Woke up, had a big hearty breakfast, and moseyed to the Prague Congress Centre. I spent most of the day reading and writing. I had to chuckle at the fact I was even here. Just a week earlier there was a 6/7 chance that I’d be somewhere in Northern Norway, but here I was anyway. As the fog dissipated I was able to look out the window at the breathtaking mix of red roofs and 400 year old architecture emerging from the fog – a lot better view than the Seattle convention center.

I walked back to Alena and Vojta’s, took a shower, and then Alena and I walked to one of her favorite eateries. Here I saw one of my favorite pieces of Czech cultural minutiae. Rather than punch each drink order into a computer, they have a piece of paper with a picture of 99 bottles of beer (the song anyone?) and for each bottle of beer ordered they simply cross one off – then at the end of the night they add ‘em all up.

We were at this place from 8-11:30, joined by Alena’s friend Dourka, Daniel, Vojta, Klara, Nadine, Lars, Hurra, and Kevin, coming from the Czech Republic, USA, Slovakia, Sweden, Germany, and Italy! I know I’ve mentioned things are cheap here – but given that Alena and Vojta were hosting me, I wanted to take everyone out. The total cost for 10 people ordering 57 items (food, beer, shooters, cider, etc.) was $103 after tax. This would have been ~$1,000 in Norway. Insane.

Next we went to Old Town to a dance bar. We arrived around 12:30 to a great upbeat scene. Around 2:30 I was getting real tired. Around 3 I was about ready to go. At 3:20 a few of the girls looked at their phones and said, “head out at 4?”. Man these Czech know how to make the good times keep rolling! We left at 4:00, the group was dilly dallying so I said my goodbyes and walked the mile back to Alena and Vojta’s as the sun was starting to inch closer to the horizon. Certainly a memorable day!

NEXT POST