Africa....

London may be a great town, but the airports certainly are hell. Luton is a single airstrip, good only for small planes. But Heathrow is far too big and so little to do outside security. I had 7 hours to wait until my check-in counter opened, so I explored some of the small shops and cafes. Once I was on the plane, the flight went fine. We stopped in Rome for more passengers and for refueling before zooming down to Addis Ababa. We arrived soon after daybreak, so I could see the hazy mountains in the distance as I rushed to get on my next flight. It also had a quick stop, this time in Lilongwe, before arriving in Lusaka (Zambia). Richard, the father of my family friend Fiona, met me at the airport and took me back the house. After tea and freshening up, we went on a driving tour of the downtown as we searched for working ATMs. There really isn't much to see outside the government area, just a few tall buildings and small businesses and various neighborhoods. The friends' house was like a little piece of tropical Scotland, with a good baked dinner and pudding. In the morning, I hopped on another flight, this time down to Livingstone, only an hour away. I was the only passenger, so we left early and took a short detour past Victoria Falls for a good photo opportunity. Its really beautiful, and seems to stretch forever. A representative from the hostel met me at the airport, and drove me to Fawlty Towers. I quickly settled in and booked some touristy activities for my quick visit before going to explore the town. Just to get oriented, I went to the David Livingstone museum downtown for history and local information. Afterwards, I met up with a guide and he showed me some of the out of the way places, like the oldest hotel in town and a local market area. I had a river cruise around dinner time, so I could nibble and drink in peace as we floated above the falls. There was plenty of bird life, and tons of hippos. We stayed away from them. Just as we pulled back up to the docks, it started to pour rain. Given the bad weather, I stuck around the hostel for the evening, getting to know some of the other guests. There were some Canadians, a South African, and a Brit. An international melting pot, as usual. I went to bed fairly early, as I knew that I had an early morning the next day.

The World Isn't as Big As You Think

Iveta offered to drive me to another town to catch the train to Moravia, with a stop at Babicka's apartment for lunch. This was far too good of an offer to pass up, so I moved my travel plans around a little bit to leave Trutnov a day early. Babicka (Iveta's mother, my host grandmother) is a little crazy, but one really cool and really sweet adopted grandma. She was my 'baby-sitter' when Iveta didnt want to leave me at the house alone for too long. So it was great to go back and be dotted upon for a couple hours. She made lunch while I caught her up on my life and a couple neighbors dropped by to say hello. The food she makes is always amazing typical Czech dishes, but heavy and prolific. We had spinach and cheese crepes, potato dumplings with sauerkraut and pork, and cookies from one of the neighbors before Iveta rescued me and we drove to the next major town. In Pardubice, I caught the train to Olomouc and checked into my favorite hostel in the world. The Australian owners still remembered me from the other year, plus there were new Aussies there to work for a few month. We went out to a hockey game to cheer the home team to victory. The next day I killed time in the hostel and local Internet cafe before I rode the train to Frydek-Mistek, where Vendy lives. Vendy was the Czech exchange student who lived with us last year, and now one of my many adopted sisters. On the train, my fellow compartment passengers struck up a conversation, and I found out that the guy sitting across from me was going to be studying in Lusaka, Zambia, in February. Its not every day that you meet a Czech that is going to the same obscure African country as you are! Vendy met me at the station and after dinner, she and her mother gave me a tour of the town. Vendy skipped school the next day to show me the second half of town, and we had lunch at the restaurant where her boyfriend works. I then had to hop back on a train to Prague, and find my hostel for the night. I had to take care of business in a local Internet cafe again, then went to bed early for my early day of travel. I woke up at 4 in the morning and quietly pulled my stuff together to take a taxi to the airport. I got there with plenty of time to check in for my flight to London, and settled into a quiet wait. The flight went smoothly, and I found my bus from Luton to Heathrow.

Back to the Good Old Days

Iveta (My 2nd Host Mom) met me at the bus station when I arrived in Trutnov, and we immediately went out for a late lunch at the restaurant where we ate the first day I arrived at their house on exchange. It really was like I was 16 again, and no time had passed at all. It was good to catch up again, and revive my Czech again. It was a lazy evening around the house, doing laundry and catching up with mom and dad on Skype. On Monday Iveta and I met for coffee after I slept in, then I helped her run errands across town. Ivan came home from work in the afternoon, so we caught up as well before I went to Rotary for dinner. It was fantastic to see all of my guys again, especially when most weren't expecting to see me. My 1st and 3rd host dads and my councillor knew I was coming, but the other Rotarians had a place me and all had expressions of surprise. The program for the evening was Karel (my 1st host dad) showing pictures from his trip to Indonesia, plus everyone wanted to hear what I had been up to and what I was doing next. After making more social plans with my other families, I finally returned home for the night. The next morning I puttered around the house until it was time for lunch with my 3rd family back at Hotel Adam. They introduced me to the new secretary, and I heard what they were doing to expand their packaged food catering business. I had helped with English translations in the past, so I was interested in what was going on. The whole family is doing well, with both kids now in college for economics and design. After running a few errands to stock up on more travel supplies, I went back to school and met a friend for coffee. Shirin had been my first real friend at school, so I really wanted to see her. It was hard to coordinate times to see the rest of the class, so it only worked to meet my friend after school. When she had to go home, I went back to the house to get ready for dinner with my 1st family. Karel pulled his normal host routine with cooking dinner and keeping everyone up late chatting and showing pictures from the summer boat trip. The neighboors came over too, after I had run into the wife in the square earlier in the day. The two other Rotary students who are living in Trutnov this year were also there, so I could listen to their perspective and see how much more strict Rotary had become. Misa even remembered me, and we fell back into our old pattern of listening to music and playing computer games together. Karel finally called a taxi for me and the other American student, and we got back to the other side of town a bit past midnight.

Germany Back to Prague

The Castle was really beautiful, but has a bit of a strange story.  The king died before it was finished, so only a fraction of the planned rooms were actually built.  In the tour we jumped from the first floor to the third floor because the second doesn't really exist.  After the tour, some of the group was anxious to get back to Munich, so we all hopped back on the train.  Jeny had to run home, so Anders and I walked around the main part of town again, seeing the differences between the nighttime and daytime atmosphere.  On Thursday, it was a sleep-in recovery day from all the busy days before.  We met Jeny at the train station and went out to the suburb where she lives.  We met her host dad, brother, and sister at the house, and then went out to Dachau work camp. Perhaps it was because we had to rush through the exhibits, so maybe because most of the camp had been destroyed, but it didn't have the same eerie feeling like I experienced at Terezin.  It was still interesting to  walk around the grounds at dusk.  Back in Munich, we saw the Hoffbrau house, but decided it was too crowded.  Right across the street was the Augustiner house, another local beer, so we sampled the local food and drink for a couple of hours.  Friday was Jeny's birthday, but she was busy in the morning.  Anders and I finished up our tourist shopping and checked out of the hostel before strolling through some side neighborhoods and some of the nearby parks.  Jeny and her family had tickets to the circus, but we had a train to catch mid-afternoon, so the group of us met up and gave Jeny her presents before the circus started.  The train ride was much less exciting on the way back, although we had to move twice in order to get into a second class compartment going all the way to Prague.  We arrived in Prague close to midnight, found out hostel, and collapsed in bed.  The next morning we were up at a reasonable time to continue our sight seeing adventures.  First stop was St. Nicholas church in Mala Strana, then up to the castle.  The tower and the crypts were closed for repair/maintenance in the winter, but we could see the cathedral and the grounds.  Over on Petrin, we did the mirror maze and climbed the Eiffel tower, surrounded by locals who were out enjoying the fairly warm day.  Snack was back on Wenceslas square, then we went into a photo gallery of a Czech Photographer whose name escapes me now.  Dinner was more typical food in a small restaurant off the beat path, again away from the tourists.  The next day Anders flew back to Sweden, and I started my trek back up to Trutnov to re-immerse myself into my family life from two years ago.