May 4 - May 6, 2007
Prague...a great walking city, too much shopping, beautiful architecture and absinth. I think that pretty much sums up my weekend.
Friday -
Of course everyone knows that you can't travel and not expect a few bumps in the ride. We caught a 7:30pm flight on Friday to Prague and got there around 9:30. By the time we got through immigration, got our luggage, etc. our shuttle guy had been waiting about 30 min. The ride to our hotel took at least 30 -40 minutes and we finally got to our hotel around 11ish. I met a few more of my co-workers this weekend and it was definitely interesting. Lily and I stayed with Kirsten and Mandy, 2 girls who were working on the Croatia audit and spent the weekend before in Greece (i was so jealous). Kirsten is this really cute chic who's also super anal about stuff, but in a good way (2 hours early to the airport, lock stuff up in the safe, etc.) and Mandy is this really really sweet girl who loves to chat you up! Fun girls too so the room situation worked out great even though it was 4 girls in 1 room and 1 bathroom. Shannon and her hubby Kevin had a room to themselves and then the 3 guys stayed at a Rennaisance across the street. The boys were Rafael, Francisco and Kevin (KB as we call him, to distinguish btwn co-worker and Shannon's husband). So we had a pretty good group this weekend. Lily's friend from college, Dawit, lives in Geneva now and happened to be in Prague this weekend as well, so he basically hung out with us all weekend. Great/fun guy!!
OK, so we freshened up and left the hotel to find a restaurant to serve 10 people dinner at 11:30pm in Prague. This ended up to be quite the challenge. Most of the places we came across (we just wandered around since the hotel was in a great central location in Old Town) were open till midnight but of course no one wanted to serve 10 people that late. We finally ended up at this place called Hotel U Prince. Interesting place - they had this oldies band (by this i mean, a group of old guys playing instruments like an accordian, sax, banjo...very random) and it was crazy packed...i guess cause by this time it was midnight and they were one of the only places that would serve food! so they seated us and we proceeded to order bottles of wine. As usual, the service was pretty slow, but understandable cause the place was so crowded. apparently there was a wedding party going on there too since the actual hotel was supposed to be pretty nice. i was really surprised to find out how cheap the food was there! for $3 i got this great meal of ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta. This on top of the bread (not so great) and the wine. Definitely the cheapest meal we had all weekend. The waiter had to kick us out at 2am since they weren't serving food anymore and i think the place was turning into a bar. we were all pretty tired at this point, so we peaced out and went back to the hotel. Rafael and KB decided that they weren't ready to call it a night yet so they went their separate way to this bar/lounge/club, whatever it was that was right down the street from our hotel. Sounded like they had a pretty good time...but those guys are crazy!
Saturday -
We slept in :-) and ordered room service for breakfast while we got ready. Around 12:30ish we finally decided to head out and were pretty lazy about our day. The boys did their own thing
Prague...a great walking city, too much shopping, beautiful architecture and absinth. I think that pretty much sums up my weekend.
Friday -
Of course everyone knows that you can't travel and not expect a few bumps in the ride. We caught a 7:30pm flight on Friday to Prague and got there around 9:30. By the time we got through immigration, got our luggage, etc. our shuttle guy had been waiting about 30 min. The ride to our hotel took at least 30 -40 minutes and we finally got to our hotel around 11ish. I met a few more of my co-workers this weekend and it was definitely interesting. Lily and I stayed with Kirsten and Mandy, 2 girls who were working on the Croatia audit and spent the weekend before in Greece (i was so jealous). Kirsten is this really cute chic who's also super anal about stuff, but in a good way (2 hours early to the airport, lock stuff up in the safe, etc.) and Mandy is this really really sweet girl who loves to chat you up! Fun girls too so the room situation worked out great even though it was 4 girls in 1 room and 1 bathroom. Shannon and her hubby Kevin had a room to themselves and then the 3 guys stayed at a Rennaisance across the street. The boys were Rafael, Francisco and Kevin (KB as we call him, to distinguish btwn co-worker and Shannon's husband). So we had a pretty good group this weekend. Lily's friend from college, Dawit, lives in Geneva now and happened to be in Prague this weekend as well, so he basically hung out with us all weekend. Great/fun guy!!
OK, so we freshened up and left the hotel to find a restaurant to serve 10 people dinner at 11:30pm in Prague. This ended up to be quite the challenge. Most of the places we came across (we just wandered around since the hotel was in a great central location in Old Town) were open till midnight but of course no one wanted to serve 10 people that late. We finally ended up at this place called Hotel U Prince. Interesting place - they had this oldies band (by this i mean, a group of old guys playing instruments like an accordian, sax, banjo...very random) and it was crazy packed...i guess cause by this time it was midnight and they were one of the only places that would serve food! so they seated us and we proceeded to order bottles of wine. As usual, the service was pretty slow, but understandable cause the place was so crowded. apparently there was a wedding party going on there too since the actual hotel was supposed to be pretty nice. i was really surprised to find out how cheap the food was there! for $3 i got this great meal of ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta. This on top of the bread (not so great) and the wine. Definitely the cheapest meal we had all weekend. The waiter had to kick us out at 2am since they weren't serving food anymore and i think the place was turning into a bar. we were all pretty tired at this point, so we peaced out and went back to the hotel. Rafael and KB decided that they weren't ready to call it a night yet so they went their separate way to this bar/lounge/club, whatever it was that was right down the street from our hotel. Sounded like they had a pretty good time...but those guys are crazy!
Saturday -
We slept in :-) and ordered room service for breakfast while we got ready. Around 12:30ish we finally decided to head out and were pretty lazy about our day. The boys did their own thing
cause they got up before us and the girls (including Shannon, her hubby and Dawit) took a cab to 
the Prague Castle (aka - cathedral) and then walked back to Old Town afterwards. Luckily, the rain held off - so the weather wasn't too bad. This castle was amazing! The stained glass was something else all together, and the outside had these crazy/creepy looking gargoyles all over the place. I went with Shannon and Kevin inside the cathedral (the castle was really a cathedral) and the rest of the crew chilled at a little restaurant nearby and grabbed some beers/hot chocolate while they waited for us. i really loved looking at all the stained glass and probably coulda hung out there for a while, but since everyone was waiting for us we didn't want to take too long. 
We took a nice little stroll back to the square, crossing over the Charles Bridge and checking out all the local vendors selling paintings, photography, characitures, jewelry, you name it. Unfortunately I had no Czech Krowne on me since I hadn't stopped at the ATM yet, so I couldn't buy anything. We also passed by several Marionette shops and I saw this cute little sheep in the window. For some reason it reminded me of the Sound of Music (one of my favorite musicals) and all the girls and I busted out in song. Poor guys - i don't know how they put up with us all day! Lily and Kirsten each bought one as gifts for other ppl, but I refrained...high on the hill was a lonely goat...
We got back to Old Town Square (where we had dinner the night before)
and were starving by this point. We ate lunch at this restaurant where we could sit outside and enjoy some ppl watching. By the way, pictured to the left is Dawit eating chicken wings. Not sure who eats wings in Prage ;-). This restaurant also happened to be right across from the famous Astronomical Clock Tower, so it was crazy crowded with tourists...especially when it hit 5pm.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Astronomical_Clock
After lunch the girls wanted to check out the shopping, so we walked around some more (starting to get a little used to ALL THIS WALKING). The crystal shops had some really beautiful stuff - way too expensive for any of us, and the girls window shopped at all the jewelry shops on the way since Amber and Garnet are really big there. I'm not big on the jewelry so I just chilled and waited. We came across a Zara - so too much time was spent there. Apparently there isn't one in Chicago which really surprised me, so the girls were way too excited about that store! I ended up finding a shirt that's kinda different from my usual taste, but I got talked into buying it and ended up wearing it out. It was really comfy, so I was happy w/my one purchase from Prague. THEN we had to go to Sephora for Lily and some bead shop for Kirsten and Mandy. Finally after all that we headed back to the hotel. I was seriously exhauted by this time and we got a little lost on the way back. It wasn't too hard to find our way again, but I passed out for a good hour before having to get up again for our dinner reservations.
Lily is really big on eating well in these different cities. She wants to check out the best restaurant in town if it's possible and not ridiculously expensive. The best restaurant was booked, so we settled for the 2nd best - it's sister restaurant (according to our hotel concierge). These places are owned by the Kampa Group. Dinner was at Hergetova Cihelna. Fairly expensive (especially for Prague), but really good food! Had some more wine and just enjoyed our meal. Pictured to the left is the water fountain that was outside of our restaurant.
I should probably mention that there's a little "initiation" that everyone in the group has to go 
through when the go on their first trip. Mine was Saturday night. I won't go into details, but pretty much everyone had a lot of fun, it didn't get too crazy and no one got hurt :-). Pictured to the left: Kevin (Shannon's hubby - a little drunk, Kirsten, Dawit, Lily and me). We went to 2 different clubs...first, Mecca. I had heard it was a pretty good club and so had Dawit - so we figured it wouldn't hurt to check it out. Well, I have to say I was pretty disappointed. First, it was outside the city so we had to cab it. Second, cover was crazy expensive!! $20/person. Seriously? who pays that much in prague!! well, we did. it definitely wasn't worth it, but we hung out for a while anyways. The music was too hardcore techno for anyone to dance, so we just hung out and talked amongst ourselves. Next we went to another club. I don't remember the name of it, but we had a good time dancing at this one. I got some good pics and video clips of the boys (and some of the girls) acting pretty silly. After a while (I think it was around 4am this time), Kirsten wasn't feeling too hot so we had to go back to the hotel. I wasn't done yet and neither were the boys, so I left Lily and Mandy to take care of Kirsten and I headed to that bar/lounge/clu
b around the corner with KB, Rafael and Dawit and finished out the night. The place was practically empty so we just acted like eediots and danced around...the robot and the "sprinkler" even made special appearances that night! Royce - you'd be so proud :-).We were joking about how everyone was gonna talk about those "crazy Americans", so we made it well known that "we were Canadians" and Rafael added "I'm Mexican"...So that was the quote to finish out the night. Good times, lots of silliness and a very very late night. The sun started rising as we headed back to our hotels... (pictured from the left is Dawit, KB, and Rafael)
Sunday -
soooo tired! Kirsten and Mandy had a 2pm flight so they had to get outta the hotel by 11:30am. Room service was ordered again...gotta love it! I stayed in bed since I had such a late night and
was really wiped out. I love me some croissants, so Lily ordered a few for me and I proceeded to eat them lying down in my bed. Sorry Mom! Don't worry - that was a rare occurrence, but I was too tired and lazy to even move. Lily couldn't finish her pancakes so I polished those puppies off as well. Then I chilled in bed for another hour or so before finally getting up. Lily and I did a little more walking around and just hung out for the rest of the day. Our flight left at 7pm, so we caught our shuttle from the hotel at 4:30. That's pretty much it - passed out in the plane...i'm getting pretty good and sleeping sitting up.So that's that. A great weekend in Prague. I can't wait till next weekend in Budapest! I get to meet up with my friend Ankur from Dallas who lives in Hungary. Should be good times :-). I'll probably be ready for another fun weekend cause this is my last "full" week on this audit. We have a ton to do so it's probably gonna be a little hectic. Still not nearly as bad as in public accounting, so I can deal with it :-).
Till the next adventure...
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