Hello everyone, and thank-you Kyle for the opportunity to be a guest writer on your blog. It is both an honor and a pleasure ; ) I am going to write about our first day in Prague because according to my travel partner here, there was alot of Czech and Slovak going on around him that day and for the most part did not know what was going on as my translations got worse and worse the more frustrated I became. The cause of the frustration will now be analyzed in the following essay:
N.B. This is a long blog written in detail especially for family members who know my grandparents and enjoy having fun at their expense. If you are not of the Triska clan then feel free to skip over the details :)

On Monday morning I woke up at 550am because Babi wanted to leave the house at 7am to get to the train station for our 808am train. According to her, it would take a while to get us out of the apartment because she and dedo are both 87 years old. Her estimation was correct because not only were we late in leaving (we ended up taking a cab, with a good looking female cab driver which dedo loudly announced to the cab's passengers AKA Babi, Kyle, cab driver, and me. Taking the cab instead of the tram was not the best idea either because we ended up in a traffic jam!) but dedo forgot his hearing aid in the process of scurrying out of the place - much to my babi's annoyance as she said she had set out everything he could possibly need the night before!

Once we got to the station we managed to find our way to the correct platform. I could see the wheels in my babi's mind turning; she was worrying about how to get us all on the right train car and where it might possibly stop along the platform. She was so antsy to get on the train when it came that she practically ran ahead of us toward our car (#256) all the while forgetting that dedo (who walks VERY slowly) is with us. I even instructed Kyle to follow Babi as I was trying to stay with dedo and even KYLE could not keep up with her because of the crowds holding him back that were then getting off the train. Dedo, Kyle, and I navigated our way through the crowds too late... The train conductor was already starting to whistle for everyone to get on he train yet Babi was now nowhere in sight and our car about 100 meters ahead of us! The train door slammed in our faces and the train had to specially wait for us and re-open the doors so we could scoop my dedo into the nearest car! Then I could only hope Babi made it on the train ok and find our way to our seats. When we finally got to them, Babi was kicking people out of them while I gave her hell for not waiting for us!

Dedo forgetting his hearing aid cost my Babi a little sanity later on because dedo is deaf in his left ear and almost deaf in his right. This created an embarrassing situation for my Babi who was raised to care what other people think; dedo was half-yelling to communicate on the train while my Babi was shushing him to be quiet. This was to occur multiple times because on the train we figured out that their tickets were printed wrongly and we had to have a discussion about what to do next. You would have thought a tragedy had occurred - that is how stressed my poor Babi was! You see, dedo is not quite as chipper and sharp as Babi because he is deaf and he is a man who has been taken care of his whole life. Now my Babi feels responsible for all of his actions (many of which are hilarious or embarrassing depending on who you are asking) and style of clothes - she made him change before we left!

Ultimately dedo came to Prague for the day instead of getting off a few stations before and catching the train back to Bratislava. He has a passion for trains and loves to ride trains just for the fun of it every few weeks. The original plan to get him off the train before Prague was because according to Babi and dedo, the Prague train station is just too overwhelmIng ever since they began building an addition a year ago. Once we arrived I was surprised to find that the station is actually quite small for a major tourist city and pretty straight forward but I can only imagine how crazy it would be for an 87 year-old to see the changes over the years since they have known Prague their whole lives.

The adventure began in Prague with my Babi walking with one cane and my dedo (AKA half-spider man) with TWO canes through the busy station. Babi's speed was like an Olympic track runner compared to dedo, which was not lost on her as she scurried ahead of us and every so often would turn around and yell at dedo to hurry up lol! He was giving it all he had and the normally 7 minute walk out of the station to Wenceslas Square took about 25 minutes. The plan was to have lunch with dedo in the square and then to walk him back to the platform for the 4 hour train ride back to Bratislava. I was concerned that he couldnt make it far and then get back in time to catch the train so we stopped at the first restaurant we saw - a tourist trap but a delicious one at that - which had traditional Czech meals and a nice atmosphere. Dedo yelled that he really liked the place which made me happy after all that commotion in getting there. Did I mention that my dedo would walk in the MIDDLE of the busiest sidewalk in Prague without a care in he world that everyone had to find their way around him? He just shrugged me off and pretended not to hear me when I suggested he walk to the side with me to let people pass! What a character!!!

The food was fantastic and the experience there made me realize where some of my love for food comes from... When the meals arrived they disappeared faster than you can say "traveling with your grandparents is fun but a tiny bit stressful". Both grandparents ordered themselves beer and when dedo drank the first one in 5 minutes, he ordered himself another! Normally I wouldn't care but I was starting to worry that his 2-cane-walking-style might seriously be compromised so I hurried us out of the restaurant to give us as much time as I thought necessary to get him back to the station, buy him a ticket, and get him onto the correct platform and on the train. That means I gave us about 1 hour and 40 minutes lol!!

Dedo made it to the station with us in 25 minutes meanwhile it was nice to see how glad he was to be in Prague again. We had to have another debate, though, to find the ticket booths because my Babi is stubborn and was not listening to my advice/pointing to the booths and she led us astray while dedo had no idea what was goin on and was starting to get frustrated with us leading him all around the station! Once we had the tickets (more drama in finding the Czech korunas that Babi put in Dedo"s pocket he insisted he did not have) there was another challenge ahead: getting dedo on the escalator! You see, Canada is amazing for having ramps and elevators for people who need it but as my dedo said, "in prague if you are In a wheel chair you might as well hang yourself"!

Last drama: finding the correct platform because it was not yet posted on the board (oh and dedo having to use the bathroom again because of all the beer he drank but having no money to pay to use the toilet). With a bit more bickering between Babi and Dedo while we waited for the train, we finally got him on and could be thankful he had a good time and was safely heading home. By the way, the bickering was about Babi giving dedo heck for not bringing his hearing aid all the while dedo getting upset because he didn't understand why Babi was yelling at him!

So there we were, an exhausted Babi from the commotion of the day, with Kyle and I. Thankfully the metro station was actually inside the train station and we headed out to our beautiful hotel provided by my fantastic mom as a Christmas present: The Green Lobster. It is right under the Prague Castle in a gorgeous historic street called Nerudova which unfortunately is a very steep hill. The walk up to the hotel was gorgeous but poor babi was so tired we had to take breaks heading up it. She told me the NEXT DAY (!!) that there was a better way to get there via tram and we could have walked DOWN hill to our hotel! Oh, did I mention that Babi, Kyle, and I almost tripped over the current Czech president? We were making our way up Nerudova and through the pretty Malostranské Námésti (Little Quarter Square) and passed by a nice doorway where I noticed a Secret Service type fellow who whispered into his little ear piece "we are heading out now". Then we crossed between him and the doorway and Babi grabbed me and told me that the man making his way to the expensive car is the current president! We then had to wait as a fleet of police cars cleared the way for him! Aren't we posh?!

Anyway, once we got to the hotel babi took a 15 minute rest and then we headed out for a tasty coffee across the street. By the time Kyle and I started walking toward the castle (leaving my Babi to rest in the super nice hotel) it was dark and the view of the city was GORGEOUS! Prague is definitely the most beautiful city I have ever seen and to see it at night was amazing. There were very few tourists around and we felt like we had a private viewing of the gorgeous palaces, churches, and monastaries in that area of the city which is called Hradčany and Malá Strana ("little quarter"). After walking around for 3 hours we managed to see (for those of you who want to google it to see how pretty these places are) Prague Castle, Old Royal Palace, St George's Basilica and Convent, St Vitus' Cathedral (beauty!), Sternberg Palace, Strahov Monastery, Loreto (a very pretty church that Babi said she used to go for walks around on dates!), Church of St Nicholas and many more! It was late so we did not go inside any of these places but it was magical to just see them from the outside anyhow.

After all that walking we went back to the hotel to check on Babi. Even though I told her not to worry about us as we would be gone for several hours, she stayed awake to make sure we got back safely. She told me that Prague is dangerous because of robbings and other horrible things she thought of in her imagination. I appeased her by telling her there was a large police presence there (Which there was!) and that we are not the type to go down dark creepy alleyways where we could get attacked. After such a long day, Kyle and I were hungry and needed a beer so we walked to a tiny grocery store where we bought 4 large bottles of Czech beer and some tasty (you guessed it...) cheese! We happily ate and drank in the hotel room where Babi was already sleeping in her separate part of the room. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep waiting for the slow Internet connection to load my email!

All in all it was a great day despite the little bumps in the road. At least they made for a great story! Thanks mom for booking the hotel, Babi for going early to the train station the day before to buy tickets, and Kyle for happily following along even though many times he didn't even know what was going on! Love you all!