Without a home

A few winter days in Prague

Still sleepy-eyed I looked outside the window of the airplane and all I saw was white. There were little lines of black cutting what I thought were large chunks of ice floating on water - except I was flying overland from Turkey!

As you leave the airport the cold hits your face first and then your hands - the only two exposed body parts. Your nose turns pink and you can feel the cold seep through your clothes till it reaches your body. It goes through each layer of clothing, starting from the feet. It happens almost instantaneously and catches you unaware. By the time I climbed onto the bus heading to the city my hands were cold and sore - I needed gloves urgently. The bus is comfortable and warm but just as I was fully thawed I got off and headed to the metro station.

The metro is by far the worst place in the winter. It provides a wonderful cool breeze in the summer but in the winter it is akin to torture. As you descend one elevator you feel the cold wind rushing on your face, finding every crevice to creep into you clothes. After the second elevator you wished you had taken the tram instead! The metro has no heating…

The walk from the metro stop to the hotel was the most difficult yet the most amazing. As I stepped out into the cold again it started to snow. It wasn’t the first time I had seen it snow but this was a whole different experience. Everything around me was covered in it, but the pathway and roads were dry. The concentration of the falling snowflakes increased and soon I could barely see where I was walking. Trying my best to walk on ice without slipping while dragging my bags did not take away from the cool feeling of the snowflakes landing my face.