Thursday 20th May 2021

Our journey to the airport at midnight took about 40mins as the roads were empty. We sat quietly the whole journey soaking up what is going to happen for the next 3 months. Steve was looking a little sad though we know he was delighted for us, and we were full of mixed emotions too – happiness, anxiety, excitement, stress, anticipation, hopes, love, sadness, optimism, fear…….

We checked all paperwork and passports about 4 times.

Check in at Qatar airlines took 90 minutes standing in a queue. We tried to keep social distancing as much as we could. The was a good, slick and thorough process, but not enough staff.  All computers  systems were working togethers with tickets, health card bar codes and our passports – including the permission for us to board that had been granted by Czech immigration as described in an earlier blog post.

The plane from Colombo to Doha was pretty full. We sat in the middle of the plane in row 24 departing at 4am Sri Lanka time.  Masks to be worn all the time apart from eating. No visors were given, but we had our own – and have left one for Steve when he travels to the UK.

Pillows & blankets given.
Sanitizing kits given.
Entertainment and headphones on.
Nice hot breakfast with drinks.
Super service.

Emi felt sick on take off, so I gave her a pill, she ate her home made ham sandwich (the ham in which was the last from when Steve returned from the UK in January 2020), she slept and was ok . Misa ate, slept and watched TV.  I ate, slept and watched one movie.

Transfer in Doha was painless at 2 hours and 15 mins; just perfect.  Lots of people at the airport, but able to maintain social distancing.  It was only crowded when going through the x-ray area, but you could keep distance if you wanted to let other people do their own thing.  We didn’t stop in any of the beautiful coffee shops unfortunately; even if I wanted to, I would not enjoy it.

The plane from Doha to Prague was barely 10% full. Very little obviously Czech people, mostly Asian.  I wonder why and who they were, and if in fact they were Czech citizens given the challenge Steve had getting us permission to enter? I sat on my own by the window behind the kids, Misa by the window and Emi on the aisle. We each had a lovely lunch (R&M beef casserole and mashed potatoes, E vegetarian cheesy cannelloni). I even had a glass of red wine. Steve would be proud. We had little sleep. Kids had chicken wrap later on with juice. 

The whole journey I was in disbelief I am actually flying home-home. 

We touched down in Prague at 12.30, 60mins early. The airport was empty. We stood in the Czech Citizens queue despite having English passports. The immigration officer was very nice and he even knew where Krnov is. Luggage was waiting for us on the carousel. We exited into the arrivals hall and waited for our friend Martin about 45 mins to pick us up. In the meantime we spoke to Steve and my mummy on the phone using airport WiFi.  14C outside, we could feel the cold. 

Journey in the car took 5hours with one stop to get fuel and a coffee. Our lovely friend Nikolka (Martin’s fiancé) prepared us a beautiful bag of goodies with personalized messages and rolls with ham. So sweet; it felt so special. Kids slept a little bit. The sun was shining.

We reached my mum’s house to self isolate at 19.30 Czech time. Lovely messages with cakes from my mummy and chicken noodle soup for dinner in the fridge. Rooms with beds and nicely ironed cotton beddings prepared. We felt very loved.  Shame my mummy was not at home. She will live for 5 days with my brother’s family to minimize risk of us giving her Covid if we brought any. We had a warm bath and went to bed at 22.00 and slept like a log. I was home-home, after nearly 2 years of not being there.

It felt nice to be back.