Sitting on the bus to get from the departure lounge to the plane at Paris Charles De Gaulle (or Charles De Dull as I will now forever call it) airport on Friday night and I over hear the following conversation between a child and his mother…

CHILD: “Mummy, Mummy, I suppose Halloween is a very dangerous time for planes….!”

MOTHER: “Why’s that?”

CHILD: “Well it’s obvious isn’t it….? Egging.”

Now I was thinking he may have confused Halloween for Guy Fawkes night, in which case there would be fireworks in the sky, I could see the sense in that… but egging? A plane? That would be some good aim.

It was the only thing to smile about at Charles De Dull on Friday, as I was put in a very bad mood while I spent a total of 3 hours in it.

The UK use the Great British Pound. The Czech Republic (the location of our weeks holiday) use the Crown. France use the Euro. Seeing as we were only going to be in France for 3 hours in each direction, it didn’t really make any sense to take out any Euros from the Post Office, instead I’d just take some from the cash machine at Charles De Dull.

On the way out we ended up catching our flight from one of the older terminals of De Dull where there were plenty of cash machines but really no where to eat. In fact once you were through security there were no shops, restaurants or even toilets. Not a good plan for the over prepared David who always turns up to airports hours before he needs to.

On the way back (on Friday) we were flying from one of the newer (possibly brand new?) terminal…. great, you’d think. But lessons from Terminal 5 at Heathrow show that a new airport terminal isn’t always a good thing.

Plenty of shops. Plenty of restaurants. Even Playstation 3’s to play while you wait for your flight. But NO cash machines. None what so ever. One incredibly unhelpful French man informed us that once we were past security there were no cash machines and that we’d have to pay for anything with cash (which we didn’t have) or credit card (I’m a student, the last thing I need is a credit card).

One shop accepted British money! Hurray!! We had a £5 note, and £5 in coins. Except they didn’t except coins. Fair enough I suppose, except we didn’t know this till we were at the counter. And thanks to the terrible airport pricing and even worse exchange rate, our bottle of coke, Mars Bar and packet of crisps came to more than £5. But rather than letting us put one of the items back, the snotty French shop assistant refused to serve us.

Grrr… ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS SPEND SOME OF MY MONEY IN THEIR STUPID FRENCH AIRPORT! Is that too much to ask?

Finally we did find 2 Euros on us which was enough for Emma to get a packet of crisps. We didn’t dare go back to the shop that refused to sell us goods, so instead we found another. Yet this shop you were required to show your boarding pass before you bought goods, even for a packet of crips. It wasn’t surprising that there were several boarding passes lying around that people had dropped, how they were going to manage to fly I don’t know. The daft thing is, Emma managed to get through security without showing her boarding pass (I know this, because it was in my pocket), yet had to show her pass to get a packet of crisps. Madness.

People have said for years that the French are rude, ignorant, full of themselves (I could go on), but I didn’t really understand this properly till Friday.

If we’d been travelling Prague to Aberdeen direct, I would have been upset to see the lights of Aberdeen at 9.30 on Friday evening, but instead I was so relieved to see Dyce coming in to view.

Here are some Tweets from my Twitter profile.

• 11:54 getting ready to check out. #
• 14:38 waiting in Prague airport. Such a nicer airport than Paris or Aberdeen. #
• 18:22 NEVER going to visit Paris or France EVER. What a tip. #
• 21:08 back on the ground. #

I’m using the free wi-fi in the hotel to write this, however I’m also writing this using my IPod (I knew I should have taken my laptop).

Anyway, Prague is excellent. Place is nice, food is nice, hotel is nice (can’t wait to post picture of view from the hotel window) and the weather is cold but bearable.

Will write a more in depth review of this fine city later.

David

Here are some Tweets from my Twitter profile.

• 04:49 at Aberdeen airport. Its cold. Its early. Its snowy. Im hungry. #
• 19:27 being rock and roll in Prague by going to bed very early. It’s been a good but very long day. #

I had two choices for this coming week… Go to Shetland for a week, or go to Prague for a week. Now going to Prague will probably encounter lots of snow, but going to Shetland would have encountered what you see above (in fact if you look closely you will see the ferry from Shetland waiting to enter the harbour 6 hours late).

I think I chose the best option… Prague.

Heading there very early tomorrow morning, so this could be the last update for a wee while. I’m trying to convince Emma to let me take my laptop, she isn’t convinced though.

David

Here are some Tweets from my Twitter profile.

• 11:12 sitting in the hairdressers… Doesn’t seem that long ago since I was last here. #
• 15:50 bemused by the person wearing a wooly viking helmet on the bus. #

Here are some Tweets from my Twitter profile.

• 12:50 not convinced that getting the bus is any quicker or easier than walking. #
• 14:07 rich with Czech Koruna. Although now can’t afford to buy anything in British money. #
• 17:37 happy I decided not to go home this Easter. Looking a little windy out there. #

Here are some Tweets from my Twitter profile.

• 09:32 a bit shaken after the IPod charger just exploded in a massive fireball. #
• 14:37 sitting in college very bored. Could be doing something productive with my time. #

If you’re anything like me, your computer screen will constantly be dirty and have finger prints all over it.

Don’t worry, follow this link for some free screen cleaner…

http://linein.org/media/screencleaner.swf

David

Here’s a tip, don’t buy cheaper versions of electronics when you can buy the proper offical expensive versions.

I was in Comet a couple of weeks ago looking at adapters so I could charge my IPod without using a computer (useful for my forthcoming holiday), they were however £30.

On Ebay the unofficial versions which work just as well apparently only cost £2, so it was obvious which one I was going to buy.

Fast forward to this morning when there was a low budget Casulty-esque explosion in my bedroom accompanied by real life flames.

So I think there is a lesson to be learned there. I now have to find the fusebox to get some electricity back to my room.