AMAZING sunset in Cape Town

THe sunset here is incredible. If its full moon people hike up table mountain to see the sunset on one side and the full moon rise on the other side. It's supposed to be a spectacular sight. Too bad we werent there at the right time.

That night we had dinner at a local restaurant that is known for its game meat. OMG, so good. I was with an argentinian colleague who loves meat so he was in heaven. We ordered a mixed grilled plate that had all different meats: steak, ostrich, alligator, kudu, springbok, venison sausage. They were all delicious. The restaurant was called mama africa and was so cool. The decor was definitely african and they had a local band playing reggae. The other thing that we both wanted to both while here was to listen to local bands so it was great. After dinner we moved into the bar area and closer to the band. It was a band of 5 black guys who played all the traditional instruments and a saxephone. They were so good I bought their cd at the end. After dinner we walked up long street to a music club and got to experience another 2 local bands before the night was over. It was 1am before we headed home. I wish we had more time here, there's so much to do.

Death Hike up a mountain

Table Mountain, 3000 ft up

A local at Plalakti Gorge trailhead

Another local!

View from the top

SO happy to have made it!

Federico

9000 miles from home!

Saturday Sept 24

Death hike up Table Mountain
One thing we both wanted to do while in cape town was to hike up table mountain which stands at 3,300 ft. It didn’t sound so high (after all, I hiked the grand canyon!) so we decided to skip the cable car (for a sissy) and hike up through Palakti Gorge. Fed is a strong hiker and did a lot of trekking when he lived in argentina. I do ok but haven’t been hiking too much with this job. But like I said, it didn’t sound too hard, especially since they said it should take about 2+ hours for the hike. I told Fedi upfront that I’m a slow hiker and as I tell Gary all the time, just go ahead and wait for me at the top. Within 5 minutes Fedi was out of sight. It was a warm and sunny day and the trail was 100% exposed. I didn’t have a hat and only had a bottle of water with me. I had some snacks but realized that they were in the daypack that Fedi had insisted on carrying along with my big heavy camera. I was struggling already in the first half hour because the whole trail was made of huge stepping stones at least 1-2 feet high. Halfway there I felt I was in trouble because I was feeling weak and spent. I was drinking most of my water. Fedi was nowhere in sight and I had no choice but continue up. I was sweating so much I knew I was loosing a lot of my body salt and need to eat something for energy. The whole time I was remembering the story of a friend who overestimated her ability and hiked up the grand canyon with only water. She collasped near the top and had to be helicoptered out, she was in a coma for 2 days. I didn’t feel like I could get to the top. For the first time in my life I felt desperate enough to ask someone for some food. So I started to keep an eye on the people coming down. Finally I saw a group of guys coming down with daypacks which means they might have food. I asked them if they had any spare granola bars or snacks. I told them that my husband has all of our snacks and that he was already on the top. They were nice enough to give me a granola bar which I forced myself to eat even though I wasn’t feeling any hunger. Had to ration the water that was left. The sun was brutal and any spots of shade I could find from a bush I would huddle under it for a few minutes and thinking Fedi must be waiting for me and wondering where I was. I didn’t care, I needed to let my body cool down as much as possible otherwise I could collapse with heat stroke. The temp was only in the low 80’s and really pleasant if you are sitting and relaxing in the shade. But I tend to get overheated when I exert myself. The way to the top seemed to take forever and I thought I would never get there since I seem to stop every 5-10 minutes. It was torturous! Can’t describe the feeling of joy and relief when I saw the narrow gorge that led to the top. OMG! It felt glorious to walk on flat land! I found Fedi who was having a good time hanging at one of the points. It’s called table mountain because the top is literally a relatively flat plateau of maybe half mile long. The top was a playground of rock scrambling into different off trail directions with views in all directions. Gary would have loved it.

Before we headed down Fedi noticed a woman carrying a thermos and he got excited. He told me that she was drinking mate, which is a bitter tea that argentinians drink, he was addicted to that stuff and hasn’t had it in awhile. I jokingly said that maybe he should chase after them for a drink of the mate and that was all the encouragement he needed. Next thing I knew he’s walking fast in their direction and started talking to them. THe group of father mother and 2 sons were very friendly and they were indeed from buenos aires. We chatted in spanish for about 20 minutes. In between the woman was putting fresh tea leaves and pouring hot water in a mate cup for Fedi. I've tried that stuff and its too bitter for me.

I usually feel confident about going down and assured Fedi that I could go down the hill with no problem. Well, famous last words. The steps were so high and steep that the going was just as slow and tough. It took forever to get down but at least we were in the shade. This sounds bad but the views on top was so fantastic it was worthwhile. We also felt very proud of doing it, even our local colleagues were impressed we hiked up the mountain. Normal people go up the cable car. Both of us were so sore and it didn't get better for 5 days! Going down the stairs was painful! Still, I was glad I did it. THis mountain is a final candidate to be one of the new wonders of the world so you can imagine how beautiful it is.

Weekend in Cape Town

Ocean view outside my hotel room

Sea Point

Walks along Sea Point

Downtown Cape Town

Sept 23-25

OMG, I love this place! Such a difference from Joburg. Cape Town is on the very southern tip of the African continent, next stop Antartica! Fedi and I flew out on Friday after work so that we could at least have 1 full day Saturday and most of Sunday. Didn’t make any set plans and knew we would have to do some work over the weekend. But who cares, I pictured sitting on a seaside terrace café and writing the report.

Our hotel in cape town
We stayed at a ocean front hotel in Sea Point. Both of us booked rooms with sea view but I got lucky and got a corner room with gorgeous views of the ocean and boardwalk. Since it was already late when we got to our hotel I couldn’t exactly see the water but boy I could hear the sounds of the pounding surf! Had a moment of indecision of keeping the windows open because it was so loud but I decided to keep it open.

The next morning we decided to go to Table Mountain via a double decker hop on hop off bus. So toursity but who cares! Since we didnt have a car it was a nice way to get around and get our bearings. This city was the place where the dutch first settled. The british also came and colonized. Someone told me that Cape Town was lovely and looks like southern california. As if! I almost didn't go because of what she said! This is so much better. Yes the climate is mild and sunny with the ocean like cali but that's about it. THe food, the people the music and the culture makes it quite different.

Lunch on Heritage Day - you want me to eat what?!

African beer

Federico eating Mopani worms, ewww!

Pot of Mopani worms

Chicken feet

Sept 22, Heritage Day at Hnkl

I wanted to remember what we ate for lunch. Even the Whites (Afrikans) would not go near the Blacks food booth! I was hanging at the Blacks booth taking pictures and would see people stopping by and just picking up a worm and popping it into their mouth like it's a snack, gag! BUT we decided that we will at least taste some of it. Federico and I both had the tendons and ox tripe and then I had the chicken feet and he ate the worms, yuck! The ladies also gave us some other dishes like pap with sour milk. I have to admit non of it was especially yummy but at least I tried it! I don't think I will ask for the recipes to these dishes! I took a picture of Federico eating the Mopani worm but it wasnt good so I wanted him to do it again for a better picture, he just looked at me and said don't push it, lol!

The food from the Indian booth was delicious and the steam fish from the Coloured booth was also great. Too bad we were to full to go to the Afrikaner booth but they are the most westernized of the 4 booths and we have had different versions of it in our meals here. It was so much fun, we were treated like VIPs and everyone wanted us to try their food.

These are the 4 different menus, not all are weird and disgusting:

AFRICAN MENU FOR CULTURAL DAY

Ting - Sour Porridge made with Mabele

Umngqusho - Samp & Sugar BeansDumbling

Mogodu - Ox Tripe

Maotwana - Chicken feet with tomato gravy

Masonja - Mopani worms

Morogo – African Spinach

Home made ginger drink

Nama ya Tlhogo - Meat from the cow's head

Phuthu na Masi - Dry pap and sour milkPap

AFRIKANER MENU
Main Course: Potjiekos
•Oxtail
•Chicken
•Lamb
•Biltong
•Lambknuckle
(Served with Rice / Samp)
Dessert:
•Koeksisters
•Milktart

Indian Meal

STARTERS
Indian Chai (Tea) with Naan Katai (Biscuits)

ada (Savoury)

OR Samoosa
MAIN MEAL
Vegetable Breyani served with dhall & salads
OR Mutton Curry with potatoes served with roti or rice.
* Above meals with pickles
DESSERT
Soji
Falooda Milk (Milk Shake)
Vermicilli Milk & papad.
Various sweet meats

Menu for Heritage Day Colored Food
Mutton Bredie with Tamaryn

Baked Snoek (in Foil)

Dessert

Yellow rice with Raisins & Cinnamon

Koeksisters

Lemon beet Slaai

Trifle
Gemmer bier

Colorful Heritage Day at Hnkl

Zulu dance performance

The African ladies serving their traditional meals

Zulu costume

Friday, Sept 22

Today the plant celebrating hnkl friendship day. Since the national heritage day falls on this coming Sunday they decided to combine the 2. Lucky for us that we got to be part of it. I was planning to do a day tour on one of the weekends while we were here but this turned out to be way way better! The festivities started at noon and kept going. People were in their traditional costumes and for lunch each group made traditional meals from their culture. Here I learned that there are 4 distinct ethnic groups. First are the Afrikaners who are the whites, their ancestors are the dutch that came from the Netherlands or the English that came from the UK. Second group were the Blacks who are the indigenous people here, between them are about 9 major tribes including the famous zulu tribe. Third were the Colored, they are all with mixed descents including Asians. If you are a product of a inter-racial marriage then you automatically become a colored person. Third group are the Indians from India. There were 4 food booths that made a multi-course meal for lunch. I am copying the menus below this so I can remember the interesting menue and names of dishes. Well, our colleagues thought that since we are visitors they would give us a meal ticket for the Afrikan meal, since according to them was the most western style of food. The other extreme was the menu from the blacks which included, ox tripe, tendons, meat from a cow’s head and worms!!! Even the afrkaners can’t eat this stuff! Federico and I decided that we wanted to try them all. When would we get this opportunity again?! I told Federico that he must try the worms because another colleague of our has always bragged that he ate monkey meat when he did an audit in china. I think worms will top that!

It was such a fun day. It was set under a huge tent in a big grassy area of the plant. Each group came up to talk about their culture and either did some traditional dance or song. And their costumes, especially the blacks!! I have read that the south African tribes have the most colorful tribal costumes and this was so true. I took so many pictures and still couldn’t get over the excitement of so many beautiful faces and costumes. The day before I asked manie, the head of ops, that it would be wonderful if he could arrange for a group shot of everyone in costume with me and Fedi. One reason is that I could send it to our big boss in germany who likes to post pics like this on our board in the office. The other reason is that it would be an awesome momento for me. They did organize a group shot for us and before they took the picture Fedi decided that he wanted to make a short speech! He introduced himself and explained that he was half german and half argentinian. The ofcourse I had to say something so I explained my heritage and that I now live in the US. Then I felt compelled to add that I’ve always wanted to come to south Africa and is now so excited to be here! Everyone clapped for us, it was so fun

As mentioned we noticed that people tend to segregate themselves so that the whites sit at separate tables and the blacks do the same. Well, we played the ignorant foreigner card and decided to sit with the blacks. Fedi and I basically got up 3 times to get different samples of meals and each time we would go to a black table and asked if we could sit with them. Each time we were welcomed very warmly.People already knew about the 2 of us coming from corporate so we got some special treatment, they all wanted us to try their food. The Indian food was so good and the Indian ladies were telling to just take a sample from the platter with my fingers, so I did. They had meat samosas that was really spicy and delicious. It was already into the afternoon and Fedi had gone back to the office to send out an email to our big boss. I started talking to these 2 young black girls that work in the office. One was zulu and the other was soni. The zulu girl introduced herself as soneni. I commented that her earings were lovely and very colorful. She then asked me how long I will be here because she will bring a pair for me as a gift. I was a little surprised at her offer since we had just met but she insisted as a gesture of friendship. Wow, and all I did was complimented her on her pretty earrings. I cant picture someone back home doing the same! Soneni and Suyi were so curious about my job and how cool it was to travel all over the world. They wanted to know how they can get to do my job so I gave them some career advice. They were very young and saucy, it was very cute. Soneni mentioned that the way of dress from her zulu tribe is too revealing for hnkl dress code. Apparently they are used to wearing minimal clothing!

By this time I lost any shyness and was asking everyone about their costume and they were all very proud to show and explain to me. It was a nice party.

This was one of the best experiences so far. Federico and I agreed that this was even better than doing a tour because you are also hanging out with the locals.

Spring time in JBurg

Spring flower named "Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow"


Local resident at the guesthouse

I loved the name of that flower! It's called that because it changes color in its life cycle - it starts out as white then the color deepens as it blooms, so cool! And the frangrance is incredible, you smell it before you see it. It's spring here so the flowers are in full bloom. The resident bird is one of the loud ones. Every morning between 5:30 to 6 I get woken up to a profusion of bird sounds. Reminds me of when we were in costa rica.

The week is becoming more intense and we have a lot of work ahead of us. In between I am learning so much about this country. There are 11 national languages here! Almost everyone knows english because it's taught in school (good for me!). One colleague knows 9! How is that possible?! I get my french and spanish mixed up a lot so I can't imagine speaking 9!
Even thought apartheid law are no longer in place here its influence is still evident. The population consist of whites (european descent), blacks (africans) and colored (mixed races like indian or asian. Currently about 80% are blacks, 10% are whites and the rest are colored. Given that you can still see that the lower level jobs including labor are done by blacks and the administrative jobs are whites. It feels like I'm back in the US during the 1950's! When we eat lunch in the cantine Federico and I noticed that the groups are clearly segregated. It does not matter if the person is black and works in the office, he is sitting with the black people. We have yet to see a mixed table. Now I'm thinking if they think it's strange that I'm sitting with white people because I'm considered a colored person! We are dying to ask these questions but figured we will wait to know our colleagues a little better. Before coming here I read that apartheid topics are very sensitive and to not bring it up in conversation!
When I read the history of apartheid in this country it's amazing to realize how such a small percentage of the population could have gotten away with such a degree of injustice. These apartheid laws were established to clearly give white people preferential treatments in every part of life, the statistics are crazy.http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html This topic has mostly been on the edge of my consciousness but now I have an opportunity while here to see and hear about it first hand. I now know it's very different from racial discrimnation as I knew it at home. It's much more harsh and unjust.

Our beautiful guesthouse in JB

View from my room terrace

The outdoor cabana

The breakfast room

View of back patio

View outside my room

I love love love our guesthouse. It's like a B&B but with lots more services. I was responsible for picking our accommodations so it was a change to our usual big hotels. It's in a very nice neighborhood and we drive against traffic to the plant. That's very good because traffic is horrible if you are going the other way, I think it's even worse than LA! Our drive is about 20 minutes and it's crazy to see the other side at a dead stop going into city center of Johannesburg. OK back to our guesthouse. The owners live onsite with their kids but you never see them unless you need to. The owner Jane greeted us when we got back from the office yesterday. She asked us our plans for dinner and like the night before we decide to order in. This sounds bad but it's such a nice service. I guess it's a standard service here in the city where you have menus from various restaurants with all kinds of cuisines but once you choose you call a centralized number where they take your order and then will coordinate with the restaurants and the delivery. Once the food is delivered Jane would pay and add to our hotel bill, put the food on a nice plate and silverware and put it out on the patio for us. What service! This way we get the food from a restaurant without losing the time of waiting for our food. AND we are eating dinner in a fantastic oasis. They have such a beautiful back patio with table and lounge chairs and a huge flat screen TV and a wet bar based on the honor system. The weather here is just like california in winter, very cool at night and warm and sunny in the day. I was expecting some humidity but had no idea it would be so nice. We are in the southern hemisphere so it's spring here. This means everything is starting to bloom.

Our breakfast is a beautiful feast. Everything is homemade and fresh. Even the jam and preserves are made by the owner's mother. Besides the typical cold breakfast and fruit they also make fresh cheese biscuits or scones and fruit smoothie and they will also make you a hot breakfast on order. My towels are soft just like at home and I wake up to a symphony of exotic birds. By 7am when I am skyping with Gary the birds have quieted down but he could still hear them!

However, because the city being what it is, the guesthouse, like all other nice houses in the neighborhood, makes you feel like you are in an embassy. You have to drive through 2 metal gates to get to the house and the walls surrounding the house have electrical wires on top. It's safe to be outside during the day but we are told to take a cab at night. The houses around this area reminds me of brentwood or beverly hills in cali, they are huge! Our guesthouse has 6 bedrooms for the guests and the owners and their family live in the detached "guesthouse".

Last night Jane's 9 year old daughter, Victoria, wanted to help out so she brought my dinner to me in the backyard. She is so cute, I'll have to take a picture of her before I go.

Right now, it's 7pm, dark and I'm sitting in the patio in my fleece and socks working on my laptop, listening to the crickets and frogs. Nice!

In the air again..but my seat had a built in massage!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Yes, in the air again and this trip is a doozy. 5 hours to the east coast and then onto an international flight to Johannesburg for 16 hrs! This might be the longest haul for me. I think the flight to asia was only 12+ hours at a time. It’s all good though. I am super excited because this is one of my bucket list trip. A photo safari in south Africa! Never thought I would get to cross this off the list since I've been talking about it for years and years. My bucket list has things that are goals (hike the grand canyon, check), stretch goals ( jumping out of a plane, check check and check), and then there are dreams that are nice to have ( climb everest, photo safari in Africa). So excited. I have to go through 3 weeks of work first before I go on the safari. I don’t mind that though because as before, it will be so interesting to learn the culture, people and ofcourse the food! We are breaking the normal routine and staying at a nice guesthouse on the outskirts of Johannesburg (JO). It’s well known that the city of JO can be dangerous especially at night. It’s not like the other places I’ve traveled to where we can stroll through town for dinner after work. There are nice big chain hotels closer to the city but it would mean a longer commute to the plant everyday due to traffic and we would not be able to step foot outside the hotel in the evening. It sounds bad but I’m hoping for the best. Actually when my nieces and I went to Rio we read that it was a very dangerous place and that people have gotten robbed in broad daylight. We had no issues because we traveled smart which mean no flashy clothes or jewelry. Our guesthouse is in a boomed-off neighborhood which means it’s a secured area. I know I’ll have to turn up my awareness level. One thing I know for sure it will be a totally different experience.

I was glad to at least be home for our anniversary yesterday. 11 years! During dinner we reminisced about our fun honeymoon in British Columbia. Gary remembers the smell of wilderness and moss and chopping up our own wood for the fireplace in our cabin. I remembered the bear we saw! It was such a cool place, I have the link to the lodge on my laptop for the past year and plan to go back there for one of our anniversary celebration.

Last night out on the town

Thurs Sept 8

Hooray! It’s over! Our final meeting lasted 5 hours but we got agreement on everything. It’s a tough one this time but we had a big team. Plus the big boss came Monday night and planned to be at the meeting for support if needed. It was fun to have him around, a big robust german. After we got back to the hotel it was another 2 hours before dinner so WE and I went for a drink at a local bar.It was local because it wasn’t in old town and no pretty decorations. Just a few long bench tables outside that you share with whomever and a pint of local beer only cost 1 euro.
A celebratory dinner tonight and the big boss had planned to take us out to the ufo restaurant. The view at the top (83 meters) was supposed to be fantastic, and you pay for it!
It was a nice stroll from our hotel through old town and across the bridge to the ufo tower. View of Bratislava at night is beautiful. The weather was nice a chilly I had to wear my little sweater, how great is that! Nice view of the castle from below. We had a great dinner, very fancy and the restaurant was all glass. Once in a while you will literally feel a little vibration as if it was swinging. I tried not to think about it. Funny moment when Sawanaka ordered cauliflower soup with potatos & lobster. When they brought out the bowl Sawa looked at it with puzzlement. The bowl did not have any liquids in it, just potatos and some lobster. AND they didn’t give him a spoon! What kind of soup doesn’t have broth? Well, a minute later the waiter came by with a small pitcher and poured cauliflower soup into the bowl over the lobster. Talk about pomp! We had waiters pouring evian water from weird looking water pitchers. The views in the restaurant was incredible, we were so high up with 360 views. Still, I knew there had to be an observation deck because people pay to go up and take pictures only. From inside the restaurants the pictures don’t come out well because of the reflection from the windows. Finally asked the waiter and sure enough you have to walk up another flight of stairs to go on a deck. No one wanted to go up into the cold except me and Sawa who wanted to go up there before he drinks too much wine and accidentally fall over, lol! The wine was flowing and we had a lot of fun. Clay once asked me if it felt weird being on a team with all guys and I said no, it’s kind of fun. We really bonded, especially being together for 4 weeks. I hope Lars and his wife come visit in phx, would love to show him the grand canyon. He was trying to make it work for xmas time, we had lots of fun bantering back and forth. I think he will get along well with G.

WE was not the typical german when it comes to sharing food, meaning they don’t share. Germans tend to be more formal and when they order their food, it’s their food. There’s no trying other people’s dishes. But WE likes to do that a lot with us. If I expressed interest in whatever he’s eating he would always cut me a piece and hand it over with his fork. And he’s usually so formal! Lars on the other hand is the typical german. He’s brought up to not even look at other people’s dishes since it’s considered rude. WE ordered antelope so ofcourse he cut me a piece to try (not so great to me). I then turned to Lars next to me to ask if he would like to try and ofcourse he said no. I insisted and put a small piece on his plate, which freaked him out. That little piece of meat sat on his plate for so long I really didn’t think he would eat it. It must have killed him for me to do that but I did it on purpose for a little fun! But yes he did finally eat it when I wasn’t looking. I tried Clay’s beef carpachio which I didn’t care for, the veal was so tender but still, it was raw!
Everyone did come up on the observation deck to check out the view and some goofing off with pictures. We were going to take a taxi back but it was such a nice night we decided to walk. Stefan and I were laughing at Clay & WE bonding and walking arm in arm. The guys decided to go for another drink but it was already midnight and I still hadn’t packed yet and we were leaving the next morning for the Vienna airport.

Great audit experience, had some fun memories and made some good friends. One week at home and it’s on to south Africa!

Last week of audit!

Sept 6

Interesting dinner tonight. We decided on something different and went to a place called Rockbar. That’s a first clue that it’s not a traditional Slovakian restaurant. I think the guys picked it because the waitresses wore short school girl dresses but they, that’s just a guess. It was a nice place, big with lots of rooms, lots of guitars hanging on the wall and ofcourse loud rock music. Of all places we had a long conversation about life, love and marriage. Clay, the only single guy in the group was so confident about never getting married and not believing in love that the rest of us set out to explain to him why he should and that you can actually be in a relationship and be happy. He didn’t believe us. Quiet Sawa from japan was telling us how his wife just knows how to get him to go a certain way and steer his thinking. But in then in the end he said he doesn’t mind and if his family is happy, he’s happy. Awww! Lars tried to tell clay that he used to think the same way and that he doesn’t need to get married, until he met his wife. Awww! Then Stefan jumps in to say that he in the 8 yrs they’ve been married and only argued a handful of times. Aww! It was a love fest but I don’t think we convinced clay.

My spa weekend in budapest :-)

View of the pool from above treatment rooms


View of the pool from the relaxation room

I did pick this hotel because of its royal spa and boy, it was worth it! Heavenly! The Royal Spa (as it was called) at the corinthian hotel was all marble and stones. The crown jewel was the 50 feet pool. Jacuzzis occupied 2 corners as well as saunas and steam rooms. Then along 2 quiet corridors were comfortable lounge chairs. The pools and saunas had infinity edges on all sides and the water is alway overflowing. The resulting sound effects while you are there is heavy cascading waterfalls. I'm not generally a jacuzzi fan but this one could not be missed. They had jets so strong I felt I had to hold on to the rim so I don't go crashing into other people! They allow kids in the spa from 11-3 so I just make sure i"m not there during those hours. It was so nice there I decided to forgo the planned night walking and boat tours and book a treatment and spend more time relaxing. Hey, I know my priorites! The next day I asked for a late checkout and spent a few more hours in the spa, it was so much more quiet and I felt I had the place to myself.

I thought phx had the best resort spas but this one really rivals it!

Taking pics with a local in Prague

A free peek into the famous jewish cemetery

Yep, 2 figures peeing

One of many interesting door knockers in the city

Unique figures on each small block used for postal purposes

Monday, Aug 29.

It's a public holiday today in slovakia so we had the day off hence my decision to stay another day, sweet!

I thought prague was a great place to sign up for a photo tour. My guide tomas was a local but has lived and worked in nyc. He took me places that were away from the main tourist sites. It's fine with me since I've already seen the touristy places the days before. I've discovered that prague has many courtyards that connects one street to another. You can criss cross your way around town without having to be on the main (and crowded) streets. It was very nice because tomas was very enthusiastic about showing me his favorite of the city.

I remember asking gary how he remembered prague when he was there years ago. He told me that it was a nice city but there was a mixture of dark with light, new and old. He was there after he finished college. When I mentioned this to Tomas he said that made sense because it was soon after the revolution. During the german and russian occupation the city was left in disrepair. The streets themselves it not have much lighting so it was dark at night. Also in the 80's their was a period of acid rain which put a soot type of coating on the buildings, making everything look old and depressing. But over the last 15+ years the city went through a transformation so that it's become one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Even my german colleagues told me this.

Tomas told me that prague, vienna, budapest, bratislava are all siblings meaning they shared a lot of history. Even bratislava and prague was part of the same country before 1990. He was proud to say that czech was the more industrial part of the country while slovakia was more dependent on agriculture. Over the years after the split, it was czech that got rich and successful while slovakia became the poorer neighbor.

One funny moment was when tomas took me to a small quiet courtyard with the 2 copper figures peeing as the top part of their body rotates. They are peeing into a small pool that was made into the shape of slovakia. How mean! What's funnier is watching people's reaction as they pass by and realize what they were looking at! Tomas insisted I took 2 pictures to prove to gary that they were moving. So I got 2 pictures of these 2 peeing, very nice!

After our tour tomas invited me for a quick lunch at his favorite "fast food" place, the Bohemian Bagel. It's a very popular place where you can get bagel sandwiches. They boil the bagels (similar to ny bagels?) and not baked. It was really good!

Tomas is a young photographer who got his start in nyc. After 4 years he realized he didn't like the fast track and decided to do weddings locally. Because of his past connections he's made a nice name for himself and only does upscale weddings. What's so great is that he only needs to work during the summer season and travels the rest of the year. He described to me some of the living conditions of the country. All is paid for you (medical care, education, etc) but your salary is very low. It's controlled by the state so even a doctor does not make that much. If you become a doctor your motivation is not money.