Our Wedding Among the Spires

Dancing on Charles Bridge, as traumatic for Vanda as you can imagine

The weeks have passed, the dust has settled, and Rupert and Vanda are married. It has been quite an exhausting couple of weeks but we have made it here, into our pyjamas for the 4th day in a row (which is, I believe, the whole point of getting married in the first place) and I can now finally write about the whole experience.

My dear readers/reader/no-one, I have been neglectful I am aware, but please understand that we didn't have pictures until now and felt that I couldn't share our blessed enshaklement and journey across Central Europe without them. I know that this could be interpreted as not caring or ignoring you all/you/literally no-one, but the truth is that my writing is arduous and long-winded without pretty photos to back it up and my sole purpose for writing about these adventures is to entertain the masses/that one guy/anybody, for the love of god. And so here I am now, your humble servant, explaining to you what went down on the 11th April 2017.

A beautiful sunrise over a poorly maintained highway

To start before the beginning, we needed a way to actually get to Prague, which turned out to be more difficult than we imagined.

The first idea was to ride the bike back up the continent. A romantic notion yes, but we also had all of our wedding stuff to bring, so that wasn't going to work. Next came flying, which we couldn't do for under £1000 apparently so there went that. The train would have taken two days so finally we decided that the only feasible way of getting there is by driving. This would be accomplished in a 1 Litre Toyota Yaris which added an element of 'CAN THIS GO ANY SLOWER FOR PETES SAKE' to our journey. As we had 500 miles to traverse we had to set out at midnight on the 9th. The roads were poor and long, the traffic inconsistent and at times terrifying, and the signposting left a lot to be desired, but we kept in high spirits by laughing and smiling and needing the toilet for almost the whole way up.

In keeping with the very un-Springy weather that this Spring has been gracing us with we were pleasantly surprised by the scorching hot weather. We met up with the wedding guests and went for a drink by the river at the Čertovka Restaurant which boasts pretty stunning views of Charles Bridge and is situated just behind the smallest street in the city (requiring a traffic light system for people to walk up and down, perfect for edgy instagram shots). Afterwards we decided to hunt for a dinner somewhere in the city. At this point Vanda and I were suddenly hit by the lack of sleep we'd had over the last 20 hours and decided that we needed to pass out swiftly and so we went to the flat and did just that.

Team prep

The sun rose, we awoke, fresh and ready-ish for one of the most important days of our lives. Vanda took the brave decision a few months ago to do her make-up and hair herself so she got to work as soon as she was up. The boys in the wedding party were tasked with collecting various important things, such as breakfast and flowers. My friends and male guests Jamie and Chris went for the breakfast, I went for the flowers. It had not crossed my mind but apparently there was a brief panic as they realised that they had left me alone and I had the chance to run to the nearest train station and high-tail it out of there. Thankfully for everyone else I didn't do this and we went back to get ourselves ready for the ceremony.

Bloody elegant flower selection if I do say so

We were all ready way too early. So instead of twiddleing our thumbs waiting, we decided to go to the tower where the ceremony would be held and have a glass of Whiskey in the Whiskey Bar there.
The tower is quite an amazing restoration. We were very kindly given a book about it by the manager of the building as a wedding present but sadly I have not had time to read it yet but if you would like to read more about it, you can here. Our photographers and most welcome guests Theo and Sophie figured this would be a good time to start the photography as Vanda and I looked ravashing while secretly feeling increasingly nervous. So the whiskeys were a wonderful and welcome little addition to the proceedings.

Hooray for Dutch courage and amazing photographers!

But soon it was time for the main event. With excitement in our hearts and a rye-based spirit damaging our kidneys we made our way to the top of the tower. This part of the day was a bit of a happy blur. As this was such a small event and our families would not be with us, we decided to be 'current' and live-stream the wedding on Facebook (an idea that I had witnessed previously on the wedding of an old friend who now lives in Hawaii, hi Jess!), this was a resounding success, and even though the quality wasn't great, it has now been watched nearly three thousand times and allowed everyone to witness our special moment, in a confusingly quiet array of Czech and English suddenly interrupted by violently loud bells to signal that we were married, playing the sweet chimes of a popular Enya song, because who wouldn't want an aggressively loud Celtic rhythm playing at their wedding.

The Ceremony and drinks

After the ceremony we went for Lunch (still in the tower) at Restaurant Zvonice. Which was a truly hilarious treat. Even with the short notice I gave them about our arrival, they had a candle-lit table on a floor just for us, as well as some interesting Czech wedding customs to share with us. Such as the newly-weds having to spoon soup into each others mouths from one bowl with one napkin, which I'm still not convinced is a real thing.

Dignity utterly vanquished

 I cannot recommend this restaurant enough as the food was delicious, the service was phenomenal and the restaurant itself was stunning. And so we left full of food and still jittery from the ceremony to go and shoot some photos across the city.

If you ever want to know what it feels like to be a celebrity, wear a wedding dress and walk across Charles Bridge in the mid-afternoon. Me and Vanda were met with all sorts of responses, from cheering, clapping and oral blessings to groups of men wearing the same T-shirt drunkenly yelling at us that we've made a terrible mistake (this happened so often that I was wondering if it was a part of some pub crawl itinerary) and I am now convinced that we will be featuring on holiday albums around the world for overly keen Aunts to show their wholly uninterested nieces and nephews. But we persisted on, stopping at a lovely little café for a couple of beers before heading back to get ready for the evening.

Yes of course we gave him another little rub, we are young and in love we need all the luck we can get!

The evening was another pleasant surprise. As we ended up at Blues Skelp, a cosy local music venue with big beers and ridiculous vibes, a little early we decided to eat at the restaurant just above the venue. Now sadly I can't seem to find it on a map but it is the most understated and charming eatery we could have hoped for. They had had a rush during lunch and had all of nothing left to feed us, but the soup, which we all had in abundance. They were kind, friendly and gave us a  hand-sketched picture as a wedding gift. If you can find this little gem please tell us what it is called, as we would love to give them the praise they deserve. After that we went downstairs and watched a band that was so drunk they kept forgetting which solo they were supposed to be playing at any one point, resulting in Jazz that was so experimental that even the musicians had to guess where they would end up. It was an experience unto itself. After this performance staggered to an end we went home with a couple more drinks and danced the last few hours away to various nostalgic tunes until we could stand on our own two feet no more.

It was perfect. Not in the sense that nothing went wrong, or that it couldn't have been improved with anything, but in the way that everything just stuck together into a perfect little gift just for us.

Happy as Larry...and Larrina.

We spent the next day relaxing and exploring and yet again eating at Vanda's favourite restaurant in Prague (again I cannot find a link to it but it is opposite Mosaic House on Myslíkova Street, it is a tiny Czech pub with the most amazing duck in the city and a seriously modest price) before we slept for the last time in our dream-like experience in this ancient city. The next morning we set off back to Debrecen to get ourselves ready for the next wedding celebration (the day after). The drive was much less pleasant on the way down as it was apparently Easter weekend and everyone had gone crazy. It took 12 bloody hours but when we got back we were still happy, laughing and ready to kick the second receptions' arse.

I would like to thank our guests Jamie, Chris and Freya for coming to the Czech Republic and celebrating this intimate wedding with us, you guys made it what it was and we couldn't have asked for better company. I would also like to thank the photographers Theo and Sophie, who were just as much guests as shutterbugs and documented the day so honestly. They are quite fantastic at what they do and they photograph some pretty rad stuff so check them out! I would also like to thank Ladka of Wedding in Prague and Leo for introducing us and helping make this whole trip possible (I still owe you drinks Leo, I know!). Finally I would like to thank everyone who watched the live stream or just sent us messages of congratulations. I still cannot fully believe that we have managed this and we are so thankful for everyone's support and love. So to leave you, here is a short video of the day (again, by Theo and Sophie) You lucky things.

Oh and thank you Vanda for marrying me and now being my wife, may we spend the rest of our lives living out a great adventure.

Right, now that this is done I can return to Netflix and tea before the next phase of our journey begins. Thank you for reading, idiots/idiot/me, checking for spelling mistakes.

Puffer

The End of the First Grand Tour.

The oh so Reichstag.

So as it turns out it is not too easy to keep a travel blog when the movement starts picking up as the days go by. As of now I am sitting in Debrecen, Hungary organising the final parts of the first two wedding celebrations and for the first time since my last post I have the time and energy to write this post. You are all welcome, drones.

To begin this where we left off. We came to a realisation in Maastricht that we were fast running out of time on our tour across Central Europe due to unfinished wedding preparations before the big day/days. So we had to re-organise the rest of the trip to get down to Debrecen in five or six days. Not an easy task as this didn't just involve cutting out days in places and destinations (sadly only got one day in Cologne and we had to miss out on Vienna which I was devastated about) but also spending much longer days in the saddle as we had over a thousand miles to cover. Motorcycling is a fantastic hobby and gives you a large amount of emotional freedom, but it is not without its downsides as will be explained in this post.

Two little dogs enjoying the sun with a third even smaller dog close to the camera.

Up until now we had been riding for 3-4 hours a day, stopping at various points of interest along the way, but now we had to cover too much ground and also fit into good weather days as riding in the cold and rain can range from a tad uncomfortable to downright impossible. So to start off easy, we took the quick trip between Maastricht and Cologne. Although the transition between countries in Europe is no more than a blue road sign these days, it has to be said that there is always a subtle change of scenery as the landscape unfolds in-front of you. I can't say that we saw a lot of the real Germany, even if we crossed everything except Bavaria, but there were two things of note:

1.) Germany is a giant forest of Conifers, a little like that sad part of Lord of the Rings when Sean Bean gets pin cushioned.

and 2.) The Autobahn is the most convenient and yet boring road ever.

Honestly this cathedral is bigger than Kanye, and only slightly more religious.

But anyway, Cologne is a pretty amazing place. Our host, a friend of ours who we met in London, was a local through and through and showed us some of the amazing things this Rhineland city has to offer. FYI: It has a bloody massive cathedral that you can see from pretty much everywhere, along with a bridge with so many love locks it makes Paris look as romantic as Staines. But the greatest feature of Köln is its breweries, which will keep supplying you with fresh glasses of beer until you physically stop the waiter by either placing a beer mat on the glass or wrestling them to submission.

We kind of had to didn't we?

We had a few technical problems with the bike in Cologne which delayed our departure (wouldn't complain after that hearty German Breakfast mind you!) but finally took the first long ride across the country to it's capital. It was gruelling and didn't get easier at any of the re-fuel stops but finally we made it on a beautifully warm evening to Berlin. We were kindly put up in Berlin by an artist friend of mine who is doing exciting things with reclaimed bones, if you would like to see her extraordinary work you can find it Here. Now we didn't get to experience Berlin to its full extent.

Motorcycling is a deeply personal experience. You must both fight and embrace the road simultaneously while navigating across landscapes and your own perceptions. You find that there is a lot of time for thinking sitting in the bucket that is your helmet, and between the two of us we thought both great and terrible things. But I digress, it was thanks to Vanda's patience that we found what was lost and moved on from the stunning but small town of Brno, which we didn't see enough of to write meaningfully about so here are some pictures:

Brno in its melancholy twilight.

We decided to stop off in Budapest to split the last journey in two and make it more bearable, like every other night we had been blessed with on this trip, it was a hot evening and we had a beer with a Hungarian friend of ours at the Akvarium bar. It was a cathartic experience having come so far to know there was only two hours left and we enjoyed the night with understated revelry.

Budapest of the bright lights.

The final ride was the worst, we were nearly run down by at least two impatient drivers and literally no-one was indicating or giving us any idea what they were doing, paired with strong winds it was a ride I would rather soon forget. But finally, we came into Debrecen with laughter and smiles having traversed Europe on a big bastard of a motorcycle, carrying way too many things over a route that was way too long and having all the ups and downs of a real adventure. Our first one. All in all we enjoyed the experience and are looking forward to our next 'Grand Tour'. But first we have to survive the greatest adventure of our lives, our wedding...in three days...god help us.

What pretty, exhausted mugs we own.

I shall leave you with the route map and hope that you can find it as impressive as we do, we are very impressed with ourselves.

Onto the next!

Puffer