So….a travel day.

We had gotten a notice from easyJet that there were “unprecedented delays” on the road from Casorote Sempione, where our hotel was, to Terminal 2 at Malpensa.  So we opted for an early shuttle to the airport.  The ride took about 20 minutes instead of the usual 10.  Consequently we spent the whole morning in the airport.  No problem.  I still love airports. We walked and snacked and finally boarded 1.5 hour flight on the bus-like plane to Prague.

Our Airbnb host met us at the Václav Havel airport, so we got lots of info on the half hour car ride to the apartment. He’s a very interesting guy named Abdi who loves to talk.

Inside the apartment, he showed us a map where he has numbered all the sightseeing spots and restaurants and he answered all of our questions.

We took about 10 minutes to breathe and unpack and off we went to the grocery store.  Now, we are really feeling the adventure.  Although some things are in English, most are not.  Everything is foreign and “big cityish.”  Our first urban art encounter was this woman made of rusty nails:

Thanks to Apple Maps, we found the grocery store which was an escalator ride down to essentially an underground shopping center.  The shopping took forever because we couldn’t read the labels and it was super crowded.

When we came out we saw some other specialty food shops, but we were already done.  Somehow, we took a different escalator up than down, and we got out to see this:

Apparently, Franz Kafka was/is a big deal here.  More to come on that. And I got a good taste of Fall colors, albeit urban:

We came home and got busy on multiple devices.  Ken finally chose a dinner spot and I booked us a “free” walking tour for tomorrow.

Cafe Louvre, which opened in 1912, was quite the scene.  Very formal service, full of people dressed in every way from elegant to T-shirts, dining in a fancy pink and white historical room. The guy next to me had a martini, so I ordered one.  It tasted nothing like gin or even any alcohol.  I have no idea what it was! It did have an olive in it and was in a martini glass and was very easy drinking.  We ordered classic Czech dishes—Ken, goulash, and me, pork shoulder: 

The food was (and maybe this is totally cultural) barely edible.  The meats were so dry!  The cabbage salad tasted and looked exactly like American coleslaw.  The food is served by a cheffy looking guy, not the one who took our order:

The whole experience was a riot! 

We walked back to our apartment for the week,  Our shortcut is through the courtyard of the National Theater where I saw this:

We have so much to learn and see here.  Adventure abounds!