Budget airlines and cheap European travel
I write this half asleep on a midnight budget flight from London-Luton to Prague, apparently over Frankfurt Germany though that’s difficult to confirm with the thick cloud cover over the whole of Europe right now. Budget airlines are a brand new experience for us - this is the first time we have traveled anywhere far enough from London to require a plane.
At 80GBP return from London to Prague, the price is certainly right and makes travel to anywhere inside of Europe cheaper than I think it will ever be for us. One of the downsides to the low prices is that the budget airlines tend to fly out of budget airports that are about as convenient as an 8am wedgie in a Tokyo subway. Luton airport, where we flew out of today, is nothing more than a glorified hangar two hours by bus from Oxford somewhere on the outskirts of London. It is cheap and cheerful, if there ever was such a thing, and is super easy to get in and out of, once you’re there. The security is surprisingly light for an international airport and with the recent foiled bomb plots I feel as though I should be worried. Like all post 9/11 American men though, I know that any flight with me on it is the safest plane in the sky. Luton has all of the usual things you would want in an international airport, several restaurants, a dozen bookstores, a few bars, and a duty free that carries everything from chocolate to Johnnie Walker blue label.
Czech out my Trdlo
Like most tourists in Prague, we spent the majority of our trip in Old Town, a place where time (at least for the buildings) has stood still and has somehow managed to skip being obliterated by two world wars. Well, perhaps not entirely, apparently the Americans destroyed a few buildings mistaking Prague for Dresden… we were never well known for our geography. But I digress. In the main square there are cathedrals and buildings from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries as well as an old clock tower with a very famous astronomical clock. This is not unusual for Prague as nearly every building in Old Town dates back to a time so inconceivable to an American that the exact date makes no difference.
Oxtoberfest
We have unfortunately not been to very many pubs while in Oxford, so Oxtoberfest, a four day charity pub crawl event, was a good excuse to go check out some of the places we always walk past and never go into. It also gave us a chance to see the English in their natural environment, slightly drunk but happy instead of the usual sober and sour. The challenge was a fairly short order: a pint from each participating pub and we would get a free t-shirt and brewery tour which I thought would be fantastic. The five participating pubs and our experience with each are below in the order we visited.
Silly British Design - The horizontal can opener
This can opener design might win the triumphant perfection of inconvenience award for reasons you will see in the video. If you’re from the States, and have never seen a horizontal can opener, it is for a very good reason: they suck. Granted this isn’t necessarily a British design so I can hardly blame them, but we are here and it’s the first time we’ve seen it. When figuring out how to use it, Julianne sat in the kitchen for 30 minutes trying desperately to get the can open. Instead of cutting the top of the lid portion of the can, it cuts below it completely taking the lid off. As you can see in the video, it also fails to actually cut the damn can without a force keeping the can still or turning in the opposite direction. So in essence, you need three hands to effectively use the can opener. You also get the added bonus of slivers of can inside of your soup, peaches, or coconut milk in the case of the video. An unwelcome surprise during your dining experience. In celebration of our move from a very uncivilized part of town to a perfectly civilized one, we have retired our horizontal can opener for one that functions as advertised.
Paris je t'aime
I’ve been reading a bunch of books lately that happen to involve historic Paris – first “A Tale of Two Cities”, when Parisian heads are getting cut off, then “Les Miserables”, when French butt gets kicked by English people at Waterloo and then by French people in the streets of Paris, and most recently “Vanity Fair”, when French politics ruin the main character’s dad. Victor Hugo’s book especially made me excited to visit Paris, since he can’t stop talking about how great it is. So I was the most excited of the three of us when our train arrived at Paris Lyon from Avignon.
Silly British Design - Cardboard juice carton
For my first installment of Silly British Designs, I am reviewing the juice carton: a rather simple everyday item designed to provide a solid container you can use to store and pour liquids. A simple idea that has been around at least since the flask and, I imagine, longer than that. Unfortunately, a few companies seem to have oversimplified the design a bit and opted for a lift tab rather than a liquid tight screw top. Why they chose a spout design that does not adequately hold liquid at bay is beyond me.