After last year the family went to Vienna, my parents came up with the idea of trying again. While the first idea was Lisbon, our first discussion happened around the time the local scenic funicular had a catastrophic accident. Somehow, the plans veered towards Prague [Praha], in the Czech Republic [Česká Republika], since my parents thought it was a “very doable” city for a couple of days. They also made clear that I was expected not to meddle with planning and just go along whatever. I had apparently unintentionally stepped on some toes in Austria, and I absolutely did not want to bruise anyone’s ego, so I took a huge I step back from preparation. I did not check out neither landmarks nor timetables, I did not look into exchange rates, and only offered opinions when they were explicitly asked of me.

My parents went to talk to our travel agent at Viajes El Corte Inglés to get an airplane-transfer-hotel pack. The original plan was travelling during the long weekend in December, but I was between projects and my sibling said they could get some time off easily. Choosing the alternative dates of 1st – 4th December brought the price down around 800 euro. Too good to let it pass.

Once the package was booked, my parents built an impossible itinerary, I made note of it, and left them to their own devices. They found a couple of restaurants they wanted to try, and the weekend before departure they enquired if I thought we should reserve. My take is that if you really want to check out a place, the best thing is booking, especially in this day and age when you can cancel the reservation with a click.

Unfortunately, if you find an instagrammable restaurant online, booking three days in advance is just not going to work, because 99% of the tourists will have also heard about it. The place, Pork’s Mostecká, books out a month in advance. Fortunately, it has a sister restaurant, Pork’s Vodičkova, less “traditional”, but with the same recipes. As one goes there to eat pork knuckles, it had to be booked for lunch (or risk a bad night of indigestion – my parents are firm believers in food-at-Spanish-times). The problem was that to book it for lunch on the day we were around there, we had to displace the other desired restaurant, Vytopna Railway Restaurant. Finally, we managed to find a dinner and a lunch to accommodate both visits.

A big issue was that our plane flew out at 8:45, which is a horrible time to brave the airport-area traffic jam. For my France / Monaco trip, I left at 6:30 and reached the parking a bit before 8:00 (theoretical driving time is 42 minutes), for a plane at 9:40. Thus, we had to leave before that time, so the jam had not formed yet – and, after discussing pros and cons, it was agreed we would drive off at 5:30 to pick my sibling up, and evaluate alternative routes on the way. My non-driving parent wanted the new route to avoid the traffic jam, but also did not want it because they were worried about getting lost.

After a lot of going back and forth, we bought some Czech crowns (Kr) from the bank, though my parent was unhappy with the rate – they got something around 21.5 Kr per euro while the official rate was on the vicinity of 24.5 Kr. Thus they got into their head that, once in Prague [Praha], we had to spend those crowns fast and then exchange more euros. I don’t get that logic, but again, I had promised to step back.

The one thing I was in put in charge of was checking in for the first flight. As it was early on a Monday, the travel agent would not be at work 24 hours earlier to do so. They expected me to do it on the computer, but I retrieved the booking data on my phone to add my frequent flier number. Before going to bed on Saturday night, I opened the app to see whether the free check-in was open, and since it was, I decided to go through it. Unfortunately, a message popped up – since we were in the last group to board, we either had to check in our luggage (for free) at the counter or pay for an upgrade. My sibling and I were travelling with backpacks, which would not take any overhead bin space. Queuing at the counter to check in two trolleys would mean an extra hour at least, hence leaving at 4:30, and lots of added stress. Therefore, I decided to unilaterally pay for the upgrades. I honestly think it is blatant extortion, and I was not happy to do it, but at that moment, it was the lesser evil. I did consider only upgrading two tickets, but then I would have gotten caught.

After the mini-flood in Monaco, I made sure to pack some boots and extra socks, along with sturdy winter clothes. I have to say we were really lucky with the weather, though. It was cold but not insanely so. Unfortunately, I forgot to use lip balm, and paid for it dearly.

I have not been this unprepared for a trip since I was a child, but I think that what my parents wanted was feeling in charge of the family again. I did my best not to step on any toes this time around (though I am not sure I managed). When I was asked what I wanted to visit in Prague [Praha], I went with the most famous sights in their schedule. The only action I took was downloading the map on all the phones. Well, and the plane upgrades, but you will keep my secret, won’t you?