Chasing Bubbles in Bratislava, Thinking in the Clouds, My Favourite Exercise

Good Morning from Prince Edward Island,

Put the kettle on, I would love a good cup of tea.

I have never written before while experiencing "jet lag'.  So we will pull on this thread and share.

Jet lag seems to have been "coined" as a phrase sometime in the 1960s. Horace Sutton of the LA Times wrote that "jet lag" creates a debility not unakin to a hangover. The term derives from the simple fact that jets travel so fast that they leave your body rhythms behind.

A longer article about jet lag here if interested in reading more.

Surprised to discover how difficult it was to find a great cup of tea in Europe and it was not for trying. Shirley and I finished a river cruise this week.  Tagged on extra days' pre and post-travel days as well.

The photo is of me having fun in Bratislava, Slovakia last week. 

A too short video of the bubble man in Bratislava. 

The cities and countrysides were beautiful. The history was overwhelming. 

I was in awe of the history and humans' ability to rise up and overcome the darkness that comes during and after war, religious persecution, floods, and fires.   

We started in Budapest, ended in Prague. Started our visit with a stay in an Airbnb.  The pictures of the apartment were nice, but it was not quite the description offered. If we do Airbnb again, we will use Google Street View to determine the neighbourhood. 

Once we settled in and went for a walk we found out our apartment was beside a bar, a peep show and a cafe called Virus Cafe. It totally cracked me up. Oh, did I say, it felt very safe?

We were fortunate to travel with three other couples whom we love very much. It made for a joyous time with lots of laughter.

Experiencing other cultures is mind-expanding and so enjoyable. The food was always good, not memorable per se’. The service on the boat was very good. The service in restaurants was a bit surly. We realized that in most cases, these are cultures that have been through a lot. So we set out challenging ourselves to at least get a smile out if not a laugh out of our less than jovial server.  

As Maya Angelou says, “Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.” 

I could fill this blog with longer descriptions of the trip but I don't want to labour you with a travel log. Fair to say it was a marvellous experience and we would do it again in a heartbeat.

I took hundreds of photos with my iPhone, and I share a few here.

Budapest

Budapest. Shoes on the Danube Bank.

I walked up to this castle, in lower Austria where

Richard the Lionhearted has been a prisoner. 

And this was the view from the castle.  

 Salzburg

 Salzburg 

Prague

Market at the Prague Castle

Definitely a Coffee Culture. LOL

But also my favourite! A candy culture. In Prague alone,

I counted a dozen stores like this one. 

The view from Starbucks at the Prague Castle. Crazy. 

The oldest operational clock in the world. 

It is taking to long to load the hundreds of photos I took, so that is enough for now.  I hope to put more on here later today. 

I loved Prague and Vienna. Both were stunning and had so much to offer in way of history and music. 

I find flying at 30,000 feet through clouds an interesting time to reflect on everything past, present, future. 

Certainly, an important life skill is not to let the past limit your future and as Mark Twain said, “The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be?--it is the same the angels breathe.”

We can’t change the past, only how we think about it. 

I am going to call it quits this morning on this blog, I am overcome with “jet lag” and need to get some more sleep. 

Signing off at 4:42 am Saturday morning, 9:42 in Prague. 

Sunrise the morning we got home.  

Thank you for being here and sharing your time with my writing indulgence. 

Have a wonderful weekend and take care of each other. 

With love from Prince Edward Island. 

Sincerely,

Bruce 

ps.