day 1 is really more like day 1-1.5, since it is 24 hours of travel and it feels like the day/night/day jumbles together. we begin our trip at 4am, crawling out of bed to take care of last minute essentials like feeding the cat (my sister would be in later that week to house/cat-sit). lucky for us Flyaway has a stop right by our place so we hop on the 6am bus directly to LAX.
at our layover in atlanta, we somehow end up eating at an awful TGI Friday's. i gulp down a really bad mojito, mainly because i'm on vacation and anything is okay. we also eat really bad steak salads and chicken tenders. the food i eat on the plane to prague is equally bad. but maybe because i don't like airplane food. i usually try a bite and give the rest away to destructor, who either eats or hoards all my food.
i can't sleep on planes unless i'm extremely tired. and i am only extremely excited on this flight, so i pass the time by watching a bad movie (the latest mr. bean - and i cannot find the english language channel). sometimes i stare out the window at the stars, which are beautiful. i even see a shooting star!
9 hours later we begin our descend into prague. i look out the window and see long stretches of trees; their different shades of green, yellow and orange make up a gorgeous color. inbetween patches of trees the signature red rooftops begin to show. i want to take a video but at this point electronics are not allowed to be on.
going through immigration and getting our baggage is a breeze. unlike other countries i'd visited, there is no paperwork to be filled out upon arrival. the 7 of us each buy a 1 week public transportation pass (approximately $15 - fantastic!) and make our way to the bus. from here it is a 20 minute ride to the subway line we need to take to get to our hotel. on the way we feel like we are at times driving through Anywhere, USA. we pass by huge sprawling shopping centers with IKEA, H&M, movie theatres, and many US stores. is this the valley?
as soon as we get on the metro we start snapping photos like typical tourists. we can't help it; we're all so excited despite the exhaustion. we get off at our stop and proceed to exit at the furthest exit from our hotel (unbeknownst to us). to get out we have to take an escalator that goes on forever (feels like 10 stories). it is also moving at what seems to be 60mph.
outside, it is gray, cold and raining but we persevere and all 7 of us loudly drag our rolling luggage down cobblestone streets to our hotel. it's a good 10 minute walk, but it feels like eternity because of the noise we are making. have you ever heard what luggage sounds like on cobblestone? 7 pieces, at the same time? all of a sudden i have a heightened awareness of us being loud americans.
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