First Stop - Prague

So the first stop on our big trip was Prague, a city neither my partner Peter nor I had been to before but one we had always wanted to go to.  From there the plan was to head to Vienna, before moving on to Bratislava and beyond.....

Before we started planning our trip we were recommended by a friend the idea of using homestays for accommodation where we could.  He had used one found on gayhomestays.com for a recent trip to Barcelona and Sitges and had told us that it was a great new way to find accommodation that allowed you to rent rooms or apartments belonging to local people, and escape the hotel routine.  Gay Homestays seemed like a great idea to us, and a way to get a better idea of what it would be like to live in the places we were visiting, meet a few locals and get their tips and thoughts on what was good in the city.  So we thought we'd give it a try in Prague, and were able to find a great looking, spacious 2 bed apartment just outside the Old Town on the gayhomestays website for less than we would have paid for a hotel room.

Our host Mirek met us at the apartment with a wide smile and was very friendly and welcoming - we'd had no trouble finding the place as we'd been in touch with him prior to our touching down and he'd given us some good directions to the apartment.  The place was exactly as portrayed on the website with a really spacious living/ dining room, two bedrooms, a good functional kitchen and a nice, clean bathroom.  The place had a quirky eastern european vibe that got us in the mood to discover more about the Czech Republic.  After giving us a tour of the place we grilled Mirek on his favorite sites in the city as well as a few good gay bars and restaurants to bear in mind.  We knew the main gay area was Vinohrady but Mirek was able to give us a few other pointers around the rest of the city too, which was great.  After that Mirek bade us fairwell and left us to it, though we were free to get in touch with him at any time if we needed to, which was good to know....

I suppose we should start with some sort of introduction.....

Wow - what a summer!  It has been the most fantastic three months in many-a-year, after having decided to jack in my job and take a well earned sabbatical.....I am 32 these days after all, and four and a half years in the same job qualifies as long service by modern standards right?

Since I have been living overseas in remotest Western Australia these last six years I have begun to crave the rich history and culture that Europe abounds in, and what is so obviously lacking in a young western nation such as Australia, and particularly WA.  Its capital, Perth, is the most isolated city in the world, geographically speaking anyway - though skinny jeans, new rave and Emo's have all managed to track us down here so I guess we're not as isolated as some of the locals might bemoan....

So it has been a growing ambition to return to my homeland, England, for a summer for a few years now and spend some time there, but also to immerse in some serious European travels - I've got six years to make up for for goodness's sake!

So this blog is a record of said trip - its highs, its lows and the bits in between too.......