Long Trip and First Impressions

Here's my first post from the Czech Republic. Read as little or as much as you want or you can just look at the pictures.


Wrote this on the flight over:

Quite the journey so far...
After the brief flight from Austin to Dallas, I had only 10 minutes from when I arrived in Dallas to when my flight to London was boarding. This afforded me a chance to get in a little exercise as I took a jog through two terminals and across a sky bridge to reach my departure gate before it left. Right now I'm about on hour 4 or 5 of my transatlantic flight and I've made myself a little challenge to remain seated for the entire flight.

It turns out that I won my little challenge and managed to remain seated for the entire flight.



Next was my wait in London Gatwick in which I felt I was in an alternate universe of sorts. On the outside and some of the inside, the airport itself looked ancient but the waiting area was just like a modern shopping mall. Everything seemed just like a shopping mall in the US with all of the displays, shopfronts and free giveaways yet everyone talked so much differently. Upon revealing that I was from Austin to a group of people while we were waiting for free mojitos, all they could talk about was the TV show "Dallas" and something about JFK being shot and as it if was the most popular TV show in the UK today. Mabye its a generational thing for Americans but they were all very disappointed when I told them I had no idea what they were talking about.

Prague Train Station

My first impression of the Czech Republic is that there is a mix of the way things used to be and a rush to catch up with Western Europe. This is particularly reflected in the Soviet era architecture with the exterior being redone with modern glass. Also with the presence of many modern conveniences, but from my experiences today without an emphasis on service in supermarkets and restaurants.