So many days since the last time I wrote, so many things have happened.
It all started when my flight from Funchal to London- Gatwick got delayed on Wednesday, transfer from Gatwick to Heathrow was almost impossible, such an expensive ticket for such a horrible trip. The smell was hideous, no one had cleaned the bus toilette and there was no air conditioner or opening windows, to worsen the situations there had been an accident in the speedway heading from Heathrow so a huge traffic jam got me to get to Heathrow airport 5 minutes before the flight departure to Prague.
After running from the bus with my entire luggage I ended up reaching the right terminal and right check in desk, but it was already too late.
Still, with short breath, I tried getting another flight to Prague, but there was only on the next day at 8 a.m.
After thinking for a few seconds that I would have to spend the entire night in Heathrow Terminal 1, waiting for an early flight, and feeling extremely tired from all the running around and getting lost in the airport. Me, and my friends, got booked in a nearby Hotel (Renaissance) with transportation, dinner and breakfast.
Staying at the hotel ended up being the best part of the day, we managed to get a good rest and decent meals. After a very hot shower and several dishes of every food we could see, we went out for a walk and see the vicinity, it was quite pleasant even with the wind and cold. After that we went to the lounge and got ourselves a pint of beer which was followed by a good sleep. Although waking up at 5h30 to go stuff our faces with jam covered croissants and cakes isn’t seen as a normal thing by the local people.
After some incidents on the Heathrow Airport, luggage policy and police control, the flight to Prague went smoothly, we arrived on schedule, and everything was fine, except my luggage case had been broken which allowed me to ask for a refund… that I will manage to get when I feel that I need extra money for something.
To get from Prague Airport to Pardubice, what an adventure, first step was to restore my luggage case and withdraw some Czech crowns, and then we were guided by our “Buddy” Alena via SMS to Pardubice, first a bus, then metro then a train.
Carrying luggage across Czech Republic is not exactly fun, not to say safe and easy. The first time that we confronted the “Czech reality” was at Prague main train station. No one would know how to speak English or German, (or any other language) drunken beggars following people around, contradicting information such as time schedules, train lines etc. (oh and the 5 kcz to use the WC)
When we got ourselves to Pardubice 1h and 10 minutes later we got confronted with a 2 level staircase while holding two pieces of luggage and a backpack on the back.
Alena met us at the train station and showed us the way to the University by bus, after helping us to check in on the reception desks at our dormitories she guided us through the campus.
After leaving everything at “home” we went out to get food and ended up having dinner at 6pm, a large pizza and half litre Czech beer (Pilsner Urquel) then we met the other Portuguese ERASMUS that had arrive, Roberto and Rita and also Brazilian exchange student and Peruan regular student, André and Carlos. We went out for a walk to the centre and visit local hang out clubs like Hanybany and …
The next weekend the dormitories were going to close the water and cut of the power for maintenance, so we decided to visit Prague, stayed at a local Student Residence and visited Prague main sites and went out at night. When we got back for the weekend we finally had a meeting with all the other ERASMUS that had arrived, we had dinner at Sofa in the centre and then went out to Patapouf and Hanybany.
After that night we got more familiar with the Greeks and ended up hanging out either at my room or at Helena’s room to make Caipirinhas. On the next weekend, after partying at Club A Dydy Baba and ERASMUS rooms at night during the week, on Sunday we made a surprise party at my room for Ruben and Yoryos who had their birthday already at Czech Republic, but didn’t celebrate them properly. On the next week the classes started, some of them were nice, other were just boring, usually the classes that were mainly ERASMUS students were the best ones, because Czech students aren’t exactly nice towards foreigners.
Then this weekend, everyone was supposed to be going to a ski post but this year the winter was shorter and there is no snow, some of the Portuguese and Greeks went to Prague for a long weekend. Meanwhile I will try to recover from my Greek flu, that I seem to have contracted from Helena, and try to organize things for the next week in order to spend less money because next weekend I want to go to Poland and I don’t think I will be able to go if I keep spending money like this!
