Czeching out Prague

Whenever I visit a new city, I try to find one or two words that best describe my impression of that city. For example, Paris was romantic, with its gardens and froufrou all about. Rome, dotted in its ancient relics, felt very powerful to me. And Vienna, Vienna was just straight up classy.

I don't have any such words for Prague, though. If nothing else, Prague was random - in a good way. I had a lot of fun there but I couldn't find a consistent, unifying theme to remember it by. Other than perhaps the cannot-be-unseen structure with molds of babies crawling up it that towered over the horizon of the city. Yeah, I think random is a fitting word for Prague.

Peeking through another lovelock bridge

The Mole (a cartoon character created by a Czech animator) was ubiquitous. Moley moley moley.

One among hundreds of quaint-looking cafes.

Absinthe ice cream to drown your sorrows into.

One thing was certain: my wallet certainly loved being in Prague. A square meal with a bottle of wine set me back just ten or fifteen euro. A beer at lunch - just one paltry euro, hooray! For the past six months, my bank account has been pillaged by UK prices, so it was a nice respite to see my money stretch far here. Naturally, the boy was a fan as well. 

Czech food was pretty darn delicious. We were fairly lazy when it came to picking restaurants. Most of the time, we just settled for whatever was the most convenient and ordered the "Old Czech Plate" - a glorious assortment of meats and potatoe-y goodness. 10/10 would eat again every time.

That's a sausage, not a carrot.

Oh yeah, at one point we ducked into a Mexican restaurant. I think having we were still having crackamole cravings at this point.

We did the usual rounds of sightseeing...

Not pictured: the guard with the machine gun patrolling the grounds nearby... yikes. 

We got to see the astronomical hand change on the hour. The clock dates back to the early 1400's, how cool is that?!

Old town square, in front of the Church of Our Lady in front of Tyn (yes, that is the church's whole name)

The interior of St. Nicholas church was surprisingly beautiful.

John Lennon wall

St. Vitus cathedral and behind it, the Prague castle.

...with a dash of frolicking.

Captain Jack Sparrow

Jumping pictures are quickly becoming a thing on this blog.

Me, engulfed in hair.

I should also mention that our Airbnb experience in Prague was one of the more memorable ones I've ever experienced. Our host was an expat from California. In addition to being a nice guy and a fine host, he was an convinced that WiFi was dangerous and that after prolonged exposure, one must scrape one's bare feet in the floor of the woodlands in order to purge those pesky Wifi-ian symptoms.

...That's the best part about traveling. You just never know what you'll see or who you'll meet. Visiting new countries - and especially through Airbnb - is an excellent reminder of all the different people and perspectives out there in this weird blue planet we call home.

God bless wiener schnitzel

Day two of Vienna began with a delicious breakfast, as all great days do.

We meandered through the cobblestone streets in search of the Kleines cafe. It was a holiday in Austria. The streets were quiet and many restaurants were closed. Luckily for us, Kleines cafe was open and bustling with patrons...too many patrons, we realized as we scanned the seating area. There were no open tables.

Just as we were about to leave, a woman beckoned us to her table. And I was like,

"Come, sit at my table," she waved with a dazzling smile. "I am about to leave soon anyway, and I don't mind sharing."

We gratefully accepted her offer and took our seats. We learned that she was originally from Serbia but was working in Vienna for a year-long client assignment, which sounded similar our situation in Scotland with ThoughtWorks. She was expecting guests to arrive in Vienna and had wanted to pop out for a quick latte and a few moments' peace in the sunshine before going to pick them up.

You know when you meet someone who is just brimming with liveliness that they inspire you to live a fuller, happier life? This woman had this effect on me. We only sat with her for maybe thirty minutes, but she was so energetic, so full of life and so damn kind. At one point, she bemoaned the fact that she had company that day, otherwise she would have taken us around Vienna and given us a local tour. At another, she noticed my camera and offered to take a picture of us, which we gladly accepted. In retrospect, I regret not getting one with her in it.

After breakfast, we rode bikes to the Belvedere Palace and Museum and frolicked in the gardens.

The palace and the boy.

Intricate statues everywhere!

I wish I could have bottled up some of that sunshine and brought it to Glasgow.

A wild (and puzzlingly) Sphinxangelexhibitionist appears.

We stumbled into a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and slurped down some pho before the next adventure: an afternoon boat trip down the Danube river to Bratislava, Slovakia!

It got windy.

The boat trip took a little over an hour. I was surprised that we weren't asked for our passports when crossing into Slovakia. Later I looked it up and read all about the Schengen Agreement and the Shengen Area. A pretty neat idea, if you ask me.

I'll be honest: Bratislava is not as beautiful as Vienna. But then again, few places are. We spent the afternoon exploring the town square, which was made up of an eclectic mix of buildings both old and new.

This tomb implies that its inhabitant lived from 1600-1845. Impressive!

Hey you, watcha doin?

After having sampled Mexican, Thai and Vietnamese food all over Vienna, I finally tucked in with a plate of Wiener Schnitzel, a speciality of Viennese cuisine and the national dish of Austria. Ironically, I wasn't in Austria when I had it ;)

The verdict? Surprisingly delicious. Similar to a big, flat veal McNugget. And very tasty spritzed with lemon, with a side of mushy veggies, and washed down with a gulp of beer.

I must return and try the Viennese version, though. 

Viva Vienna!

Fun fact: one of the best ways to explore a new city in a limited amount of time is to grab a Big Bus route map, hop on a bike, and take yourself through the sights. There is a ten point bonus if you do so wearing a pineapple shirt!

Studying the route over breakfast accompanied by Austria's famed coffee.

Everything tasted delicious, even his nose.

Vienna is a haven for cycling. They have a stellar bikeshare program that has been in place for over ten years and seems to be enjoyed by tourists and locals alike. Bikes cost nothing for the first hour, one euro for the second, two euro for the third hour and so on. With hundreds of stations around the city, it was a breeze to rent and return them.

And so 'twas with bellies full, bikes checked out, and the sun blazing in her full glory overhead that we set out to see the best of what Wein had to offer.

Lord Voldemort has risen

Golden boy Johann Strauss

Vienna was the epicenter of classical music through the early 19th century. Rockstar (figuratively speaking) composers to the tune of Mozart, Hadyn, Schubert and Beethoven crafted their crescendos into the height of the First Viennese School. Everywhere we looked there were nods to the great composers: museums, grave sites, cafes, gift shops. There were even men dressed in full Mozart regalia - powdered wig and all - wooing tourists to come to their company's orchestral performance that evening.

While I certainly appreciated Vienna's reverence for their composers whose music I'd played for hours on end back in middle school orchestra, it just was too darn beautiful outside to stay in and browse through old dusty tomes of sheet music. There were sunny skies and grass stains and bruises from bumping into my bike pedals waiting for me.

Sorry, Mr. Herman.

Natural History Museum of Vienna. One of approximately eighty trillion fafillion snoopzillion museums in the city.

Taking a break to examine our progress.

I had a lot of caffeine that day.

Austrian Parliament Building. Way to put D.C.'s government buildings to shame.

Cool-lookin' columns

Rathaus, where the major and city council work. The humor of the building's name is not lost on me.

I forget which one this was, so let's call it Spectacularly intricate and beautiful Viennese building #947913037464 

Votive church slicing through the bright blue sky.

As the photos (hopefully) convey, Vienna was a wealth of incredible architecture. It felt like each new building or structure we saw would surpass those before it in grandeur. The ones pictured here were the standouts, but pretty much every single structure in the entire city was spectacular in its own right. You couldn't have found an eyesore if you tried.

After a long morning of biking, we inhaled some Thai food and downed a cold beer each:

And then immediately hopped back onto our bikes for more adventuring.

Stephansdom, the most prominent and important cathedral in Vienna. Fun fact: Vivaldi's funeral was held here.
And Mozart's kiddos were baptized there.

St. Francis trampling a defeated Turk. Just lovely.

The interiors were decidedly much less...tramply.

I assure you that I looked really stupid while taking this picture.

Atlas bro, do you even lift

I call this 'Town Gossip with Birds on Head'

We ended our bike ride in front of the museums quarter and stretched out for a snooze in the sun. 

For dinner we headed to a well-reviewed Mexican restaurant, eager to kick back with a margarita or two and eat our combined body weight in guacamole.

To our dismay, we were told that the restaurant had been booked up as the next day was a national holiday and the post-work crowd was getting their festivities on. Nooooo. It felt like I had been slapped in the face with a giant tortilla. Without even getting to take a bite.

We contemplated our suddenly tragic lives for a few brief seconds. You know the feeling when you get a craving really bad and nothing else - not even pizza, or ice cream, or mac and cheese - can come close to filling that void in your soul? That was us.

We eventually decided to duck back in and see if they would fulfill a take-out order for us. Lo and behold, the waitress greeted us with a big smile and told us she was so relieved that we'd popped back in, because two seats had opened up seconds ago at a shared table!

I was beaming like I'd won the lottery as we took our seats and ordered our drinks. We immediately struck up conversation with three locals who seemed pleased for a chance to practice their English.

At one point they mentioned they worked as software developers. Oh, that's funny - I told them that the boy and I worked in the tech industry as well. But nobody wanted to dwell on the subject of work, so no elaboration ensued.

Then, maybe twenty later, the boy was explaining our year abroad situation when he mentioned "the company we work for, ThoughtWorks - "

"WAIT! ThoughtWorks? Did you say ThoughtWorks?"

"Yeah, erm, it's a private tech consultancy - "

"We know what ThoughtWorks is. Hey [friends' names], did you hear this? These guys work for ThoughtWorks! Ha! Wait, does this mean you have met Martin Fowler? Jez Humble? I have read all their books. Prove to me that you work there!"

It was surreal. I rarely bump into anyone who has heard of ThoughtWorks, much less some strangers in a foreign country! Of course I'm very proud of being a ThoughtWorker and I think it's a kickass company. But this was kind of a 'Woah! Someone else thinks we're pretty neat!' moment, and my first encounter of such kind.

I quickly assured our dinner companions that although ThoughtWorks was home to many luminaries in the tech space, it was also full of normal folks like yours truly, and that hey, we were looking for talent in Glasgow.

They laughed. "Well, let us know when you open an office here in Vienna."

And really, who could blame them? Vienna had been a slice of heaven on Earth that day.

Next up: our second (and last) day in Vienna, and a detour to Bratislava!