OK, this is really kinda weird, if you think about it <giggles>.
Wifi internet is (I've suddenly found out) pretty big in Budapest, and so is free wifi in cafes and restaurants. To my disappointment, it turned out not to be half as widespread in Prague; this
index page for Prague's downtown district mostly lists non-entertaining places, and hardly any free ("Zdarma") ones. (Tho the Galerie Louvre Cafe, on Narodni, is recommended; go inside and up the stairs where, outside, it says Cafe Louvre (ignore that it looks dodgy) to find that trendy-looking place on the first floor (and the more classic, fancy Louvre Kavarna on the second floor)). But in Budapest, in any case, its a kind of must-have, it almost seems, for a self-respecting hip-pish cafe, and there's an incredibly userfriendly website to look 'em all up at
hotspotter.hu.
The opportunity sure seems to hit on a market. Whether you go to the trendy Szoda cafe on Wesselenyi or, one street down, the more sedate new neighbourhood restaurant Koleves in Dob; there's another guy or two with a laptop. Geeks rule.
It only reaches a level of weirdness here, however. The brand-new, fully American-style California Coffee Company on the circular boulevard has made its offer of free wifi an essential part of its profile; all its posters have a "WiFi Zone" logo in the top corner. In Eklektika or Urania you just kinda have to know. Plus, on its convenient location and with its "just-like-in-California" style, it attracts a lot of tourists and expats. But still the effect is drastic; if you walk in right now and walk down to the counter along the comfy chairs, you pass ten customers lounging around - and
seven of 'em are typing away on a laptop. Like its a bring-your-own-computer internet cafe or something. Imagine just coming in for a Latte and looking around and going, in little k style, uh ... what? Am I missing something?
The Take the Biscuit Award of the evening however goes to the young thing from France with her Chinese girlfriend to my right. She's got a webcam inside a plush doggie on top of her computer screen, and just now interrupted her chatting to stand up, angle the webcam in the right direction, and turn around in various ways to get her, eh, assets on the screen, this way and that (she's sat down again now but with the cam on a firm close-up of her breasts). Even when she goes to order a drink she turns the laptop around to remain on screen.
