The Arival day in Praha!!!

Righty ho then, since I am still fairly compus mentus (Loads'a caffeine) I thought I'd get on here and start posting. Please excuse my typing if goes off a bit, I’m on a serious espresso high and have yet to find my bed! And yes, I know it’s now 18:30 the following day, damn those all night bars!!

The Mary Hinge Shavers Society makes it to Prague after 100 or so km of winding country lanes (Got some great videos of that) with the shat-nav attempting to guide us up drive ways, down dead ends and short cuts up pathways and through farmers fields!. We made it to the city and joined on the major roads. (The shat-nav works great in the big cities never letting us down when it came to precise hotel locations :shock: )

We very quickly found our hostel and parked up in the police parking over the road (not really the best idea especially with our car!) to unload the baggage and prepare for the Parade (Ahhem!) in the square. After the car had attracted some attention from the gavers I decided to circle the block and find parking (lol, parking - as if!). While going around I saw the fellas in the Mat Black Carlton estate and to my surprise they offered me their car (time to trade up :wink: ) So I took them back to the hostel and "created" some parking on the pavement to chat to the others about taking 2 cars back to the UK. Done deal!

All we needed to do now was park 2 cars!

Myself and the "long haired hippy" headed out with a vague location to find free parking, sadly this did not go very well and while I was following him his SPAK-NAV was losing the plot! The Carlton started to stutter and conked out! Sadly my team mate didn't notice and kept going joining on to a major road. His SPACKED-Nav (Joanna Lumley "darling") took him back in to town with out me, unable to turn off he found a familia(r) place, yes the hostel. I was kind of stranded with a car that would now not run anymore, why me!!!!! So I sat there waiting for my team mate to return, not knowing that he was now struggling to find exactly where he lost me!

After some time of waiting expecting to see the Czechalier return and feeling very lost in a new country I’ve never been to before 200 krona in my pocket (~£6) and just a mobile phone! After a couple of attempts to call my team mate who really realy badly needs to buy a new handset and get out of the dark ages; going to voice mail and getting cut off I started to panic a little (big city, strange lingo = scary time). I sent a text "Come back you git!" I was totally lost and looking at a bridge in the distance not knowing this one didn’t span water!!! Arggggghh!! No hope working that one out then, lol! I walked around and found some parking for the flamin Carlton down the hill. Senza la steoringa asista par favori!!!

By now I was feeling fairly cheesed off and was ignoring the beeping phone in favour of getting to the square, with some help from several English speakers and with me only knowing 2 Czech words (Dekuju ti = thank you and Prosim = please!). I made it to the square at 7~ish a tad late and then found the lads in the Graffiti Golf; jumped in with them and all was well.

Justin presenting the winners

Everyone bundling into the bar

The winning team

All problems aside, clashing personalities left at the door etc. I have to say that the long haired hippy really is a nice chap and hope we (now that we have 2 cars) will be signing up for the home to Rome next year ;) Mary Hinge no more but just you wait and see......

So please join me in thanking my team mates who did a blinding job of driving in difficult and sometimes heated moments. A big thank you for helping to make this trip happen!

I know I was off on one last night a said some things that shouldn’t have been said (please excuse my drunken stuper and lack of knowledge about the afore mentioned [sounds a bit legal! Lmfao] technological disaster in Prague that blighted my team mate. So please be super everyone; yes _you_ too! And let things be as they be. Both my team mates including myself did a great job of (sip)sing each other off on more than one occasion (this is just what happens when you get cooped up with people in sometimes tricky situations) I am so glad that even after all the (lob)locks that went on we are all still good friends and hope you all welcome us all back for another run in convoy!!

TTFN

Spangles. AKA - Ginge, familia bloke and lucky legs!

PS. Home to Rome or CRX2009 next year needs to be via my sister’s place in Udine (oo-din-eh), I’m sure I can persuade her to cook the entire convoy a slap up Italian dish with a few beers round the pool! Are you reading this Liz Friz?

Alan