Christmas is coming. Again. While it may be a widely known fact that I’ve not done nearly as much Christmas shopping as I should have, I’ve decided to wrong-foot the entire UK-based price-inflated Christmas-tat-buying economy by coming to Prague. A stroke of genius, if I say so myself.

It’s rather nice here. I’m sat at breakfast in the hotel waiting for some late (snoozy?) people and through the window I’m seeing the city in daylight for the first time. People had said that this was a very pretty city, and it really is rather nice. Even last night, when we decided to get lost on the way from the airport and ended up trundling through the middle of the city in the dark, it was all nice to look at.

I should talk about the hotel. For a small amount of money per night, I’m getting a spacious, warm, comfy room with breakfast thrown in. But that’s not the best bit. The best bit’s the view. The hotel’s in the north-west part of the city, near the castle and I believe it might actually be the same hill the castle’s on. The result is that as I munch on strange bread, strange butter, strange cheese and lovely ham, I have an amazing view down the hill towards the river and snow-covered old town.

My initial reaction when I heard ‘Prague’ was ‘cheap!’. I was quickly told that it wasn’t as cheap as it used to be. On the basis of the price of beer last night, I can only conclude that it must have been really cheap.

This isn’t a holiday as such. In the sense that I’m here on my own time and my own money, it’s a holiday. In the sense that I’ve got to go to a press conference at the senate today, followed by a bunch of singing rehearsals before eventually singing in the Cathedral to (amongst others) the Archbishop and the Czech President, it’s not a holiday.

So it’s a holiday with a press conference. I’ve never been to a press conference before. I might ask a question about cheese.