| 100 in 1000 |
- Spend a week up a mountain learning to ski
- Visit Karoline's place in Moravia
Hold a conversation in Czech (only)- Drink 500ml of each of the following beers:
PilsnerStaroprammen- Budvar
- Velke Popovice
- U Fleku
GambrinusKrusovice
Respond to at least one GOARN request (WHO and MSF are
also acceptable)Travel across the AtlanticReturn to South America- Read a book to, or with, an impressionably aged child
- Participate in one NanoWriMo Challenge and come within at least 10,000 words of the goal length
Have my nose pierced- Have my next tattoo drawn
Purchase the perfect jeans (x 2 pairs)- Attend a spin class 3 times a week for 8 consecutive weeks
- Bake Viv's cheesecake
Make David's casserole Make David's Chicken Cashew-nut StirfryInvite 4 people who don't know one another too well to dinner- Ride from Vienna to Venice on a motorbike (pillion acceptable, those less desirable)
- Attend a book group for at least two books
- Go on a choir weekend (learn and perform difficult piece in two/three days)
- Visit Madame Tussaud's (in London)
- Take an architecture appreciation course
Join an all-girl group and sing a soloPublish in a scientific journal (top two authors)Cook a duck or other 'waterfowl'. Locate the Al-Timimi's from Doha Veterinary PractiseHave a pedicureMaintain a Brazilian (ouch) for three months.Find a trustworthy Czech hairdresser- Treat my inner-6-year-old twice a week (at least)
- Do the liver-cleansing diet properly (12 weeks)
- Don't eat out for one month
Find a flat and flatmate- Purchase one Joseph sweater
- Purchase one of the following pairs of
designer shoes (they MUST also be COMFORTABLE, and be able to be worn with 4
different outfits and 2 types of occasion): Jimmy Choos, Manolo Blahniks,
Christian Louboutin (Ebay or 2nd hand are acceptable)
- Send 5 books to the booksphere and track them.
- Go hanggliding
- Read 10 'classic' books (from 1001 Books to Read before you Die)
Moll FlandersEverything is illuminatedMadam BovaryZen & the Art of Motorcycle MaintainanceCatch-22OdysseusOn the Road
- Run (non-stop!) for 5kms outside (preferably in a street race thingy)
- Send Christmas Cards on time
Make a collage/mural out of street lights on my wallBuy a bed, build it, and sleep soundly in itGo to AfricaHost an 'event' (classified as and when)Organise a 30th Birthday PartyWear a costume- Sing on stage
- Buy a painting that evokes memories of Prague (cannot involve queues!)
Learn a god-damned card game that stays in my memory (other than fish/snap)See sunrise. Be sober. Have woken for it. Excludes months Nov-Mar- Take a walk and flip coins at each intersection
Win something- Draft a will
- Take a roadtrip
Go to Italy already- Sea Kayak around Abel Tasman Park (NZ)
Get plantsTake a train to another Eastern European Destination (accession countries are acceptable) alone preferably.- Get UK to give me a provisional motorcyclists license and simultaneously get a 'card' license.
- Go SCUBA diving again - at least two dives lasting 30mins each.
Go to a dentist. *sigh*- Do a Czech Wine Trail. And live to tell the tale
- Make an 'outbreak emergency kit'.
- Go to bed prior to 11pm every night (inc weekends) for four consecutive weeks.
- Marvel over lack of tiredness
- Dine at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant (or Nobu)- preferably for free.
Bet on the nags- Do something for charity (applying and getting a 'red card' will count)
- Walk along the Champs Elysee
- Do 100 sit ups in a row
- Do 50 pressups (arms in tight)
- Make branston pickle (or nearest substitute)
- Cook something 'new' and 'adventurous' at least once a month
Find a mentorBe a mentorLearn what mentoring is all aboutMeet an online person in real lifeResist the flirt. Once. Just one night. It's okay if people don't immediately succumb to my natural charm. Really it is.Spend time at a spa (spa towns in the CR don't count)- Send a care package to someone
Get a Tata Bojs CD- Take a French/German/Dutch course and SPEAK THE DAMNED LANGUAGE WHEN I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY EVEN THOUGH IT MAKES ME SOUND
LIKE AN IDIOT!
- Order new contact lenses.
Make a list of things I take with me when I pack for different occasions- Eat lobster. Prepared by someone else.
Back up the blogPut everything onto an external hard drive- Find a DDR mat and console and 'dance, I say dance!'�
- Go to the beach and lie on the warm sand. For an hour. (with sunscreen on, natch)
- Take and complete a course in either: Tango, Salsa or Flamenco
- Join the Municipal Library of Prague
- Move to another country
Go to a live concert of a band I actually like- Pay off debts (student loan excl.)
Send thank you cards for every gift I receive (other than the gift of happiness, blah blah blah).- Get an agent (literary or theatre)
- Go to a sports bar without cringing, by personal choice
- Ride a rollercoaster
- Hold a snake
Spend a day wandering around a museum (not art gallery!) |
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| Vienna – further East than Prague. Yeah, right! pt III |
| Friday 7 September 2007 |
 The Museum of Applied/Contemporary Art was my next stop (conveniently across the road). I looked through it. I got a guided tour by the bored guy in the Oriental carpets section (my upbringing finally paid off, I can pick a Persian rug from 40 paces!) and looked at the Klimts for a glimpse (ha ha) of the ‘masterpiece’. Even “the Lovers”. Impressive, but, I’m just not a fan. Checked out furniture, and textiles and learnt more about blue and white crockery than I ever thought I would. Sat on the comfy couches downstairs and stretched out a bit. Next thing I know, ANOTHER guy in a uniform is waking me up (?!?) and informing me that the museum is closed: could I please leave.
Vienna is obviously my place for being woken by men in uniform. Good to know.
Back to the hostel (via one piece of heart-stoppingly delicious almond cake) to meet my roommates (all male, all less than 22, and all in awe of the fact that I’m a) 30 and b) travelling alone! Ahhh…it’s good!) and play drinking games with them.
Hours later, and I’m up two card tricks (note to self: practice) and one AWESOME drinking game (highly successful), the rules of which I scribbled on a piece of (wet) paper so as not to forget (and promptly soaked everything else in my bag – tasty). To bed, woman: before you regret it in the morning.
But no! Wide eyed and bushy tailed – who was first in line for the tickets for the dancing horses? Then who got to drink a coffee while watching boys in tight trousers, knee high boots, military coats warm up their mounts? Don’t mind if I do.
Standing for 90mins watching horses do weird things isn’t most people’s idea of fun, but it was a little girl fantasy come true for me. But I was unaware of the amount of foaming-at-the-mouth they’d do – that bit wasn’t so pleasant. It only occurred to me what a work-out it must be for the rider when they all took their hats off at the end and were very red in the face. Thus ensued a renewed desire to get into 3d eventing (the list of ‘things to do’ when I get to the UK is getting wieldy!).
A long walk to the prince’s palace of Belvedere put me in exactly the right spot at the right time.
“Hello, my name is Nikolas, I am from Greece, where are you from?”
“Er, hi!” (still channelling Mr Grant)
“I have a lovely restaurant here.”
“Er, yes you do. I’m from New Zealand.”
“in that case, you must have a glass of wine on the house, come this way.”
What followed was a crash course in Greek gastronomy and hospitality (I got given a bottle of WINE for heaven’s sake) with the additional promises to e-mail when I got home, after ‘regretfully’ declining the invitation to stay one more day in Vienna as ‘my guest’.
All I could hear was my mother saying “Tanstaafl, Nomes, Tanstaafl*”. But I escaped the white-trade ring with ease. Mwahahaha. Little did they know my capacity for the red grape juice, and my ability to overcome the conscious-yet-unaware effects of rohypnol**.
A side effect of living in the unhealthy Golden City that finally came in handy.
More photos of a garden and some statues later, accompanied by a small Japanese girl (aren’t they all?) in the grounds of Belvedere and that was it.
The trip home was uneventful (only because I barely managed to restrain myself from stabbing the person across the train aisle from me with the torn edge of the bottle of water he was so noisily drinking from) but eye-opening again. From the train, one doesn’t SEE a border crossing as such. But it was damned obvious when we made it. All of a sudden, things went from ‘well looked after’ and in ‘good condition’ to ‘dilapidated’ and ‘it’ll come down any minute now’. The cars went from ‘hybrid’ to ‘smokers’ and the people went from ‘happy, healthy farming types’ to ‘miserable, ill looking, loiterers’. I’m sure these are generalisations – but that’s all you see at 120kph. It’s such a shame. Prague IS a beautiful city, it just needs a damned good hose down (including the statesmen). Czech Republic COULD be a beautiful country (if, again, they picked up their rubbish, tidied things up a bit, and used more plaster in their plaster than sand). I wish I could say I was glad to get back, but all I could think was: 30 more sleeps.
*There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
** Of course there wasn’t any in the wine. And of course I haven’t used it or had it used upon me in Prague.Labels: Travelling |
posted by Nomes @ Friday, September 07, 2007   |
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