Prague; Wednesday, 11 April, 2001

So here I was. For the first time in more than 10 years I was getting ready to go on holiday and for the first time it wasn't with family it was with friends. I still couldn't quite believe what had started out as a bit of a drunken joke in a pub a couple of days after Christmas was actually happening.

After a short delay (1 hour) we were off and only 95 minutes later the plane landed in Prague. A quick exit from the plane and straight through immigration to arrive at the baggage belts just in time to see our luggage coming up (barely 10 mins from the plane touching the runway). Straight through customs and into a waiting taxi through the outskirts or Prague (at somewhere approaching 80 mph!) to the hotel. In less than 45 minutes I had got from the air to the hotel!.

It was already 11pm so we decided on a quiet evening and went to the bar at the end of the street where we drunk ourselves silly (The Czech's operate a brilliant system where they keep a tab on your table of how many beers you have had and charge at the end). After about 4 pints each we asked for the bill that came to about £4 (you couldn't get one round of drinks for that in even the cheapest student bar in the UK) and promptly tipped the bar man about £6 as we still weren't used to the currency, though it would explain why we got such good service the next time we went in...