Well, we spun the wheel and we ended up with....Lloret de Mar!!!! It's like getting the bullet in Russian roullette, seriously.

Loud, crass, tacky, crowded and crazy Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava in Spain - a Las Vegas meets Atlantic City meets Surfers Paradise, filled with fat Russians waddling down to the beach, singing Spaniards coming home from the disco at 5 am, shops selling mountains and mountains of inflatable rafts, water pistols, tasteless towels and all sorts of other plastic crap, sunburnt Scandanavians drinking Sangria at 9am, and everywhere, at every hour, noise, noise, noise.

So what's to like in Lloret de Mar? Well, on the plus side our apartment was nice, we had a washing machine to clean all our festering wardrobe, the bars and pizza restaraunts were very inexpensive, and the beach was amazing, with crystal clear cool water. And, funnily enough, with all this crazy hustle and bustle, it was impossible to be bored because there was always some hilarious site to behold. Italians playing paddle ball in speedos, screaming teenagers jumping off paddle boats, Norwegians singing football songs, Russian girls posing like they're appearing on the next cover of Vogue as they have their photos taken by their mother???

The interesting thing we noticed about Europeans is that they really grab summer by it's crazy beach balls and shake it for all it's worth, til every bit of fun is squeezed from it. They do not take summer for granted because it is short and sweet, and a freezing cold winter is just around the corner.

It is in sharp contrast to us in Australia, who are lazy about summer, take it for granted and are perhaps a bit spoiled. These crazy Europeans remind us how lucky we are. Such exhuberance is infectious too, so though we cannot give Lloret de Mar the thumbs up - and at times we felt like giving it the bullet - we did have fun anyway. But we did not get a good night's sleep ever there : ( Such is life.

Our next stop is the polar opposite, at 1800 metres above sea in the French Alps. Stay tuned to see what's up there next.

Badalona budget busters

You know what happens when you wear the same clothes and shoes for six months? Yes, they smell, and wear out, becoming threadbare, sad, faded and limp, with holes in embarrassing places - not to mention that you get totally sick of them. So sometimes you have to go shopping. In Badalona (suburb of Barcelona, right on the beach) this is not hard. "It's a capital purchase!!" we justify to ourselves as we sweat over our (sort of) strict daily budget. I got new shoes, a shirt, pants, earrings, had my legs waxed (too much information?) and even thrifty Miles broke down and had his hair cut and bought some shorts. We also went into Barcelona and visited the park and a few other sites, though we have pretty much done all the highlights of this great town. Spain is seriously cheap and a great place for shopping, I mean, making capital purchases.

And when you are hot, tired, sick of shopping, and negotiating how to get your legs waxed and your hair cut in terrible Spanish, you go home, don your cossie and walk across the palm tree lined boardwalk and under the train tracks to the beach (yes, Badalona is also very very close to transport with train right next to boardwalk) and swim in the nice warm Meditteranean. We even have squeaky green parrots here that remind us of our rainbow lorikeets in Sydney. Best of all, there are loads of inexpensive tapas bars where you can eat a three course meal with bread and a pitcher of Sangria for like $15 - seriously : ) That means you have more money left over for really important things, like new socks and underwear.

Next stop, Lloret de Mar - north of Barcelona on the Costa Brava. We're a bit scared as the lady at our Badalona hotel has described it as the Las Vegas of the Costa Brava. I am sure we will have stories to tell. Stay tuned!