Night Rides & Too Much Coffee

... if there even is such a thing.

I keep meaning to tell you about this lovely time I've had recently, but then get distracted by the world, by Christmas, by injustice, and by the seeming complexity of keeping your eyes open. But I did have the most wonderful time in Prague last week. Having developed an audacious and outrageous passion for Prague coffeehouse cultures, I arrived in the city with way too many places to visit, and not nearly enough time to do so without seriously endangering my system. There's just something about loving all these quirky, odd-bod places, and more so, about having the time and the luxury to just plop down somewhere for a few hours with a book. This time I was sans writing equipment, so my single focus, other than exploring this well-loved city, was to enjoy my reading.

As something of a coffee addict, I started the day with a wee Lidl trip to furnish our temporary home with coffee. It's true, temptation lurks around every corner, and there was a lovely specialty coffeehouse just on the ground floor of our building (and three more between the house and Lidl), but I figured what's the point of renting a lovely place, if you're not gonna take your time? And if your morning can look like this, maybe you don't need to go out anyway:

I sat inside for way longer than was acceptable while traveling, or should be. Spent much of my time reading and involuntarily writing, which I blame on the apparel at my disposal. Being left inside the house with only big pots, I had no choice but to boil up a lot of coffee, and since I hate waste, by the time I left the house, I was shouting from the rooftops about the great Cornholio, practically.

Fun, fun, fun.

After a week of not being able to stand up straight for pain, the universe allowed that I'd paid enough of my dues to warrant a lovely free Thai massage. I didn't rightly know what to expect from it, and was frankly shocked when I realized how much tension I'd been holding, how hard I'd found things lately. It almost made me want to cry. I'm always impressed on the rare instances I go for a proper massage, and come out thinking I should learn how to do that, to give people this kind of pleasure and relief, but then I start thinking where that need comes from, and get lost inside another story entirely.

Afterward, it was time to it up a few of my favorite thrift stores, which are both a delight and the bane of my whole existence, as I have arguably more clothes than I can possibly wear. To be fair, I did find one or two bargains - I'd been looking for a proper white shirt for ages. You know, not the uppity, pen-pusher type, but something bohemian and oversized, which was just waiting for me this time 'round. And a lovely dress, as well, in case I ended up ferrying myself to the opera or something. I figure someone in my cricle's bound to get married sooner or later, and now I'm properly decked out. Afterward, it was high time to relax with another coffee, and so I merrily made my way to a lovely spot I've written about before. There's something undeniably cozy about having an abundance of time to seemingly squander inside a coffeehouse around midday, isn't there? You hear the busy hush of lives around you, and you get to just...slow...down.

Fantastic, really, and I took unashamed advantage of it. Sampling my filter coffee, with its fruity, tea-like aftertaste. Seems to me certain filters are made for this kind of squandering. That sweet-ish, forgiving taste, the sense it's good, that everything can, for a little while, belong to you. It's really rather something.

I spent longer than I probably should have drinking coffee, and still found enough time to explore, see a movie, and best of all, drive! Unlike my hometown, Prague has lovely carsharing services in place, and you're never too far from an affordable vehicle of your own (for a price). Meaning to practice my skills behind the wheel for a wee bit now, I took the bold step all on my lonesome, and rented out a tiny, pretty Toyota to act as my personal carriage.

It turns out, I actually really enjoyed driving. Worth pointing out this was my first ever time driving solo, and I was really grateful for the maps in-built display inside a foreign town, but had ultimately so much fun. As the title of this suggests, I ended up renting a bunch more cars over the following days, including after dark, and while it was a bit demanding, it was incredibly worth it. Alas, I started getting the appeal of having a car, which I've managed to steer away from for a good while now, but damn, when you cross over to the dark side, it's all a bit intoxicating, innit?

What have you been up to?