Back to Prague.....

Pakdokter's flight to Amsterdam is delayed due to its late arrival this morning - probably due to a delayed departure from Amsterdam caused by unfavourable weather. With some time to kill, pakdokter came to the Plaza Lounge of KLIA for some snacks and drinks and decided to try out pakdokter's laptop and the YES 4G connectivity. Well, the connectivity is good and the download and upload time acceptable.

Pakdokter had been to Prague three times in the past. In fact Prague was pakdokter's first overseas trip and pakdokter's first experience of travelling by air. It was 1978 and it was for pakdokter's 2 months honeymoon in Europe. We took the OK Jet Airways, the Czechoslovakia National Airlines, because it was one of the cheaper airlines to Europe those days. The flight from KL to Europe via Prague was just around RM1300. We stayed in Prague for just 2 days, after which we flew to Paris from where we started our back-packing holiday of Europe, mostly by train. The honeymoon on the road ( or rather on the train) took us to San Sebastian in Spain which was just across the French border where the Basque seperatist rebels blew up the rail-track. We had to walk back with our back-pack into France to catch another train to Marseilles, Monaco, Nice, San Remo in Italy, Pisa, Rome, Florence, Venice, Stresa at the border of Italy and Switzerland, Luzern, Geneva, Basel, up the Rhine on a boat stopping at Heidelberg, Mainz, Koblenz and finally Amsterdam. The final stretch was to take the ferry from somewhere in Belgium to England. It was a honey of sleeping on the train, at railway stations and in cheap pensions. The room we had in the red light district of Amsterdam had pubic hairs on the bed-sheet!

But it was a most memorable honeymoon......

Prague in 1978 was under the communist regime. It was drab and dull, and you have to stand in a long queue just to buy a bottle of Coke! Very much like Moscow of the old days. Pakdokter's memory of Prague was its beautiful old town.

this honeymoon picture is also faded.....

in front of our hotel acroos the river overlooking

the Old Town...

pakdokter's partner on Wenceslas Square in 1978....


the young pakdokter....

Some ten years ago pakdokter and a group of friends did a tour of Eastern Europe that went through Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Unfortunately, this time,too, the stop in Prague was just for 2 nights and one full day which again left pakdokter and partner feeling not satisfied with the visit.

the Charles Bridge of Prague was a hive of activity
with musicians, artists etc etc....

the colours of autumn in the year 2000...

a slightly older pakdokter...

2 years later pakdokter had another chance to go to Prague, this time to attend the World Congress of Psychiatry if not the European Congress of Psychiatry. Although pakdokter was there for almost a week, most of the days pakdokter was attending lectures, symposia and workshops that pakdokter had really little time to do enough of the city.

The first trip to Prague in 1978 was in summer but all pakdokter could remember was the dull and depressing atmosphere under the communist regime. The trip ten years ago was in autumn but was too short to do much. The week during the psychiatric conference did allow pakdokter to do some concerts and shows but both pakdokter and pakdokter's partner told ourselves we would come back to this city just for a holiday.

And here we are today on our way to our (first) honeymoon city......