It's 10:30 on a sunny Monday morning and we have just arrived in Prague for a week's stay. Our hotel room was ready and waiting, there is an adequate wireless Internet connection, and the signs could not be better.
The trip did not start on the right foot, though. Friday night/Saturday was Yom Kippur, the most holy Jewish day; unfortunately, I woke up at 6am, and although I rested most of the day, and dozed for a few hours, I was unable to get to sleep at night. I eventually fell asleep at about 1:30am, and was up again at 5:30am on Sunday. Our flight was scheduled to leave Tel Aviv airport at 5am on Monday morning, which meant that we had to be there at around 2:30, which meant getting up at around 1:15am. Although I went to lie down at around 9pm, I was too agitated to sleep, so basically I've been awake since yesterday morning. I am quite tired.
Even though we did in fact arrive at the airport at 2:30am, there were crowds at passport control and personal luggage checking, which meant that we didn't clear these sections till about 3:50am. As we had to board at 4:30am, there wasn't much time left for duty free shopping and other activities. I had intended to get out the computer for some work, but it was clear that there would be no free time.
About a month and a half ago, I and my wife were issued American Express credit cards. The way in which we were approached raised my antennae, and for a few hours I thought that we had been victims of a scam, but it all seems to be above board. One of the perks of the card is free entrance to the VIP lounge at Ben Gurion airport, and this trip seemed the ideal opportunity for testing the perk.
As we had so little time, we could only spend about ten minutes in the lounge. By this time, I was almost shaking from low sugar, so I very quickly ate a few biscuits and drank a bottle of fruit juice (all free). My wife had some crackers and tea. It's a shame that we were only there for a short period; next time, we will try to have a longer stay in the lounge. When we leave Prague, we will fly for a few days to Malta before returning home, so we will have the opportunity of testing the equivalent Prague VIP lounge. Although we have a certain amount of 'perk' as regarding the lounge, we also have to pay $27 to gain entrance, and I am not sure that we will get our money's worth.
My wife is unpacking at the moment; afterwards we'll probably have lunch and hit the town.
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