Europe Holiday 2015 - Day Four

Balcony breakfast again. Why not? Lovely way to start the day. Wandered around the Old Town to see the Astronomical Clock and the Square. the markets near the Municipal Building and Powder Gate were not open. Visited the Mucha Museum - this man did some amazing work for his country.

Astronomical Clock

Holidaying couple in the town square

Outside the Mucha Museum (photos inside were not allowed)

 Back into town and found another market. Looked at every shop before deciding where to buy souvenirs from. Miky purchased a coin purse after the owner was too busy on his mobile to look after us initially. He gave us the wrong change nearly didn't give us our purchase. Perfect chance for me to use a Czech swear word that I know. And I certainly did.

Markets in the town centre

 Had lunch at an Italian restaurant. The waiters couldn't understand that we didn't want to buy drinks, especially as it was a hot day. Well, we were interested in having a drink elsewhere. Afterwards I found the Old Jewish Cemetery but it appeared to be closed.

Astronomical amount of tourists later in the day around the Astronomical Clock

 Headed back to the area where we were staying to buy some drinks at Costa Coffee. Then shopped for clothes in Tesco. All American style as nothing else was suitable.

Love the carefully looked after buildings

 Back home for a rest for a few hours before walking along the river to Vysehrad. It was about 30 minutes walk away without stopping for photos. So, it probably took about 45 minutes to get there. Reasonable view of the city but the buildings look nicer from street level as the rooftops aren't that attractive.

Drunk building alongside the river

 Loud music and drunk people partying on boats tied up along the river. Miky commented that with such a beautiful city she was surprised that they couldn't write decent music. Back home around 10:30 pm.

Is this the Venice of Eastern Europe?

Rooftop view isn't that attractive

Couple above the Vltava River

 Quite a nice little walk around the old ramparts, ruins, whatever. Lots of people having picnics, drinking straight from the wine bottle, and enjoying themselves. Lovely weather for it too.

Ruins at Vysehrad overlooking the Vltava River

Looking over the Vltava River to the castle

 Wandered around the cathedral waiting for the lights to take affect. The nuns were watering the plants in the cemetery. Dvorzak is buried here, you know? Too late to walk around the cemetery as it had closed quite a bit earlier.

Cathedral at Vysehrad

Europe Holiday 2015 - Day Three

Slept well, for about five and a half hours. Went shopping at Tesco. Prices are good. Can read a bit of Czech. Miky got an Americano coffee at Costa Coffee and was happy to try to order in Czech. Had a breakfast of bread, cheese, meat and hot drinks on the balcony. So relaxing.

Hearty breakfast

Charles Bridge - a first look

Walked down to the river and across Karluv Most. Getting quite busy but not too crowded. Another tourist offered to take our photo. He was very impressed with the quality of photos that my phone took. I was very unimpressed that of the four photos he took he managed to get his finger in each one.

Us a Charles Bridge

Visited a few jewelry shops looking at garnet stones. "Traditional Czech," is the phrase that popped up everywhere we went. The shop assistant in the second shop we went to got quite annoyed when we didn't buy anything. Spent ages in a third shop which was offering up to 60% off and they even grabbed some designs from their second shop when we couldn't settle on anything. They too were annoyed when none of the pendants were to our liking but we did buy a ring from them. The assistant was Russian.

Shopping again at Tesco for drinking water, the mineral water kind. Dropped our gear off at the apartment and walked around to find a local place to eat. Sat in a beer garden at a restaurant and had beef goulash with bread dumplings and fresh onion and roast pork with potato dumplings and red sauerkraut. Miky enjoyed the beer, which cost only 19 koruny (~$1.05 for 300 mL) and salad.

Cheap, good beer. So I hear.

Nice Czech lunch

Had a nap for an hour and a half afterwards before we headed to the Old Town. Looked for the tourist info on Wenceslas Square but missed it. Thinking that the banks would be closed on Saturday we went to a Change / Western Union shop. Exchange rate was OK b
ut everything was written in Russian and English, not Czech, curiously. Changed $500 but noticed the commission was 1,749 crowns and I only received 7,041. Roughly 20% commission. Annoyed, Miky decided to head back in to get our money back. Had to wait for a young girl with skin problems and a big dog who was changing Australian dollars and had to fill in paperwork (we didn't) - she seemed to speak Russian and I think that she was a prostitute. Was quite surprised when the woman in the shop refunded our money. The fine print said commission was 19.9%. She hadn't mentioned that to me when she quoted the rate. Happy with that outcome.

Beware of any place affiliated with Western Union

Other shops were charging the same rate of commission or even 27%. Found a place offering no commission and his rate was 18.05/AUD which was even better than the Russian. I received 9,025 crowns, as the guy offered, and when I asked him if that was what he would pay me he said, "Of course, I want you to come back."

Looking for Havel Market. Miky asked some guy on the street who was carrying his shopping - he was an Aussie. Didn't know himself but was interested to know. Ha ha. I always get asked for directions when I'm in a foreign country. We had to ask plenty of people before we found it and they were closing for the day when we arrived.

Havel Market just closing for the day

Palladium shopping centre - clothing, shoes, tea light cover, Mongolian BBQ for dinner. Just the usual things in downtown Prague. Food was cheap at 417 crowns for two meals and rice which equated to $23.

Night time walk through the Old Town at 10pm. The streets were so busy and we hit the souvenir shops. Back past Karluv Most and Prazsky Hrad. Arrived home around 11:20. Fireworks at the time. Did notice that most convenience stores or booths are run by Chinese.

Prague's streets are beautiful at night

Wonderful in fact

And Tyn Church at the Old Town Square is gorgeous

One last look at Charles Bridge and the Castle before bed

Europe Holiday 2015 - Day Two

The service mark for Emirates dropped markedly when they forgot to serve breakfast to our row. Air rage is a real thing - ask the missus. She was pissed. I was asleep but had placed a sticker on the seat in front of me. The missus had been awake the whole time but was watching a movie. The guy in the aisle seat was asleep.

Finally they served us after being told off and my missus demanded an apology from the head stewardess, who touched her as she apologised, which upset her even more. Then they tried to take away her breakfast before she'd finished, with some lame excuse about coming in to land, and she told them exactly where to get off. Funny how the stewardess in charge didn't want to make eye contact as we departed the plane.

Wifi didn't work too well either.

Dubai is a flashy new airport

 Bit of a line for security screening. Did some duty free shopping. It was at this time that the missus realised she'd been ripped off buying duty free cosmetics on board the previous flight. The toilets were really busy at the airport. Lots of men and boys running around the airport wearing bath towels. Not sure what that was about. Thought they must have belonged to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party.

Don't you dare forget my meal on this flight

Another big bird waiting to take off

Dubai almost looks like a bomb hit it

Sat next to an Aussie who works 2 months on and 1 month off in Mali, of all places. Got thirsty and made the call for an attendant. Waited 20 minutes until the meals were served before they noticed. Can't complain about the service when there is none. Watched Unbroken - great film.

The missus obtained a refund for her cosmetics which were too dear on the previous flight. Happy traveller again. She was speaking to a Parisian about restaurants at the back of the plane at one stage. Found that I could even upload photos to Facebook on the flight - bit slow though.

If I'm not mistaken that must be the Alps - but if they were in Turkey probably not

Today's flight

Watched Run All Night - violent but quite good movie. Mountains were beautiful from the air with little in the way of clouds to spoil the view. Lots of gasps from the missus when I pointed them out to her. Meal was excellent - chicken. Great food on board.

After 1 hour to progress through immigration and then wait for our baggage. At Paris-Charles De Gaulle Airport I found EasyJet's terminal, 2D, but you had to ask as it wasn't stated anywhere. We would have to wait another two hours for the check-in to open. Had something to eat which wasn't really tasty. Purchased sim cards for the phones and installed them. Took a bit to get going and then all the notifications came through in French.

Obtained our boarding passes but Miky's hadn't been filled in properly - instead of From:Paris they had entered the booking reference number which made no sense to anybody. Changed the boarding pass and went through security. Had to remove my belt and go through again. Found I was unable to call anybody except Miky - turns out this was to do with the leading "0" and international codes. So confusing when it's all in French.

Air conditioner must be an English word as the airport doesn't seem to use them. There was a call for volunteers to place their carry on luggage in the hold - must be overloaded. And our flight to Prague was delayed so we stood in the bus on the tarmac for a while. Did they call themselves EasyJet for a laugh?

"Notso" EasyJet

It'll take forever if we drive to Prague from Paris

Took off at least 45 minutes late. Both of us were zonked and fell asleep quickly. Short flight. I was amazed to see that Korean was written on the signs at the airport as well as English, Czech and Russian. Changed some pounds sterling left over from a previous holiday and spoke as much Czech as I could. This surprised the clerk. He was even more surprised to hear that I was from Australia. Then to top that off I bade him farewell in Czech and Russian (accidentally) which provided him with a decent laugh.

I wasn't expecting Korean on signs at Prague airport

Grabbed our bags, at least three groups of Koreans were also on that flight, and grabbed a taxi. Saw a guy with a sign looking for "James Pissis". Nearly pissed myself over that but didn't stop to take a photo. Our driver was quite talkative and surprised to hear that we were from Oz. Friendliest driver ever. He even rang our host and took us right to the door. Gave us a discount too. Guess it pays to know some of the language and history of the place you are visiting as it made him fell comfortable with us.

Waited 20 minutes for someone to let us in to the building. A guy came out the front door and I asked him if he was Martin. This guy was in total shock as his name was Martin. But he wasn't the Martin that was our host so it was a huge coincidence. The apartment that we had rented was spacious and clean with 10' ceilings. Went out and grabbed some Mexican food for dinner. Ordered in Czech and the guy just spoke Czech to me. There was a group of Aussies that he served just before me so why was everyone surprised that we were from there? Didn't have to worry about how comfortable the bed was as I was almost asleep before turning off the light.

Europe Holiday 2015 - Day One

Dropped The Boy off at the airport this morning as he was headed to India for three weeks with World Challenge. Hoping that he has a difficult time in a third world country and comes back to appreciate what he has in Australia. Put in a hard day at the office before heading home for dinner and last minute panicking, er packing.

We left about an hour earlier than usual because there was a customs officer strike during the day and we expected this to lead to some delays. The taxi driver was an Indian chap. On the radio we had, "Die Yuppie Die". No trouble reaching the airport.

Suitcases - 13.4kg and 11.8kg. This will be important once we reach day 20 or so.

Bye bye winter, hello expensive summer

Couple of teas before we got started. No swab test for bomb residue - surprising. Normally get asked to do this. Wasn't pleased with the way the security guy slammed the missus' bag which contained her tablet. Only waited for one family at border protection/immigration so the strike didn't have much of a knock-on effect.

Airbus A380 - big, luxurious, USB power. Emirates serves really nice food, except for the carrots, and the entertainment system is fabulous. Could do with noise-cancelling headphones though. Watched Avengers - Age of Ultron and Kingsman. Only one screaming baby and that didn't last long.

Just in case I'm asleep when they serve the next meal

Scam Call

Scammers. They're everywhere. But lately they've been trying really hard to get me on the phone. Take this call from "Jason O'Connor" from the ATO. He must think I'm a real dipshit.

Boycott Bali?

Bali, Indonesia. A place where my wife suggested we spend our honeymoon. I've never been and have never had the inclination to visit. Until recently perhaps.

Bali is well known for being a place where bogans and yobbos from Australia hang out. They get drunk, do drugs and behave obnoxiously. Not all Aussies behave that way, I might point out. It's a destination that is cheaper than visiting other capital cities on the mainland and the rules seem pretty lax so it is the dregs of our society are attracted to it, naturally.

All visitors to Bali are warned about the trafficking of drugs and the death penalty associated with such activity. As has been well publicised a couple of stupid Aussies were executed recently in Indonesia for their role in a drug syndicate after having been caught 10 years ago with their drug mules and 8.3 kg of heroin they were trying to import into Australia.

The do-gooders in this country rallied behind them, and the Australian government provided quite a bit of support during the appeals process, but they were executed for their crimes, according to Indonesian law, nonetheless. Now they are calling for us to "Boycott Bali". Really? If that stops all of the yobbos and druggies visiting Bali then perhaps it will become a nice, clean place to visit. Even an attractive place to visit. I might have to reconsider my stance.

By all means, boycott Bali. Make it a better place for respectable people to visit safe from the influence of our uncouth and uncultured.

Today In Solar News

Bit of a milestone with regards to solar news. Today marks the day that the exported value of my solar panels exceeded the import from the electricity utility. It's just a smidgen under six months since we moved in and two days over three months since the solar was installed. Not quite self-sufficient, would be if I'd installed (extremely cost-prohibitive) batteries, but an interesting point nonetheless.

Some stats
Average daily output of solar array: 18.7 kWh (on the downward trend as winter approaches)
Average daily consumption (grid and solar): 8.86 kWh (pretty steady)
Percentage of electricity exported (sold to utility): 80.85% (pretty steady)
Daily savings average: $1.89

Considering that the average US home consumes 909 kWh/month and, on current consumption, we are heading for 270 kWh/month, we're being reasonably conservative. The depth of winter, not that we really have that season in Perth, and the height of summer, which we have in abundance, will place a severe upward pressure on that figure.

I've become more of an electricity Nazi, which is hard to believe, since installing the solar panels. No point in wasting it as it still costs money to use and you forgo money if you can't sell it to the utility. Pity that the rebate level is only seven (7) cents per kWh when the purchase costs are 22.36 cents per kWh. I could be making money if these rates were the same.

Six-Word Short Story

My son mentioned to me today that in English they had been studying six-word short stories. This style of writing has, rightly or wrongly, been attributed to Ernest Hemingway.

For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.

Or so the story goes. Some examples that his class came up with, or found on the Net, are as follows:

- Sorry soldier, shoes only in pairs.
- You are a failed artist, Adolf.
- Life is hard. Concrete is harder.

It got me thinking. Dangerous, I know. Here's some I came up with:

- Short sentence. Jailed for one day.
- Bali executions. Got their just desserts.
- Verbose people can't tell short stories.
- Nepalese life - I shudder to think.
- I cut a long story short.
- Memory loss. What was I thinking?
- Most vampires are nasty little suckers.
- My stomach is like the TARDIS.
- No single rooms in love hotels.
- No light bulb moments before Edison.

Think of any you'd like to share?