Onward to The Golden City

Feb. 9, 2013 (continued)
On the flight to Prague, I again had an aisle seat while Britney had the window on the other side of the plane and Laura was in the back of the plane. This plane was an A320 and obviously smaller than the flight from Denver. We were some of the first to board the plane so we waited and watched people to get on. They all looked very gruff. There were no smiles. There was no eye contact.

The man that sat in the window seat next to me was named Jeremie. He was an IT consultant from France who lived and worked in Prague. Again, no one sat between us so we were able to talk for most of the flight. He had gone to school in Paris to get a degree in law. During his time in college, he did a year abroad in Australia.

“You will be meeting with Americans?” he asked me.

“I don’t know,” I said. “There are two people from my school going, and I’ve met a couple of American girls today that will be at the same school, but I am really hope to meet more Europeans and other people. I mean, I’ve spent my whole life with Americans.”

“Oh trust me,” he said. “You will want to find Americans. You will need someone who you can talk to in your native language when you get frustrated.”

Jeremie went on to tell me about how he had tried to get in with a few British Law firms but never actually practiced law. He had a stumbled into a business opportunity in IT and after a sort of funny series of events, formed his own trademark and now runs his own firm. He does a lot of work with governments (such as Rwanda and Chad) helping them increase the PR for their countries. He showed me the stamps in his passport of all the countries he has worked for around the world.

We also talked about Colorado. Jeremie has a goal of climbing the seven summits. While 14ers were all I could relate to, he had great stories of summiting Kilimanjaro, as well as trying to convince his girlfriend to let him climb Everest.

“You will like Prague,” he said (in the first French accent I’d heard on my trip.) “It is very laid back town. Not like Paris where everyone is dressed up all the time. You can walk around in jeans and get into pubs no problem in Prague.” This went against the jeans make you look like a trashy American stereotype that I’d been told, but it was a relief to hear. “Is very cheap too to live in Prague. You can probably live on 500 US dollars a month. Maybe less if you don’t travel, but probably not much more than that if you do.”

As we descended below the clouds, I immediately saw why they call Prague The Golden City! The city was illuminated as if someone had set fire to a hill. I didn’t have a great view, but everything looked so surreal.

Jeremie shattered the stereotype I had in my head of a stuck up Frenchman. When we landed, he gave me his email address and phone number in case I needed anything.

“You know this girl that is picking you up?” He asked.

“I’ve never met her before, but we emailed and I’ve seen pictures on Facebook. I told her to meet me at terminal one.”

“Well,” he said chuckling a little. “Good luck. I will walk with you to baggage and make sure you get through customs ok.” He reiterated what the English man had told us about American security being much tighter than European.

I did make it through customs without issues. I am not sure if the guard that checked my passport spoke English but he simply looked at it and handed it back to me. That was actually the first time I noticed I didn’t see much English anywhere at all.

“They let you in?” Jeremie joked.

“They did!” I laughed.

We got to baggage claim and I listened as he called a cab on his cell phone. “Never take a cab off the street. If you need one, find the number of a service and call ahead. You will get the best rate.”

It took forever to get my bag. After waiting for nearly twenty minutes, I started to worry it had gotten lost. I watched duffle after duffle and roller after roller tumble out of the shoot, but mine didn’t come. I am sure it was one of the last ones of the plane.

“You can go if you need to catch your cab,” I told Jeremie.

“Is no problem,” he said. “I’ll wait and make sure you have your stuff and find this girl so you are not stuck here.”

As soon as we had my bag, we exited the terminal. Ivana was standing right outside the doors holding a sign that read “Zachary.”

I thanked Jeremie for his help and he was glad I had been successful. He left to find his taxi and we parted company.

“I met these students from my university who are also waiting for their American buddies. We can go with them,” Ivana said.

“Very cool,” I replied. She introduced me to Marquetta and Lad’ka.

“My buddy’s name is Britney. You know her, no?” Marquetta asked.

Britney! I had totally forgotten about the girls!

“Yes, I do!” I said. “We met on the plane today.”

“You go to school with them?”

“No,” we just sat together on the flight to London.”

Soon the girls came out with their bags. Lad’ka was actually waiting for a student from Canada and Laura didn’t have a buddy. Marquetta happily adopted her and once Lad’ka’s buddy arrived, we set off into the city.