Japan to Australia via Eastern Europe Part 8 - Day 6 - London/Prague

Ant was suffering a bit overnight from jetlag. We both woke up about 2am London time (which equates to 10am Tokyo time)... I managed to go back to bed - whereas Ant stayed up until the morning.

London breakfast TV is a bit on par with Australia breakfast TV - in that it is total garbage. UK's "GMTV" is the equivalent to Oz's Channel 7's Sunrise program with Kochie and Mel. This morning on GMTV you could text or email the program whether or not you check your partner's text messages on their phone. Who cares about global warming or the war in Iraq - I think GMTV have their finger on the pulse of the real issues everyone wants to know about... like the "power shortage" England experienced last night when too many people were watching what happened on a cliff-hanger court case episode of Corination Street... (not kidding - true story).

It was a bit strange the news of the morning - the big story was the arrest of some Japanese dude in Tokyo for the murder of a British "Nova English School" teacher (it was a news story over in Japan as well - but we didn't really understand those whacky Japanese news bulletins).

We go downstairs in the Crestfield and have a free breakfast. Ant went a little overboard at breakfast (having two bowls of sugary museli plus toast and jam) and started to feel the effects of integestion soon afterwards.

Despite Ant not feeling a 100% - we both treked out to the Tate Modern (about a 40 mins walk from Kings Cross on the other side of the Thames. Unfortunately - we had arrived an hour early before the Tate Modern opened - so we walked back over the Thames (via the somewhat shonky Millenium Bridge - which felt like it wouldn't last a Millenium let alone a century) and had a coffee at the sandwich chain "Pret a Manger". They had the cutest napkins - telling you that they were not white because that is unfriendly to the environment. Also - if the clerk at the store gave you too many napkins - it instructed you to "give them an evil eye". But I give every store attendant the evil eye!

Anyhow - after successfully killing an hour - we wandered back over the Millenium Bridge - past the world HQ of the Salvation Army - which looked a little too flash for something that tries to cater for the poor.

At the Tate Modern (a contemporary arts musuem) - they had this installation which was a series of "super happy fun time slides" all around the various levels of the Tate Modern. I gave it a go and almost recieved permanent back damage for doing so. Ant was beginning to feel quite sick and decided to have a rest on some seats and let me view the gallery by myself.

The collection at the gallery had changed quite radically since our last trip (apart from a couple of Pollock's and Miro's which were there at our last visit). They had a big exhibit on art from the 30's to the 50's and another big exhibit on surrealism art. It was mosh pit busy - mostly because of heaps of school groups (being a Tuesday). The Tate Modern also had a little exhibit explaining that they are planing to build an extension to make the space 40% bigger - so that they can show more of their collection to the public.

Ant had suprisingly managed to see a little bit of the exhibation in his nausious state. We had both decided that it would be best to just take the tube back to Kings Cross to give him a bit of a rest.

After the four pound ticket (just to catch a short tube ride - yikes!) we arrived at the Kings Cross station - where Ant spectaularly managed to vomit, not once, not twice but thrice in a section of Kings Cross station. Very Trainspotting indeed.

We make it to the Crestfield - where our packed bags were waiting. Ant had to have a bit of a lie down in the lobby whilst I grabbed some dodgy Chicken Tikka Sandwiches down at the local post office (as you do in London). After waiting at the hotel for about 20 mins - we decide to make a break for the Airport (this time - Gatwick) and leave the hotel. After about 20m away from the hotel - Ant gets all trainspotting again - and vomits - this time into a bin (klassy with a k).

Ant and I manage to make it to the train station (in one piece - just) and we both catch the waiting Gatwick Express train (was a little more expensive than the Heathrow Tube at 9 pounds). Thankfully - Ant manages to feel a lot better whilst on the train - so his Trainspotting episode was over for today. Of note - there was some dodgy looking suburb on the way to Gatwick that claimed to be "the home of UK Nestle" - but I think it could claim the title of "the home of UK depression"... very Eastenders looking.

Gatwick Airport (despite being newer than Heathrow) was a bit of a rock show. There were lines going everywhere at the BA Check-In and people in sexy bright orange tops handing out free clear plastic bags (for the new "no liquids over 100ml on flights" rule)... See smarttraveller.gov.au for more details. Written and authorised by the J. Howard, Liberal Party Sydney... or something.

Anyhow - we managed to get some service in the BA version of the Qantas Club queue. We handed over our paper tickets and passports in the usual style to the BA dragon check in woman when she had no details of our booking for the flight to Prague... Apparently - the woman at Narita who changed us onto an earlier flight - had managed to cancel all of our "onward" tickets (is that the right word Ant?) on BA (including our flights to Prague, and Dubrovnik to London). Ant was thinking - thank god that we have paper tickets because it is a lot harder to argue with BA with just a electronic ticket.... with the paper version - you have pretty rock hard evidence that you had a booking.

After calling up someone over the phone - she managed to get us onto our original flight to Prague - but then said that we need to get someone from the BA lounge to fix our Dubrovnik/London flights because she couldn't do it...

We make tracks to the BA lounge (through the rockshow that was Gatwick security and immigration) and Ant tries to get them to rebook the Dubrovnik flights... whilst I got down to some serious blogging (as I didn't have a chance to do any in Japan - so we were a bit behind)...

The woman that was "helping" Ant fix our problem with the tickets suggested that Ant would have to call Qantas (not a toll-free number mind you) - and get them to fix it.... While Ant finally speaks to someone at Qantas - they seem amazed that BA were getting Qantas to fix it because it was totally BA's fault... The saga continues...

Anyhow - our flight to Prague was OK because we had exit rows (opposite aisle seats for both of us) - although it wasn't so good for me as I had a Harry Potter lookalike and some other brat (both unescorted minors) who were suffering from a sugar overload and were spilling sh## and acting up the whole flight. If the flight had landed any later - there would have been a double homicide - with Harry Potter's death on my hands...

Upon arrival at Prague airport - Ant was getting a bit worried that there wasn't any paper work for us to fill out to get into the Czech Republic - but it so happened to be that the Czech Republic is now in the EU Shenhzen - so no paper work is required once you are in the EU.... or something. One of the Czech immigration officer looked like she had stepped right out of a Eastern European Porno - she had blonde wavy hair, perky breasts, a short skirt, and dorky looking hat and a set of handcuffs... You've been a very naughty man victor! To add to the whole porn atmosphere - I have not been to an international airport that advertised brothels... until Prague. There was a huge ad for "Goldfingers" Gentleman's Club at the baggage carosel.... as you do!

We caught a local bus into town... It took us a while to get used to the strange ticketing arrangements - you had to buy extra tickets for any bags that you bring on board (as you do). On the way into town - the bus even drove past the aforementioned "Goldfingers" club - but it looked incredibly seedy.

We got dropped off near a metro stop - and caught the "retro" metro into town. it was very communisitic... It was about 100m underground with blast doors to keep that nuclear weapon fallout away from the trains (or something)... There were a bunch of strange punks - who appeared to be rather "nazi-ambigious" - we couldn't work out if they were skinheads or not. One was wearing a "Nazi Stop" jacket - which looked a bit skin-heady but a stick figure was chucking a swastika into a bin - which made Ant think they weren't Nazis - but they seemed to get awfully agitated when a asian family walked onto the train...

After we got out of the station (without being attacked by nazi-ambigious punks) - it seemed to be mighty seedy outside. There were yufs (our word for "youths") who were loitering around everywhere and the whole place seemed rather grungy/communistic looking. Ant got a little confused with the map - and we managed to walk in the opposite direction to our hotel for a block or so before realising the errors of his ways (or direction). At least I discovered that H&M (my favourite euro store) exists as they had big Madonna's range of clothing at H&M bilboards plastered up everywhere.

Our apartment building (we had booked a one bedroom apartment off wotif) was about a 2 minute walk from the old centre of town. We checked in (with no problems initally) and the apartment was massive. There was a huge living/kitchen area with two couches and a kitchen table, a big bathroom (with laundry machine - a god send on a round the world holiday) and a big bedroom. In fact - this place was bigger than my parent's apartment in Sydney...

After falling in love with the place - we ventured out on the seedy streets of Prague to find something to eat. We managed to find a Czech pub which was a stone throw away from the station. We had some pasta, some bread (albeit stale) and two big Czech beers for about $16 AUD for 2 people - bit of a bargin.

We headed back to the apartment building after dinner and casually flicked through the brochures at the front entrance - including one for the "Sex Machine Museum" and a lot of strip bar and brothel brochures (including the infamous "Goldfingers")....

When we headed upstairs to our apartment - we got shanghaied by the front door receptionist - who said that she couldn't find our booking on the hotel system. We discovered that the apartment complex had double booked our room (over the easter period - a peak Prague season) and that we did not have a apartment from tomorrow! Ant and I started to get a bit psycho - showing her our "Wotif.com" booking and stating that Wotif never oversells its rooms. She seemed totally bewilded when we handed our wotif booking to her - and Ant showed her the wotif website - which was still showing availability for this place over the easter period (despite them being fully booked).

The woman let Ant give Wotif in Australia a call. The Wotif woman over the phone was rather helpful - saying that hotels generally take the rooms off the wotif website if they have sold them elsewhere - but it looked like it wasn't the case for this place. We hand the phone over to the receptionist who seemed to be having problems communicating with the wotif lady with her limited engrish. Mind you - all of this is happening at 10:30pm local time...

After the phone call to wotif - we still don't sort things out. We won't have a room tomorrow night - and the reception lady can't solve anything until her boss gets back tomorrow morning.

Ant heads to bed whilst I use the free internet of the place to try and find alternative accommodation for the next couple of nights if we have no place here to stay. Although I had found hotels with availability still - I couldn't find anywhere that had the same great location - or with the same price...

Feeling anxious - I head back to the room - where Ant has formulated a plan to hold wotif accountable - and for them to find us accommodation is the sh## hits the fan...

What a day!