Living in Prague - NYC Expats

I'm a Big Fat Liar

2009-05-06T14:24:00.001-07:00

I'm a big fat liar. During my last days in Prague, I promised that I would keep on blogging from New York. Well, that clearly hasn't happened. I've only posted two entries from New York. There are several reasons behind this.

First, I have no free time on my hand. Even though I work from home, I am busier than I ever was in Prague. I have many more friends here and I am out of the apartment at least 4 nights a week. Also, R is working now and I have to pitch in with household chores. I even washed laundry this week. Laundry! Can you believe it!

Also, my entertainment options are more plentiful in New York. I have 1000 channels of crap on my TV at all times. Just this past weekend, I got sucked into a True Life marathon on MTV. That's something that never happened in Prague. R also got me hooked on American Idol again - wasting a good 2 hours of my life each week. I swore off that show many, many moons ago but Adam Lambert sucked me back in.

The other reason why I am not blogging is that I'm just not inspired. Most of my blogs in Prague were about traveling to exotic cities and the crazy things that Europeans do. I don't have the same inspiration in the States. Just as an example, R and I have been to Las Vegas and Miami within the last month, but I've felt no reason to blog about it. Everyone has been to Las Vegas and Miami. I have absolutely nothing to say.

So, with that, this officially marks my last post on http://livinginprague.blogspot.com I will keep the site up to serve as a reminder of the great times we had in Prague... but I will no longer be posting to it.

I want to thank everyone who has followed this blog for the past 2+ years. I can probably call you all out by name right here, but I won't do that.

If you are a bit sad and really miss my comical musings on the minutia of everyday life, I am trying to post on Twitter a couple of times per day. You can follow me at: http://twitter.com/ninotasca

Godspeed!

P.S. For everyone who is wondering how Bauer is doing, he is fine. He is no longer depressed and he is a normal, happy puppy. But he is still absolutely petrified of Casey, the big dog down the hall.

A Dog's Life

2009-03-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

As I wrote in my last post, Bauer spent the first week back in New York a bit depressed. Everything was new and he didn't have a set routine. I've always heard that dogs love to have a set routine. They like to get up at the same time, eat at the same time, go on walks at the same time, etc. Routine makes them happy and comfortable.

Apparently, I am not much different than a dog. My first two weeks back in New York have been completely without routine. I've rotated between sleeping on an aerobed in my bedroom, sleeping on my neighbors couch and crashing at my friends place when he was out of town. I don't have a TV in my apartment yet and there is no food in the refrigerator. I haven't had a single home cooked meal that didn't consist of peanut butter and/or jelly. In short, I've been living like a hermit and it is really starting to bug me. I need a routine.

Yesterday, I couldn't take the randomness any more and decided to do something about it. I started setting up my apartment the best way I could - even though my furniture and main belongings still have yet to arrive. I put dishes away, went to get food (OK, milk and bread) and even set up a ghetto desk using empty boxes and a load-bearing comforter. This is my new routine... typing on a keyboard that sits on a creaky box while holding it together with my leg so it doesn't shake too much.

But, not everything about moving sucks. If nothing else, I've learned two new lessons.

First, moving is so damn expensive. It starts with the home improvement projects. We had to come home and clean the house from top to bottom, paint, get the carpets cleaned and re-do the floors. Even though we did much of this ourselves (I'll get to this in point two), it still costs a lot of money. Every time I go to the hardware store I walk out at least $100 poorer. It's not just the big stuff, but the little things as well. Cleaning products, gloves, sand paper, etc. It all adds up.

And then there are the electronics. I had to sell all of my electronics before moving to Europe. So I now I had to buy everything new. A new TC, stereo, DVD player (I choose an PS3 instead), wireless router, printer, etc. Don't get me wrong, it will be fun to have the new entertainment system around the house. But it is very expensive to buy it all at once with everything else.

The second lesson I learned is that I am never - ever - doing home improvement projects by myself again. I spent the better part of the last week sanding and refinishing the floors. I talked to my dad before hand and got instructions. I watched how-to videos on YouTube. I bought all of the products - top quality. And, you know what, it looks like shit. I did a bad job.

Honestly, I should have known better. It's not that I'm an idiot and can't do manual labor (although some people may claim that is the case). It is just that I have never refinished a floor before. Of course I'm going to fuck it up the first time I do it. You need to learn from someone, practice and make a few mistakes before doing it yourself. But I didn't do that. My first job was my apartment. Great decision on my part. Last time I make that mistake again. Seriously, I'm never lifting a finger again. If I have to change the battery in my smoke detector, I'm going to call my super and ask him to do it.

But, it's not all bad news. R started her new job and has been in Las Vegas training all week. I head out there on Wednesday night to join her for the weekend. So life could be worse...

Back in NY

2009-03-10T15:56:00.001-07:00

I have been in New York for 10 days and haven't posted a blog. Sorry about that. I've been busy doing manual labor - trying to fix up my apartment before my furniture arrives. I'm not used to that type of work. A decade of sitting behind a desk has made me soft. The truth is, I'm exhausted. And my finger tips hurts. I've been using my hands so much that my fingers are raw. Every type I hit a character on this keyboard I endure a little bit more pain. The fact that I am putting up with this intense pain to post you a blog just shows how dedicated I am to my readers. So, on that note, here is the blog entry I have been meaning to write....

R, Bauer and I made it back to New York safe and sound last week. For the humans on board, the flight was perfectly fine. For the canines, it may have been a bit more stressful. We'll never know for sure because Bauer spent the 9 hour flight stuffed in a crate with the rest of the cargo.

Once we landed in JFK, we went through customs and got our bags without delay. But it took quite some time for the airlines to bring Bauer out. After about 30 minutes of waiting, we finally heard some yelping in a crate in the far off distance. It was good ol' Bauer... and he wanted out of the damn crate. Rightfully so. It took another 20 minutes or so to get all of the dog papers signed - with Bauer making himself heard in the crate the whole time. Finally we got outside, let Bauer out of the crate so he could do his long-awaited business and order was restored in the universe.

I wish I could tell you what a great time we've had eating/drinking/laughing during our first week back in New York. But the truth is much less sexy than that. We've been doing hard manual labor for 12 hours per day. Cleaning, painting, sanding, etc. Lots of work. We're trying to fix up our apartment before our furniture arrives.

And, in case you are wondering, Bauer is doing OK. The transition from Prague to New York is a tough one and he is quite confused. You could tell that he was depressed the first couple of days. But he's starting to come out of it and will be fine in a couple of days.

The real bad news is that he doesn't remember his friend Casey - the German Shephard down the hall. Not only does he not remember Casey, but he is absolutely petrified of him. We've been forcing the two of them to hang out with each other all week but Bauer wants no part of it. He's scared to death of the big dog. Our plan is to just keep on forcing them to hang out with each other until they eventually like each other.

Don't worry about Bauer. He'll be fine in a few days. I'm much more concerned about my precious hands right now.

Top Ten Things About Living in Prague

2009-02-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

OK - the last post while I am living in Prague is a tribute to the city I have called home for the last 2 years: Prague. I may have not always said the nicest things about Prague in this blog - but the truth is this city has been absolutely great to me. Although it isn't perfect, it's been a really, really good place to live. Here are the top 10 things I liked most about the city:

Beauty of the City
The first thing that has to be said about Prague is the beauty of the city. The tourist attractions aren't anything speial, but the buildings and the streets are just amazing. I never get bored of walking around the city and just looking up at the buildings.

Czech Beer
The Czechs love their beer. The drink more beer per capita than any other country in the world. And, as you might expect, the beer is fantastic. You can order a half liter of beer for as little as $1.50 in most restaurants. I have probably ordered less than 10 mixed drinks in my entire time here - I always get beer. Since the beer is great and ridiculously cheap - it makes for an easy decision.

Easy, Cheap Living
The lifestyle in Prague is pretty easy. People live and work at a relaxed pace. It is nothing like New York. At the same time, the city is pretty cheap to live in. Especially compared to New York and other European cities. Groceries are cheap and you can go to a restaurant without spending a lot of money. (Unfortunately, you get what you pay for)

Urban Parks
As much as Czechs like their beer, they also love the outdoors. And the city planning in Prague is some of the best I have ever seen. I can't think of another major city that has so many parks spread throughout the city. I can be at 5 different major parks within 15 minutes of walking out of my house. It's great - especially witha dog. Which leads me to my next point...

Dog Friendliness
Never have I seen such a dog friendly city in my life. Dogs can go off leash in all of the parks. They are allowed on the subways, the busses, the trams and in taxis. You can bring them in to all but the finest of restaurants. And, when they do come in the restaurant, the dogs are usually served water before you.

Our Apartment
After living in New York for nearly a decade, I've become used to a small apartment. A very small apartment. I remember the first apartment that R and I lived in together in 2000. One day I went out and bought basketball. I came home and no where to put it. Literally - there was not a single unoccupied space in my apartment that was large enough to fit a basketball.

Fortunately the current apaartment we own in New York is a bit bigger - but not much. It is still a 1 bedroom and space can be tight.

In Prague, we got to live like kings. We had a great 2 bedroom apartment that overlooked the river. The place is about 60% bigger than our New York apartment. If this place was in New York, it would probably cost between $5000 and $6000 a month to rent. Here... it significatnly more affordable.

I should also throw a shout out to Mirka and Pavla - the two ladies that work in the apartment directly across the hall from us. They have helped us out a thousand times over the past two years and have adopted Bauer as their own. We have been very lucky to have their help and friendship over the past two year (although I still think Pavla tried to posion me)

Sex Shops
OK, this one is just in here to see if you are still paying attention. I've said it many times in the blog but I'll say it again. There are a ridiculous number of Sex Shops in Prague. They're on every other corner. I have no idea how they all stay in business. It fascinates me.

10 Minutes from the Country
When you are in downtown Prague, it can feel like a major International city. It's not on the same level as a London or a Paris - but it has all of the essential ingredients. However, if you get on your bike and ride for 10 minutes, you totally escape city life. It feels like you are in the middle of the country and went back in time by 50 years. The difference is amazing - but in a pretty cool way. I really enjoyed riding my bike through these tiny little towns and villages on the outskirts of Prague.

Intra-City Transportation (Trams)
Here's a random entry - trams! I love a city with good trams.

In New York, I NEVER take the bus. I have literally been on the bus less than 5 times in my life. I have no idea how the numbers work and am always afraid that the bus is going to take a random left turn and leave me far away from my destination.

Since trams have built in tracks on the ground, they always go where they are supposed to. The ride is smooth and the stops are freqent. Trams are great!

Central European Location
Finally, one of the things I like most about Prague is how easy it is to escape from. If you look at a map of Europe and find Prague, you'll see it is stuck pretty much right in the center of Europe. This makes traveling ridiculously easy. For all of the traveling we have done, the only flights longer than 90 minutes were to London, Lisbon and Istanbul. And some places are so close that you can easily take a train or drive by car. We have traveled by train/car to Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Poland. The location has made our traveling life style much easier.

I won't end my stay in Prague by putting a list of things I didn't like (the food, the surly attitude of everyone that works in retail, etc.). Those thoughts are well documented in some of my earlier posts when I first moved here.

In all honesty, there were many many great things about living in Prague. We are so glad we made this trip and have never regretted our decision for a single second.

Top Ten Things I Will Do When I Get Back Home

2009-02-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

Today is a fun blog. Instead of looking back and places we have been and getting sentimental, I'm going to look to the future. In 48 short hours, we get on a flight and head back to New York.

Although we are very, very sad to leave Prague - we are also very excited to move back to New York. Here are some of the things I will do within my first week of getting back.

Eat Good Food
During my first 6 months in Prague, I was an mission to find a good burger. It never happened. I eventually gave up and lead an essentially burger-free life for the past 18 months. That's a crying shame. I can't wait to eat a good juicy burger when I get back home. I'll probably go get a Hickory Burger at Houston's, but I may also get a burger at Blue Smoke, Corner Bistro, Shake Shack, Rare or another new place that I don't even know about yet.

And then there is sushi. Prague does have a pretty significant number of sushi joints. I can think of at least 6 within a 20 minute walk of my house. Unfortunately, since the Czech Republic is a land-locked country, the sushi is not that good and ridiculously expensive. There is one good place near our house, but it is so expensive that we have only been there twice.

Finding great, cheap sushi in New York is not a problem. Our favorite spot is Yama on Houston - but I heard a nasty rumor that it was closed. I hope it is not true. But, if it is, no worries... there are dozens and dozens of other sushi houses that I am sure I will like just as much.

(On a side note, I could have made this whole blog about food. But that's no fun. Just know that I could have easily added Wings, Mexican food and Pizza to this list)

Buy a new Home Entertainment System
When I left for Prague two years ago, I had to sell all of my major electronic equipment. When I move back home, I will have nothing.

Many people would be upset about this since they have to outlay a lot of cash immediately upon landing. While this is true, I'm still excited. I get to walk into Best Buy and get everything brand spanking new. I can buy a flat screen HD TV, a Blue Ray Player and a Home Theater System. All brand new, all bought at the same time and all bought to integrate perfectly with each other. The best news is that the price of this entire system combined will be significantly less than the HD TV I bought 5 years ago.

I'll probably be at Best Buy within 3 hours of my plane landing.

(On a side note, i was planning on buying this Home Entertainment System with my winnings from Fantasy Football. But Donovan McNabb had to ruin all of those plans on a Monday night against the Browns. Four lousy yards! Four F&*%ing yards!!! If he doesn't get those four yards, I am the champ and get a free system. I'm still bitter)

Watch the Cavs... in HD
While I was able to watch a ridiculous amount of football while in Prague, I have only been able to watch a single basketball game. The games are on too late and I don't bet basketball.

This is unfortunate because my Cleveland Cavaliers are having the best season in franchise history. LeBron James - a hometown boy - is the best player on the planet and I think he will bring Cleveland a championship for the first time in my life.

But, I don't just want to watch basketball. I want to watch it in HD. I haven't seen a sporting event in High Definition in over 2 years. I'm going to be blown away all over again.

Browse Book Stores
My favorite thing to do on a rainy day in New York is to go to the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. I spend hours and hours just browsing the book store. I don't know why, but I love it.

I haven't had the chance to do it much in Prague. Although there are a few bookstores that carry English language books, the selection is not nearly the same.

Go to a Comedy Club
I love going to Comedy Clubs. I haven't seen a stand up comedian since I left New York. I feel less funny because of it. I can't even think of a joke right now. Seriously.

Punch an Investment Banker in the Face
Just because it seems like the right thing to do.

Go Shopping
OK - let me try to write this without sounding too pathetic. I don't love shopping. The act of shopping gets me tired after about an hour. But, that being said, I would like to get some new clothes.

I haven't bought a single thread of clothing in Prague. Literally. Not a sock, not a shirt, not underwear and not even a hat. Nothing. The clothes are overpriced and not my style (to say the least). When I get back to New York, I desperately need some new gear.

Live like the average American
I can't wait to eat fast food, watch endless hours of mindless reality TV, shop at Wal-Mart, work 60 hours a week, buy a shot gun and shoot a moose.

Wait. I don't want to do any of that. Why am I leaving Europe again?

See Bauer reunite with Casey
We got our dog Bauer one week after our neighbors got their dog Casey - a German Sheppard. They grew up together for the first year of their life. They played everyday and were nearly inseparable. Then, one day out of the blue, we drugged Bauer, threw him in a small crate on a plane and he woke up 10 hours later in Europe. He has not seen Casey in the two years since.

The dogs - who both turn 3 in the next couple of weeks - will be reunited on our first day back. I have no idea how they will react. They will either play and get along like they never left each other... or Bauer will see the big dog and roll over on his back and put his tail between his legs. There is no in between.

Hang Out with Friends and Family
This item is obligatory. If I don't put it in here I'll sound like an asshole.

Check back tomorrow for my final blog from Prague.

Top Ten Pictures in Europe

2009-02-26T06:39:00.000-08:00

This post belongs to R. During our two years in Prague, R really took an interest in photography. She got a digital SLR camera, took a couple of photography classes, learned how to use Photoshop, got a better digital SLR camera when her first one was dropped in Aegean Sea, etc.

Fortunately for her, Europe provides a pretty amazing background for taking pictures. Here are her ten favorite pics from the past two years...

Two random people in front of the Charles Bridge in Prague. I am typically quite shy of snapping pics of strangers but this was a perfect moment!

A guy in Istanbul with a scale & tissues. Apparently you could pay him a few cents for the privilege of using his scale. Not really sure what the tissues were for....maybe to cry after reading your weight?

Famous Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Florence, Italy. I loved the reflections and shades of yellow when taking this shot.

An atrium in The Vatican. We paid for a private tour and so were able to enter 30min. before regular opening. This explains why there is not a single soul there yet. The sun was starting to shine within the atrium and it was just beautiful!

A random door in Sicily, Italy.
I waited for the whole family to enter the apartment so that I could take this picture. I loved the bright blue door and the contrasting blue bucket colors.

Bikes in Sicily, Italy
I just loved the dimension of the walls and back window yet with the front wall bikes.

Costumes on display in Venice during Carnival. This may be viewed as out of
focus but I just love it!

Costumes on display in Venice during Carnival. Rule of 1/3's and the background just seemed perfect to me.

View of Vernazza in the Cinque Terre region of Italy. This is probably the most beautiful view I have ever seen in my life! The colors were amazing especially with the water contrast. Plus, I loved how behind the city is another small inlet/beach.

A small little street on one of the Greek Islands. This sums up Greek architecture!

Check back tomorrow to read the top ten things I am most looking forward to about returning to New York.

Top Ten Places We Would Visit if We Stayed in Europe Longer

2009-02-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

OK - I've already spent enough time talking about the trips we took while living in Prague. Today, I'm going to talk about the trips we didn't take.

Had we stayed in Europe for a bit more time, here are the Top Ten places we would have visited. These are listed in no particular order and, truth be told, some of the places aren't even in Europe. To make this list, it just has to be a place that is easier to get to from Prague than from New York.

Moscow & St. Petersburg, Russia
This is definitely #1 on the list for the simple reason that - if I don't go to Russia now - I don't know when I will go. I can't see myself taking a vacation from New York just to Russia. I feel like the opportunity may have passed me by.

R and I did have plans to go to Russia and talked about it quite a bit. But, we decided against it because (a) it was extremely expensive and (b) I heard foreigners were treated pretty rudely there. So we decided to go on affordable trips where people would embrace us. I may regret missing the cultural significance that is Mother Russia, but a trip during these last two years just wasn't in the cards for us.

Egypt
Egypt is just the opposite of Russia. It's a place I really want to go to and I do see myself making a separate vacation just to go to Egypt. That being said, it's much closer from Prague than New York.

My friend Brian spent a considerable amount of time in Egypt last year and he advised me not to go. He was a bit turned off by the people - for whatever reason. He's also my #1 nemesis - so the fact that he didn't want me to go to Egypt just made me want to go more.

R and I had tentative plans to go to Egypt over Thanksgiving weekend in 2008, but she got a consulting gig in Portugal that was too good to pass up and we went to Lisbon instead. So that was that. But, like I said, I'm not too disappointed because I will get to Egypt one day.

French Riviera
If I close my eyes and think of the ultimate Eurotrash vacation, I think of lounging on a beach in the French Riviera, sipping champagne and wearing all white clothes - with excessive amounts of jewelry and hair product thrown in for good measure. It doesn't matter if it is Monte Carlo, Cannes or Nice. The fantasy is all the same. Me wearing all white standing on a yacht with models and bottles and the French Riviera in the background.

Now, if I actually went to the French Riviera, I'm sure the vacation itself would differ wildly from the images in my head described above. So it's probably a good thing that I never went. Still... I want to go and it's on the list. Maybe I should wait until I have enough money to experience the vacation that's in my head.

(A quick side note to accompany my food blog from Monday. My freind Brewsta - who operates one of the best food blogs in Prague - says the Oysters in Cannes are better than anywhere else. Just another reason to go here.)

Stockholm
I've heard that Stockholm in the summer is the most beautiful city in Europe. The city spans a bunch of islands and the temperature is pretty mild - in a good way.

But that is also part of the problem. The best time to see Stockholm is the summer, but it's not a beach destination. When the summer time hits, I want to go to the beach. I want to be lying in the sand, jumping in the water, diving, etc. Not going on vacations to visit the cultural capitals of Europe.

Had I been living in Europe during my high school years, I am sure I would have made my way to Sweden. That's because I used to LOVE blondes. Now, I'm much more of a brunnette fan. So I'm sure that played a role in the fact that I have not been to Stockholm.

Copenhagen
My nemesis Brian once told me that Copenhagen was his favorite city in Europe. I think he told me that because he specifically knew that I had not been to Copenhagen. Fuck that kid. Does he think he's better than me?!?!?!? I want to go to Copenhagen just out of spite.

Golfing in Ireland or Scotland
My friend Mark and I had planned to go to Ireland last year for a round of golf. The trip fell through for a variety of reasons and we ended up golfing in the Czech Republic instead. But, you know what, I'm kind of glad the trip fell through.

Don't get me wrong, I still very much want to golf in Ireland, Scotland or both. But not now. Not yet. I'm not a good enough golfer yet. When I have a realistic shot of breaking 90 on a regularly basis, I will book the first flight to the UK with my golf clubs in hand. But not now. Not yet.

Turkey - Cappadocia
One of our favorite trips was our five day stint in Istanbul, Turkey back in March 2008. I would love to go back and spend a full 2-3 weeks in Turkey. The country is so huge with so much to explore. And one such area is Cappadocia. Just look at the photos below and you'll see why...

Fjords
Another entry from Scandinavia on this list. As you can tell, I have never been to Scandinavia and really want to go. As far as pure beauty goes, it would be hard to beat the Fjords in Norway.

To be honest with you, I don't even know that much about this area. I have only seen pictures and they blow me away.

Ice Hotel
Actually, this isn't on my top ten list. This is all about R. I'll let her explain..

So, yes, this is a place that I truly wanted to experience and I do think that one day I WILL!

Picture this.. you arrive at the airport and are greeted by your personal sled diver who will take you to the ICEHOTEL. You are given warm outer clothing at the airport and your luggage is taken directly to the hotel. Meanwhile you just sit back and listen to the silence as the sled driver along with 15 reindeer take you to a magical hotel made of all ice!

For those of you that hate the cold... You only spend one night in the ICE hotel and the other nights in a more traditional WARM hotel. At the ICE HOTEL, you are outfitted with special clothing to keep you comfortable to remain in the hotel surroundings.

There are amazing excursions available such as forrest snow mobile ride, Moose watching tours and of course the mystical Northern lights- which happen in this part of the world! And as a dog lover, you have many opportunities to meet the many dogs that are used with sleds. "In Jukkasjärvi and its environs, there are more dogs than people."

This is an adventures I truly want to take one day! Just look at these pictures!

Cycling in French Wine Region
I always thought it would be great to go on biking tour of France. Especially the wine regions. I love cycling, I love french food and I'm a big fan of wine... what's not to like.

The problem is that I don't trust myself to just hop on a bike and start riding from one town to another. My sense of direction is not good enough and I wouldn't know where to stop. If I were to do this properly, I would want this to be part of an organized group. The kind of group where they take your clothes and belongings in a car from one hotel to another and you just have to merely ride along and follow the group leader.

I looked into these type of tours quite a bit when I first moved to Prague and I was SHOCKED by the prices. A 5 day trip will cost over $4000 per person - and that does not include my travel to France. With these kind of prices, a trip like this may just remain a pipe dream.

Of course, there are many more places that we would have liked to visit had we stayed in Europe. Morocco, Dubai, Sardinia and> Belgium all come to mind. And this list doesn't even include some of the best aspects of Europe - those little towns and villages that are off the beaten track. Places full of history that still feel like they did 100 years ago. These are some the places I enjoy most.

The good news is that we're still (relatively) young and I don't plan to stop traveling any time soon. Hopefully we'll hit these places - and a few more - sometime in the future.

Check back tomorrow for R's favorite pictures that she took in Europe...

Top Ten Best Tourist Attractions

2009-02-24T05:26:00.000-08:00

During our travels in Europe, we had the opportunity to see many typical "tourist attractions" in Europe. Here are our ten favorites. Please note: we are limiting the list here to man-made tourist attractions. These are also limited to things we have actually seen while we've been living in Europe the last two years. I'm sure there are plenty other great attractions out there but, if we didn't see them, they're not on this list.

The Vatican
Any list about the best attractions in Europe has to start with the Vatican. I was absolutely amazed by this place, errrr, country. Every time you put your $5 into the church basket, it just feeds the catholic church monster. For everyone that does that on a weekly basis - thank you. The Vatican was very impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed the art that your donations helped buy.

The Colosseum
This was legitimately cool. Even though the Colosseum is just a shell of its former self, you can smell the history in the place. The guide told us stories of the "shows" that used to go on in that place and... WOW. Now I'm normally not one that likes to watch people brutally murdered in front of me purely for entertainment purposes. But, I would have really, really liked to have visited the Colosseum during its heyday. (In case you are wondering, I watched the movie Gladiator again within 2 days of returning home from Rome)

Charles Bridge
Here's an attraction that I can see from my bedroom. OK, that's not technically true, but it would be true if I had a 20 foot long neck. I try to cross the bridge at least once a month - just for the fun of it.

Blue Mosque
After seeing about 100 different churches in Europe. I've got to be honest with you, stain glass windows and crucifixes (crucifi?) just don't do much for me any more. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul was my first Mosque and was a nice change of pace.

Gaudi Architecture in Barcelona
My favorite architect ever - Antoni Gaudi. The city of Barcelona is loaded with works by this guy. The guy must have been on some serious drugs - because his buildings were like nothing I have ever seen. Each one was better than the other.

The Last Supper
I had always assumed that The Last Supper was just a normal piece of art - produced on a regular canvas. I had no idea it was painted on the side of a church wall. It's not part of a museum. You have to order your tickets months in advance and all you get to see is The Last Supper - there is not much else. The whole experience takes 15 minutes. And, after reading The Davinci Code, I spent 14 of those minutes trying to figure out if the one dude was a chick. Diagnosis - inconclusive!

The Louvre in Paris
I have to admit, I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to art. As an engineer in college, I didn't have much room on my schedule for electives like Art History. So, when I am in a new city, I feel like I should go to the top museums even though I know I won't get a whole lot out of them.

That's not true with The Louvre. By far the best museum I have ever been to... and there is not even a close second. I prefer the sculptures to the paintings. While I can comprehend how some people can be good painters (even though I am not), I have absolutely no idea how some of these sculptures were done. It blows my mind.

Belam Castle
This is a little castle on a port in Lisbon. It doesn't have nearly the same fame as any of the other items on this list. But, what can I say, I really enjoyed this place. I felt like a little kid running around the castle, taking pictures and hanging out in the dungeons. If you find yourself in Lisbon, definitly chek it out.

Statue of David
The Statue of David resides in a little museum in the outskirts of Florence. The museum isn't much, except for the big statue of David in the middle of the room. As I mentioned above - sculptures blow my mind. But this sculpture in particular is head and shoulders (and penis) above the rest.

I remember staring at this statue for a solid 30 minutes. I walked around it and studied it from every angle. I was mesmerized... ans I have no idea why. For lack of a better word, the statue was just "perfect". Bravo Michelangelo, Bravo!

Acropolis, Greece
This one is on the list just for the history. The Acropolis itself is falling apart. You really are looking at big pieces of marble and rock. On the day we visited it, it was at least 100 degrees outside and we had to walk up a very tall hill with the mid-day sun hitting our back.

But still, knowing the history of the place, it just made the trip well worth it. It's a place everyone should visit once.

It should be noted that I put this together almost out of obligation. The truth is that the typical "tourist attractions" are rarely the best thing about a city (except Rome). The best parts of a city are walking around the neighborhoods, eating the local food, talking to people, etc. Sure, you visit the typical tourist attractions, but that's not what you remember. It's the time you spent in the city.

Prague is the perfect example of this. With the exception of the Charles Bridge, the tourist attractions in Prague are rather lackluster. But, it is still arguably the most beautiful city in Europe. And the best way to experience that beauty is by just aimlessly walking around the city... not by visiting the attractions.

Check back tomorrow for a list of the places in Europe I wanted to visit, but didn't have a chance to.

Top Ten Most Memorable Meals in Europe

2009-02-23T00:52:00.000-08:00

No doubt about it, the best thing about living in Europe is the food. There is fantastic food nearly everywhere you turn (except, unfortunately, in the city we have called home for the last two years).

Here is a list of the Top Ten Most Memorable Meals we've had while in Europe. Now, these aren't necessarily the best meals, but the most memorable (although they are all pretty damn tasty). I also won't be including any meals that are memorably bad. Just memorable in a good sort of way

Here is the top ten, listed in no particular order:

Oysters in Paris
We visited Paris 3 times in the past two years and enjoyed several Oyster meals each trip. I can't get enough of these slimy little suckers. The taste is like heaven. Some of the Parisians we talked to said that they taste better without lemon. I've tried them that way, but have to say that I prefer them with a little spritz of lemon. That brings us to Nino's Life Rule #1: When anyone asks you if you want lemon with that, always say yes.

Oktoberfest Food
Growing up, I always liked Pretzels as much as the next guy. No more, no less. You put a pretzel in front of me and I would eat it. But I'm not going to go out of my way searching for a pretzel.

However, bring me to Munich, and all bets are off. I'd kill another man for a pretzel. These things are out of this world. And, the best part, they are served in a variety of ways. You have traditional shaped pretzels, pretzel sticks, pretzel rolls, sandwiches with pretzel buns, etc. All fantastic.

These pretzels are great when sober but, throw in 10 liters of beer at Oktoberfest, and they turn down right orgasmic. It's not just the pretzels. The sausages, the spaetzle, the bratworst... all amzing. I think I ate 6 feet of wieners in the 3 days I spent in Munich for Oktoberfest.

Fruit in Sicily
When most people think of food in Southern Italy, they naturally think of pasta, pizza, fish, etc. Don't get me wrong. These are all out of this world. Some of the best food on earth. But, it's not the best food in Sicily. The best food in Sicily is, without a doubt, the fruit.

Let's start off with the tomatoes. The reason the pasta is so good is because of the tomatoes. And the tomatoes in Sicily are just better than anywhere else in the Universe. I haven't been to everywhere in the Universe, but I still feel 100% confident making that statement. Go to America and get one of the best tasting fresh tomatoes right from your garden. It will taste amazing. Then go to Sicily and try a tomato. You'll never look at your shitty little garden the same again.

And, don't forget about the blood red oranges. These look like oranges from the outside but, when you open them up, the juice is bright red inside. Very unique and very tasty. These are only available a few months a year, but well worth the wait.

Saving the best for last... the figs. I can honestly say that I've never had a fig before going to Sicily this year. If you asked me last year to name my top 20 favorite fruits, figs wouldn't crack the list. Today, they're at the top of the list. I ate a full tree of figs in my week in Sicily this summer.

Traditional Turkish food in Istanbul
The most fun I had at dinner in Europe was at a restaurant called Al Jamal in Istanbul, Turkey.

For $100, you get a huge family style serving of traditional Turkish food and all-you-can-drink wine. The all-you-can-drink wine comes pretty handy - because the place isn't just a restaurant, but a full scale nightclub (with belly dancers to boot). So once you are finished eating, you stay at the club until all hours of the night drinking free wine.

There is no menu at the restaurant. They just start bringing you food. It never ended. A variety of hot and cold appetizers (hummus, baba ganoush, etc.), kebabs, etc. OK, I have to be honest, as I am sitting here trying to remember what we were served, I am failing to do so. So I guess the food itself wasn't too memorable. But, I think that has much more to do with the all-you-can-drink wine than the quality of the food. I remember raving about how great the food was for weeks after... so it makes the list.

Authentic Cuisine from Central Asia in my office
Here's a surprising entry to the list. My company has many people who originally come from Central Asia. Places like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. And these people like to have a good time and celebrate a success with parties. When it comes time to celebrate a success (like the launch of of the Kazakh or Kyrgyz website) - they do so with food.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what this food is called. It usually consists of rice with lamb, meat pies and similar food. It's all home cooked and it's all delicious. I can't get enough of this stuff. It's like a much better version of Chinese food. I try to launch new websites at work just to get people to have more parties and bring more of this food to the office.

The one thing I don't love is Baklava. It's a little too sweet for my taste. But, I'm clearly in the minority here since this stuff is like crack for some people in my office.

Portuguese Breakfast
I recently blogged about how amazing the breakfast in Portugal was. It's good enough to make my top ten list. This includes Pasteis de Nata (custard cream pies), Pao de Qeijo and more meat pies. In case you are sensing a theme here, I like meat pies.

Another theme I'm realizing is how difficult it is to write about food while avoiding double entendres. Between my love of cream pies, six feet of wieners and Portuguese Breakfast - you can't tell if I'm writing a food blog or am a sexual deviant.

Ice Cream in Meda, Italy
R's parents live in a little suburb outside of Milan called Meda, Italy. The town is marginally famous for its impressive furniture production. However, R and I think it should be more famous for a little, nonchalant gellatto (ice cream) shop on the outskirts of town.

This is hands down the best ice cream I have ever tasted. Every trip to R's parents house includes more than one stop at this store. The best flavor is something called fior di latte - literally translated to "Flower of Milk". It's taste like vanilla ice cream laced with heroin and some magic fairy dust sprinkled on for good measured. If we're playing the association game: Fior di Latte is to Vanilla what Fillet Mignon is to a McDonald's hamburger patty.

Czech Beer
Finally, an entry from my adopted home town of Prague. Beer's here!

The Czech beer is world renowned. It's much more flavorful than it's American counterparts and much cheaper. You can get a half liter of local beer for less than $2. Sometimes much less. As such, the Czech's drink more beer per capita than any other country on earth. There is an old wive's tale that says girls should drink beer to get bigger boobs. You have to love a culture like this!!!

The most popular brands are Pilsner Urquell, Staroparem and Budweiser Budvar. Interestingly enough, the last entry has nothing to do with the American Budwesier. The Czech counterpart started brewing 100 years before Anheuser-Busch started producing their own. There have been several lawsuits between the two companies and they have reached an agreement based on what name can be used in which part of the world.

My personal favorite is Kozel. It's a dark beer - which I usually don't go for - but this is just too damn tasty. I will certainly miss the beer when I say good bye to Prague.

Crepes with Nutella in Paris
There are many, many great things to eat in Paris. Croissants, seafood (mentioned above), steak frites, foie gras, cheese, wine.... just to name a few. With all of this high class food, it's pretty surprising that my second French entry on the top ten list comes from street vendors.

Whenever I am in Paris, my breakfast is always the same. Leave the hotel, find the nearest street vendor and get a crepe filled with Nutella and bananas.

The funny thing is that there is nothing particularly special or French about this meal. Nutella is an Italian based chocolate spread found on grocery shelves all across the world. Bananas are a tropical fruit. And while crepes did originate in France, the recipe isn't exactly rocket science.

I'm surprised that little crepe stands aren't available in more cities. I think they would work perfect in New York (among other cities). I've seen a crepe stand or two in SoHo - but they certainly aren't wide spread. Maybe this will be my calling in life. If my little IT Executive career path doesn't work out, maybe I should just buy an industrial size vat of Nutella and open up crepe stands on random corners in Manhattan. I'll put on a beret, learn to speak with a French accent and make millions.... $3.50 at a time.

Tapas in Spain
I'm one of the most jealous eaters I know. The worst 20 minutes of my life are between the time I order my food at a restaurant and the time it arrives. I absolutely hate it when someone orders a dish that looks better than mine. It ruins my entire meal.

That's why I love tapas so much. Especially in a group. You just order a bunch of food for the table and eat whatever looks best. All food should be served this way! Of course, the best tapas experience we had was in Barcelona. Everything was perfect - from the cheese, to the iberico (ham), the vegetables and especially the sangria. There's no better way for a small group to share a meal.

I tried my best to cut this list down to ten items. But it was just impossible. There were so many delicious and memorable meals in the past two years. Here is my honorable mention. These meals are all fantastic in their own right - but not quite good enough to make the Top Ten.

Honorable Mention

Pork Knee in Prague
If you ever come to Prague, you have to try these.

Mussels in Dubrovnik
Great muscles... and cheap.

Octopus on a Plate in Sicily
Very memorable. A full Octopus dropped on my plate. I had a knife in one hand and a fork in the other. I went to town.

Plachuta in Vienna
A shockingly excellent restaurant in Vienna. Who knew boiled beef could taste so good.

Anchovies in Monterosso
I never liked Anchovies - but my friend in Monterosso al Mare made me try and converted me for life

Pasha in London
Like a mini Al Jamal... only much more expensive.

Donor Kebab in Turkey
Best. Drunk Food. Ever.

Honey Cake in Prague
R's favorite.

Spaghetti Lobster in Greece Islands
This meal doesn't make the top ten because we had it on a tiny Greek Island but there is nothing Greek about it. So if we are judging it on being "memorable" it doesn't make the cut. But, the food was absolutely perfect and deserves special mention. The tomatoes and lobster were as fresh as can be.

You may be surprised that - despite our many trips to Italy - there are very few Italian meals on the list above. I think this deserves a side note. I grew up with a very Italian grandmother that made out-of-this-world home cooked Italian meals. I married an Italian bird who cooks amazing home made Italian meals. My very Italian mother-in-law cooks for me whenever I see her... and she may be the best cook of them all.

In short, I have become very spoiled when it comes to Italian cooking. I have yet to find a restaurant in Italy, New York, Cleveland, anywhere.... that makes Italian food as good as the three ladies mentioned above. Had I married a Turk, I'm sure I would remove Al Jamal from the list above and replaced it with one of my meals in Rome, Florence, Milan, or Sicily. But that didn't happen. I married and Italian and you're stuck with my list.

Check back tomorrow for the Top Ten Sites we visited in Europe.

Two Years - Time Flies

2009-02-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

After over two years of living in Prague, R and I are set to come home next week. We have mixed emotions. We are both very excited to return to our favorite city in the world, visit friends & family, eat like a king, etc. But, at the same time, we are very sad to leave Europe.

Those of you who have followed the blog know how lucky and fortunate we have been. We were given an amazing opportunity to live smack dab in the middle of Europe - and we made sure to do as much traveling as we possibly could. We'll never regret that we didn't do enough while we were here.

To celebrate our last week, I'm going to do a blog post every day. I'll highlight our two years and talk about some of the places we visited, the food we had, the sites we saw, etc. Keep checking back every day of this week.

Today, we'll focus on some of the countries and cities that we were able to visit. We hit 15 countries in just over 24 months. Some countries, like Italy and Germany, we visited many times. For other countries, like Slovakia and Poland we only went once.

OUR EUROPEAN TRIPS

Austria
Vienna
St. Anton
Grundlsee

Croatia
Dubrovnik
Hvar

Czech Republic
Prague (obviously, we live her)
Czech-Switzerland
Cesky Krumlov
Kutna Hora (Bone Church)
Karlovy Vary
Český Ráj (and again)
Karlstein Castle
Marianske Lazne

France
Paris (and again)
Normandy

England
London
Batch
Stonehenge

Germany
Dresden
Munich (Oktoberfest)
Berlin
Nurenburg (I don't know why I didn't blog this trip. Sorry people)
Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Greece
Athens
Greek Islands

Holland
Amsterdam

Hungry
Budapest

Italy
Dolomiti Mountains
Milan (many many times)
Monterosso al Mare
Lake Como
Rome
Florence
Sicily (and again)
Venice

Poland
Krakow

Portugal
Lisbon
Faro

Slovakia
Bratislava

Spain
Barcelona

Turkey
Istanbul

I can honestly say that we didn't have a single bad trip in the bunch. Of course some were better than others. But, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves every single time we left Prague. It was great to experience different cultures, people and food.

(On a side note, I'm not trying to be conceited by listing all of the places that we have visited. I fully realize that it comes across that way. I am also aware that I am very lucky to have the traveling opportunities that I have had. Not everyone does and I am lucky, fortunate, spoiled.... whatever adjective you want to use. But, you also have to realize that this blog is for me more than anyone else. This blog helps us track our journeys and remember where we have been. So don't hate me for using technology to help my memory. That's like hating on Stephen Hawking for using technology to help him speak. And getting mad at Stephen Hawking is just cruel. )

Come back tomorrow for out Top Ten Most Memorable Meals in Europe

Venice, Italy

2009-02-16T10:55:00.001-08:00

After a week of skiing, R and I wanted to extend our stay in Italy for an extra day. The drive to Venice was less than 3 hours and Saturday was the start of the Carnival - so it seemed like a great idea.

I have to be honest with you, I didn't know much about the tradition of Venice Carnival going into the weekend. All I knew was that it occurred at the same time as Mardi Gras in New Orleans - so I assumed they were somehow related.

I am sorry to say that traditions surrounding Carnival are exactly the opposite of Mardi Gras. Whereas people usually go to Mardi Gras to see people take off their clothes, people go to Carnival to see people put on clothes.

The streets of Venice were completely packed and some of the more festive people were dressed in the traditional Carnival garb. This includes pristine porcelain masks, headdresses, and elaborate outfits. Since R loves photography, she was in heaven. She spent several hours walking around St. Marks Square taking picture after picture. Some of the best outfits are displayed below:

While R spent several hours taking photos, I soon got bored with the process and walked around the small side streets and bridges of Venice. We had both been here before - way back in 2000. But it's not the type of city you get sick of. It is truly remarkable. You really can't compare it to any other city in the world. At least no city that I have been to. It has 118 islands formed by over 150 canals; all connected by over 400 bridges. For some reason, it reminds me of the It's a Small World Ride from Disney World. Just replace the thousands of annoying midgets with a bunch of slightly taller annoying Italians and it is virtually the same.

Although we only had 24 hours in Venice, it made for a good last trip in Europe (we move back to New York in 2 weeks). Venice is one of the most unique cities in the world and nothing - absolutely nothing - like it exists in the States. But, aside form that, this type of trip exemplifies why we loved living in Europe so much. In a short 3 hour car ride, you can go to one of the most famous cities in the world and feel like you are taken back in time hundreds of years. Taking the train from New York to Belmar just doesn't compare. The only thing similar is the Italians in funny outfits.

Skiing in Italy - Part 3

2009-02-15T11:31:00.001-08:00

R and I just finished up our week of skiing in the Italian Dolomiti Mountains. During the week, we encountered all of the different types of weather that you can expect on a mountain in February. This includes: beautiful powder snow falling, a warm, sunny day, a cold sunny day and a freakin' freezing, windy, cloudy snowy day.

Thursday was pretty brutal on top of the mountain. Temperatures were -12 C and it was windy and snowing pretty hard. For a couple of hours, the top of the mountain was a complete white out. You couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of you and you couldn't even judge the bumps in the terrain. Not the best skiing in the world but it was fun - in a crazy, sadistic kind of way.

Now for the bad news. As I mentioned in my last post, the Dolomiti Mountain range is damn near gorgeous. If there is a more picturesque skiing spot in the world, I haven't seen it yet. Since we only had our big SLR camera, we didn't want to bring it up on the mountain every day. It was too big and bulky. And, at my rate of falling, I was sure to break it.

R waited until the end of the week to skip skiing and just spend a day focusing on photography. She had the idea to do this on Friday morning. Unfortunately, the weather can change on the mountain pretty fast. By the time she decided to make her way to the top of the mountain, the clouds came in and severely limited visibility. So we don't have any great shots from the mountain peak. The pictures below are just a few random shots we collected throughout the week.

Finally, we have some of the worst shot video footage of all time. R is skiing down the mountain while I attempt to follow her while holding a Flip camcorder. This video is not pretty and is not for those that easily fall prey to motion sickness. But it does show the great snow we had on the mountain

Skiing in Italy- Part 2

2009-02-10T09:55:00.002-08:00

Despite the driving adventure I wrote about in Part 1 of our Ski trip - everything has been great so far. We've had two days of skiing so far and they were completely different - but both excellent.

The first day of skiing was a snow day! There is no better feeling than waking up during your ski vacation, looking out the window and seeing fresh snow fall. It brings a smile to my face like few other things in this world. With the fresh snow falling, R and I had a great breakfast and were one of the first people on the mountain. I'm kind of anal like that. If it is snowing outside, I don't want to miss a second of skiing.

The next day was just the opposite. There was a beautiful blue sky and the sun was shining bright. This is not a bad thing. The snow season in the Alps is one of the best in many years - everything is covered meters and meters of snow. A few days of sun is not going to hurt anything. In fact, just the opposite. We got to ski in great weather while still having a fresh layer of powder from all of the snow fall a few days before. R and I completed a run known as the Sellronda - it's a series of trails that circles one of the impressive mountain peaks. It takes about 5 hours to compete. You can read about it at www.DolomitiSuperSki.com

Not only were the ski conditions perfect, but the mountain is probably the most beautiful I have had the pleasure of skiing on so far. Instead of snow capped mountains that are typical in the Rockies, the Dolomiti mountain range is a bit different. They have about a dozen huge rock formations that stick out above the ski mountains. These are far too steep to ski, but they create a fantastic background when skiing. We haven't brought our camera to the mountain yet - but plan on brining it out one day this week. The only thing I have to show off right now are pics from my BlackBerry camera. Trust me, they don't do the mountain justice.

Now, despite all of this great news, I do have a few complaints.

First and foremost, the skiing is a bit too easy for my liking. There are no runs here that would even rank in the top 10 most difficult at Vail. That's a bit disappointing for me - but R loves it. I'm the kind of guy that loves to stand at the top of the mountain and look down and say to myself "How the F*&% am I going to get down that?!?!?"Then I just jump down and figure a way to get down - working up a great sweat along the way. Here, everything is very doable and I'm trying everything in my power to find the most difficult runs off-piste. Which brings me to my second complaint...

European skiers are ~~pussies~~ wimps compared to Americans. Sorry, there is no better way to say it. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stays on the runs here. There are hundreds and hundreds of acres of fresh snow covering the mountains but no one ever goes and explores. In the Rockies, I'm always seeing people trying to get off-piste and find the most difficult route down the mountain. Not here.

If my cousin John is reading this - I REALLY wish you were here right now. There are so many side routes that I wanted to take today but had no one to go with (Sorry R - that's not really your strong suit). Going off in the tress by yourself is never a smart idea, so I would usually chicken out every time I contemplated doing it. If you were here right now, I know I'd be the one chasing you down impossible routes and we've had a great time doing it. Maybe next year...

Anyway, despite those two complaints, I'm still having a great time. I had the guts to do an impossible off-piste route by myself on my last run today. The run went right below one of the major gondalas, so I knew if I had a Sonny Bono incident there would be many witnesses that could point the ski patrol in the right direction. Still, in the 30 minutes it took me to get down the run (it was VERY hard), I didn't see a single other skier attempt the run. ~~Pussies~~ Wimps.

The final run beat me up good but it was well worth it. If the best feeling is waking up and seeing snow falling, a close second is the feeling of relaxation after a solid 8 hours of skiing. I'm thoroughly exhausted, happy, relaxed and living off the kind of natural high that only skiing can bring. Well, skiing and a quality German beer. Life is good.

Skiing in Italy- Part 1

2009-02-08T11:29:00.001-08:00

Right now, R and I are in the middle of our last European adventure. And adventure is the right word. But, before we get to that, let's back up a bit.

The trip started out great. We flew from Prague to Italy, rented a car and drove to R's parents house just outside Milan. The day in Milan was very relaxing. We didn't even go out in the city. We just relaxed around the house, hung out with the family and, of course, stuffed our face with fantastic Italian home cooking.

The next day we woke up early to drive to Santa Christina, Italy. This is a little town in the Dolomiti Mountian range. I knew that finding a small town in an Italian mountain range would be nearly impossible, so I bought a GPS specifically for this trip. Well, check that. I tried to rent a GPS from Hertz, but the price to rent a unit for a week was 250 Euros. For that kind of money, I decided it was just better to buy a GPS and keep it for future trips (we can download a map of the US for a few bucks and use it in the States as well).

The morning drive wasn't great because it was pouring rain. Which, was actually good news in the long run because the rain that we were seeing would be snow in the mountains. But, we kept driving and got most of the way without incidence. It was supposed to be a 3.5 hour trip.

Well, the adventure started as we got to the foot of the mountains.
The rain had turned to sleet because we were getting higher up. And the roads started to go straight up. I was able to take the Ford Focus that we rented up a couple of the hills - but we got to one part of the road which wasn't particualry steep and the car just couldn't make it up. I was going in first gear and there was just nothing.

So R and I decided it was time to put some chains on the tires. I had anticipated this being a problem so I watched a couple clips on YouTube the day before about how to properly put chains on a tire. It seemed easy enough. We got the chains out of the car and, of course, the chains that we had looked nothing like the chains on YouTube. It was impossible to put these chains on without either taking the wheel off or jacking the car up. F that. Since there was a gas station at the bottom of the hill, R encouraged me to go back down there and get the chains installed professionally. Good idea on her part. We got to the gas station without any problem and the attendant jacked up the car and had the chains on within 10 minutes. I handed him a 10 Euro tip and we were on our way. (It should be noted that we were one of the very, very few cars that needed chains. Our good friends at Hertz rented us a car with summer tires despite the fact that we told them we were going skiing and needed a suitable car)

The good news is the chains worked like a charm (for now). We could get up all of the hills and mountains that we had problems with before. But the bad news is that this is the time the lady inside the GPS decided to go crazy. We'd be going in the direction she told us and out of no where she would just yell "TURN LEFT NOW". She had no fucking clue where we were. And, neither did we. So we ended up going through many more mountain towns than we needed to and asked directions along the way.

As if this wasn't stressful enough, one of the chains on the front right tire broke. The whole set of chains was still on, but one individual chain came undone and would bang against the car with each revolution. I got out and tried to fix it but, without any tools, didn't have much luck. We kept driving and driving while making a horrible noise through the mountains. Finally - after a solid 45 minutes of this, we saw another gas station. When we got in there, we realized that the broken chain finally fell off and was gone. But the chain on the LEFT side was now completely broken and barely hanging on. The attendant at this gas station couldn't get the chain off; it was so messed up that he had to use wire cutters to cut it off. (And, remember, don't laugh at the New Yorker who doesn't know how to put chains on his tires. You're right, I don't. But I'm smart enough to pay someone who does. I paid a guy to do this who works at the foot of the mountains and probably puts on 50 chains a day).

So now we were left with no chain on one tire and a broken chain on the other. I was afraid to take the other one off in case we needed to get up another hill. Truth be told, I was also a little bit afraid that, with only one chain on, I would have to go up the mountain in circles. The good news is that the gas station attendant knew where our town was and pointed us in the right direction - just 15 minutes away. And if you tack on another 20 minutes driving around that town trying to find our house on a hilly mountain road, we finally made it there about 2.5 hours later than expected.

Whew! So this drive now is officially listed as my 2nd worst drive ever. Oddly enough, the top 3 are all ski related (#1 was a drive from San Francisco to Tahoe in one of their worst storms ever. #3 was from Montreal to Cleveland
during a horrible, horrible ice storm). I guess that makes sense. You would expect to have your worst drives when you are going to places specifically because they are hilly and have lots of snow. You should just be smart enough not to rent a shitty Ford Focus with defective chains with summer tires from Hertz before going skiing.

Now that we made it here, I think the above story will be my only complaint all week. We have a great little apartment that is a 5 minute walk to the ski slopes. The town is a great mixture of Italians and Germans. Meaning you get the best of both cultures - including the food. I'm drinking a great German beer while I type this.

And, of course, the skiing is amazing. I spent so much time on this post talking about the adventure to get here, I'll do another post in a few days to discuss the skiing. But here are some pics from in front of our apartment.

Our Last Trip in Europe

2009-02-04T14:04:00.001-08:00

R and I leave for our last trip in Europe this weekend. I know - it's sad.

But, the good news is that we'll be making the last trip a good one. We're getting a 3-in-1 adventure out of it.

We start the trip out by flying to Milan to visit R's parents. We have been to Milan many times and really have nothing planned for this trip. Just food. Lots and lots of food.

The highlight of the trip comes next when we drive 3 hours East to the Italian Alps. We will be doing a week's worth of skiing - my favorite activity in the world. I can't wait.

Finally, we'll end the trip with 24 hours in Venice for Carnival before returning home to Prague.

It should be a fun time and - if I can get Internet access - I'll try to put up a few blog posts during the week.

Random Thoughts

2009-01-25T02:06:00.000-08:00

It's been several weeks since I last posted a blog entry. I've had a lot of things that I wanted to write about over that time - the inauguration, the incredible story of the plane that landed in the Hudson, etc. But I realized that this was not the place to post those items. This blog has become very much a travel blog. I tell stories about my time in Prague, the cities we travel to and, of course, my dog. It wouldn't be "right" to use this medium to post a 4000 word essay on my thoughts on Obama.

When I return to New York, I will start a blog that allows me to post anything I damn well please. I understand that no one will read this blog except my Mom and Amy (my #1 fan!) - but that's OK. I will use the blog more as a means to write than to be read. More to come on that, so now back to your regularly scheduled program...

You know what sucks about living in Prague? I get sick all of the time here! I have no idea why. Right now I'm fighting off a sickness for the 3rd time in two months. I had a cold in early December, the flu in mid December and now I have another cold. This is probably the 8th time I've been legitimately sick in my two years here. I don't know why this is. I was never sick in New York. I eat (relatively) healthy, take vitamins, exercise regularly and try to stay away from kids. Here are my theories:

Europe has a whole host of viruses that don't exist in America. My body hasn't built up the immunities to these viruses yet

The fruit here generally sucks so I hardly ever eat any of it. Therefore, I may be lacking essential vitamins and nutrients

Due to the fact that I walk by multiple brothels on my way to and from work, I have acquired AIDS by osmosis. My immune system is slowly breaking down

I spend too much time hanging out with my dog and he is really just a 40 pound sack of dirt, grime and disease.

I'm getting old

My maid is slowly poisoning R and I so we will grow weak and tired and will be unable to stop her from stealing our dog before we leave.

All of these theories are just as likely and any one could be true. Whatever it is, I have to say it sucks. I'm sitting here with a headache, runny nose, a cup of tea and nothing to watch on TV.

In other news, the move back to New York is still on schedule. We'll be there on March1, just as we had planned. Our stuff is slowly sailing over the Atlantic ocean as we speak. R and I are both in the midst of finding jobs as well; me as a consultant and R as a full-time employee. Things look good so far but wish us luck.

My emotions are still mixed. Yes I'm happy to be going back home and, yes, I am upset to leave Prague. There are so many pros and cons to each place. Sometimes it's the little things that can shift our emotions from one side to the other. For example, on Friday night we went out to get pizza. And the pizza was incredibly bland and boring. Not horrible - but just above the Mendoza line on the edibility scale. These are the type of meals I have become used to here. When I had just finished my last, tasteless bite, I uttered the phrase "I can't wait to get back to New York!"

Big News: We're moving back to New York!

2009-01-10T00:58:00.000-08:00

After two years of living in Prague, it is time for us to move back to New York. We move back on March 1, 2009.

This news brings me mixed emotions. On the one hand, I'm very excited to move back to New York. It's the best city in the world, there's never a dull moment and we have plenty of friends there.

At the same time, I'm sad to leave Prague. We've had a GREAT time here during the last two years. I had a very rewarding job, met some good friends, we lived an excellent life and got to travel to a ridiculous amount of European cities. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

The big loser in this move is my dog Bauer. The guy lives like an absolute king in Prague. He gets to run off leash 3x a day in any one of the huge parks that surround our house. He has full access to our second bedroom. He can go on the subway/trams with us and can also join us in any restaurant. And, finally, he's fallen in love with more than a few females in Prague. His life in New York is not nearly as spectacular... although I'm sure he'll be excited to see his friends Casey, Shellie and Arlene again.

But, fear not loyal reader. Just because we are moving back to New York does not mean that this blog is ending. Far from it.

First off, we still have 7 weeks left in Prague and I have a lot to write about. We still have some blog-worthy trips coming up; R is going to Arizona for work next week and we have a big ski trip planned in the Italian Alps in February. I also want to write more about my experiences in Prague and Europe from a reflective standpoint now that I know our journey is coming to an end.

Secondly, I plan to keep up this blog once I move back to New York. Truth be told, I kind of like writing it. And, since I may very well never have children and have built up a lot of self-proclaimed wisdom in my lifetime, this blog is one of my few outlets to share this wisdom with the rest of the world. (Just as an example, here are some of the rules I have learned in life: Unless you get into Harvard or Yale, go to a college in a warm weather location. If someone asks if you would like a slice of lemon with that, always say yes. Lotion makes everything better. Etc.)

The only thing I'll have to change is the name of this blog. Running a blog called "Living in Prague" will make little sense when I am, in fact, NOT living in Prague.

I have to run now. The movers are already here packing up our apartment. It takes 6-8 weeks to ship this stuff across the ocean and time is of the essence.

Barcelona, Spain

2009-01-06T05:44:00.000-08:00

R and I wanted to spend New Year's Eve in a fun city. And what city in Europe has a better party reputation than Barcelona? Easy decision. So we found some cheap airfare, booked a hotel and were all set. We also know that New Year's is best spent in a group - so we were lucky enough to have friends from the States join us. Raffy's sister and brother-in-law met us at the hotel as did one of my friends from college and his wife.

I've always had a weird fascination with Barcelona since the summer of '92. The Olympics were held in Barcelona that year and - for those of you with fond memories of failed pop culture experiments - NBC offered the infamous Triplecast package. For 16 days I had 3 channels broadcasting the various sporting events around the the clock. As a bored, underemployed 16 year old who loved TV almost as much as he loved sports - this was visual crack. I couldn't get enough.

Of course these channels didn't just show sports - they also had features on athletes and the city itself. I fell in love (Shannon Miller - if you're reading this - call me) After the 30th feature on Barcelona, I was mesmerized by the city. The funny thing is that thinking back, I don't remember anything about those features other than the fact that people in Barcelona eat very late. Dinners often start at 10:00, 11:00 or even midnight. This blew my mind. I couldn't get over the fact that people could eat that late. In my house, dinner was served at 6:30 sharp. No exceptions. Who eats at 11:00?!?!? It must have been a crazy city.

Now that I was actually in Barcelona I couldn't wait to eat late. It sounds stupid, I know. But I couldn't get this thought out of my head.

I was also excited to get to Barcelona so I could put my four years of public education Spanish to the test. After traveling to all of these countries with R (aka: the language show off, aka: the Pocket Translator) I was excited to hold my own. This, despite the fact, that my Spanish was never that good and the only phrase I ever mastered was Tu mama es muy bien en la cama. (Remember, this is my 16 year old self described above making these translations)

I was shocked - shocked I say - to get to Barcelona and find out that they don't speak Spanish. How did I not know this? They speak Catalan, which is like Spanish with a dabble of French and Portuguese and a whole lot of X's thrown in the mix. Seriously, they love their X's. We joked that the letter X is so common it must only be worth 4 points in the Catalan version of Scrabble. I haven't seen this many X's in names and on store signs since, well, this morning on my way to work in Prague when I walked past all of the sex shops.

I was also shocked - shocked I say - to learn that my wife doesn't speak Spanish. She always claimed that this one of the languages that she spoke but I am going to throw the Bullshit card. Every time I heard her speaking to waiters in what she claimed was Spanish - she was really just speaking Italian. I now know the difference. Just because the waiters understood her when she spoke Italian and pointed at the menu doesn't mean that she was speaking Spanish. That's like saying me and my dog speak the same language just because he sits every time I hold out food and raise my hand. Or that I speak Czech because every time I hold up a dollar, the Czech strippers do a dance. (Just kidding... there are no strip clubs in Prague silly, only whore houses).

OK, let's get to Barcelona now. The absolute best thing about Barcelona is the architecture. If Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe, then Barcelona is the coolest. The city is defined by the architecture of Antoni Gaudí. To say the guy was a genius is an understatement. He is now my favorite architect of all time; breaking a four way tie between Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, Mike Brady and Ted Mosby.

So, where to start with Gaudi? How about with Casa Batilo. A house that sits nestled among the other buildings on one of Barcelona's busiest shopping streets - but unlike any building you have ever seen. Like I said, the man was beyond genius. Every room in the house had it's own unique look and structure.

Don't forget about Park Guell. A park on the outskirts of Barcelona that looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale. If I ever become rich and build a house from a blank plot of land, my house will look like the one below. Who needs another McMansion.

Last but not least is La Sagrada Familia. I guess it is a church, but it's so much more. If Park Guell looks like it came out of a fairy tale, this church looks like it is straight out of Middle Earth. They started construction over a century ago, had some down time in the middle and won't be finished until 2030. This is very cool because it gives you a chance to see one of the wonders of the world under construction. I have had the chance to visit churches all over Europe and - with the possible exception of the Vatican - this one is at the top of the list.

Although Gaudi deservedly gets all of the attention, the rest of the architecture in Barcelona was nearly as nice. The streets were very clean, the buildings were in impeccable condition and there were balconies galore. Who doesn't love a good balcony? I always wondered why the buildings in New York didn't have more balconies. I mean, if you are putting a building up, how hard is it to add a 30 sq ft balcony. The value of the apartment automatically goes up by $50k and everyone is happy. Aside from a few more deaths per year due to falling beer bottles, what's the downside? I don't get it.

If the architecture was the best part of Barcelona, the food was a close second. Nearly every meal consisted of a healthy dose of tapas. That's another great idea that should be adopted in more cities: tapas. Instead of ordering one appetizer and one big entree, order a bunch of small plates that can be shared by the whole table. You get to try a little bit of everything and, if one plate is loved by all, order more! Such a deliciously simple concept that is far too uncommon in most other parts of the world.

The best dishes of the weekend were, in no particular order: iberic ham (basically a thick cut of local prosciutto), chorizo (spicy sausage), artichoke crisps, deep fried sardine spines (may sound gross - but delicious), tuna ceviche, sangria and fried zucchini flower stuffed with mozzarella. For those of you who haven't tried the last dish, you are missing the hidden gem of your local garden.

If you have squash or zucchini growing in your yard and throw away the flower when you pick the vegetable; BIG mistake! I was first introduced to these gems by R's mom several years back. If you want to know how to cook them... well you stumbled across the wrong blog. I have no idea how to make them or why I went 25 years of my life without trying them. But now that I have, I'm doing my best to make up for lost time. These are officially my favorite flowers. Although, I have never tried to eat a rose. I'm sure it wouldn't taste bad if it was filled with cheese and deep fried. In fact, I can't think of many things on this planet that wouldn't taste great deep fried and filled with cheese.

So I've already mentioned the balconies and the tapas. There is one final thing that they do great in Barcelona that needs to be exported to my town pronto: the siesta! I had a solid 90 minute nap every single day in Barcelona and loved every second of it. Have you ever met anyone that woke up from a solid mid-afternoon nap and said "man, that sucked"? Me neither. Naps rule! Why do you think kids are so ~~annoying~~ happy and full of energy? They nap every freakin' day.

Our trip to Barcelona was one of the most fun times we had in Europe. The vibe of the city certainly had something to do with it, but so did our traveling crew. A big thanks to Brendan, Alex, Brian and LA for taking a trip across the bond and joining us in Spain. Hope you guys had as great a time as we did.

A Classic 80's Song that Most of America Missed

2008-12-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

R and I were driving through Germany last year when a song came on the radio. I had never heard the song before so I quickly ignored it. But R got all excited, turned up the radio and started signing along. She remembered it from her days growing up in Frankfurt, Germany in the early 80s.

I remembered laughing at the song - which was half in German and half in English - but didn't think much of it. I assumed it was just a random German song that R remembered because she happened to live int he right place at the right time.

But then I heard the song again in Italy. Then in Prague. I kept hearing it on the radio many times over. I heard it again today while I was in the coffee shop. And this is a 20 year old song. Why had I never heard this song before I moved to Europe? There had to be a reason.

OK - I'll stop the suspense. The song in question is named Jeanny and was recorded in 1985 by the Austrian pop star Falco - best known (in the US) for the hit song Rock Me Amadeus.

And it turns this song was effectively banned in the USA. I found this out while reading a Chuck Klosterman book a few weeks ago. According to critics, the song glorifies rape and stalking. I don't know about that. It must be the German part of the song, because the English lyrics are harmless enough. The chorus goes soemthing like this...

Jeanny, quit livin' on dreams
Jeanny, life is not what it seems
Such a lonely little girl in a cold, cold world
There's someone who needs you
Jeanny, quit livin' on dreams
Jeanny, life is not what it seems
You're lost in the night
Don't wanna struggle and fight
There's someone who needs you

If you have lived in the US your whole life, there is a good chance that you have never heard this song. I certainly didn't. And that's a real shame. This is one of the most awesomely bad song ever created. You can't get it out of your head. It's so so very bad. But in an awesome 80's kind of way.

I feel bad that us Americans were deprived the chance of having this song as part of our childhood memories. Everyone should hear this song on the radio and laugh at how horrible it is. And then scream the lyrics at the top of your lungs as you remember how much you loved it when you were 12. We missed our chance... there are very few 80's song that are more cheesy than this. R.I.P. Falco

You can see the video of Jeanny below. And, just so you know, I wrote the majority of this blog before I watched the video. Now that I have seen the video, I love this song ten times more. Oh my God it's great!!!!

Christmas in Prague

2008-12-26T08:35:00.001-08:00

R, Bauer and I spent the 2008 Christmas Vacation by ourselves in Prague. We were just in the States a few months ago and didn't feel like going back again. And, we're heading to Barcelona next week for New Year's, so the last thing we needed was another vacation.

Despite the fact that we were by ourselves for this Holiday, we decided to make the best of it. We hosted a dinner party with some of our friends on the night of the 24th. R wanted to make a "traditional" Christmas meal for the event and bought a turkey to prepare.

Turkey is not commonly served in the Czech Republic. In fact, the one Czech friend we had over for dinner had never eaten a real turkey before. Just processed lunch meat. Also, you can't just walk into the local super market and pick up the turkey of your choice. R had to order the bird a week in advance from a special butcher.

Another difference came apparent when we went to pick up the Turkey. We were expecting the turkey to be vacuum sealed in "normal" poultry packaging. Not too much to ask for, right? Nope. We got a bird in a plastic bag. Literally. They opened up a normal plastic bag, picked up the bird, and dropped it in there. That was it. Here are some of the pictures for proof.

Despite the questionable packaging, the dinner came out great. We had a fun time with our friends and the food was fantastic - as always.

Christmas Day itself was very lazy/relaxing. We took the dog on an extra long hike to one of the better parks in the neighborhood. Then we came home, napped, and I downloaded Weeds - Season 1 from iTunes. We watched an embarrassing amount of TV and didn't do much else.

We were supposed to go cross-country skiing today - but the weather didn't cooperate. So we're spending the rest of the weekend hanging around Prague. I'm downloading Weeds - Season 2 as we speak and trying to get the theme song out of my head....

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

Merry Chrismas Everyone!!!!!

Paris (This time for Work)

2008-12-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

This week I had the opportunity to attend LeWeb Conference '08. This is one of Europe's best - if not the best - conference that focuses on the Internet industry. And, the conference is also held in one of Europe's best - if not the best- city: Paris.

R has never been one to turn down a free hotel room for 3 days in Paris - so she bought a cheap plane ticket and joined me on the trip. While I toiled away at the conference, she got to enjoy Paris by day. And, since she speaks near fluent French, she had no problem getting around the city. She even took a cooking class one day - all in French*.

This is our 4th time in Paris and the cooking class mentioned above is one of the great things about visiting a city multiple times. Let me explain - because I've become a bit of a self-proclaimed expert at this over the last 2 years. The first time you go to a city, you feel obliged to hit all of the tourist attractions. It is just something you have to do. You go to the Louvre, you go to the top of the Eiffel tower, you take a walk around Sacre Coeur, and you eat at some of the typical French restaurants. It's a great, fun vacation and you have all of the pictures from all of the sites and you have a common interest when someone talks about the city.

The second time you visit a city is a bit different. You don't want to do ALL of the tourist attractions, but you remember the best attractions and might visit them again. For example, the Louvre is the best museum in the world and you have to visit again. No way you saw everything the first time. But, instead of going to top of the Eiffel tower, you just stroll by it a snicker at the huge line of people waiting to get to the top. Instead, you go get a great dinner at a place a few blocks away from the Eiffel tower and spend more time relaxing and drinking wine than you do acting like a tourist. You may also try to hit the cool nightspot that only the locals know.

Now, the third time you visit a city, you try to expand your horizons a bit more. You go to the 2nd tier of tourist attractions. These are things that aren't as popular - but arguably much cooler. This includes things like having a picnic at Versailles or going to the extreme edge of the metro line to visit that Catacombs.

This leaves us with your 4th visit to the city. This time, you have absolutely nothing planned. Going to visit a tourist attraction couldn't bore you any more. You've already hit the most famous restaurants and nightspots. But, you know the city well and remember which parts you liked the best. So you take the Metro and just start walking the streets. You walk streets that have no tourists on them. You wander into random stores like Shakespeare and Co. (which was charming beyond belief but, I just found out, also famous as hell. I guess this nullifies the point I was trying to make.) You do things at your own pace and act somewhat like a local. You may even go to a cooking class.

OK, now that we have gone through all of that, let's cut to the chase and talk about the most important attraction in Paris. The one that never gets old no matter how many times you visit the city. Of course, I'm talking about the food! Every time I visit Paris there are three things that I have to get - and this trip was no exception:

Oysters

Steak Frites

Crepe with nutella and banana

I'm not going to go on and on talking about how great the food was. I find it very difficult to write about food without coming across as overly cliche and dramatic. So let's just say that the food was as good as I remembered, as good as I could hope for and satisfying in every way.

Since the whole point of our Paris trip was the conference, I suppose I should spend a few minutes writing about that as well. The conference gets an "A" for content and an "D" for operations. The speakers and attendees of the conference were great. Many interesting people and topics. And, the best part was that it wasn't just a bunch of tech blowhards screaming back and forth at each other (although the last session certainly was that). They had interesting speakers from all walks of life, including author Paulo Cuehlo, scientists, anthropologists, and even the French Minister of Finance. The conversations that these people brought to the table allowed you to see a full 360 view of the state of the Internet industry today - and not just the tech side of it.

However, as I alluded to above, the logistics of the conference were pretty awful. There has been much discussion about this in the blogosphere and rightfully so. The conference organizers used a brand new building for this years event that wasn't quite ready for prime time. The heater broke the night before the conference and it was absolutely freezing inside the first day. I couldn't stop shivering and it made it hard to concentrate. The lunch was also a disaster. A bad combination of portions that were too small, not enough food to feed the crowd and no where to sit and eat. As a final kick in the balls to all of the bloggers covering the event, Internet connectivity was spotty at best. Many, many people complained about this but I didn't bring my laptop so it didn't effect me much at all. All of these points created a pretty negative picture of the conference for some, which is a shame because the content was great.

Finally, I'll leave you with one funny story from Paris. On our last day, R and I took the bus from the city center to get some lunch. We're on the bus for about 20 minutes and everything is going fine. At one stop, there is a taxi blocking the official bus stop so the bus has to stop about 20 meters short. The people waiting at the stop had to walk these 20 meters to get on the bus. Not the end of the world, right? Well, one surly old Frenchman didn't like this at all. So he got on the bus and complained to the driver about this. He wasn't yelling, but you could tell that he was not happy. After about one minute of this, the bus driver had enough and pulled over the bus. She told everyone to get off the bus because she was now upset and she could no longer continue to drive. The bus was pretty full without about 40-50 people on it. This includes students, mothers with kids, older folks, etc. We all looked around in disbelief. A few people tried to talk to the bus driver to calm her down but she had none of it. She rolled up her window so no one could come near her and wouldn't budge. Everyone literally had to get off the bus and wait for the next one. I can't imagine anything like this happening in New York. Especially on a cold day. As we got off the bus, I heard one man bitching that this was all Sarkozy's fault. funny.

* I mentioned R speaking great French in this blog. In my last blog about Portugal, I failed to mention what a great job R did speaking Portuguese. She spoke like a pro and many of the locals told her that her language was flawless. This is very impressive considering R hasn't lived in Brazil in nearly 20 years and NEVER speaks the language. It's been one of the greatest advantages to being in Europe - I constantly live and travel with a translator. Any city I go into I just let R do the talking and everything is taken care of. That's why I call her my pocket translator. Which is funny if you know that our last name literally translates to "pocket" in Italian. And she's also shockingly short. So the joke works on several levels.

Portugual

2008-11-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

R and I made a trip to Portugal over the long Thanksgiving weekend. R got a consulting job for a week in southern Portugal, so we decided to go a few days early and see the sites.

The first stop on our trip was Lisbon. I didn't know much about Lisbon heading into this trip. I knew it was the capital of Portugal.. and that was pretty much it. I had heard from friends that it was unlike most of the other major cities in Europe. And, it turns out that they were correct. It's different for two reasons.

First, it doesn't "feel" like a big city. The roads are small, there are very few buildings more than a few stories high, and you can tell everything is connected to the ocean. In fact, it feels like a small fishing village. When I was walking around different parts of town I felt like I was in Dubrovnik, Croatia or a little town in Sicily. The main difference is that Lisbon covers a MUCH larger geographic landscape.

Secondly, the city was made up of a culturally diverse set of people. Much more so than most Western European cities. Not everyone looked the same and you could see the diversity by looking in the faces of the people. But, the good news is that the true Portuguese people were definitely better looking than average.

As you know from reading this blog, whenever we travel to a different city, the food is always one of the highlights. And Lisbon was no exception. In particular, I fell in love with the breakfast snacks at the local pastellerias. There were three things I loved:

1) Empanada de Carne. Or, in English, meat pies. I've had many meat pies before, but these were the best

2) Pasteis de Nata. The store called them custard cream tarts, but I considered them to be the breakfast version of a creme brulee. Delicious!

3) Pao de Qeijo. It's like a cross between bread, cheese and cookie dough. It's hard to describe, but whatever it is, it's heaven.

(On a side note, I did a quick Google search on "Portuguese Breakfast" and found out the term has an entry in the Urban Dictionary. The Urban Dictionary describes something that I certainly did NOT have in Portugal. I honestly had no idea this slang term existed and now regret that I set my Facebook status to "Nino loves Portuguese Breakfast". But seriously, Portuguese Breakfast - the real kind - is absolutely excellent. I can not and will not make any claims about the slang kind of Portuguese Breakfast)

After Breakfast, we went to see a few of the famous landmarks on the Lisbon coast. The first one we saw - and the one I initially thought was the coolest - was the Monument of the Discoveries. It is a very impressive statue (monument?) that has 33 very large men looking out to sea. Each figure represents a famous navigator or intellectual in Portuguese history. They are arranged so the whole monument looks like a bow of a ship.

Pretty cool, right? That's what I thought - until I was walking away and saw a sign that indicated the monument was less than 50 years old. That spoiled everything. After living in Europe for nearly two years - I like my landmarks to be historic. Anything less than 300 years old and it's barely worth getting out of bed for.

That's why we walked about 1 kilometer down the coast to the Tower of Belem. We had already read in the guide books that this tower was over 500 years old; so my first criteria was met. The Tower of Belem was originally part of the Portuguese defense system but it has had many uses over the years. No matter what it was used for - the architecture was stunning. For a small fee we were able to explore the entire Tower. It was a great day for photos so R took plenty of shots. I won't bore you with our family slides, but there are a few pics of the Tower below

It happened to rain on our second day in Lisbon, so we decided to go to the Aquarium. I know this sound slike a pretty lame way to spend a day in Europe - but the Aquarium was incredible. It was ranked #2 in the world and - unlike the artifical ranking of the Prague zoo - I feel like this was quite justified.

The center of the aquarium hasn an ENORMOUS tank (4 million liters) filled with all kinds of sea life. They had about a half-dozen sharks, some manta rays, sting rays, eels, tuna, barracuda, scores of tropical fish and one sun fish (which is one huge, ugly mofo).

The layout and architecture of the building was spectacular as well. The main tank served as the trunk of the building and you constantly walked around it - on multiple floors - to see side exhibits. This included some pretty close encounters with penguins and sea otters. If you ever find yourself in Lisbon and have a few hours to kill - I highly recommend the aquarium.

Our next stop was a 2.5 hour train ride south of Lisbon to a part of the country known as the Algarve region. The train took us through the mountains of Portugaul and it was a pretty bumpy ride. It proved too much for R's stomach. She ended up leaving her Portuguese Breakfast somewhere on the tracks about 30 minutes north of our destination.

Although the journey there was far from luxurious - the end result was absolutely worth it. We pulled up to a fabulous 5-star resort and spa that would be R's office for the next week - The Villa Vita. I was forunate to get a couple of free nights at the hotel while she worked. It's about time I got to mooch off of her for once!

The hotel was incredible. It covered something like 100 acres and it was situated right on huge cliffs that overlooked the ocean. The only bad part is that it wasn't beach season. So, although we didn't get to enjoy the ocean, we did take full advantage of the other parts of the hotel.

While R toiled away at work on Saturday, I thought it was a good opportunity to go golfing. The region is a tourist mecca for English speaking golfers (the place is full of Brits in khakis and golf shirts). And, rightfully so. They have some beautiful courses there.

I got a tee time on a course called the 'Ocean Course'. My rule of the thumb is that if you are given the option to choose from dozens of golf courses, always choose the course with "ocean" in the title.

This rule of thumb turned out to be the correct move. It was the nicest golf course I have ever played. Four of the holes were right along the ocean and you could see the waves crashing against the beach as you walked the greens. It was also pretty cool because the course holds rather important tournaments on a regular basis. Therefore, they have bleachers set up surrounding the 18th green. I did my best Carl Spackler impersonation and pretended I was finishing off a tournament at Augusta. (in case you are wondering, I three-putted 18)

Unfortunately, not only was this the nicest course I have ever played, but also the most expensive. Here's a quick tale to you explain just how expensive it was. I had to rent a car to drive from the hotel to the golf course. It was about 45 minutes away and too far for a taxi. Well, my golf cart (or, buggy as they call it in Europe) was twice as much as my rental car!

All-in-all, our trip to Portugal was another great European experience. We saw lots of sites, ate great food, met interesting people and I even got a round of golf in. What else can you ask for?

Doggie Duty

2008-11-15T13:21:00.000-08:00

I am not afraid to admit that my best friend in Prague is my dog Bauer. And this is not just in a dog-is-a-mans-best-friend kind of way. I mean it. He really is my best friend. We hang out a lot. When I'm looking for something to do, he usually is option numero uno. We play sports together. We watch football together. We eat together. When we go to the park, I act as his wing man and try to get the bitches to notice him. When he gets rejected, I point at him and laugh. These are all things that you do with your best friend.

(There are two disclaimers that I need to make here. First, although much of the above can be said about R, we can't count her because she is my wife. And your wife can't be your best friend. That's not only cheating, it's also pathetic. For every wife who is reading this and has received a card on Valentine's Day that says something like 'To my best friend..' please know that your husband was lying to you. You are not his best friend and never will be.

Secondly, Bauer is only my best friend in Prague. When I get back to New York, I have several friends that are much cooler than Bauer. Truth be told, Bauer is a bit of a douchebag at times. He is very needy, self-centered and has been known to eat shit. The act is getting a little old. Don't get my wrong, we'll still hang out in New York. I'll just drop the 'BFF' label when I have some better options. I need my space)

Anyway, the last few weeks Bauer and I have been spending more time together than usual. R has been away a lot recently for work and for trips to New York - so Bauer and I have been able to share some quality time together. We go for walks every morning and night and I have been taking him on special field trips on the weekend. This past weekend we went hiking in Cesky Raj.

Last Sunday, I took Bauer to the zoo. Remember, Prague is the most dog friendly city in the world. Everyone has a dog and you bring your dog wherever you go. This includes the zoo. Which provides a fascinating social experiment as the animals can interact. It should also be noted that this is not a little rinky dink zoo - the Prague zoo is rated as the fifth best zoo in the world. At least, one of the billboards in the Prague zoo says that the Prague zoo is the 5th best zoo in the world. You would be wise to question such a ranking. It's about as official a ranking as the time I gave R a Valentine's Day card that said "To the World's Best Wife"

Anyway, once we got to the zoo, I was very curious to see (a) which animal would freak out the most at seeing Bauer and (b) which animal would freak Bauer the most.

The surprising winners of Part A were the Penguins. I never would have guessed this. When they saw Bauer coming, they would all swim up and press their beaks to glass and just stare at him. They were absolutely fascinated. They couldn't give a shit about me, just the dog. Interestingly enough, Bauer didn't take much interest in them. Maybe becasue they were behind glass he thought it was just a big TV screen. Stupid dog.

The winner of option B was not surprising at all - it was the elephant. Can you just imagine living a life thinking that the only things that exist in this world are humans, dogs, birds, cats, squirrels and ducks. Those are pretty much the only living things that Bauer has ever interacted with. Then one day, out of the blue, along comes a big ass elephant.

What would you do? I would fucking freak out. At that is pretty much what Bauer did. But he didn't freak out in "Get me the hell out of here" kind of way. Instead, he freaked out in a "oh my god I have to sniff that things ass to find out more about it" kind of way. Fortunately for Bauer, I didn't let him get any closer.

(Editor's Note: I spent a solid 30 minutes trying to come up with an adequate analogy for a dog seeing an elephant for the first time. I had about five really good ones - but they were too risque for even me to post in my blog. And only three of these made not-so-subtle references to my penis. In the end, the best "acceptable" analogy that I could come up with was: It would be like taking an 18 year old Mormon to a Las Vegas Strip Club for the first time. However, I'm not very pleased with this joke and think I can do better if given more time. If you have a better one, post it in the comments.)

The other animal that took an interest in Bauer was the lion. I picked Bauer up so he could have a good look and he was pretty damn curious about that big cat across the moat. And the lion noticed Bauer too - but he did it in a pretty cool way. He had this laid back look in his eye that said... "I notice you looking at me. And I'm not going to waste my time getting all excited about you. We both know that I could tear you in half with one bite. So you just stay on that side of the moat and keep your calm. If you try anything funny, you know how this is going to end".

At least I imagined that whole conversation in my head. I guess these are the kind of things you think about when your best friend is a dog. Damn - I need to get back to New York and start hanging out with humans again.

Back in the USA

2008-11-05T12:34:00.000-08:00

R and I spent the last ten days in the States. I came back on Monday in time for work. R decided to stay an extra week just because she could.

We started off the trip in Cleveland. If you read my most recent blog, you know that trip started off bad. Our flight was delayed and we missed our connection from Atlanta to Cleveland. Very rarely does this happen to me - mostly because I hardly ever take connecting flights. I've decided that is one of the most underrated things about living in New York: you have to direct flights to 95% of the places you want to go to. Everyone flies straight to New York. And, if they don't? You probably don't want to hang out in those places anyway.

Cleveland was as good as always. Running around from house to house, visiting every part of the family. And, most importantly, stuffing our face of home cooked food at every stop along the way.

The highlight of the trip - other than seeing my lovely family of course - was playing with my dad's new toys. My dad has become something of a racecar fan in the last couple of years. He has bought a couple of vintage Porsche's and has been working on restoring the engines. Whenever he gets the chance, he races them on the weekend. I believe one in 1968 912 and the other a 1972 911. I got to drive them along the shores of Lake Erie last week. How did I do? Let's just say that Leonard Hamilton has no need to start looking over his shoulder any time soon.

The lowlight of the trip brings us back to the airport. We had a flight Tuesday night out of the local Canton - Akron airport and were headed to New York. We got in to the airport just in time to find out that the flight was canceled. Perfect. Our best option was to take the 6:30 AM flight the next day. That left us with the alternative of taking a ride back to my sister's house 25 minutes away, sleeping on a bed built for a 7 year old, getting up at 4:30 in the morning and taking a $50 cab ride back to airport. I couldn't think of many worse ways to spend a night - so I ponied up $100 and got a room at a local airport hotel.

OK. I realize that this blog post is getting long and is not that funny. I guess that is because traveling back to the States is not as eventful as traveling around Europe. I've been in Cleveland and New York a million times. Nothing is going to surprise me. And, I'm not talented enough to keep you interested while writing about the banality of everyday life.

So just assume that New York was fun. Saw friends, met with old colleagues, partied, ate great food, watched movies, got propositioned by a transvestite on Christopher St, watched a friend get 2nd degree burns on his hand during a magic trick gone wrong, etc. All normal, daily activities. Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary.

Come back for the next blog post when I actually travel to some place I have never lived before. The next trip planned is for Portugal over Thanksgiving. I promise to write a thoughtful and entertaining blog about those crazy and wacky Europeans. We can all read it and laugh together at their expense.

Until then - all I can say is that it is a great day to be an American. Very happy about the election results.

Blogs on a Plane

2008-10-27T04:11:00.000-07:00

I am writing this blog while I am 30,943 feet in the air somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. I have no idea when I will actually post this blog, but rest assured that this is my first ever post on a plane.

R and I are heading to the States for my official “home leave” from work. I get one of these trips paid for by the company every two years. We have are taking a direct flight from Prague to Atlanta – then jumping on quick flight from Atlanta to Cleveland. There is just one small problem. Our plane left Prague about an hour late and the wind over the Atlantic isn’t helping us any.

Based on our current arrival estimate, we have 45 minutes to disembark the plane in Atlanta, go through customs, pick up our suitcases, take the underground shuttle in the airport, and get on the plane heading towards Cleveland. Right now I’m taking the optimistic approach that we will make our flight. R is being a pessimist and says that we have no chance.

Either way, I see this as a win-win situation. If we make the flight, then we make the flight and we arrive to Cleveland on time. Everybody is happy. But, if we miss the flight, we get to go to Chili’s for dinner!

I am a notorious hater of nearly all franchised restaurants. Don’t do Friday’s. Wouldn’t eat at a Benningan’s if lunch were free. Think the Cheescake Factory is over-hyped. And, I have an utter hatred for Applebee’s that is difficult to put into words (it goes back to some frozen vegetables in a pasta many moons ago that I can never and will never forget).

But, one of the only exceptions to the rule is Chili’s. I freakin’ love that place. Any time I am driving in suburban America I go out of my way to find a Chili’s restaurant. They don’t have a franchise in Manhattan, nor is there on in Prague, so I consider it a real treat when I get to go to one. As luck would have it, the Atlanta airport has a Chili’s in one of the terminals. If we miss our flight and are delayed by a few hours, you’ll know where to find me.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I am also fond of Outback Steakhouse. Apparently, my rating of the franchised restaurants is directly correlated to how good their jingle is. I haven’t seen these commercials in two years yet I still occasionally hum I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, etc. or Let’s go outback tonight…)

So now that I am on a plane I thought I would share with you, oh loyal blog readers, my three greatest fears in life. They are:

Peak Oil Theory

That I’ll die before the Browns win a Super Bowl

That I’ll be stuck on an airplane without something interesting to read

Honestly, those are pretty much the only things I worry about in life. And it’s not in that order. It’s not even close. I spend an ungodly amount of time making sure that I have adequate amount of reading material for my plane ride.

It’s not such a simple problem as making sure I have a book in hand before I leave the house for a flight. My narcosis runs much deeper than that. Here are all of the things I have to consider:

I never like to start a new book on a plane. There is too much risk involved. What if the book sucks or starts off too slowly? Ideally, I want to be in 2-3 chapters into a book before getting on the plane.

Just as I don’t like to start a new book on a plane, I can’t risk being too far along in my current book. Nothing worse than misjudging the number of pages that you have left and finishing the book with two hours remaining in the flight.

You could say that I could just bring another book, but that doesn’t work either. First, I don’t like having to bring extra books in my carry on. Unnecessary weight to lug around. Secondly, I don’t like finishing Book A and the immediately picking up Book B and starting to read it. It just becomes a big mush of words in your head. My rule of thumb is that you need a 24 hour break before finishing an old book and starting a new one.

The topic of the book is also critical and is directly tied to the destination. I’d say I read about 70% non-fiction (mostly business, strategy, technology and biographies/memoirs) and 30% fiction. But if I’m going on a vacation for a week in, say the Greek islands, I don’t want to think. I’m either going to pick a fiction book or an entertaining non-fiction entry. On the other hand, if I’m headed to a conference, I may pick one of the more “serious” non-fiction entries.

Finally, I don’t like to read two books at once. I’m completely monogamous with my current book. If I’m knee deep into a non-fiction book and pick up a quick, easy read for a weekend vacation- I consider it to be cheating. Is it really any different than taking a young, hot mistress to Vegas for the weekend while your wife stays home with the kids? I would argue no. (I’m fully aware that equating these two acts says more negative things about my moral character than positive things about my love of reading)

With all of these rules in place, going on vacation can be rather stressful. I have to plan my reading schedule weeks in advance. Every time I pick a new book off the shelf I basically have to have my calendar in hand so I know how it will affect any and all upcoming plane rides.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel. If my fear about Peak Oil theory holds true, then gas prices will probably skyrocket so high in future years that I won’t be able to afford many plane rides. So, ironically enough, if one of my fears does come to fruition, it will actually remove one of the primary problems in my life. Very weird. Now, if we can just do something about the Browns, I’ll be all set.

******* SPOILER ALERT ********

In case you are interested, I actually got around to posting this blog early Monday morning at my Dad's house.

We didn't make our flight to Celveland. Not by a long shot. We arrived 90 minutes late due to a strong head wind and had to sit on the runaway for an additional 40 minutes before pulling to the gate.

The good news is that we were easily booked on another flight to Cleveland just a few hours later. The bad news is that the terminal we were booked at did not have a Chili's in it. I briefly contemplated going from Terminal to Terminal looking for the elusive Chili's - but the big Ohio State - Penn State game was just about to start. I sat down at a Sports Bar and watched the first half while eating one of the worst chicken sandwhiches I have ever tasted in my life.

Confessions of a (Pathetic) Football Junkie

2008-10-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that I am a football fanatic. I've always loved everything football. This includes

Watching
Playing
Reading about
Blogging about
Podcasting
Making, ummm, "friendly" wagers on
Spending countless hours managing my fantasy team
Forcing my wife to call me "Bernie", or "Mr. Kosar" when she's nasty

Everything. While the above list may sound pathetic enough, I think I may have even topped myself this past week. Here's how.

Watching football in Prague has been surprisingly easy. I actually have better access than I ever did in New York. Consider my options:

Watching the game of the week on local TV via NASN - North American Sports Network
Using Slingbox to connect to my dad's TV (via my computer) and watch the games shown in Cleveland
Logging in to Yahoo! and - for a mere $200 per season - I have live streaming and on-demand access to every game in the NFL. (Only available to people outside the US)

For the past few weeks, I would just choose one of the above options. But this created some problems. My wife doesn't share my love of football (except for Mr. Kosar of course) - so she would spend Sunday nights on our home computer. Since my laptop was basically being used as a 2nd TV - I had no available Internet access. I had no way of checking my fantasy team scores and the status of my, ummm, friendly wagers. I could conceivably access my fantasy team via my laptop, but that means the web site would show up on the projector. And, if I did that, my wife's virgin eyes would be exposed to some of the team names in my fantasy football league. Some of these names aren't just offensive, they are criminal. Even I blush. Of the 14 teams, only two have names that I would feel comfortable publishing on a public web site. And four of the team names should result in immediate counseling for all parties involved.

She also doesn't like the fact that I make friendly wages on games. She thinks my prognasticating skills are so good that I should bet real money and buy her shoes with my winnings. I keep telling her that gambling money on football is illegal, but she doesn't seem to care. She tells me to go big or go home. Women!

So, like I said, big problems. But that all changed this week. Here is the set up:

My laptop is hooked up to Yahoo!. I have the it plugged into my projector - which is the equivalent of a 120" TV screen on my white wall. I have the audio hooked into my 5.1 surround stereo. This is the official "Game of the Week" at the Tasca Sports Bar.

For the early games, we're featuring the Saints - Panthers game on the big screen. I have three fantasy RBs (Reggie Bush, DeAngelo Williams & Jonathon Stewart) in this game and two "friendly" wagers (Saints +3, and the Over at 44.5). If I don't have a rooting interest, I always try to make a friendly wager on the Over for the Game of the week. After all, who doesn't like rooting for points to be scored.

The late game we will be featuring is the Browns - Redskins. My beloved, disappointing, ulcer-inducing, steadily-improving Browns always get the featured treatment at the Tasca Sports Bar. No friendly wagers ever take place on the Browns games. Unlike Pete Rose, that's a line I don't cross. But I do have the Redskins QB on my fantasy team. (Keep in mind, it's a 14 team league before you judge my team's quality. I'm 4-2)

The local TV has the NASN game of the week on. This is displayed in the corner with no sound on. But, if something interesting happens in the game, I can switch the audio on to my 5.1 surround stereo with one click of the remote. If something really interesting happens, I can also throw this onto the projector in place of the "Game of the Week" with two clicks of the remote.

The early game today has the Chargers - Bills. Another rule of thumb, always make a friendly wager against a West coast team when they have to go East and play an early game. I have no Fantasy players in this game.

The late game is Colts - Packers. No fantasy players here either. But, I made a friendly wager on the Colts -1. They are healthy again and looked great last week. The Packers are banged up and looked shaky beating a very bad Seattle team (with Charlie Frye at QB - who you should always make a friendly wager against) last week

Finally, I brought home my work laptop to, ummm, work, while I'm watching all the games. During the few minutes when I'm not working, I'm also using this to check fantasy scores, browse random articles, twitter, etc. If I wanted to, I could easily use this to log into Slingbox and watch the game that is being displayed in Cleveland - which is currently the Dallas - St. Louis game.

I don't have Slingbox on right now, but may do it later if the game gets close. My only fantasy player in that game is Steven Jackson - but I despise him right now and am close to paying a witch doctor to put a voodoo curse on him. I have no desire to watch him. Also, no friendly wagers were placed on this game. I came close to doing a handshake agreement on the Rams +6.5 - but thought better of it. (They are currently up 21-7 in the 2nd quarter. Good thing the theoretical bet that I didn't make would have only been a friendly bet, so I'm not too mad at myself)

One final interesting note about watching football in Prague. As you are well aware, there is a 6 hour time difference between Prague and US East Coast time. That means the 1:00 games don't start until 7:00 PM here. This has advantages and disadvantages.

The great part of this time difference is that it totally frees up my Sundays. I woke up early, went to a Yoga class with my wife (more on that later), had a great brunch at Cafe Savoy, took my dog on a 3 hour hike and enjoyed a 90 minute nap. It's been a great day. Now I'm enjoying football on a Sunday evening. I just had a great dinner (thanks R!) and am chilling on the couch with my dog surrounded by football games.

The bad news is that the late games totally throw off my sleep schedule. The Browns don't start playing until 10:15 Prague time tonight. That means I'm not going to sleep until 2:00 AM - and I still have to get up at a regular time for work tomorrow.

I don't get to watch the Sunday or Monday night games unless it's a very big or the Browns are involved. And, the Browns are inexplicably involved in 5 night games this year. When this happens - like it did last week when the Browns destroyed the World Champion Giants - I make no attempt to watch the game live. Instead, I get up at 6:00 AM the next morning and watch the game before going to work. My mood at work that day will be highly dependant on the outcome of that game. There is no worse feeling that getting up at a ridiculously early time to watch a crappy game.

So, that's my football life in Prague. Many people will find this set up incredibly awesome. Many more people will find this set up incredibly pathetic. I honestly don't even know which side of the fence I am on. I can be convinced either way. But, I'll tell you what, I do enjoy my Sunday nights.

****** START OF MY ANTI-YOGA RANT ***************

OK, as I mentioned above I went to Yoga with my wife today. I am not a huge fan of Yoga and have actually only been to 1-2 other classes in my life. I have no idea what the moves and positions are. I could not tell you the difference between a downward dog, a half lord of the fishes or a Cleveland steamer and a lemon party pose.

Regardless, I decided to go today because I'm feeling a little less flexible with my old age. I knew the class would be in Czech but I thought I could just follow along and look at people around me.

First off, I don't know how people find Yoga relaxing. I spent 55 minutes intensely concentrating on trying to keep myself from farting in the middle of a room filled with girls. Do you have any ideas how difficult this is? My body is being contorted into positions that put all kind of unnatural stress on the digestive system. My stomach was in physical pain after the class and I consider this to be my most stressful hour of the week. Any one that gets through a full class without fouling the air should be given a free personal training lesson as an award.

Secondly, I expected the instructor to say a few words in Czech and then do a pose for a few minutes. I didn't expect my lack of Czech to be a big deal. Not with this instructor. She talked through the whole entire class. In fact, I've never heard a person say more words in a single hour than she did. Who talks this much! I have no idea what the hell she was saying - but I'm sure it was something about a Cleveland steamer. So the whole class I'm looking up at the instructor trying to figure out what she's jabbering about while I'm watching the people around me to see what they are doing and - don't forget - this is all being done while I desperately trying to prevent my anal accoustics. This is supposed to be fun and relaxing?!?!

No thank you.

******* END OF MY ANTI-YOGA RANT *******************

Budapest, Hungary

2008-10-06T11:36:00.001-07:00

R and I went to Budapest this weekend. Barely. I use the word barely because we had quite a big mixup at the airport.

The trip to Budapest was planned about a month ago. R and I originally looked for flights but every ticket we found cost close to $500 per person. In my opinion, that's a little too pricey for a 400 mile trip, so we agreed to take a 7 hour train ride instead. Not an ideal scenario - but much cheaper. When I told this to a co-worker, she told me about the web site Click4Sky - where I could get round trip tickets for about $150 each. Great News. We bought the tickets that day.(I'm intentionally not linking to Click4Sky because I don't want to give them any PR. You'll see why soon)

Fast forward to Friday night. My wife - who is the most organized person I have ever met - presents the airline counter with our confirmation email. All the dates and times are perfect and the confirmation code looks valid. But, when we hand this to the lady behind the check-in counter, she looks around for a few minutes and says, "Sorry, you aren't in the system."

Actually, that's a lie. I'm sure the word "sorry" was never used. I'm sure she just said something like "You aren't in the system. NEXT!" We tried to point out that we had a valid confirmation print out and everything was correct, but she just shrugged her shoulders. We were stuck. Czech Airlines have some of the worst customer service I have ever seen or experienced. It's miserable.

After a few phone calls and running around the airport, we found a ticket office for Hungarian Airlines. They had tickets on a flight leaving in 45 minutes... but the tickets were $500 each. The same price we thought was too much when we started this whole journey. But now we were at the airport, our bags were packed, we were singing songs about traveling to Budapest and, most importantly, we had already pre-paid for 3 nights in a Budapest hotel room. To all economics students out there that want to tell me this last factor should not affect my decision making process since it is a "sunk cost".... well, you can sunk my cost. (Say those last three words real fast and hopefully you'll laugh as hard as I did when I wrote that phrase).

After a 0.5 second debate, I handed over my credit card and we were on our way to Budapest. Or as they say in Italian, Andiamo a Budapest! (I'm studying Italian still and am excited whenever I can form a complete sentence)

I didn't know much about Budapest going into this trip. Sure, I looked at all of the "Top Ten Things to Do in Budapest" guides, but I always get bored with those things around #4. So, I closed my eyes and pretended that Budapest would be just like Prague I don't know why I thought this. But I figured they were both Eastern European cities and they would share common traits. The larger question is why I would just drop a grand on two tickets to go to a place that is exactly like the place I currently live.

Fortunately, Budapest is nothing like Prague at all. And I use the word fortunately not because there is anything wrong with Prague but - again - I just wanted to get good value for my tickets. It's like the time I had a perfectly good pair of pants that somehow formed a hole in the crotch after years of wear & tear (and, I'm sure, a whole lot of unnecessary scratching). I had to go back to the exact same store and buy the exact same pair of pants again for $80. I really liked the pants. They were great. I didn't want a different color. I just wanted my pants to not have a hole in the crotch. So I was $80 poorer, but had nothing new to show for it except for the same pair of pants that I always had.

But, ANYWAY, I digress. So Budapest is nothing like Prague. The architecture and the vibe of the city are completely different. There is really no relation between the two cities at all. Budapest is like a combination of Paris and Istanbul with a little Peoria, Illinois thrown in for good measure (they have a lot Burger King franchises thrown around town).

We had some great food and wine on Friday night once we got into town (not Burger King, thank you very much). Then, on Saturday, we hit some of the local tourist attractions. One of the things I was excited to see was St. Stephens Church in Budapest. This is rather surprising because - after living in Europe for nearly two years - I think I've seen enough churches to last me a life time. After going to the Vatican, everything else fails in comparison. It's like looking at all other girls once I met my wife (yeah! I'm getting a good dinner tomorrow night for that statement!) Unless the church is made of human bones or Jesus climbs off of the cross and gives me a high five, I'm not going to be too excited.

So why did I want to go to St. Stephens? Well, St. Stephen's 1000 year old right hand is still embalmed in a glass box in the back of the church. And if you throw a coin in the slot, the glass case lights up. I don't know why, but I think this is very cool. So we get to St. Stephens church and immediately begin my quest to find the 1000 year old hand. I snake my way around the church and I come to the room were the hand resides. Only, the door is closed and there is a sign that says "We're sorry, but this room is temporarily closed for a private party."

You may think I was disappointed by this sign. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. I just started giggling uncontrollably in the middle of the quiet church and couldn't stop. I had this picture in my mind That I couldn't shake. Imagine if there was a big party going on in the back room and it was like a scene from Weekend at Bernie's where this 1000 year old hand was holding the punch bowl. The more I thought about this, the louder I laughed. For the same reasons that I can't explain why a 1000 year hand that lights up is cool, I can't explain why the same hand holding a punch bowl is hilarious. But it is. To me. It was officially time for me to leave the church before Jesus crawled off the cross and slapped me in the back of the head. I never got to see the 1000 year old hand. Nor do I want to. The actual hand itself will never be as cool - or funny - as I imagined it to be.

The other thing that Budapest is known for are the public paths. I had positive memories of my trip to a Turkish bath house earlier this year, so I was eager to try one out in Budapest. They are not the same. The bath house we went to is in the city center and is probably the most famous in town. They have 15 different baths - each with water of varying degrees. Some hot, some cold and some in the middle. They also had a few baths indoors and a few outside. Now, keep in mind, I am using he word "bath" just because that's what everyone calls them. But they are really just swimming pools. Don't let anyone tell you different. Except, no one swims. They just sort of sitting around waiting for the "medicinal" powers of the bath to take over.

Judging by the popularity of the baths, people really tend to enjoy these things. I don't think I'll be returning. First off, the "bath" we spent most of our time was listed as 34 degrees C. Or, as it also known, the official temperature of a kiddie pool half filled with pee. So the whole time I am in the bath, it brings back memories of being in a kiddie pool where everyone is peeing. Only, instead of being with half a dozen 3 year olds, I'm surrounded by a couple hundred Europeans.

The second thing that turned me off is that we just happened to be in Budapest the same weekend that the town held it's annual marathon. And the bath house we went to just happened to be close to the end of the marathon path. We also just happened to be there at the same time people were finishing their marathon run and coming to relax in the bath. So not only was I sitting in a big pool that felt like several hundred Europeans were peeing on me, I also witnessed dozens of marathon runners coming into the pool after sweating for 42 straight kilometers. I'm sure they rinsed off before coming in the pool - but still - the stank of a marathon takes several showers to wipe off.

In short, what was supposed to be a relaxing day at the bath house turned out to be a mildy annoying hour sitting in a pool of filth. But, other than that, it was great.

Before I end this post, I just want to emphasize that I had an absolutely great time in Budapest. I really liked the city. I realize that I focused on the negatives above simply because negative events tend to be more humorous than positive ones. And the only reason I waste so much time writing this blog is clearly because I want people to think I am funny. That being said, here are some of the other (less funny) highlights from our trip

The food in Budapest is better than Prague. They have more international options and I find the "traditional" meals slightly more appealing. Especially the goulash soup.

R was a big fan of the fisherman's bastillion. She thought it was one of the more interesting structures she has seen in Europe

JayWay Travel rocks! We followed his advice for the entire weekend and he didn't let us down once

I loved the statues in Budapest. Absolutely loved them. They had some of the most interesting statues I have ever seen scattered throughout the city. Pictures are below....

I thought this statue looked just like - ironically enough - Burger King

So that was a trip to Budapest. It was nothing like Prague - but reminds me why I like living in Prague so much... because it gives me the opportunity to take weekend trips like this.

WORKING AGAIN........ By, RST

2008-09-29T02:47:00.000-07:00

So as many of you may know, I have not been working while living here in Prague. There were many reasons that we made this decision but just to recap here they are:
1. The local pay was quite low and I would earn quite little money
2. I would not get the amount of vacation days that N gets and so would have limited travel opprtunities
3. N likes having dinners made, his laundry done and a clean house :)
4. Bauer loves having me walk him each day

So, yes, I have been quite fortunate and have not worked.. HOWEVER,I finally got hired by a company called GCO- Global Conference Oreganizers. They are a Dutch based company and an old coworker of mine from NYC works there now. They finally were looking to hire some more Tour Managers and I was asked to join the team. A Tour Manager is a freelance position and from time to time they ask me to assist on a specific project/meeting/conference. They pay for my airfare, all food & beverage, hotel accomodations,and of course a nice daily pay. I got hired back in May- yet was disappointed that all summer mtgs had already been assigned and so I would need to wait for the fall.

Finally back in August, I was contacted to handle a mtg in Rome, Italy at the 5 star Hilton Cavalieri Hotel- 6 days of work...Perfect! A few days later, I was asked to work at second mtg in Vilamoura, Portugal. I basically had just scored 12 days of work- YES! September 6-11 I was to be in Rome and September 12-15 in Portugal! Perfect.

My Room at the Hilton Cavalieri.

Besides making a nice amount of money, I met some real nice coworkers, ate like a king in Rome and had a good time TALKING as much as I did for 12 days! In fact I spoke all the languages that I know, Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish and of course English!

This fall, I have another mtg agian Portugal and I am quite excited bc the hotel is fabulous! http://vilavitahotels.com/typo3/html/index.php?id=107&L=2

This hotel is part of Leading Hotels of the World so it should be quite an amazing venue!

Who knew that I would so look forward to working again!

RST

Movie Night

2008-09-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Many times I use this blog to express frustration when things in Prague are not like the US. I've complained about the food, the customer service, the shopping, etc. in the past. I realize that this isn't fair because I am living in a different country and I should embrace the differences in culture - not complain about them. I know this and understand this - but I still get pretty damn pissed when I can't get a quality hamburger. I will not apologize for this.

Anyway, for a change I'm going to talk about a service that is better in the Czech Republic than it is in the US. And, no, I'm not going to be talking about prostitution again. (not that I know anything about the service there - I just walk by a lot of brothels between home and work)

R and I didn't have much going on this weekend so we decided to see a movie on Friday night. Rather than just go to a regular theater and hang out with the common folk, we decided to go out in style: GOLD CLASS!

One of the cinemas near my apartment offers a "Gold Class" viewing experience. For twice the price of a regular ticket, you get to go to a special theater. Instead of the regular small, uncomfortable movie theater chairs, you get a nice big recliner. Instead of popcorn and JuJuBees - you can eat sushi, sandwiches or chicken fingers (or popcorn or JuJuBees). Instead of soda, you have a fully stocked bar from which to choose. And, here's the best part, you can tell the waitress to bring you a new beer every 45 minutes throughout the movie.

There are only 24 total seats in the theater and - five minutes after the lights go out - you feel like you are sitting in your living room. Only if your living room had a 200 inch plasma television screen, a state of the art sound system, waitress service and a popcorn machine.

It's a great service and one that I hopes come to New York someday. I say that while biting my lip because I had once wanted to do this. When I was at business school I took an Entrepreneurship class. The sole goal of this class was to think of an idea and write a business plan. And, wouldn't you know it, I had this EXACT SAME IDEA - to bring a luxury movie theater experience to New York. (This wasn't exactly an original idea because I had read about it in California - but still the New York angle was what I would have focused on)

Unfortunately, my team members were not nearly as excited about this idea and I was out-voted. We ended up writing a business plan about some automated parking lots that I had no interest in. I had thought about quitting the group and doing the business plan by myself, but then I realized that would require 5X the work.

Maybe the next time I go to Gold Class I should bring my notebook. If this type of service works so well in Prague, I have to believe a similar opportunity exists in New York

Golfing in the Czech Republic

2008-09-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about living in Prague - especially coming from New York - is the outdoor space scattered throughout the city. I've mentioned this many times before. We have at least 10 beautiful parks that we can take our dog to. There are plenty of biking trails just a few kilometers from the city center. And, there is even a golf course just a few tram stops from my house. Granted, it only has 9 holes, but I haven't lived this close to an easily accessible golf course in 15 years.

I've been playing golf for more years than I care to admit and have never mastered the game. Actually, it's much worse than that. I'm pretty bad. If I managed to complete a round of golf and didn't have a new nickname emerge from my performance, I considered it a success.

My excuse for being less-than-stellar at golf has been that I never practice. I would go out anywhere between 3-6 times a year and maybe hit the driving range once or twice. As soon as I built up a nice motion in my swing, I would take 4+ weeks off and lose it all.

This year, I decided to change everything. For the last 2 months, I have been going to the driving range at least once a week. I've taken about 5 golf lessons from a local club pro (he's South African, not Czech). He's changed my swing quite a bit and I'm quite happy with the results. My drives are going 50 yards longer than they used to (well, most of the time at least) and my short game is much improved. My long irons still suck but not as much as they used to.

The results have shown up on the score card as well. I've had three of the best rounds of my life since I have started these lessons. These scores still aren't great, mind you, but respectable. My playing partners are no longer questioning my chromosone count.

With my new found golf confidence, my buddy Mark and I decided to take a golf holiday weekend. At first we talked about going to Ireland or Scotland for the weekend, but the logistics didn't work out. So, we rented a car and drove out to a down on the Eastern end of the Czech Republic named Marianske Lazne. Marianske Lazne is an old spa town but they have a famous 105 year old golf course. The course was founded and supported by King Edward VII in the early 20th Century.

When I told R that I was going to a spa town for golf, she was in! She may not golf, but she can certainly spa with the best with them.

Fortunately for me, the golf experience was better than that of the spa. Golf was a good time. Weather was pretty shitty, but I was playing well. I tied for my best round ever on both Saturday and Sunday. And, I even managed to hole a shot in from 105 yards out. That doesn't happen every day - or even every year.

One of the things that R has learned is that the term "spa" in Eastern Europe is quite different than the term "spa" in New York City. In the Czech Republic, most of the spa towns can be considered medicinal spas. The rooms are sterile and bright white. They focus a whole lot more on the cleansing type of treatments more so than the relaxing treatments. So, if you're looking to suck on an Oxygen tube for 3 hours or voluntarily flush your colon, come to Prague!

Why I Love My Wife

2008-09-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my lovely wife. But, before we get into that, let me provide a little bit of a back story.

R and I have been married now for 6 years. During that time, I've changed quite a bit. Many, many of these changes were for the better. But not all. Most notably, I have lost all of my ability to cook.

When I was a bachelor I was far from a first rate chef, but I could take care of myself. I could rock that George Foreman grill. I made pasta on a regular basis and would even cook fish when the mood struck me.

But, once I got married, that all changed. You see, R is a better cook than me. Much better. To top it off, she actually likes to cook. Since the meals she makes are much better than anything I can produce, we both agree that it makes sense for her to take control in the kitchen. That frees me up to take care of my obligations in the marriage; such as reaching things on the top shelf and lifting heavy objects. It's a good marriage. She focuses on what she does best and I do as well.

This makes my life great 95% of the time. Raffy cooks amazing dinners and I eat them with enthusiasm. (I do help with the dishes - I'm not a Neanderthal). But it does cause a problem the other 5% of the time when R is not around.

These next two weeks happen to fall in the other 5%. R is working a consulting job that will take her to Rome this week and Portugal next week. It's great for her and not too shabby for our finances either. If we were in New York, the food situation would not be a problem. I could order in food from dozens and dozens of options - and it would be at my door within 45 minutes. But the concept of food delivery is not something that has taken off in Prague.

This brings me back to the point about why I love my wife so much. Rather than let me suffer during these next two weeks and potentially cause havoc in the kitchen, she made sure it wasn't an issue. Here's what my beautiful wife did for me:

The day before she left, she made enough chicken cutlets to feed a family of 12. Not only are chicken cutlets my favorite food, but they are also extremely versatile. You can put eat them with rice, make a chicken salad, cut them up and throw them in pasta or, how I like it, a chicken cutlet sandwich. Just look at all these cutlets she made me! Life's great!

Cooked me two dozen meatballs and put them in the freezer. She is well aware that the only dish I now know how to make is pasta. The meatballs will make all of my pasta dishes taste that much better.

Bought me 5 different frozen dinners that can be made in under 25 minutes. I swore off frozen dinners once I got married. But, she assured me that the frozen meals she bought were from a luxury store and taste really good. She even made one for herself last week just to be sure.

I'm sure I would love my wife just as much if she wasn't such a good cook. I'm pretty sure at least. But, I'm glad I don't have to find out.

Thanks for everything babe... Enjoy your time in Portugal and Rome!

New York (again)

2008-08-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

I was in New York again for a short visit last week. I had some meetings on Monday and Tuesday.

Every time I go back to New York, I focus on getting some of the food that I have grown love over the years but, alas, cannot get in Prague.

Here is the rundown of the food I had while in New York:

Sushi at a random place in the East Village.

Huevos Rancheros at Rosa Mexicana. With, of course, their world famous guacomole on the side

Home made fajitas on the grill by world class chef Colin B

Tried a new Korean place on 32nd and Madison. Had a cooked eel mixed with BiBimBop. Excellent

Thai food at a random place in Williamsburg.

Lunch at Koi. Can't go wrong with their sticky rice and rock shrimp

Good old fashioned wings at Barrow St.

Finished it off with one of my favorite meals in the city.. the Hickory Burger at Houstons

I didn't have the time - or the appetite - to hit a steak house or grab a slice of pizza. There is always next time. Going home back home to New York feels great. You forget about all of the little things that annoy you when you lie there for two long... you just experience all of the things that you miss when you don't have them on a daily basis.

Sicily

2008-08-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

R and I spent last week in Sicily. We both have roots to this island; R's grandfather is from Sicily and the entire family on my father's side is from there as well. My dad was born in the tiny town of Ramacca and moved to America when he was 12. But, just because my family left for greener pastures over 40 years ago doesn't mean that forgot about Sicily. My grandparents still have an apartment in Ramacca and spend approximately 4 months out of every year there.

Although R and I had already visited Sicily 5 years ago, we had a desire to go back. It's a unique place and we wanted to experience it again. We spent half of last week hanging with the grandparents in Ramacca. There is not much to do in Ramacca other than eat. The town - which is built on the side of hill towards the middle of the island - has less than 10,000 residents. It's very small - but also charming in an old-school kind of way. AS my grandfather said upon our arrival... "The town of Rammaca is nothing, but to me it is everything." The pretty much sums it up.

The other half of the week was spent in the beach town of Pozzallo. Raffy has family friends who own a beautiful little house on a private section of the beach. They were kind enough to let us stay there for 4 days and we were kind enough to accept. The beach was perfect. Very fine, soft sand, beautiful clear water and a nice hot sun. It's everything we needed.

Sicily is a very interesting place. After spending a full week there, I had many thoughts and observations. Rather than try to weave all of these thoughts into a semi-compelling story, I'm just going to go bullet point style. Here are my observations...

I have been hanging around Italians my entire life. Especially in the last 6 years that I have been married to an Italian women. Despite all of this time, I speak very little of the language. But, I'm working on it. And, if I do say so myself, my Italian has never been better that it was this week. I had several full conversations with people. Granted, these conversations just consisted of saying hello, how are you and good bye, but they were still conducted without any English. That's a big step in the right direction. I made about 10 promises this week that I will speak near-fluent Italian by 2010. We'll see. On one hand, it would be good to learn another language. I'm going to drop kick someone if I hear the phrase "lui no parla italiano? Shamo." one more time. On the other hand, my wife already speak fluent Italian and I spend a ridiculous amount of time with her. It doesn't seem like the best use of my resources to learn a language that the other half of me already speaks. I should learn a skill that my wife doesn't have. For example, I should learn how to ...[EXAMPLE DELETED IN THE INTEREST OF MARITAL BLISS]

While on the topic of languages, it's shocking that NO ONE in Sicily speaks English. I met many, many people this past week and only one person spoke passable English. This is true for the older generation, people my age and the younger kids. Whether you want to admit it or not, English is the international language. If you want to have any kind of a career, you need to speak it a little. But, no one told that to the Sicilians schools. Many of the people I met had no desire to ever leave the island. I'm not sure if that is sad or not. Life seems pretty good and simple there.

The difference between men and women in Sicily is HUGE. It's somewhere between the US 100 years ago and Afghanistan. I went for a walk in Rammacca around 6:00 PM and the town was just crawling with the men everywhere. They were all just hanging out around bars, cafes, stores, social clubs, etc. They weren't really doing anything - just hanging out talking. But, the interesting thing was that I saw probably 200 men hanging out during my walk and not a single women. Where were they? They were at home in the kitchen making dinner, of course. That's just the way it works there. Another time I tried to help clean the plates after a dinner. The Sicilian men at the table gave me a disapproving look and told me that was the job for the women.

Watching the Olympics in a foreign country can be entertaining. The US has so many medal winners that it is hard to keep track of them all. You know the big names and forget about the winners in the lesser known sports. Not so in most other countries. I know the name and faces of every medal winner from the first week of the Olympics. From the men's archery team, to the fencers, to the surprise Grecko-Roman winner, to the little Tae Kwon Doe champ.. I know them all. The Italian sports channel didn't stop showing the highlights and bringing these athletes into the studio. If I had a little bit more athletic ability I would rush to get my Italian passport and try out for some obscure sport in time for the next Olympics. The road to glory is much easier than in the US. I think I should go for Skeleton in the winter games. I think I would be quite good.

I absolutely love traveling to Italy, but my God the Italian airports are awful. Every time I go to one there is a problem... usually involving a strike. On two occasions I've barely made my plane because the check-in line was so dysfunctional. My mom had her flight canceled in Rome and I had to spend hours on the phone in my hotel booking her on alternate airlines. This time everything ran smoothly... but the people that pick up the garbage at the Catania airport decided to go on strike. There were just mounds and mounds of garbage lying on the floor next to the trash cash. It's a great way to welcome visitors. In Hawaii they give you a lei, in Munich they have free coffee stations, and in Sicily you have to navigate an obstacle path of dirty McDonald's bags and used Kleenex.

A blog about Sicily would not be complete without talking about the food. We ate like champs every day of this trip. Here are the highlights:
- We went to a wedding reception for some long lost relative in Ramacca. They served us a 16 course meal. You read that right. 16 Courses!!!
- On the beach, we would stop every day at around 2:00 PM and have am enormous lunch. Lunch was at least twice the size of my average dinner. Not to mention four times as tasty. Then everyone would sleep off the food coma for a couple of hours. And it wasn't just us who did this, the entire town did. The beach was empty from 2:00 - 5:00.
- Figs are the most underrated fruit of all time. I don't know if I've ever had one before - outside of a Fig Newton of course - but DAMN are they tasty. If you haven't enjoyed a fig before, go out a get yourself one. There is a very good chance the Sicilian figs are much better than American figs. The tomatoes, lemons, oranges and just about every other food object I put in my mouth tastes much better in Sicily than anywhere else. I don't see why figs would be any different. So if your US fig sucks, don't blame me. But I assure you that the Sicilian figs are to die for
- The main course for one meal was a full Octopus. Literally, they just took a full Octopus and put it on our plate. All 8 legs and the full head. I think it was boiled, but I'm not sure. The thing must have weighed a good half pound if not more. A few years ago this would have disgusted me to no end. I remember my dad eating Octopus salad when I was a kid and was absolutely shocked that a human being would willingly put that into his mouth. But my thoughts changed a few years ago in Australia when I tasted Octopus and was quite fond of it. Now I order it whenever given the chance. Still, I prefer my Octopus pre-sliced and prepared. I'm not fan of eating a full live animal all by myself. It makes me feel a bit guilty. Like the sole purpose of this Octopus' life was to be eaten by me. That's it. Me and no one else. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm nowhere near a vegetarian. I just like my meals to look like a generic slab of meat and less like someone's pet. Except lobsters. Those crustaceans are just too damn scrumptious for me to have a conscious.
- The breakfast of choice in Sicily is a granita. We had one nearly every morning. For those of you who have never tried it, it is like a delicious cross between flavored ice, ice cream and a fruit smoothie. Or, as my grandfather said when I told him I was too full from the night before to have a granita one morning... What do you mean, too full. It's just water.
- R ordered an ice cream sandwich one day and that's what she got... an ice cream sandwich. Literally. It's not like in the US where the ice cream is in between two chocolate cookie wafers. This is just a glob of gellato in a bun.
- I know it is a stereotype, but if you are an Italian women and over the age of 50 - the happiest moment of your life is when you are cooking for other people. I've never seen so many people rejoiced by the fact they could feed me. I was cheered just like the aforementioned Olympic athletes by simply going for second helpings. And you would be crazy to turn down a second helping of pasta. You could walk in their bedroom and take a dump in their clothes hamper and it would be no more offensive than leaving food on your plate.

Those are my observations from Sicily. Some of them original, some a little bit offensive and others fall into neither category. Regardless, it's impossible to visit Sicily and not have many moments that leave you scratching your head. The place is very different than the US and it's even much different than the rest of Italy. It's a unique place and I'm glad that so much of my heritage is from there. The people in Sicily are very proud and know how to enjoy life. And they must be doing something right... everyone there lives until 100!

This was my second time in Sicily and I'm sure I'll return again in the future. If not for the history and the beaches, then certainly for the food. It's just that good. Hopefully I'll speak Italian the next time I go so I can converse with more poeple and logn lost relatives. If I don't speak Italian, at least I'd like to be able to... [EXAMPLE DELETED IN THE INTEREST OF MARITAL BLISS]

Azerbaijan Street Cred

2008-08-01T03:30:00.001-07:00

We launched a new web site for the Azerbaijan service at RFE/RL this week - www.Azadliq.org.

As a show of gratitude, some rappers in Azerbaijan made a song about it. I kid you not.

Listen to the song below - my name is featured throughout....

Click here to play song

Greek Islands

2008-07-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Those of you who read this blog frequently know that R and I really enjoy traveling. The past 18 months in Europe have given us plenty of opportunities to do so. During this time we've had some very good trips. We've also had some great trips. And then there is our trip to the Greek islands.

I don't want to get too emotional on you and abuse my quota of flowery adjectives, so let's just say that the trip was nearly flawless. We had a great, great time.

The idea for the trip started about six months ago when R started to research boat companies. You see, we didn't want to just fly to an island and stay in a hotel or a villa. We wanted to sail the Greek islands. And, to do that, we needed a boat. After some exhaustive research, we "settled" on the Lagoon 420 Catamaran. It's a brand spanking new 45-foot beauty of a boat that comfortably sleeps nine people - eight passengers and a captain.

Now, a trip like this would not be nearly as fun with just R and I. To really enjoy (and afford) a trip like this we needed a good group of people to share the boat. So we reached out to our friends and found 3 couples that were more than happy to join us. Not everyone knew each other going in, but it turned out to be a perfect mix of people. Everyone had 2-3 very good friends on the boat and a few other people that they sort-of-kind-of knew before the trip started. There was enough of a connection so we all got along great. At the same time, had we all been best friends and known each other really well, there would have likely been little fights and quarrels that naturally happen when you are stuck in the same area with the same group of people for seven days. We had none of that.

We all met in Athens last Saturday and explored the very hot city in the morning before making our way to a nearby port. There we laid eyes on our beautiful boat for the first time. We were like kids at Christmas. We couldn't wait to jump on the boat and check it out. I was so excited that I was about to take a running start and attempt to jump the 4+ feet from the dock to the steps of the boat. Fortunately, a guy at the port pulled out a plank that we were able to cross. Had he been a minute late, there was a 50:50 chance I would have tried the jump, missed my landing, twisted my ankle and been miserable the whole trip. He came just in time.

The boat was much better than I had expected. I was worried that it would be too small for nine people to comfortably enjoy - but that was not the case at all. Each couple had their own room with a bed that was "big enough". We each had our own shower and our own bath. There was enough room in the front of the boat for everyone to lay out and there was enough room in the back of the boat for everyone to sit and eat. It was, in a word, perfect.

After hitting the local market for some food, water and beer our feet left solid land for the last time and we met our captain - George. I'm sure 95% of boat captains are generally solid dudes and show people a good time. But I can't imagine this trip without George. He was a born and raised Greek, right around our age and he had a fantastic personality. He liked the kind of music we liked, he ate every dinner with us, he told us stories (and laughed at ours) and hung out with us until all hours of the night. Maybe I'm being a bit biased here, but I can't say enough good things about George. He helped make the trip what it was. I'm thinking about hiring him to be my personal concierge every time I go on vacation. Who am I kidding... the guy probably makes more money than me, eats and sleeps for free six months out of the year and has to sail the Greek Islands for a living. Talk about the good life. I'll just consider myself lucky if the guy accepts my Facebook friend request.

Our agenda for the week was not set in stone. There were a couple of islands that we really wanted to hit but, other than that, we were going to play it by ear and let the wind take us where it may. And the wind did play a big role on the first day. The sea was rough. The big boat rocked from side to side and more than one person got sea sick (not me, thankfully). George said it was the worst day at sea he had experienced all year. Fortunately, Poseidon spared us the rest of the trip. Every day thereafter was smooth sailing all around.

So, what exactly did we do all day? Not much. But never have I enjoyed doing so little so much. Here was an average day for us...

- Wake up to the sound of George getting the boat ready on the dock and shouting "Ela, ela - let's go". I swear the Greeks use the word "ela" more than any other culture uses any other single word. I heard George and others say it hundreds of times throughout the day. I asked George what it meant and he told me it means "come on" or "let's go". That has to be a loose translation at best. I mean, they answer the phone by saying "ela". George seemed like a pretty calm and relaxed dude. I can't imagine he would start every conversation by saying "let's go". To paraphrase The Princess Bride... I do not think that word means what he thinks it means.

- I had the extremely important job of operating the boat anchor for the entire trip. So, right before we would take off, I would go to the front of the boat and pull up the anchor. The job was crucial and, if I do say so myself, I was really good at it. There was a remote control with two buttons on it: "Up" and Down". Not one time did I press the wrong button accidentally. I rocked that anchor.

- We would set sail to the island of our destination. Each trip was between 4 and 7 hours away. Or, as George would tell us when we asked, 15-20 minutes.

- Hang out on the boat sleeping, napping, reading, snacking, tanning, talking, drinking, navigating, etc. Not necessarily in that order. Weather was perfect. I could count the number of clouds I saw throughout the week on one hand. Literally.

- We would convince George to stop the boat at least once in the middle of the sea so we could jump out and cool off. For my money there is no better feeling in the world than swimming in the middle of a sea/ocean when land is nowhere in site. You never feel more alive or free. To experience this, picture yourself sitting in the chair in your 10x10 office for 8+ hours a day. Now, picture the exact opposite feeling.

- Drop anchor in a little bay for more swimming, frolicking, diving competitions and a little lunch on the boat.

- We would usually pull in to port around 4:00 PM and get out and explore the town a bit. R would take a ton of pictures of white buildings with blue shutters and roofs. Every house was white. One out of 50 houses had red shutters instead of blue. We assumed these were owned by communists.

- Hang out and watch the sunset. Everyone did this except me and my friend Gregg. We apparently don't like sunsets. Thank God neither one of us is trying to get a date on match.com. Our personal ads wouldn't attract many females. "Don't like sunsets, walks on the beach are overrated, ..."

- Shower and take care of other personal business. Showers had to be done in 60 seconds or less to conserve water. You would turn the shower on real fast and wet yourself, then turn the water off. Completely lather up from head to toe. Then turn the water back on and rinse off. Taking care of the other "business" was also an adventure. We had toilets but once you were done taking care of said business, you had to manually pump the waste away. I assume everything was just washed out to sea, but no one put on a snorkel mask and went below the boat mid-pump to verify this assumption. Toilet paper could not be pumped away and had to be thrown in the regular garbage. I learned an important trick because of this. If you consciously focus on having a clean poop while doing the deed, it actually works more often than not. I call it mind-over-fecal-matter.

- Go out for dinner on the town. Dinner was always family style and usually consisted of Greek salad, octopus, eggplant, white fish and a few other random appetizers mixed in. Greg M (who loyal readers might remember from the Oktoberfest blog post) was the king at ordering for the table. The food in general was very good, but not quite great. Some islands were better than others and we had one lobster spaghetti dish that was to die for. But at a couple of the places the octopus was too gamey and I didn't love the souvlaki. A few of us also choose to wash dinner down with a little ouzo, a few of us did not. I tried it a couple of times to impress Captain George, but didn't love it.

- Hit the bars/clubs for a night on the town. Bottle service in Paros and Mykonos. I have never been anywhere in my life where people stayed out so late. Many of our dinners ended well past midnight and the restaurants were still packed. If we left the bars before 3:00 AM - it felt like we were going home early. The clubs were more crowded at 4:00 AM than they were at 1:00 AM. I didn't have the energy to test the theory any later than that.

- Get back to the boat - maybe have a night cap on deck, maybe take a dive in the water to cool off, maybe have a contest to see what food we had on board wouldn't taste better once it was dipped in Nutella - then head to bed.

- Wake up the next morning to the sound of the boat pulling away. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

If this itinerary doesn't sound that great to you, remember we were SAILING ON A BOAT AROUND THE F%$%ING GREEK ISLANDS! The trip rocked. Life is very, very good.

We hit 6 different islands during the week. Kea, Serifos, Paros, Mykonos, Delos, and Kythnos. We stayed on Mykonos for two days but our favorite island was Paros. Paros had the perfect vibe. It was small enough to be cozy but large enough to have a great bar/restaurant scene. We also had a VIP parking spot at the port - which was nice. To top things off, I helped save a stray Rottweiler from drowning at the port in the morning before taking off. My mom is proud.

Mykonos is by far the most famous of the bunch but we all thought it was a little too crowded and a little too spread out. It was the only island where we needed to rent a van. On all other islands we could just pull up the boat to the center of town and walk around as needed.

The trip was the perfect length. No one felt that it was too short. Yet, at the same time, when we got off the boat, it felt just right.

We finished off the vacation with a full 24 hours in Athens. We hiked up to the Acropolis. Ate some gyros. Hung out at the pool. Then we met captain George at for dinner at an area in Athens known as "The Gazi". In all of the international cities that I have visited, this was one of the coolest districts I can remember. All of the hippest restaurants and bars are surrounding a public square. Traffic is closed off so thousands and thousands of people are wandering the streets. It had a great vibe.

Like I said above - it was a special trip. My vocabulary is not large enough to describe the trip properly. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to do something like it again in the future. But, for now, I'll be on a natural high for the next couple of weeks. Life is good.

Thanks to all of my crew mates for making the trip what it was. You know who you are. Thanks for organizing everything, thanks for taking care of the food, thanks for being the boat DJ, thanks for telling great stories, thanks for bringing the Tostitos, thanks for bringing the Captain (not George, Morgan), thanks for laughing at my jokes, thanks for having a name that Greeks can't pronounce(Flimsey?!?!)... thanks for EVERYTHING! Thanks to Trina at www.CharterWorld.com for setting everything up and answering our dozens of email inquiries. And, most importantly, thanks to Captain George. The best damn captain a group of New Yorkers lost at sea in Greek Islands could ever hope to have.

Summer in Europe Doesn't Suck

2008-07-17T02:51:00.000-07:00

I've always said that I love living in New York 9 months out of the year. But it was a miserable place to be in the summer time. The heat gets trapped on the asphalt, it seems to reach 100% humidity every day, all of the garbage on the street starts to smell, it's too hot to walk any where and the subway is unbearable. Other than that, it's great.

Spending the summer in Prague, on the other hand, is much nicer. Although it can still get pretty darn hot here, the humidity rarely becomes a problem. And, if you are a fan of the outdoors, Prague has plenty of great options for you.

Last weekend is a perfect example. On Saturday I went on a nice 80 km bike ride with some Czech colleagues. We visited a place that's known as "Little America" or the "Czech Grand Canyon". (Picture below). It is about 1/1000th of the size of the real Grand Canyon - but a picturesque site nonetheless.

Here is an interesting side note to add to the ride. I like to pack up on carbs while biking, so I always carry plenty of food with me. And, one of my favorite things to eat on a bike ride is a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. I love them. But, apparently not everyone shares my affinity. The concept of a PB&J sandwich was absolutely foreign to the Czech guys that I was riding with. No one on the trip had ever tried one before and, when i offered them a bite, they wanted no part. I've probably had over 1000 PB&J sandwich's in my life - so this was hard for me to comprehend. But, this is part of what makes the world an interesting place to live - different cultures and, of course, different foods.

My excellent weekend adventure continued on Sunday with a nice 18 holes of golf. Although it was raining when we first woke up, my buddy convinced me to take the chance and ride out to the golf course while hoping for the best. He was right. The rain stopped right when he hit the first tee and didn't start again until we hit the 19th. The course was in great shape and didn't hold any water - so we had a great round of golf. (I have to point out that we went golfing with a French couple. After my experience the previous day, I had to ask about PB&J. The French guy said he had tried a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich once - but never again)

Now I'm not saying these type of enjoyable weekends are impossible in Manhattan. But, the logistics are always a bit harder since you have to rent a car to go to the golf course or navigate your way through city streets to find a good bike riding lane. One of the unique things about Prague is that I can leave my house and within 5 km I feel like I am in the total country. It seems like you are back in time 100 years and you would never know that you are just a stone's throw away from a major European capital. It's great when you want to get away from the city.

And speaking of getting away, another great thing about living in Europe during the summer is the close proximity to beaches. We are just hours away from a flight to the Greek Islands to soak in the sun for a week. Then, next month, we'll be hitting the old country while visiting family and relaxing on the beaches of Sicily.

It's a good place to be in the summer.

Grundlsee, Austria

2008-07-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

R, B and I headed down to Grundlsee, Austria for the long 4th of July weekend. After all, what better way to celebrate American independence than a 3 day weekend in Austria.

If you have never heard of Grundlsee, don't be ashamed. It's not a big town or even a famous one. I had never heard of it until a few weeks ago when a co-worker recommended it. We were looking to get away for a relaxing weekend and we heard the lake region in Austria was a scenic destination. We did a little bit of research, rented a car and made the five hour drive south to central Austria.

The trip started off in a rather negative way. The drive down was my third worst road trip of all time. Ten minutes after we got in the car the rain came. And not just a typical summer thunderstorm, but buckets and buckets of rain crashing onto the car. You could barely see 10 feet in front of you. The rain lasted for about 30 minutes and we thought we had seen the worst. But, we met up with an even more severe storm in Austria for the last two hours of the trip. It got so bad that I had to pull the car over and stop on the side of the road for a bit. But, thanks to some patient driving and the miracle known as GPS we made it to the house late Thursday night. (In case you are scoring at home, the worst drive ever was from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe during their worst snow storm in a decade. It was so bad all but one ski resort was closed the next day for having too much snow! The second worst drive was coming from Montreal to Cleveland after a horrible, horrible ice storm. But, that wasn't so bad. It was sitting in a car for 14 hours with my crazy ex-girlfriend that made it miserable)

When we woke up the next morning ,we had no idea what to expect from the town. We couldn't see anything during the horrible conditions at night and we had no idea where the lake was. Everything was brand new to us. It felt like Christmas morning. The first day was a bit overcast so we decided to go hiking in the mountains that surrounded the lake. It was a rather difficult hike straight up hill - but the views from up top were worth it once you got there. We spent the rest of the day just lounging around and doing a whole lot of nothing. I even took two naps. Any day is a good day when you can fit in two naps.

However, we were really looking forward to the next day when we had plans to hit the lake. Although our dog B is over 2 years old, he has really never had a chance to swim. There are some fountains, ponds and rivers in Prague, but none that are really great for swimming. We were 90% sure he could swim because, after all, he is a dog and that is what dogs do. But, he is also part pug and I know some pugs can't swim.

We took B to the lake to see what would happen. Unfortunately, the water was absolutely freezing! It was so cold it caused shrinkage on my dog - and he had his nuts cut off years ago. But we didn't come all of this way to let a little cold water deter us. After B made it obviously clear that he would only wade into the water until his belly touched - I did what any good father would do. I picked him up, walked about 20 feet into the lake and dropped him into the water just to see what would happen. Good news - B can swim! He doggie-paddled back to the beach as fast as he possibly could, turned around and gave me the loudest, most sincere "F you" bark he could possibly muster. After repeating this exercise another 3-4 times for my own enjoyment, I felt bad and gave him a break for the day. Pics of him swimming can be found below.

The rest of the weekend was spent just relaxing. Hiking, taking boats out on the lake, eating excellent Austrian food, reading and napping. Just a nice relaxing weekend.

Now, if you thought I could get through an entire blog post without mentioning sex or prostitution... you're dead wrong. It's not my fault. Sex sells and this blog doesn't pay for itself.

One of the best things about driving between the Czech Republic and Austria is the line of prostitutes that dot the highway. Apparently prostitution is illegal in Austria but is perfectly acceptable in the Czech Republic. So, as soon as you cross into Czech territory, you see a bunchof ladies in high heels and mini skirts lining the road.

We've made the drive in either direction about 4 times now and it never fails to disappoint. R and I are fascinated by this. We've seen as many as 15 along the highway on a nice summer day and as few as 2 last Sunday (I can only assume that the other 13 respected the Lord's day). I'm really curious about how the economics work on a busy day. If you are a "working" girl, do you want to be the first prostitute a truck driver sees? In the middle? Towards the end? What location is bound to turn the most tricks? Are looks more important than location? Is there any price elasticity between girls? Do they accept both Euros and Czech Krowns? How closely do they monitor the exchange rate? It's a fascinating socio-economic conundrum and needs to be studied. (And, before you think I am way out of line, best-selling Freakonomics author Steven Levitt spent two years studying Chicago prostitutes to answer these questions and more. So at least one other person in this world thinks like me.)

Now, here comes the best part. On the drive home, we wanted to get a picture of a working girl for our loyal blog readers. We were just hoping to get a shot of a girl standing at the side of the road. That's all I have ever seen. But, when it came time to take a picture, we were in luck. A girl was actually working and negotiating with a potential customer! This is nirvana for a wildlife photographer. It's like going an African safari and witnessing a kill.

Whether your are interested in the economic impact of prostitution on the Czech-Austrian border or not, I couldn't recommend Grundlsee any more. You'd be hard pressed to find a more beautiful spot in this world. Between the gorgeous mountains, the crystal clear lakes, the friendly people and the tasty food - it's an ideal place to get away for a few days or more.

June in Czech Republic

2008-07-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

The month of June was unique for me. It was the first full month where I spent every single day in the Czech Republic. I didn't leave the country once.

It's not like we sat around and did nothing. My grandparents visited for a weekend. We went hiking in Cesky Raj. I was sick for 10 solid days. But, all of these events happened in the good ol' Czech Republic.

You may think that we are getting sick of traveling. Or the falling dollar has finally caught up to us. While the latter does in fact hurt, the former is not true at all. In fact, we have several really cool vacations planned for July and August that we are anxiously looking forward to. We leave for our next trip to Austria in 2 days.

P.S. In case you are counting at home, R spent the first week of this month in New York, so she doesn't share the same

The Price of Oil and Driving in Europe

2008-06-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

I've read a couple articles this weekend on a concept called "peak oil" and what that means to the US economy. Don't bother clicking the links because, if you buy into the hyperbole, you just might end up slitting your wrists before the day is through.

Whether or not these predictions come true or not, there is a big difference between the price of gas and driving habits in Europe as compared to the US.

Right now the price of gas in the US is a little over $4 per gallon. In Europe, it is a just over $8 per gallon when you factor in the exchange rate! It's unbelievable. Last week, I rented a car for one day and drove for 230 km (140 miles) round trip - with the vast majority of the distance coming on the highway. When I filled the car up with petrol before returning it, the bill came to over $30 US dollars. That's $12 for every hour driving on the road. And, keep in mind that I was in a small, efficient car with a stick shift. We are driving to Austria (6 hours away) next weekend and I am estimating that the entire trip will cost $300 is gas.

That being said, European driving habits are much different than the US. The cars are much smaller and fuel efficient. Smart cars fill the streets. Everyone drives a stick shift. SUVs are very, very rare. I was on a day trip in France a few months ago and the driver and I were having a conversation about gas prices. He didn't know what an "SUV" was when I mentioned it. I told him that I would point an SUV out on the road when we saw one. Needless to say, we made the 2 hour trip there and the 2 hour trip back without seeing an SUV.

What does all this mean to the US? I can only assume that US driving habits will follow Europes. While I can't imagine the day when SUVs dissapear completely, we all know that the size of the "average" car on the street will be getting smaller. Hopefully, hybrid cars become more prevelant and alternative fuel vehicles make some serious advances.

Because paying $300 to drive to lake region of Austria is one thing, but I'll be damned if I am ever going to pay $300 to drive from New York to Cleveland!

Cesky Raj - part dva

2008-06-23T13:11:00.001-07:00

You may recall a recent blog post where we to Cesky Raj in search of the elusive, incredible rock formations. We never found the rock formations but had a good time hiking anyway.

The weather this weekend in Prague was supposed to be beautiful, so R, B and I decided to rent a car and go back to Cesky Raj. After all, its only an hour away and we failed miserably in our mission last time. I had to make up for it.

This time we were determined to find the right trail. We did research on the Internet and asked a few friends who had been there before for tips. We drove up to a place called Hruba Scala and parked in the exact same parking lot as last time. As soon as I got out of the car I realized one important thing: I am an idiot.

Literally right next to the parking lot there were two huge boulders with a path in between. If you simply looked through these two boulders - you could see an amazing path surrounded by incredible rock formations. I don't know how we missed that last time.

The hike itself was very interesting and worth the trip. I was getting over a summer cold (and still am) so I wasn't in top shape, but I manged to labor through the day. We saw some crazy mountain climbers trying stunts that I wouldn't dare, but we did get the "courage" to climb on top of a ten foot tall boulder. There isn't much more to write about so I'll leave you with some pics from the trip...

Italy vs. France: Euro Cup 2008

2008-06-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

I will be live blogging the Italy - France matchup in Euro Cup 2008. Keep refreshing your browser for updates.

8:45 PM It's just about time to start the match and, as expected, I can't find an English or Italian channel. So it looks like I'll be watching the match in Czech again.

8:47 PM - I don't think the Italian star goal keeper is starting. I have no idea why. I'm sure the announcers explained it but I couldn't understand a thing.

8:48 PM - Correction. He is starting in goal. The lineup card just must have been gone. Good ol' Czech Tv

8:52 PM - The French coach looks very french. The Italian coach looks extremely Italian. And, when I watched the match a few nights ago, the Turkish coach looked just like I would expect a Turkish coach to look like. I love when stereotypes hold true. It makes it so much easier to tell who's who... especially when I can't understand the announcers

8:59 PM - One of the frustrating things about this game is that Italy does not control their own destiny. Even if they win, they will only advance to the next round if Romania loses or ties. The Romania - Holland game is being played at the same time. And, Holland is likely resting most of their starters since they have already qualified for the next round. I'll be doing a whole lot of ALT-TAB'ing while I write this to check the score of that game

9:06 PM - We're 20 minutes in and the game is tied 0-0. It looks like Italy is controlling the action,but doesn't help if they don't score.

9:10 PM - Big Break for the Italians. Luca Toni gets tackled in the box. Penalty Kick time. GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!
1-0 Italy just like that

9:15 PM - No one milks a 1-0 lead like the Italians. I just watched two minutes of the defenders passing the ball back and forth to each other. The next 60 minutes may be painful to watch.

9:25 PM - One of the surprising things about this game so far is the lack of flopping by the Italian players. With Italy playing in their white jerseys (which is hard to get used to) and the Italian players actually staying on two feet when someone lightly brushes against them, I barely recognize this team.

9:33 PM - It's halftime and Italy has played it's best ball of the tournament. They have a 1-0 lead and can hopefully keep the French scoreless in the 2nd half. Now, we just have to wait for Holland to shut down Romania (that game is tied 0-0 at the half)

9:55 PM - Not much action to report. Italy is up 1-0 and Holland is tied with Romania 0-0. If these scores hold for the next 40 minutes, Italy advances to the next round.

10:00 PM - Since there is not much going on in this game, can we revisit the last time Italy and France met in a major competition; The World Cup 2006 Finals. It's been two years and that Zidane headbut never gets old. Just once in my life I would like to knock some one down by headbutting them in the chest. You really can't ask for a better way to take someone out.

10:03 PM - Big break. Holland just scored. So unless Romania can score 2 goals in the next 30 minutes against a superior Dutch team, Italy will move on if they can hold on to the lead against France.

10:07 PM - GGOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!! Italy scored out of nowhere to take a commanding 2-0 lead. The shot actually went off of Henry's foot - so it could be considered an auto goal. Good. I never liked Henry. He just seems like a punk. Although the 2-0 lead looks insurmountable right now, you can't count on anything after watching the Czech - Turkey match a couple of nights ago.

10:12 PM - One of the biggest differences between watching soccer and American sports is that most of these guys just seem like regular dudes. I mean, every one in American Football is a physical freak. The average height of an NBA player must be 6'-6" if not taller. Baseball is full of steroid fueled meatheads. If you are just a regular sized dude (like me) and want to be a professional athlete (like I do), then it seems like your best options are either soccer or golf.

I have enough experience golfing to know that I never, ever had a chance at that game. But, maybe I could have been a good soccer player. The last time I played I was five years old. I remember being the best player on my team - although I fully admit that I may be the only person that remembers it that way. Maybe I should have focused more on soccer as a kid rather than football. Although some of my fondest memories are from high school football, it was pretty obvious that my 135 pound frame as a senior in high school was not going to take me very far. I should have played more soccer. I also think I would be very good at luging, but that's a story for another day.

10:20 PM - 15 minutes to go. The only thing keeping Italy from qualifying for the next round would be two goals each by the French and the Romanians. Assuming they do qualify, their next game will be against a tough Spanish team on Sunday night.

10:30 PM - I've got to say, live blogging kind of sucks. I feel like I could barely get into the flow of the game because I was too busy typing. Well, it was an experiment and I will likely never do it again.

10:33 PM - Holland scores again. We could tell by the reaction of the audience. ESPN.com is about 4 minutes delayed with the news. And they consider themselves to be the Worldwide Leader in Sports. Not by my watch.

10:38 PM - Game Over. Italy moves on. The French go back home to their croissants. Which really isn't that bad of a reason to go home. Have you ever had a real French croissant? They're excellent.

Thanks for joining me in this live blogging experience. Consider yourself lucky, because it will never happen again.

Live Blogging the Italy - France Euro Cup Matchup

2008-06-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

The Euro Cup 2008 is currently going on in Austria and Switzerland right now. Although it doesn't get much attention in the States (especially opposite the NBA Finals and Tiger Woods), it's a pretty big deal in Europe. I've followed it more closely than I have ever followed soccer in my life.

Although the Czechs were eliminated last night in a loss to Turkey (in one of the most amazing soccer matches I have ever witnessed) there is still a big match for Italy coming up tomorrow, Tuesday June 17th.

I've alwasy wanted to give Live Blogging a try - so tomorrow will be my first attempt. I'll be blogging during the Italy - France matchup for no other reason than my own personal enjoyment.

If you are interested, consider this your 24 hour warning. The match starts at 2:45 PM EST tomorrow.

Karlstein Castle

2008-06-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

There is a little town about 40 km outside of Prague name Karlstein. It has become a popular tourist destination due to the pretty impressive castle that sits on top of the hill. It has also become a popular destination for cyclists since it is the perfect distance from the city and has some nice routes to get you there.

I decided to do a solo ride to Karlstein about a month ago. It turned out to be a pretty horrible trip. 45 minutes into the ride I had my worst bike accident ever and scraped up my arm pretty good (I'm fine - just had less skin for a few weeks). I also got lost - not once - but twice. So the 40 km ride turned out to be more like 75 km - with the final 5 km straight up a huge hill. I should also mention that I took out my road bike because I thought most of the ride would be on paved roads. But since I got lost (twice) I ended up having to do about 15-20km on dirt roads and gravel. Any cyclists out there knows what a horrible experience that can be. The castle at the end was great to look at but by the time I got there I was so miserable I just wanted to eat, drink a pivo and take the train back home.

Despite this bad experience, I decided to give the ride to Karlstein another try. The weather during the morning was perfect for a ride and I needed to get a good workout in. I even convinced R to join me despite that fact that she wanted to go spinning.

Fortunately, today's ride was a much more pleasurable experience than my first time out. We took our mountain bikes and followed the route straight down the Vlatva river. It was a much more scenic trail than I took the first time out.

The ride also signified many of the things I like most about living in Prague. Although we live in one of the major European capitals, within a 20 minute bike ride it feels like you are in the absolute country. The Czechs love being outside and you could really tell today. We passed by hundreds of cyclists, people walking their dogs (EVERYONE has a dog in this country), families camped on the bank of the river fishing ans swimming, etc. Basically, just a bunch of people enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon. It was nice to see and something you don't experience often in New York.

The total ride took about 2 hours. We then stopped in Karlstein for a nice Czech lunch before taking the train back. We didn't bother actually visiting the castle since we had our bikes with us and had to get back to the dog. But, maybe we'll save that for another date when we have visitors.

Grandparents visit Prague

2008-06-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

My grandparents came to visit us in Prague this weekend. They live in the States about 8-9 months every year, but they also have a house in Sicily that they spend the rest of the year at. During the summer months SkyEurope has a direct flight from Catania (which is about 45 minutes from their house) to Prague. SkyEurope had a buy-one-get-one-free special a couple of months ago so I surprised my grandparents and bought them tickets to come see us.

Like any good Italian Grandmother, my nonna filled her entire suitcase with food. Including the biggest block of cheese I have ever seen. It literally weighed 10 pounds. She barely had room for her clothes.

The trip was great. Although my grandfather is over 75 and my grandmother is no spring chicken, they are both in pretty good shape. We took them to all of the major tourist sites in Prague and they were able to keep up without any problem. Of course they came back every day after lunch and took a nap - but you know what - I like to do the same when I'm on vacation. Hell, any day that includes a siesta is a fine day in my book. I wish I had more of them.

The highlight of the trip was supposed to be their final night of Prague. The 2008 Euro Cup has just started and this was the night that the Italian team was set to make their debut. This isn't just any Italian team, these guys are the defending Campioni del Mondo. It was a big night.

I had reservations for four at one of the top Italian restaurants in Prauge (which isn't a complete oxymoron, the food was actually pretty good. It's run by an Italian guy who ships in everything fresh from Italy several times a week). We got there early and gathered around the TV with several other Italians to watch the big game.

Everything was set up perfect... and then the game started and the Italians shit the bed. They got absolutely destroyed by Holland and lost 3-0. It wasn't even that close. I don't have a big enough library of soccer knowledge to analyze what went wrong, so let's just hope it was an off night. They have to bounce back and beat both Romania and France or else their tournament is going to end early.

Despite the loss we still had a good time at dinner and my grandparents enjoyed the trip. My dog B even found a surprising new friend in my grandfather. I didn't see that one coming - I never knew he liked dogs. My grandmother, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with him. Which is unfortunate because they have so much in common. My grandmother spends more time in the kitchen than anyone I know and B's best friend is always the person closest to the food. It could have been a match made in heaven.

R and I have plans to visit my grandparents in Sicily again later this summer. We visited there about 5 years ago and had a great time. We were treated like kings and ate even better. Now that we are so close to the mother country and SkyEurope has great flight options, we'll have to take advantage of it.

Český Ráj

2008-05-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

R, B and I went to Český Ráj for a day of hiking last weekend. Český Ráj is an area about 100 km north of Prague that is known for its rock formations and hiking. The literal translation means "Czech Paradise".

The most surprising thing about the last statement is not the literal translation, it's the fact that the name "Český Ráj" has not been used by one of the local brothels or adult themed stores. It seems like the perfect name for one of these establishments. If you have ever been to Prague, you know that sex shops litter the town. If one corner doesn't have a brothel on it, then it probably has an "Erotic City" video store on it. Two stories about this...

(1) The Czechs refer to the brothels/whore houses as "night clubs". Which is interesting because in the States that phrase has a totally different meaning. I remember I was out with a friend once when I first moved here and we asked the waitress what some of the popular night clubs were around the restaurant. We asked this in the totally innocent, American version of the question. Now that I know of the hidden meaning, I would expect her to roll her eyes and be kind of disgusted at the query. Nope, she answered the question without batting an eye. She even drew a map. I guess it is not uncommon for American tourists to ask the waitress where the closest whore house is. I can't imagine going into a TGI Fridays back home and asking that question.

(2) A couple of weeks ago I rode my bike to this castle about 40 km outside of Prague. There is an extremely small village outside of the castle. It consists of mostly restaurants and tourist shops. Less than 500 people live in this town. But, wouldn't you know it, one of the only stores in town was an "Erotic City". Even I was a bit shocked by that one.

Woah - that was quite a tangent from the purpose of this original post. Let me get back on the trail....

So we rented a car on Sunday morning and drove up to Český Ráj. As I mentioned above, Český Ráj is a region and not really a single destination. So we just headed out to the general area and hope for the best. We were looking for the incredible rock formations that we had heard about. R even tried to tell me that they formed parts of Lord of the Rings here. I called her bluff on that one since the entire trilogy was filmed in New Zealand. But, she read this fact on the Internet, so it must be true.

Since we didn't really have a destination in mind, we just drove up to a hotel we read about online. This hotel was centrally located and many different trails converged at this spot. We had about 6 different trails from which to choose. We were looking for a sign that said "Incredible Rock Formations" but couldn't find one. In fact, all of the signs were in Czech so we couldn't read much of anything.

I'm not totally Czech illiterate. I would say my vocabulary runs about 100 words deep. Put it this way, my understanding of Czech is about equivalent to B's understanding of English. And one thing I do know that in Czech the word "hrad" means "Castle". And who doesn't want to see a castle. So we picked the trail that said "Trosky Hrad" and made our way out. (For the record, I don't think B knows what the word castle means in English. So I've got him there. Then again, I have no idea what the words for "Peanut Butter" are in Czech, so maybe I'm not so much smarter than him after all)

The trail to the castle was good. A solid "good". Not spectacular, not great, but nothing wrong with it at all. The castle at the end was also OK. Not great. You get a little castle spoiled living in the Czech Republic. I've probably seen a a dozen in the last year alone. Unless Rapunzel sticks her head out the window and lets me climb up her hair, I'm not going to get all that excited.

Unfortunately, the trail to the castle managed to bypass some of the incredible rock formations. There was also a surprising lack of "Erotic City" stores. We did walk by some rock formations, but most of them would fall in the "credible" category - not the "incredible" category. We picked the wrong trail at the beginning.

We'll return to Český Ráj in search of the elusive Incredible Rock Formations. It's a very easy drive from Prague and perfect for a day trip. Next time we'll do some more research before we go and pick the perfect trail in advance. And, who knows, this trail may even have an "Erotic City" or two on it. Stay tuned...

Ghosts in Prague

2008-05-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

My housekeeper Pavla sees ghosts. She sees them in her office across the hall, she sees them wandering around the hallway and she even sees them while she's cleaning my apartment. Her daughter Dada also has the "power" to see ghosts - but no one else in her family does.

Most of the ghosts are rather friendly. However, on Friday apparently a mean ghost was seen wandering around the hall. Pavla was lighting candles to get the evil spirit out. This freaked out Mirka - the office manager who works with Pavla. Right after Pavla told her the reason behind her furious candle lighting, the door slammed shut then the window did. Apparently there was no wind when this happened. Mirka was so scared that she made my tough, guard dog Bauer sit with her while she worked to keep the ghosts away.

Now, I'm not a big believer in ghosts. And, by not a big believer, I mean that I don't believe in ghosts at all. So right about now you are probably waiting for me to tell you my own ghost story from this weekend. You couldn't be more wrong. This just in - GHOSTS DON'T EXIST.

But, this whole experience has got me thinking about ghosts some more. I asked the ladies across the hall what the ghosts look like and how they could tell a good ghost from an evil ghost. Apparently the ghosts look like people, but just a bit more blurry/transparent. The nice ghosts have a white tint while the evil ghosts have a dark tint. Isn't that convenient. They are fully clothed.

If you swore to me you saw a ghost I could maybe, possibly, sort of believe you if the ghost had some amorphous, metaphysical shape. But why would a ghost look like a human? And how does a ghost decide what clothes to wear? And don't tell me that they are wearing the same clothes that they had on when they die, because that doesn't make any sense other than it is the easy answer.

I'm assuming that ghosts don't have a clothing budget, so can they just pick any top designer clothes that they want? Do they get to change their outfits over time or once they pick an outfit are they set with it for all of eternity? If you get a new, high-end outfit whenever you want, being a ghost can be kind of fun. But it would really suck if you had to, uh, live in the same outfit forever. It takes me a solid 3 minutes just to pick out a shirt to wear for work. And that only lasts 8 hours. Can you imagine the stress involved of picking an outfit for your eternal damnation?

Another thing I'm worried about lately is the language the ghost will speak. I'm hoping the ghost that is in my apartment with me while I am typing this blog speaks at least a bit of English. If I'm laying in bed at night and I hear a voice screaming "GET OUT" - I'm probably going to leave the apartment. But if the ghost only speaks Czech, I'll have no idea what if he is saying. I'd hate to vacate the apartment in the middle of the night when all the ghost was trying to tell me was that he was hungry.

Through this whole experience, there are 3 possible conclusions you can draw:

(1) Ghosts really do exist and they live among us
(2) My housekeeper is lying through her teeth
(3) My housekeeper is fucking nuts.

That's it. There is no possible fourth option. Of the three options, I'm not sure which one is the worse case.

Obviously, I don't want #1 to be true. The thought of having ghosts around the apartment is just freaky. I spend half of may day just waiting for the perfect opportunity when no one is around so I can get a good, solid nose pick in. If ghosts are watching me 24x7, I'll never be able to pick my nose in peace again.

If #2 is true, then what else is Pavla lying about? Should I really believe her when she says that she uses Windex to clean my apartment? Maybe she just bought one bottle of Windex 5 years ago and has been filling it with water ever since. That goes against every housekeeper code of ethics known to man.

Finally, I don't want #3 to be true either. If she really is crazy, who knows how deep this crazy runs. Maybe one day she'll stab me when I get home from work. Maybe she'll get confused one day and walk my shirt but iron my dog. That can't be good. Or, even worse, mix a white load of wash with colors. Crazy. Crazy, I tell you.

I honestly don't know which is worse. If you excuse me, I'm going to pour a glass of wine, put some cheesy love song on the radio, start making some pottery and see if I get seduced by a spirit.

D-Day Beaches in Normandy, France

2008-05-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

R and I flew to Paris on Tuesday morning to meet up with R's college friends (and, I might add, avid Living In Prague blog readers) Amy and Nicole. But I'm not going to talk about that trip. I'll let R blog all about her adventures in Paris at another time. This post is dedicated to my jaunt to the Normandy region of France.

The trip to Normandy was distinct for a couple of reasons. First off, this was the first vacation I have ever taken by myself - assuming you don't count my visit to the Hedonism resort if Jamaica after college. (And I don't count that because (a) I checked in under the pseudonym Johnny Ironnutz and (b) my virgin eyes were so traumatized after the first hour that I spent the rest of the week locked in the hotel room with the window shades drawn tight.) I have some friends that don't mind traveling by themselves and do it on a regular basis. That's great and I respect them for it. But, frankly, it's not my preferred way to travel. Two factors make me a bad solo traveler: I'm naturally shy and I love to read. So put me in a cafe with a book in my hand and I'm all set. I don't have to talk to another person all day except to tell the waiter "una birra". (This is another bad habit I have. Whenever I'm speaking to someone whose native language is not English, I tend to blurt out phrases in Italian. I have no idea why I do this. This is not only insulting to the French but, given my butchering of la bella lingua, also to the Italians)

The second item that made this trip distinct was the amount of studying I did beforehand. It brought back memories of my nerdy college years. Why did I study so much? Well, I wasn't going to Normandy just to look at the sites and drink some wine. The impetus for the trip was to visit the D-Day beaches on the coast of Normandy and the respective World War II memorials. If I was going to see where the actual battles took place, I figured I should learn as much s possible going in. So, learn I did. I read a 600 page book dedicated entirely to D-Day. I watched all 10 episodes of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers within a 4 week span. I studied maps of the region and found out the strategic significance of the various landing spots. In short, I spent the last month ingesting every piece of WWII knowledge I could get my hands on.

On Thursday morning, I took a train from Paris to the town of Caen and immediately made my way to the Caen War Memorial. I browsed the displays for about 2 hours and then watched possibly the worst 30 minute film on WWII ever made. It was full of propaganda. From my extensive reading before hand, I knew that many of the scenes depicted on screen where complete bullshit.

For example, one scene in the film shows a D-Day landing boat pull up to the beach, go full throttle with the engine to make it about 5 meters on shore, the lieutenant jumps out, points in a direction and then the soldiers jump out on to dry land full of energy with their guns raised, ready to fight. If that was real footage, they must have found the one single boat of the day for which that happened.

In reality, the boats had a very difficult time making it close to shore. The first waves were dodging rough seas, mines and enemy sniper fire. The latter waves had to get through all of the debris, shrapnel and dead bodies floating in the sea. In most cases, the men were violently sea sick from their journey across the Channel. When the boats failed to make it to shore, they had to jump in waist deep water or higher and use whatever energy they had left to get to shore. No easy task given their dehydration, the 50-80 pounds of equipment strapped to their backs and, oh yeah, sniper fire coming from all directions. Those that did make it to shore in one piece usually collapsed from utter exhaustion and the feeling of "Yes - I made it! Oh Fuck! Now what?".

After the bad taste that the War Memorial left in my mouth, I was hoping that the beaches wouldn't disappoint. They didn't. I was picked up by my tour guide at 2:00 and headed out to see where the real battles took place. (Note: I took a guided tour bus on Thursday and then, on Friday, rented a bike and visited a few of the places we missed. I'm just going to list all of the details regardless of what day they occurred. I really enjoyed the solo bike tour. However, after riding 80km without proper bike shorts, let's just say no one would confuse me with Johnny Ironnutz.)

- Gold Beach: The attack on Gold beach was primarily lead by the Brits. The most impressive thing about this beach was not the attack itself, but the engineering effort that took place after it. Within 3 days of the landing, the Allies had a fully functional port set up in the town of Arromanches. They initially sunk old ships to help control the rough seas and then laid down an elaborate system of docks. In order to do so, they had to drag 7000 ton slabs of concrete all the way across the channel. They also had a system of ramps to get the trucks with supplies on and off. Apparently, the technology used for these ramps was about a decade ahead of its time and was able to stay afloat with the changing tide waters. Now, here comes the really sad part. Less than 10 days after the port was completed a monster storm hit Normandy and destroyed the whole thing (I guess they needed to be 20 years ahead of their time). Locals said it was the worst storm they had seen in 50+ years. Today, you can still see the concrete slabs that defined the perimeter of the port, but that is about it.

On the cliffs above Gold beach, they still have the remains of a German bunker with a heavy artillery gun intact. These bunkers were built to last. The walls and top were four feet thick of solid concrete. The base was even deeper to ensure a side blast wouldn't sink the whole thing. You could see bullet holes and sections taken away by bomb blasts but, for the most part, these bunkers held throughout the day. The one thing I realized is how scary it would have been to be a German officer in these bunkers. Your range of vision was severely reduced and you could only see straight ahead. As the Allied infantry made it up the shore and got within distance of the bunkers, the soldiers inside were sitting ducks.

- Omaha Beach: Omaha beach is the most famous of the D-Day beaches for all the wrong reasons; it was where the vast majority of the American casualties took place. And, looking at the landscape, I can totally understand why. During low tide the beach stretches across flat for about 400 meters. At the edge of the beach, there is a big cliff that reaches about 60-70 meters high. This is where the German guns were located. So, the American troops were coming in on boats with absolutely no cover facing an enemy in the perfect firing position. For the German gunners, it would have literally been like a video game. I hate to use the expression when talking about human lives but it is true. The Germans were in an elevated position and could take out the troops as they approached the shore. It would be a very easy shot and there was nothing to stop them. To put this in perspective, this is where the first scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan supposedly took place (it was actually filmed in Ireland).

It wasn't supposed to be this easy for the Germans. The initial plan was to have US planes bomb the shit out of the beach before the infantry came ashore. In the day before the attach, one general was showing his team the photographs of the beach and said "Don't waste too much time memorizing these photos. By the time you arrive on the beach, it will be full of craters and potholes due to our bombing. And, don't use the steeple of this church as a landmark. The church will be a pile of bricks while your still 10 kilometers off shore"

Unfortunately, the bombing effort completely missed its target. Nothing hit the German troops stationed to guard Omaha beach. When the American troops got close to shore, the first thing they saw was the church steeple standing proudly right where it was in the pictures. I can't even imagine the thoughts that were going through their heads as they walked into this death trap.

Eventually, as you are well aware, the Americans took over Omaha beach. But it was a costly victory. Over 2000 Allied soldiers lost their lives on this attack. Most of those occurred in the first waves of the attack. The true number of men killed on D-Day is not known and can only be estimated.

- Pointe du Hoc: Pointe du Hoc was a very strategic point during the D-Day battles. It was situated in an elevated position between Omaha and Utah beaches. This was very bad because the Germans had artillery guns on the top of Pointe du Hoc that could reach both beaches. The Allies needed to take this and disable the guns - so they sent their best troops. The Germans also knew this so they had their well trained units defending this area. However, unlike the other destinations, Pointe du Hoc did not have much of a beach to speak of. As soon as the soldiers came ashore they were forced to scale a 100 foot plus cliff to reach the destination. It was nearly an impossible mission. 225 soldiers left for Pointe du Hoc. Only 90 made it out alive.

In the more than 60 years that have followed D-Day, the authorities that be have decided to leave Pointe du Hoc unchanged. Therefore, you can still see the craters from the bombing that took place. It reminded me of the moon - if the moon had grass. The most impressive crater was due to bomb that made a direct hit on a bunker containing dynamite and ammunition. They say it was the greatest fireworks exhibit every displayed. The crater is probably 20-30 meters in diameter and another 7-8 meters deep. The remains of the German bunker are still there and they believe German bodies are buried underneath several hundred tons of concrete.

- Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial: What a site to behold. Over American 9000 soldiers that lost their lives in Normandy battles are buried there. These were not just D-Day casualties, but anyone who died in the next 100 days or so within the Normandy region. The cross shaped tombstones are perfectly aligned in row after row. The youngest person buried there was 16 at the time of death. The median age was only 21. All died for their country in one of the most ambitious/noble/scary operations ever undertaken. The families of the deceased were given the choice to have the body flown back home to be buried close to loved ones or to remain in Normandy and be buried with their brothers in arms. About 60% choose to go back home; the rest stayed here. I can understand and respect either decision.

While I was walking through the tombstones, a few things stood out. (1) Soldiers were buried together regardless of rank, race, religion, etc. (2) Jewish soldiers were buried with a star of David instead of a cross. However, only 100 or so stars are present. It is believed that many Jews lied about their religion. Given the culture at the time, they were afraid of what would happen if the Germans captured a Jewish POW. (3) Several graves don't have a name, just the phrase "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God" (4) I found one soldier who died on D-Day that was in the 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. This is the same Division that was immortalized in Band of Brothers. Seeing this brought things a little closer to home. Although I don't know a veteran that fought in Normandy, I feel like I followed this Division around for the last 4 weeks and knew what they went through. I can only imagine what happened to this guy.

There is not too much else I can say about the D-Day beaches. I think every American, Brit and Canadian should visit if given the chance. Sometimes we take our freedom for granted. I know that I certainly do. But I did nothing to earn this freedom. It was just handed to me partly because of the actions that took place on June 6, 1944 on the Western coast of France. And for that, I am forever greatful.

OK, before I get a little too sappy here, let's talk about the rest of the trip. I must admit that I was a little WWII'ed out by the end of day two. It's a lot to take in. But I wasn't going to sit around my hotel room and mope, so I saw some other sites. To name a few: Mont St. Michel, a really cool 1000 year old tapestry that depicts the Battle of Hastings, and a Memorial to reporters killed in their line of work. The last place was especially interesting to me because my organization is full of people who risk their lives every day in the hopes of spreading freedom and democracy. Sadly, several of my former colleagues at RFE/RL are no longer with us and now have their names listed in this memorial.

On a much lighter note, I want to end this post by clarifying one thing. Evidently some people read this blog and don't know when I am joking. For the record, I have NEVER been to a hedonism camp. Nor have I ever wrapped a Playboy in a brown paper bag so I could read it on a plane. I say all of these things in jest. For future reference, if you read something that makes me sound outlandishly awesome, then assume it is true. If you read something that makes me sound like an outlandish idiot, assume it is false.

Ich bin ein Berliner

2008-04-29T06:18:00.000-07:00

R and I continued our never-ending sight seeing tour of Europe this weekend when we hit Berlin, Germany. It is a easy 4.5 hour train ride from Prague - so we headed out on Friday afternoon and took the early train back on Monday morning.

Going in, I didn't really know what to expect of Berlin. I knew the basic history of the city and also knew that 80% of the city was pretty much destroyed during World War II. So - unlike our recent trips to Rome, Istanbul, Florence, etc. - Berlin didn't have a single landmark that I immediately identified with the city. I don't count the Berlin Wall since that is pretty much gone and was never much to look at.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for the city to form an identity. When our train pulled in late on Friday night, we walked out into the absolutely nicest and most modern train station that I have ever seen. It was nicer and cleaner than most shopping malls. And when we stepped out of the train station, it was more of the same. Brand new buildings were all over the place. It is certainly the most modern looking city I have seen in Europe.

I guess there are some good things to having your city destroyed in war followed by four decades of communist rule. When you finally emerge and embrace capitalism, you have a clean state to start building. And build they did. (Maybe Detroit should consider going to war with Russia. I'm just saying...)

On Saturday morning we thought it would be a good idea to take a walking tour of Berlin. Since the city is so spread out and doesn't have a main downtown, this was a good opportunity to see the highlights. Our guide was fantastic. We saw all of the main historic sites (Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the location of Hitler's bunker, etc) while also visiting some of the different neighborhoods. Our guide was a great story teller. With each major attraction, he would tell us an interesting story to go with it. He even spent 20 minutes describing how some ingenious elevator repair man managed to get his entire family over the Berlin Wall.

As a bonus, R and I got to take the walking tour for free. The tour company was putting together some new brochures for a marketing campaign and they needed some "models" to take pictures of. So, R, myself and two other girls spent about 15 minutes taking pictures with the guide. It was hard work because it was much more than just smiling for the camera. The guide would point in some direction and we would have to stare with an interested look on our faces. Very challenging. Fortunately, we were compensated for our efforts as the guide waived our ticket price.

One of the most interesting things we saw on the trip was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It's just this big cement field that has all of these rectangular shaped concrete blocks. Absolutely huge - probably covers a full acre. (Actually, I honestly have no idea how big an acre is, so I can be way off on that estimate. Let me officially change my comparison to 1.5 New York City blocks. That's a unit of measure I'm much more comfortable with).

Anyway, when you the first get to the memorial, it doesn't look too intimidating. You just see a field of blocks each about 1 meter high. But, as you start walking through the maze, the ground below you is all uneven, the blocks get taller and taller and you are suddenly lost next to walls 4 meters high. It's meant to symbolize communism; at first it didn't seem all that bad but the deeper you got the crazier things were around you until there was no way out. Oddly enough, this is the exact same design that was used for the "Memorial to the Married Man" (I kid, I kid)

In all seriousness, this memorial does say a lot about the German people. I always wondered how Germans from my generation feel about WWII. What do they learn as children and what do their history books say? From my limited experience it seems like people generally recognize that Hitler was a first class kook and are a bit "ashamed" by is part of their history.

But, I didn't know that going in. In fact, I am currently reading a book on the D-Day battle (in anticipation of a trip I am taking next month). The title of the book says "D-Day" in big letters on the cover. I was actually very conscious about bringing this book with me into Germany. I considered it "rude" for lack of a better word. I know I wouldn't want to see some foreigner on the 6 train reading a book titled "How we blew up the Towers". So, my solution to this problem was that I put an old-fashioned paper book cover on top of my paperback book. It felt like I was in grade school all over again. Or, last month, when I wanted to read a playboy on a airplane. Who says the tricks you learned in 5th grade wouldn't come in handy in adult life. In retrospect, I probably didn't need the book cover (talking about the D-Day book, not the Playboy)

Other than taking tours and visting the musuems/memorials, we did what Germans do best: drink fantastic German beer! The weather was perfect both days so whenever we would see a nice cafe we would park ourselves down and grab a beer. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Chalk this one up as another successful trip. Germany is fast becoming one of my favorite countries. I had never been in Germany up until last year but have now made 5 separate trips within the past 14 months. The food is great, the cities are modern, the people are nice (and beautiful) and the beer is world class. If I had to pick another European city to live in one day, I think Munich and Berlin would be near the very top of the list!

This final picture doesn't show much of the city of Berlin, but it was taken in mirrors within the old German Parliament building.

Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

2008-04-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

R, B and I made a short, 24 hour jaunt to Karlovy Vary on Sunday. Karlovy Vary is located about 2 hours north west of Prague in the Czech Republic.

Around these parts, the city is known for two things: (1) its spas and (2) the number of Russians that live there.

The spas started popping up like mad in Karlovy Vary many centuries ago due to the hot springs that are abundant around the city. They even have a large Thermal Spring encased in a glass building that shoots up about 12 meters high. You can grab a cup and drink from one of th five fountains that are next to the thermal spring. The water in these fountains varies between 32 degrees Celsius (90 F) and 72 C (161 F). It is supposed to be good for you and had therapeutic powers. If you want to experience the same taste at home, boil a cup of water, let it sit for 3 minutes, then throw in a nine bolt battery and drink up. Enjoy!

Since Karlovy Vary is one of the most famous spa towns in Europe, we had to partake. Regular readers of this blog may start questioning my manhood. After all, I just wrote about my experience at a Turkish bath and now am writing about spa treatments. On one hand, I agree with you. No self respecting man should go to the spa twice in one month. But, I have a rule that if I go to a pizza joint - I order a pizza, if I go to a steak house - I order a steak and when I am in a spa town - I go to the spa. It's that simple. Good thing we don't have any vacations planned to the Polygamous ranch in Texas.

Anyway, back to the spa. Anyone who has ever been to a spa knows it is all about customer service. From the minute you walk in the door everyone is supposed to make sure your experience is as pleasurable as possible. Now, anyone who has been to the Czech Republic also knows that customer service is certainly not their specialty. So I find it ironic that God decided to put all of these amazing hot springs right in the middle of the Czech Republic.

That being said, the spa experience was what you might expect. It was certainly nice and the customer service wasn't horrible, but it could have been a lot better. For example, when it was time for our massage, they would shout out "NEXT!" at the top of their lungs and expect us to come running. Another example is the music, which was all being run through the computer at the reception desk. It worked fine, except when the worker got bored and started playing Minesweeper on the PC. We could hear some of the games sound effects on the big speaker instead of the relaxing spa music.

Aside from the spa, we spent most of the day walking around the town. They have a nice little mountain that overlooks the town, so we went on a nice hike up there. Bauer certainly enjoyed it. The town itself is extremely picturesque. They even filmed the casino scenes from the most recent James Bond movie, Casino Royale, there. I think it was portrayed as Monte Carlo in the movie, but there is no denying that it was Karlovy Vary.

I decided to give the casino a try myself. I figure if it is good enough for James Bond, it is good enough for me. When I walked in the casino, it couldn't have been less enticing. It didn't look a Hollywood movie to say the least. There was no music in the background, about 7 dealers were standing around smoking and one Russian dude playing roulette. They also made you pay for your own drinks - but in exchange you got inhale an unlimited amount of second hand smoke. I stayed in the casino for about 30 seconds and walked out without playing a hand.

All-in-all, we had a nice day in Karlovy Vary. It's not the type of place that many Americans get a chance to visit, because it is "off the beaten path". But, I'm glad we went. You'll be challenged to find a town with a prettier overriding architecture. Unfortunately, the weather was rather dreary, so our pics did not come out that great.

Is it spring time where you live?

2008-04-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

It's cold and dreary in Prague these days. We're a week into April and spring is no where in site. On my walk home from work today, it was cold, wet and the sun was hidden by a dark cloak of clouds

This is a stark contrast to last year when March and April were two of the most beautiful months I have ever experienced. I even wrote a blog post about it.

I can count the truly nice days we've had this year on one hand. Hopefully spring comes soon.

P.S. On a totally unrelated note, the Travel Channel is on in the background while I type this note. The guy is doing a country report on Turkey and, wouldn't you know it, the guy gets a Turkish bath at the exact same place went to. This makes sense since we deliberately went to the most famous bath house. What's really cool is that the Turkish guy that gave Mr. Travel Channel a rub down is the exact same guy that scrubbed me. You could now argue that he is the most famous person I have ever shared an intimate moment with.

The Bone Church - Kutna Hora, CZ

2008-03-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

R and I visited a town about an hour outside of Prague this weekend named Kutna Hora. It was once one of the richest towns in all of Europe due to its close proximity to Silver mines. That wealth appears to have faded away in the last 1000 years or so.

By itself, Kutna Hora doesn't have a whole lot to offer; a small town square, some statues and the standard Czech restaurants and cafes. But there was one attraction that we couldn't miss.

On the outskirts of Kutna Hora, about a 20 minute walk from the train station, there is a small church named Sedlec Ossuary. Otherwise known as the bone church.

The inside of the church is "decorated" with the remains of over 40,000 people. There were bones all over the place. There was a bone chandelier (made out of every single bone in the human body), a coat of arms made of bones, a big ol' stack of skulls, etc. I haven't seen this many bones in church since I was an alter boy at my catholic grade school! (think about it... think about it.... there ya go)

I've been looking around for an explanation as to why the bones are in the church but have yet to hear an adequate tale. The best story I've heard is that they were cultivating the grounds outside the church in the 15h century and uncovered a mass burial. I'm not sure if the bones were placed in the church in a sacrificial type way or just because they looked cool. If the latter is the case, they certainly succeeded in their goal. I dare you to show me a church with more, ummm, personality.

Just think, after my visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul last week I nearly converted to Islam (I wanted to be on the team with the coolest toys). After visiting the Bone church, I'm squarely back in the Jesus camp. The Muslims can make one hell of a carpet, but it will take much more work than that to beat a bone chandelier.

The Bone church is best described in pictures, not words. Click on the pics below to see a bigger pop-up.

Istanbul, Turkey

2008-03-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

We just came back from a trip to Istanbul, Turkey over the long Easter weekend. After all, what better way to celebrate the death of Christ than by visiting a Muslim country. (Interesting side note I just found out, Muslims actually believe in Jesus Christ. They think he was a prophet. They just think Muhammad is better).

We've been looking forward to this trip for quite some time. All of my friends who have been to Turkey came back with rave reviews. In fact, R and I talked the trip up so much we managed to convince other people to join us. Our ~~only~~ best friends in Prague - Mike, Sally, Mark & Bridget - joined us for the trip. (Mike and Sally are our friends who live around the corner from us. R met them on a plane to New York early last year. They've been in Prague for a couple of years but are moving to Sydney in a few months. We met Mark & Bridget when my dog B tried to sniff their dog's ass. It's always a great conversation starter. They are from New York).

Our first day in Istanbul we did what many people do: shop! R had made arrangements with her old friend Taji for our first day in Istanbul. Taji is a Turkish tailor/businessman that has quite the clientèle in New York. He comes to New York every 4-6 weeks and makes custom shirts & suits for his clients. Actually, he just measures his clients and shows them little swaths of cloth. He then makes a phone call to his army of Turkish workers who make the custom shirts and ship them back to the States. The shirts are extremely high quality and can be had at a reasonable price. It's a great deal.

First thing on Friday morning, Taji sends his nephew to our hotel to pick us up. The car fit 5 people comfortably but we had to cram 7 people into it (the six of us plus the driver).

Now is the perfect time to talk about the traffic in Istanbul. It is without a doubt the worst traffic I have ever witnessed or experienced. Cars everywhere, nobody follows the lane lines, cars flying around corners, stop and go traffic for miles at a time, cabbies gunning their ways thru side roads trying to get two spots ahead, etc. Not pretty. It makes Manhattan driving look like safety school. The trip to Taji's store in a cramped car was our introductory experience to the traffic of Istanbul. The distance was probably less than 2 miles but took us a solid 40 minutes to get there.

We make it to the store and are greeted by Taji with Turkish tea for everyone. We then spend the next couple of hours looking at cloth samples while the Turks measure us for our custom clothes. As a group, we order 16 shirts and a suit (the shirts are delivered to the hotel the next day, the suit has to be shipped a few days later) Not a bad way to start the day for Taji! He thanks us for the business by treating us all to a fabulous Turkish restaurant a few blocks from his store. To top it off, he gets us reservations at the two hottest restaurants in Istanbul for the next two nights. These are the same restaurants that our concierge tried to reserve for us but was denied. Taji has no problem. Taji is the fucking man in Istanbul. This is a recurring topic of conversation amongst our group.

After lunch, we head to the famous Grand Bazaar. It is one of, if not the largest covered markets in the world and has close to 5000 individual shops in it. Half of the shops sell rugs and the other half sell lamps and designer brand knock-offs. The reputation of the market is this: be careful. Every one is trying to sell you something and if you look them in the eye they won't back down until you get a sale. People will pretend to be from America and offer you tea or coffee as a "friend" but really just want to sell you a rug. It's also known to get a bit stinky in the summer.

In reality, I didn't find it bad at all. Yes, everyone was trying to sell you something. But, if you told them politely that you were not interested 95% of the time they would stop bothering you. In fact, the Turkish people in general were some of the most polite and nicest that I have been around. Yes, it is true that they are always trying to sell you something. But they realize that the best way to sell is to smile, make jokes and be friendly. There is nothing wrong with that. The people of Prague could learn a thing or two or ten from the Turks about customer service.

The final shopping journey of the day was done at the Spice Market. This was a slightly smaller version of the Gran Bazaar but they sold food instead of rugs. Mostly spices, tea, apricots and nuts. And lambs head. Don't forget about the lambs head.

On Friday night, it was time for dinner at Al-Jamal, one of the hot places to go in Istanbul. Getting there, however, was a challenge. The hotel gave the wrong address to the cab driver who fought with god-awful traffic for 30 minutes until we stopped at a place with an "Al-Jamal" name plate on the outside... but it was absolutely closed. We took out our phone and called Taji (you know, Taji the fucking man in Istanbul) who spoke to the cab driver and told him the right place to go. Another 30 minutes of fighting traffic and we arrive at the front doors of Al-Jamal where the night goes from a bad start and just takes an amazing turn.

The night at Al-Jamal was easily top 10 restaurant experiences in my life. The interior is gorgeous and we get seated to a great table with a killer view. We don't get any menus from the waiters because the place does not have any menus. You just sit down and get served. It's all family style and the food is out of this world. It's all turkish so I don't even know what some of the dishes were, but every bite was amazing. The best part about Al-Jamal is that it is not just a restaurant, but also a night club. So as the place gets packed and the dancing starts we have prime seats. I should also note that the dinner included all-you-can-drink wine. No wine glass at our table was ever empty. As soon as it was getting low, the waiter came by and made sure it was filled.

I won't go on and on, but let's just say we all had a great time. Three out of the six people in our group came back to the hotel and immediately paid for the good time by rushing to their rooms and getting violently ill. I'll leave you guessing at which three it was.

Rather than go on and on with our detailed itinerary for the rest of the trip, I'm going to finish this blog post in bullet point style.

Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia - No trip to Istanbul is complete without a trip to the Blue Mosque. And rightfully so. The place is gorgeous from the outside. Rather than tell you my experiences from this trip, I'm just going to steal a few lines from my friends opinion when he visited Turkey. I can't say it any better than Brian can:

"Until this point, I’d never before seen a Muslim-world mosque. Upon seeing these though, my first thought was “Jesus is gay.” Clearly, the Muslims in old-world Constantinople really love Muhammad. That guy gets serious love in the form of huge domes and tall, piercing and majestic minarets.

On the way inside, most Muslims wash their feet under small spigots outside. I still do not know the reason for this, considering the rest of their bodies are typically in dire need of this level of attention. Once inside, you realize the grand exterior is masking the fact that it’s more or less just a big cavity, with areas of worship and next to them, areas to watch, point, and stare."

Reina - Our second big dinner in Istanbul was at a place called Reina. Once again, one of the hottest restaurants/clubs in Istanbul with a table reserved by Taji the fucking man. The food here was very good, but it didn't rival the experience of the night before. The group was a bit more tame as well since some of us, errr I mean, three random people in the group were still fighting off serious hangovers.

The one thing to point out about Reina was the type of club it turned into around midnight. The club felt like it was right out of New York/Vegas/Miami. In fact, the people at the club in Istanbul were decked out much more so than any place I have been to in New York New York. And it wasn't just at Reina. When we left and got into a cab you could see a bunch of clubs in this part of town with a similar clientèle. I wasn't expecting this in Istanbul.

Turkish Bath - One of things that everyone must do in while in Turkey is go to the Hammam - also known as a Turkish bath. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical going in. I've heard mixed reviews from many people. None of the guys joined me so I went alone. When you first go in, you get handed a towel, a brand new "scrub mitten" (for lack of a better term) and some Turkish guy grunts and points upstairs.

I get undressed and wrap the towel/loin cloth around me. Another Turkish guy grunts and points for me to go downstairs. I open the door and I am in this huge dome room with a big marble slab. There is about 15 dudes lying on the slab. Fortunately, all men are wearing towels so the amount of exposed cock is severely limited.

After I laid down for about five minutes, a Turkish guy grab me and begins scrubbing me body. Layers and layers and layers of dead skin are just rolling off. Disgusting and refreshing all at the same time. I then get the most painful massage that I've ever had. Every time I would grimace in pain my Turkish masseuse would just grunt and push harder. It ends 10 minutes later when the guy gives me a thorough shampoo and throws multiple buckets of water over my head.

The whole situation sounds much worse than it actually was. In truth, I quite enjoyed my time at the Turkish bath and would go again. It felt like I went back 1000 years in time. R felt the same way. Her experience was similar to mine except all of the women giving the baths were naked. And apparently they had HUMUNGOUS, droopy, pancake boobs that were flying all over the place during the message. We'll have to take her word for it because at this place they keep the guys and the girls totally separate.

No Asia for Nino - Istanbul sits on the cusp of the Europe/Asia border. One part of the city is on the European side and the other half is n the Asian side. Of course, this is all separated by water so you can't just run from one side to the other. In order to go to the Asian side, we all jumped on a boat on Sunday afternoon.

We start making our way down the Bosporus and get a good look at the sites along the way. It's a very cool view. But I'm more excited to step foot in Asia. I have never been on the Asian continent. The closest I have come is Tahiti but that doesn't count. So I figured that this one little boat ride would take me to the Asian side, I could jump off and put my two feet on the solid Asian ground, I can check off one of the boxes on life's to-do list.

Unfortunately, the boat never stopped. We just made our way down the Bosporus for about an hour and then turned around and came back. On the way back I was literally a Sand Wedge away from Asia, but I never hit solid ground. Alas, that check box is still left unchecked.

Whirling Dervishes - If you are in Istanbul and someone asks you to see the Whilring Dervishes, politely decline. It would be a very interesting 5 minute show but unfortunately the show last 55 minutes.

The City of Istanbul - The city of Istanbul itself was very unique. First off, the city was absolutely huge geographically. We traveled in cabs every which way but only saw a small fraction of the city. It also has some very old buildings. You would see 3 small buildings lined up in a row and the middle one would just be a pile of bricks - having collapsed years or even decades ago. This was the scene all over. But it was also part of the allure.

All in all we had a great trip. Istanbul was everything we thought it would be. It was also very fun to travel as a group - we really enjoyed ourselves. So thanks to Mike, Sally, Bridget, Mark and, of course, Taji the fucking man in Istanbul!

40 hours in Milan, Italy

2008-03-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

This past week was a special one in the Savarino household. R's father celebrated his 70th birthday and - just a few days later - her parents had their 40th wedding anniversary.

R and her sister, Alex, thought it would be a good idea to do something special to commemorate the occasion. Alex and her husband Brendan flew from New Jersey to Milan on the Thursday night redeye. R joined them in Milan by taking a 6:20 AM out of Prague on Friday morning. I had some work obligations to take care of, so I couldn't head to Milan until the 6:20 AM Saturday morning flight.

Of course, R's parents had no idea that any of this was taking place. They were just expecting a quiet typical weekend at home. They had dinner plans with their friends on Saturday night, but nothing to special.

These dinner plans tunred out to be a complete hoax. Alex had planned it all weeks before. She picked out the restaurant named Giannino, which happened to be the same place where they had their reception 40 years earlier. When R's parents walked into the restaurant, their friends were no where to be found. Instead, R, Alex, Brendan and I were there to surprise them. It worked!

Dinner was a fantastic experience. Probably the best restaurant experience I've had in Italy (nothing still compares to home cooked food). Which is funny, because we all commented that the restaurant had a very "New York" feel to it. I guess there is no place like home.

On Sunday, we had another surprise lined up for R's parents. We invited 20 of their friends to a restaurant for the official celebration. They weren't as surprised this time (they were following me in their car and I got lost and had to pull over and ask R's dad for directions to his surprise party) - but they still had a great time.

On Sunday night, I was back on the 9:00 PM flight back to Prague and ready for work the next day. R stayed in Milan for a few extra days to spend some quality time with her parents.

The weekend was very short but I had a great time. This is a great example of why we decided to move to Europe in the first place. It was no problem to take a 40 hour vacation to Milan for the weekend. I flew in, had 4 fantastic meals. spent time with the family and then flew home. Perfect.

Since this post has been completely lacking in comedy, let me leave you with this note. I was speaking with one Italian guy this weekend who follows US politics pretty closely. he probably knows more about the upcoming US elections than I do. When I asked him what he thought of the candidates, he had this to say: "I don't trust that black guy"

In a world that seems to constantly change, it's nice to know that old Italian stereotypes die hard.

London calling

2008-02-27T13:39:00.000-08:00

I had a conference in London last week so R decided to join me and we made a little vacation out of it.

When speaking of London these days the one thing that everyone always harps on is how expensive it is. Two US Dollars equals one British Pound. I don't want to dedicate this whole blog to bitching about the cost of living in London, so let me just say it once. LONDON IS SO RIDICULOUSLY F&#ING EXPENSIVE!!!!! There, I've said it, now let's move on with the blog.

R and I have both been to London twice before (once together, once separately) so we didn't have to waste time sight seeing. On this trip, R enjoyed the first couple of days walking around the streets while I was stuck inside at a conference (the good news - it was a great conference and I really enjoyed it).

Here are a couple of notes about London:

1) The food in London is much better than it gets credit for. However, as a side note, this has nothing to do with the British. The first time I went to London, I was all about trying some traditional English food. I had meat pies, fish and chips, bangers and mash, etc. All shit.

The second time I went to London I had what will forever be known as the worst meal in my life. My friends and I went to a soccer match to see the Tottenham Hotspurs play. Before the game, we stopped at a truck outside the stadium and ordered what could be best described as a shit burger. I was so hungry I ordered two. I couldn't even get a quarter of it down. Disgusting. Repulsive. Gag inducing. The story ends 4 days later in my New York apartment with a half bottle of prune juice, an unexpected wake up call at 3:00 AM, and a recreation of the most famous scene from Dumb and Dumber. Good times.

Following these two experiences, R and I choose to stay far away from the traditional English fare and embraced the international cuisine that London offers. We had Moroccan, Thai, Indian (twice) and even Italian. All excellent. The Moroccan place we went to the first night - Pasha - was a place to remember. Excellent atmosphere, great food and two hot belly dancers (and two ugly belly dancers). AS you see in the picture, R even got up and joined the festivities.

2) And that brings me to my next point - the women of London. Much like the food, they are much better looking than I remembered. Actually that's not 100% true. There are still butt loads of ugly girls in London. Crazy ugly. But there are also an awful lot of very, very good looking women. There is no middle ground. All the girls are either insanely beautiful or horribly ugly. Think Elizabeth Hurley vs. Camilla Parker Bowles.

If you are a girl in London right now who is reading this and you aren't sure if you are beautiful or not - I've got some bad news for you - you're probably pretty darn ugly.

3) There are as many Starbucks in London as there are in New York. It shows you that a good cafe mocha latte can overcome the centuries old tradition of High Tea

4) I had dinner with my cousin Melina and her boyfriend Matteo. She's Australian, he's Italian and they live in London. The funny thing is that I didn't even know Melina existed 5 years ago (our grandfathers were brothers; mine moved to Cleveland while his brother moved to Sydney). In the past five years, we've hung out together in New York, Cleveland, Melbourne, Sydney, Monteroso Italy and now London. That has to be some kind of a record. We're trying to get them to come to Prague just so we can keep the list going.

(And Melina, in case you're reading this - you're definitely good looking, so don't worry)

5) Londoners measure distance in miles. I always just assumed that they used kilometers like the rest of Europe. My first night in London, I asked for directions and the person on the street told me it was "about 2 miles in that direction". I was really impressed that this Brit - obviously realizing I was an American - would take the time to tell me the distance in a measurement I could understand. A few days later I found out that they used miles too and I was less impressed. I wish I could take back the overly enthusiastic "thank you" I gave him.

On the last day of our vacation, we decided to take a day trip outside of London. We signed up for one of those bus trips that pick you up at 8:00 AM and drops you off about 11 hours later. You couldn't ask for a more touristy activity. Our goal was to be the only people on the bus who were under 65 and not wearing a fanny pack.

We had three destinations on this journey.

The first stop was Windsor Castle, just outside of London. This is where the Queen weekends. She was actually on the premises while we were there (the special flag was up) but she didn't stop out to say hello or offer us cookies. What kind of Grandmother is that?

Windsor castle was really cool. There is a tony little town that surrounds the castle full of nice shops and such. Inside was your typical castle. Gigantic paintings, long dinner tables that seat 60 comfortably, ornate beds with big canopies, and slimy French tourists trying to sneak photos when the guards aren't looking.

The next stop was the famous Stonehenge - also known as Rocks in a Field. The monument was "built" around 5000 years ago. No one really knows for sure since the old English were really bad at keeping records. But the theory is theory is that it took over 1000 years to build and some of the rocks, which weigh over 5000 pounds, come from over 200 miles away.

People assume that it was used as some sort of sun dial/sacrificial alter. But in reality, they haven't got a clue. It could be a pre-historic Jungle Gym built by some really ambitious parents. My theory is that the Aliens did it just to mess with us.

All-in-all, I give Stonehenge the thumbs up. There is not much to see other than some rocks, but they are really cool rocks. It's one of those things on life's "to do" list that we can cross off.

The final stop on the journey was the town of Bath. We were really surprised at how much we liked this town. Bath is built in a valley, so when you are riding into town, you look down on it as you reach the peak of the hill. And, when we could finally make out the town, I think the entire bus said "Oh wow". As in, "I wasn't expecting much but that's some really beautiful architecture"

The entire town was built in a relatively short period of time during the Georgian era (which, I just learned, was called that because all the kings were named George). Architecture is tough to describe in words, so I won't even bother.

The next time you are in London, I definitely recommend the Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath trifecta.

Radio Free Europe

2008-02-22T10:23:00.000-08:00

Many people have asked me about the exact mission of Radio Free Europe. I have tried answering that question with varying degrees of success.

If you want to hear a better answer than I can provide, check out this video.

The president of my company - Jeff Gedmin - gave a speech in Washington a couple of weeks ago and I think he did a pretty eloquent job of describing the work that we do. He certainly is capable of answering the question better than I am. That's why he gets paid the big bucks.

A Map of Our Travels

2008-02-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've updated the map that shows places we've traveled to this year. A Blue balloon means we've already been there, done that - a pink balloon means that we're eyeing the trip in the near future.

It's interesting to see that much of this past year we stayed pretty close to home. Many of our trips were either trains, car rides or short flights.

In 2008, we have many more outliers. It starts tomorrow when we head to London. I have a conference to attend while R has some window shopping to do. We also have trips planned much further east (Turkey, Russia and Greece), south (Egypt) and North (R wants to visit the Ice Hotel)

View Larger Map

P.S. I've added a smaller version of this map in a permanent location on the right side of this page

Bored in Prague

2008-02-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

I am bored tonight in Prague. I'm not bored all that often, but right now I'm really bored.

R's cooking. I was thinking about helping her cook, but that doesn't seem like a good alternative. I don't feel like reading. I've been on the Internet all day at work so I don't feel like surfing right now.

The only thing on TV is the Animal Planet. Animal Planet is one of the few English language TV stations we get here. Any time the TV is on when I come home, the Animal Planet channel is on. I fucking hate the Animal Planet.

You would think that a channel devoted to animals would be generally positive. But it is the most disturbing programming you could ever watch. Every friggin story is about some abused dog, cat or horse. And every day the animal warden has to go rescue these dogs, cats and horses, take them to the vet, clean them up, etc.. That's all fine and good - but half the time they realize that the animal is in such bad shape that they have to put them to sleep. Why would I want to watch this? Who puts this shit on TV!?!? Is it really a form of entertainment to get emotionally attached to a dog for 30 minutes and then realize that death is a better alternative than the life he has been living for the past 5 years.

I'm not going to watch Animal Planet. I'm still bored.

Dinner won't be ready for another 15 minutes. I probably won't be bored while I'm actually eating - but I'm not sure how I'll feel after I'm done consuming. What will probably happen is that I'll finish eating before R and I'll have to sit there and feign interest while she is still eating. Good God - that's going to be so boring. As bored as I am right now, I'm dreading how bored I will be in 25 minutes.

Maybe I'll go see a movie tonight. That won't be so boring. I'm going to look at what films are playing tonight in Prague. Good Bye.

St Anton - Skiing in the Alps

2008-02-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

I've decided that skiing is my absolute favorite activity. I like it more than golfing, more than running, more than cycling, and a hell of a lot more than working out. It beats watching football, it's certainly better than work and I prefer a good day skiing over a night on the town. At one point I may have liked sex better - but now I'm married and it’s not even a contest. Right now, I can't think of a single thing I would rather do other than ski.

This may seem odd for those of you who know me because I don't come across as the typical ski bum. I only ski an average of 4 days per year. You would think that if I liked skiing as much as I claim to, I would go more often. You're probably right. But ever since I first went skiing out west I became a ski snob. I don't consider East Coast skiing to be the same sport as West Coast skiing. I can't bring myself to ski on a shitty mountain and, therefore, I only end up skiing during my annual ski trip. The fact that I only ski a few days a year makes these trips all the more enjoyable.

The good news is that Europe is littered with a bunch of great ski resorts. Ever since I arrived a year ago, I've been counting the days until I can ski the Alps. (I didn't go last year because I was busy getting accustomed to Prague and it was a bad snow year).

R did a crap load of research on where we should go skiing this year. She narrowed down the choices to resorts in Italy, France, Switzerland and Austria. We eventually settled on St. Anton am Alberg in Austria due to the overwhelmingly positive reviews. It is only a 6 hour drive from Prague so I rented a car last Friday and R and I made our way down after work.

There were heavy snowfalls on the mountain the week before we arrived so all runs were open and there was great snow coverage. It actually didn't snow the whole time we were there, so we had no fresh snow to ski on. But the weather was beautiful for 3 of the 4 days. It was 45 degrees and sunny on the mountain. We even got great tans. Of course we would have liked more snow and probably could have enjoyed the skiing more, but we still had a great time.

I'm not going to go on and on about our ski trip. We skied during the day, ate great food at lunch, skied some more in the afternoon, went to the suana/pool/hottub, went out for a great dinner and then went to sleep ridiculously early. Perfect days, if you ask me.

I am, however, going to give you my completely biased answer to a question I've had for years: What's better, skiing in the Rockies or the Alps?

A quick disclaimer first. I've been to Park City, Tahoe, Vail, Breckenridge and Keystone in the Rockies. I've only been to St. Anton in the Alps. This is not nearly a large enough sample size to grade two of the worlds largest mountain chains. But, fuck it, it's my blog and I feel like doing it.

The Mountain

Nothing beats the site of a snow covered mountain with a blue sky behind it. The Rockies are an absolutely gorgeous sight to behold. The Alps are typically amazing. It's like comparing between a Ferrari or a Lamborghini... there is no right answer. I'm going to take the easy route and call this a tie.

Edge: Even

The Skiing

This is also a very hard question to answer because it all depends on which exact mountain you go to and the weather conditions. But I'm going to make the decision easy.

My favorite type of skiing is tree skiing. I love going in the woods and carving out paths. Many people think this is insane, but I love it (I wear a helmet and go rather slow to avoid a Sony Bono moment). When we're going down the slopes in the Rockies, my cousins and I (my typical skiing entourage) are constantly on the lookout for side paths to take and random jumps on the side of the trail. Some of the best trails I have ever skied on at Vail/Breck we're deep in the woods that were officially off the map.

The mountains in the Rockies suits this type of skiing very well. You have a variety of slopes: big open slopes, runs through the trees, moguls, the back bowls at Vail, snowboard parks, etc. It’s all great.

In the Alps, there wasn't nearly as much variety. There are no trees on the mountain so it is just a lot of wide open skiing. Some people absolutely love this. It's just you and the mountains with nothing in your way. There is white snow for as far as the eye can see.

Some people may enjoy this type of skiing more, but I'm taking the Rockies for the diversity.

Edge: Rockies

The Food

This is a tough call. I love a big helping of chili in a bread bowl with cheese on top. You can get this at nearly every ski slope in North America and it is all fantastic.

In the Alps, we ate at some fantastic restaurants on the side of the mountain. The menu was much more diverse than what you would find in North America. We had chicken, sausages, schnitzels, pasta, eggs, etc. All delicious. If you throw in the European beer, it’s a no-brainer.

Edge: Alps

The Cost

Skiing is a very expensive sport no matter where you go. In the States, every time you pay for something there it’s like a little kick in the gut. In Europe, it’s more like kick-you-in-the-balls expensive. The price of lift tickets is actually a bit cheaper in Europe than it is in the states (about 35 Euros per day compared to $78 at Vail). But that’s about it. Renting skis was insane (about $500 total for the two of us). Food was ridiculously pricey ($18 each for a basic lunch). Let’s not even talk about the $85 tank of gas. Bernake – help!

Edge: Rockies

Overall – it’s a very close Matchup. There are great things about the Rockies and there are great things about the Alps. But, when you go on a ski vacation, the most important quality you look for is the skiing. And, therefore, I’m going to say that the Rockies are better than the Alps.

I think next year we are going to rent a house for the month of February in one of these resort towns. I'm hoping for Italy so I can work on my Italian. If you are interested in trying to answer the Alps vs. Rockies question for yourself, keep next February open...

One Year in Prague

2008-01-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

This weeks marks my one year anniversary since moving to Prague. Overall, it's been a very enjoyable experience. That's not to day it's been perfect, but overall I'm very happy. Here's a bit of a recap -

The Good

The travel - One of the main reasons we moved to Prague was because of the travel opportunities. Since Prague is centrally located in Europe, it is close in proximity to some of the best cities in the world. In the past year we've been able to visit Germany(Dresden, Oktoberfest in Munich and hiking in Bavaria), Italy (Florence, Rome, the Vatican, Milan, Cinque Terre and R even spent a week in Sicily), Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Bratislava, Poland (Krakow), Croatia (Dubrovnik and the island of Hvar) and a few random towns in the Czech Republic. Not a bad year.

My apartment - I must admit, my apartment is very nice. It is about 1200 square feet and it overlooks the Vltava River that runs through Prague. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a washer and dryer and ample closet space. I was looking at real estate in Manhattan and it will cost me about $1.7M to buy a similar place in Manhatan (without the washer & dryer). A similar place in Hoboken will cost about $750k. So, when it comes time to leave Prague, I either need to find an extra $1M saved under the seat cushions, move to a less desirable city, or get used to life in a cramped apartment. I think R and I can make the adjustment fine, but B is going to be pissed.

The beauty of Prague - I've said it before and I'll say it again - Prague is one of the most beautiful cities on Earth. The architecture is second to none. Every day when I walk home from work I get an amazing view of the Prague castle. It looks even better at night when everything is lit up. You never get sick of it. In addition to the buildings, the city planners of Prague did an amazing job. I've never seen a major city with so much prime real estate dedicated to Parks. We have about 5 wide open parks all within a 10 minute walk from my apartment. Just like in the above point, Bauer is going to be pissed when we leave.

The European life style - New York is a fast paced place to live. There is a certain amount of stress in the air and everyone feels rush. When I was in New York, I was certainly as stressed as everyone else. In Prague, like the rest of Europe, people don't move so fast. Stress and hard work aren't part of the culture. It's easy living - especially coming from New York. It's not to say that I don't have any stress. It's just that most of my stress is self induced and doesn't come from outside influences.

The culture - I've seen lots of churches, museums and really old stuff this year. I am not officially cultured.

Boobs - I like boobs. Women in Prague tend to have big boobs. In the summer time, they tend to wear tight shirts. What else needs to be said?

The cost of living - The cost of living in Prague is rising on a daily basis. But the good news is it started at such a ridiculously low level that it has quite a ways to go before we feel it. Food is still quite cheap in Prague, and that is the only thing we spend money on. We went to one of the top restaurants in Prague last night and only spent $100. An average dinner costs about $30. We can get three times as many groceries as we could for the same price in New York. Or at least, that's what R tells me. I don't go grocery shopping so much.

R not working - I may give her crap now and again, but R hasn't had to work for the past 8 months. It's been pretty nice for her and I get a great dinner cooked every night when I come home. R used to cook great in New York too, but I felt a little guilty that she spent so much more time in the kitchen than I do. In Prague, I feel absolutely no guilt. Call me Fred Flintstone, but that's just how I feel.

The showers at my gym - I've always wanted to go to a gym with really nice showers. The kind where it's nicer to shower in the gym than it is at your own house. I finally have that. When i first moved to Prague, I was going to the free gym that my company paid for. But, there is a nicer gym that's closer to our house, so I recently switched. Now I have nice showers, a jacuzzi and saunas whenever i want them.

Slingbox & iTunes - Had I moved to Europe as little as three years ago, I would have absolutely no access to American TV shows and, more importantly, live sporting events. With Slingbox & iTunes, I can watch anything I want. Truly amazing technology. I watched more Browns games this year than I did the last 7 years in New York.

Dogs - Prague is an extremely dog-friendly city. Dogs are allowed on the subway, trams and in most restaurants. In fact, when we do bring B to a restaurant, he often gets served a bowl of water before we get anything. Since I like dogs and happen to own one, this has all been good news to me.

My job - My job is pretty good, rather easy and I'm helping to save the world in the process. What's not to like!

The travel - Did I mention how great the travel is? This year we have the following trips in mind: skiing in the Alps (leaving tomorrow), London, Budapest, Turkey, Berlin, Edinborough, South of France, Sicily, cruising around the Greek Islands on a private boat, Barcelona, Russia (St. Petersburg and Moscow), Egypt, Ljubljana, and the Ice Hotel in Sweden. Wow, that sounds like a lot - we not to start planning.

The Bad

The food - If you come to Prague for a long weekend, you'll probably like the food. Traditional czech food is not bad when you are in the mood for it. Honestly, pork knuckles, beef stroganoff, potato dumplings and croquets are all pretty damn tasty. But, the food in general is extremely heavy and you can't eat it all of the time. That leads us to most of the "international" restaurants that are scattered throughout Prague. They just aren't that good. Even the high end restaurants aren't great. They aren't horrible and we certainly aren't starving, but we are very rarely amazed by a dinner. The average response to a question of "How did you like your meal" is "Uhhh, it was OK. Nothing special".

The Czech language - This is not so much a criticism of the Czech language as it is a criticism of myself. When I lived in the States, I was always amazed how some people could live there and speak only Chinese, Italian, whatever. I always assumed that those people were ignorant. I mean, if you are going to live in a foreign country, you might as well speak there language. Well, I am now one of those ignorant people and I hate it. But I don't hate it enough to actually learn the language. So what does that say about me.

No Air Conditioning in the summer - The city of Prague doesn't need air conditioning for about 49 weeks out of the year. Unfortunately, a year consists of 52 weeks. When the temperature nears 40 degrees Celsius and you don't have air conditioning, it can be very, very miserable.

Running routes - In New York, I had many different running routes to choose from. Actually, I only had two, but I liked them both a lot. In Prague, I only have one convenient running route and I don't like it much at all. It means I'm not running as much. Also, with all of the traveling we're doing, I don't have time to train for a triathlon. I guess I'll have to pause that sport while I'm over here.

My job - Sometimes I get so excited planning the vacations that I forget I have to work. And I can't travel nearly as much as I would like to due to my job. For example, I'd love to spend 10-14 days in Turkey to really see the country. But, I have to work - so I'll get to spend 4.5 days there.

It's not New York - New York is the best city in the world. Once you live there, all other cities pale in comparison.

The Ugly

Customer Service - The customer service in Prague could be the worst in the civilized world. Waitresses don't smile, store clerks seem bothered. Customer service is just not something that people are used to here. And it really, really sucks. This is R's pet peeve.

The BO on some locals - All of the department stores in Prague have entire racks devoted to deodorant. And I do believe that the strong majority of the people here do buy and use this product. But that leaves the other 20% of the population. Which may not sound like much, but if you have 20 people in your gym class, that means 4 people are very, very smelly. On the average subway car, you'll get 50 people - which means you'll have 10 people with a massive BO problem. This small minority really has a strong effect on my overall perception of the people in Prague.

The falling dollar - When I arrived here a year ago, 1 US dollar could buy 21.5 Czech korunas. Today, I'm lucky if I can get 18 Czech Korunas for my dollar. Since I get paid in US dollars, that means my salary has effectively been reduced by 16% in the past year. I picked a great time to come to Europe.

All-in-all, it's been a very fun year. The transition to Prague was as easy as can be. I don't now exactly how long we'll stay here - but we're not thinking about that right now. We're just looking forward to start Year #2.