Saturday 5/7 Touring the city on Segway and meeting Sarah

We woke up, very excited to go on the Segways we saw the day before. We got up and ready, and then headed over to the old square to meet up with the guide, walking along the river this time instead of up through the town. We waited a short while for the guy to turn up, buut that was mostly because we didn't want to miss a spot so we had turned up a bit early ourselves.

Our guide Pavol arrived and took us back through to their office, where the other Segways were waiting. He gave us a quick bit of instruction and then tried each one of us on the machines. The group ended up being four people. There was an American couple who had been living in Brussels, who came along too.

I was first up and impressed at how quickly I picked it up. I kept using the word, but it was very apt; that controlling the Segway was very intuitive. In fact, the only thing that you might have to thing about a bit is the steering which doesn´t quite flow with the movement of your body like the acceleration/deceleration does.

Wow, what fun.

After a short while controlling the thing becomes automatic and second nature. At that point it really becomes fun because you are casually and without thinking, just moving about while stunned onlookers point, smile and take photos.

The guide grew up in the Czech Republic and so knew a hell of a lot about the city and the history of the country. He pointed out things and explained other things that we never would have picked up otherwise. The tour route itself took us through the old city, up through the Jewish quarter and then across a bridge and back along the river to Kampa where we crossed the river again and made our way back to the company´s office.

That was so worth the money, and was easily as awesome as we had hoped.

For lunch we found cheap Chinese food, with some interesting dishes to be had. We ordered Chicken of Three Flavours and Chicken of Surprising Taste. Yep, interesting. I´m not even sure which dish was which when we got them, but we ate them anyway.

We walked then to something which Pavol had pointed out to us along our tour. It was a special fundraising thing that a foundation for the blind had set up; a café in the dark. Total darkness. For 100 crown we got taken in, led by a guide who was blind, and seated at one of six tables. Of course, being pitch and utter black we wouldn't have known how many tables there were, but there was a seating chart outside that I peaked at. Inside, a blind waitress served us drinks. I got a coffee and Em got a green tea. I had to put in the sugar and milk in the dark, a very interesting endeavour. It was very cool and weird but I didn't want to let the gimmick of it get to me. I wanted to really appreciate what they were trying to put to people. So, I imagined that we weren´t sitting in a small black box in the middle of a public square. I imagined that we were sitting out at a café somewhere and that this was what it would be like if you weren´t able to see. A bit unnerving but it strengthened the sense of admiration I already had for people with sight problems.

Afterwards, we walked to the Jewish quarter. We were a bit silly and completely didn't think when we decided to push this over to this day. We didn't even consider that things might be closed on a Saturday. The only thing we really wanted to see was the cemetery, so we found it and walked till we found a closed gate. We could see in thought, and still got a pretty good view of it. The stones were half fallen over, at funny angles, and the pieces showed the wear and tear from the amount of time they had spent there.

On our way back to our hostel we picked up a slice of cake to take to Sarah, since it was her birthday and we were going to meet up with her soon. We spent an hour at the hostel, relaxing and freshening up, before we headed up to Sarah and her boyfriend Cooper´s hotel. Sarah had met us outside and took us up to their room. It was really good to see them. We hadn´t been with them for about six months. Funnily though, that must have been the shortest time between seeing the cousins.

Their hotel had given them a free bottle of champagne since they had seen it was her birthday, so Cooper poured us all some bubbly. When we´d polished off the bottle and caught up a bit we headed out for food. We found a cheap little Turkish/Greek food place and all had plates with gyros. We were a bit confused why it didn't quite look like the picture and we didn't get pita or chips, but gave up and didn't want to argue.

From there we headed down to Novo Mestro to find somewhere to have a drink. We eventually made our way to U Sudu, an underground pub with a series of rooms connected by tunnels, with the look of a bomb shelter and smelling entirely of cigarette smoke. We stayed there for a while and chatted over some beers and wine. Comics took hold of the conversation for a long while but I think we left Sarah slightly in the lurch there. That was okay because afterwards the conversation turned to the exploits of our family, especialy the times when we all get together and chaos and/or fun ensues.

The night finished off at Lucerna Music Bar where Em and I had been the night before. There was another 80s/90s disco on this night and we enjoyed a short stint of dancing to old tunes or just appreciating a series of good old songs played at every bar and bat mitzvah we can remember from our youths.

When everyone was a tad tired we called it a night and headed off in our own directions, saying our goodbyes and wishing luck for the rest of our travels.