Absinth and the Jungle Bar- Or a very Lovelly Christmas

OK so next up we headed to Prague for Christmas. This was going to be awesome, a white christmas behind the iron curtin in the Cheque Republic (anyone who has been there would get the joke) with Joe Knorks, Tony and his French girlfriend Madeline ( I mean Amelie). But then disaster struck for the first time. In the week leading up to Christmas fog struck London, Heathrow was basically fucked all week, half the flights out where cancelled and their were delays everywhere. So the day we left we had to get up at 3 am in order to get to a flight at 7. Of course it all went a little wrong when the house members of the Pickle Flat decided to drink until midnight.

So we got to Heathrow around 4:30/5 am and then had to join a queue to get into the airport, they were so considerate they had even set up a marquee outside the building just to control people. It was cold, fucking Englishly cold. And let me tell you about people not behaving well in queues, that day was not a positive advertisment for the people of London. Anyways, after queueing to get in the building, waiting to be allowed to queue to check in, queueing to check in, queuing to go through security and customs, we had to run to get to the plane. Three hours of messing about in order to get on a 1 and 3 quarter hour flight.

Anyways we got to Prague and their wasn't a flake of snow to be scene, but that was all right there were still two days to go... We caught a cab into town, to the majestic Atlantic Hotel and as we were too early for checking in we decided to adjourn to the bar for a drink. In we walk, noting as we entered that the bar advertised Absinth on its menu for only 69 koruna (no idea on the spelling) which works out to about 4 3.5 Aussie dollars- nice and cheap place old Praha.

So we walk into this bar and I notice some European jerk sitting at a table facing the wall. Funny I thought to myself, you don't expect to see many ex Warsaw Pact mother fuckers with necks that short and thick. Then I noticed something else, funny, you don't expect to see a hair cut that looks quite that bad from behind in too many places in the world. Then finally I saw his shoes, Funny I thought, I didn't think the Cheques would be any good at making cowboy boots. Then it all clicked, it was old Kapitan Kloss himself, obviously there on some deep cover assignment (his cover being obvious tourist (he had two guide books on the table next to him and his oversized camera)). What a surprise it was for him, on the other side of the world, ready to commit some dastardly deed when in walked his bigger brother and sister ready to ruin his cover.

With his mission comprimised he decided to hang out with us for christmas, which was good. The first time Team LoveTrain had performed with all members present in a long, long time. So fastforward to later that night, where in down town Praha, slightly off the beaten track in a Communist era themed pub. I'm talking guns, and maps of the USSR on the wall, pretty cool. Anyways, we started getting on it but after traveling thru a couple of genuine Prague pubs the night was starting to flag, people hadn't had enough sleep and we just weren't drinking fast enough. After losing Tony and Amelie- they needed some 'alone' time, we gave into temptation and decided to hit an Irish Bar- Rocky O'Toole's (just of Wencelsas square- big thumbs up). We arrived and having had enough of fucking about I ordered us a round of Absinth's- Lets see if these Eastern Europeans really know how to make a spirit.

It turns out they did, after much fucking about lighting sugar, and nearly burning down Rockies thanks to a slight mistake with the flame getting into the cup, we finally achieved what we really went their for- Absinth, hallucinations here we come- now seeing that we ahd all seen Eurotrip (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356150/) we took some elaborate precautions to not end up pashing each other- basically we just started argueing with each other- Tommy wouldn't have enjoyed it- and wow, those Absinths, they'll get you ever time.

Anyways, to cut what is becoming a long story a little short we ended up in the Jungle Bar, Praha's best gentlemens club and settled in for a long nights looking at naked girls. It turned out to be a really long night, getting back to the hotel at 7 am. Keeping in mind kloss had traveled around the world, and we had been up since 3 am the preceding day, I think it was a fairly impressive night out.

But I was wrong, Absinth's had a hidden effect, when I woke at around 1 in the afternoon I was suffering from by far the worst hang over I have ever experienced, most people would attest that I can normally back up fairly strongly (follow the link to the Gabba Stack A Thon if you don't believe) but I was done and dusted, it turned out so where the other two members of Team LoveTrain so we ended up writing off a complete day of our Prague experience. We ended up having to do all our sight seeing on Christmas day...

That's about all thats real exciting from that trip- although on the Tourist side I will talk up Prague to anyone who asks, the old town square and christmas markets, the Charles Bridge, the Castle (especially the amazing gothic St Vitus) and basically anything else up the top of the hill where the Castle is, are absolutly worth while. However I will say if you get sucked in by the White Christmas angle, dont as we didn't see anything that even looked like snow, but you can't have everything.

Billatron

P.s.- This is not the definative post on Christmas in Prague, Joe Knorks has spent the day working on a post for her sight which I will link in when it goes up- should be good.