Prague is not the place you think of for Mexican food but after asking three different locals where they go when they go when they want to have a special dinner out, I kept hearing the same answer –Cantina.Yet, I just couldn’t make myself go.
Although tonight, I wish I had.
Today must have been International Miscommunication Day.
Around 2 pm, I handed the hotel’s front desk clerk my friend’s flight information. I requested that he check if the flight was on time.
He phoned and explained that the flight would arrive at 4:30pm.I wasn’t surprised that it was running that late. I had wandered enough in the rain so I decided to see if the hotel’s spa had availability.I booked a 90 minute de-stress treatment – their specialty.If I started at 2:30, I’d be done well before she arrived.
My treatment, by the way, ran over by 30 minutes.I figured that 15 minutes was no big deal, as my friend needed time to unpack and the hotel staff knew I was in the spa.
At 4:45, I hurried to the front desk and asked if she had arrived.There was different staff on duty. They looked at each other, thoroughly bewildered. Arrived? She arrived at the hotel a bit after 2:30 and had waited almost 2 hours before leaving to go explore.
Apparently the person that morning not only got the wrong information, but to add insult to injury, he didn’t let my friend (or the afternoon) staff know my whereabouts. So they kept trying my room… no luck. They even tried the spa… I was listed as having an appointment.
I asked, “Do you know where she went?”
Yes, off to see the Statue of Baby Jesus.
Could they direct me to the right church?
Don’t ask!I could go on and on about how armed with minimal directions, I took off trying to find her but that was not my best decision of the day.
After getting too much exercise in too little time, all stress relief from the massage earlier was gone.
I returned to the hotel, darted up two flights of stairs to my room and picked up the phone in my hotel room.In order to reach my friend here in Prague, I had to dial the US to get connected to her.A million dollar phone call later, we did meet up.
You might wonder why I didn’t I just call her on my cell phone in the first place. Answer is simple; Sprint didn’t activate my International SIM Cards as promised.
Now while the people at Sprint speak fluent English – though they don’t necessarily know how to follow through with requests.Understanding the language of the request and following through with completing the request are not always the same thing.
Had I personally called British Airways to get the ETA of my friend’s flight, this wouldn’t have happened.
Had I left a note under my friend’s door saying I was in the spa instead of asking the hotel employee to deliver the message, this wouldn’t have happened.
Had I taken the time to call Sprint this morning and give them an earful, I would have had my international phone working.
Had I changed my service to A T & T before I left, I wouldn’t have had the problem at all.
Always have the person giving you directions be specific and ask them to look up the address. Have them hand write the address for you and verify the accuracy.
“Go left at the first street, don’t go in the first restaurant but go though the garden of the second restaurant and that is the place.”
We believe we never found the right restaurant because the place where we ended up dining was mediocre-at-best, horrendously overpriced, had horrific service and the audacity to bring back our bill and argue that we didn’t tip. We politely tried to point to the service charge which clearly showed up on the bill as 19% to which the waiter replied, “the service charge is not the tip.” At 19% it damned better be!
And so tonight, I am going to dream about highly recommended Margaritas and Mexican food at a place easy to find located… in Prague – of all places.!