It's unseasonably cold for May, and we're all glad when the bus arrives. I was bored of waiting, and even before they had sat next to me, I had been discretely eavesdropping on the couple speaking French by the bus stop. From the sound of things, they are Franco-Czechs - or Czecho-French? Difficult to say. He's a grizzled 50 something, with an adventurer's glint in his eye. A chemical engineer, not a chemist as he explains in great detail to his colleague. She's younger - well dressed, but a little worn around the edges. They seem close - perhaps more friends than colleagues.

The bus makes its way through the Prague suburbs, and the two of them converse desultorily about one thing and the other. Then we go past some ravines and green space, curiously situated in amongst the apartment blocks.

She: "It's so beautiful. Romantic. I used to come walking here in all seasons."

He: "My friend killed herself here. One day, in the middle of winter, she came out here, took all her clothes off, put them in a bag and laid down in the snow."

She: What a romantic place to die! (Then teasing) Did she kill herself for you Rachid? Did you spurn her? Did she die from unrequited love?

He: "No. She was my friend. She had a husband and kids - I wanted to screw her but never managed. No, she fell in love with another woman. But she couldn't leave her family. So she came out here... They found her in the Spring when the snows melted.

She: "Aah - a gentle death."

He: "You think so - so cold..."

She: "No, the body shuts down, you go into a form of trance. If she had suffered she would have put her clothes back down. Its an easy way to go - and romantic. She wasn't Czech then, they're so practical?"

He: "Yes she was. She was beautiful like the sun. We all met at the funeral."

She: "The lover, the friend, the husband and the kids - that's life. You can't stop someone who wants to kill themselves. (Pause) I have felt sad like that before - it's a dagger in your heart, with you all the time. You cannot live with pain like that you know."

And then they got off the bus, at the wrong terminal.