And Away I Go

I've spent the last two days in a flurry of activity (with a day at work today sandwiched in) preparing to depart for Europe. Jeez, that sounds pretentious. Oh well.

I'm heading off tomorrow to meet up with Fang in Cologne, Germany. He's been there since the weekend attending some global industry event. I arrive in the wee hours of Wednesday morning and while he labors away at his work event, I intend to traipse the streets of this lovely old burg. You know, check out some cathedrals, scour the local flea markets, try to find some intriguing antiquities, shovel down some local fare, prowl local book stores, loiter in a cafe and roam the resident beer gardens. Essentially, however, I'll be biding my time.

The real vacation starts when Fang's obligations are over on Thursday. We then will head to our chosen destination; a four day visit to Prague in the Czech Republic. I've long wanted to visit this architecturally beautiful city. It's landmarks are legend. There are so many sites I want to see--The Lobkowicz Palace, The Charles Bridge, The Church of St. Nicholas, Prague Castle, The Strahov Monastary, Starometska Radnice, St Vitus Cathedral and of course, The Communism Museum. It's a culture overload. And I am ready for it.

Of course, I am hoping the food will be on par. I see there are several translations for sausage and fried meatstuffs so I'm encouraged.

Before he left, Fang was drilling me in Czech from his miniature Berlitz book. I soon realized that most of the Czech language closely resembled Polish (which would make sense as the Polish language originated in Czech). Why, how hard can it be? I can already say: hello, goodbye, good evening, good morning, thank you, I'd like that, beer, may I have, please, you're an asshole, kiss my ass, did you just fart?, penis, vodka, you're a fucked out asshole and I hope you die of cholera--all fluently in Polish. That's all I need, no? Fang tried to get me to learn "How much is that?" and "Can you make the price lower?" but I never quite picked it up. Perhaps I'll study on the plane.

Now the nice thing about traveling with Fang is that I don't do it much. That is, we don't holiday together very much. When we do, Fang likes his comforts so he insists on the best of the best. My flight tomorrow to Germany is in business class. The hotel in Prague is in a junior suite in a five star hotel. I'm generally a low maintenance girl but I won't turn down the comforts of upscale travel.

So I'm off people. I have all the power cords, adapters and other accoutrements of international blogging. Hopefully, you'll hear from me again over a generous plate of wiener schnitzel and kartoffelen. Ahoj brzo!