… so after a lengthy hiatus — both from Prague and from the blog — I’m back in full force. In Prague. In my own awesome apartment. Working with my friend Karen (www.artelglass.com) and generally digging my new life as an expat in what is truly one of the coolest cities around.
As of tomorrow, I’m here 3 weeks, and I’m definitely feeling settled in. My neighborhood is basically the same one that I got to know when I stayed with Karen the last 2 times I was here (way back in 2007 and then again in March), and it is easily one of the best locations in town. I’m in Vinohrady, which is a residential area that is super close to the center, but removed enough to be pretty much tourist-free and very chill.
So like I said I arrived here in early June and here it is almost July — and seeing as my last post from Prague was way at the beginning of March we’ve got some catching up to do, don’t we?
For those of you who may just be joining us, a quick synopsis of what I was doing in Czech in March in the first place goes like this: In January, my aforementioned friend Karen invited me out to help her work on a new edition of her amazing guidebook to Prague (Prague: Artel Style), since I had done some editing and wrote the index on the original. Based on this, I planned an exciting 2-week Bohemian beer tour for the end of February, which you can read about in the posts below. However, soon before my planned departure, Karen decided that she really needed to focus on her glass business and store, and put the book project on hold. Although I breifly considered canceling altogether, I was unemployed with lots of time on my hands and a fully planned trip to beer Mecca all mapped out, so I decided to go ahead and come over anyway — stopping along the way for a 5 day visit to Amsterdam, which you can also read about in the posts below. Good times all around. And that basically brings us to my last post in early March…
Following that last post, I spent another 3 1/2 weeks in Prague, working with Karen on a variety of projects that made enough of a positive difference in the operational efficiency of the organization that she decided she wanted me to stay through the summer. Which I was all to eager to do — except that by this time I had applied for a job in NYC and had been invited back for an interview…
So — with an understanding that if I didn’t get the job, I would be coming back to Prague to continue working with Karen on the business, as well as going ahead with our initial plan to research and publish an updated edition of the guidebook — I came back to NYC on April 3 and had my interview 3 days later.
From then until about 6 weeks later, like the 3rd week in May, my world was one of pretty comprehensive uncertainty about the future… I kinda wanted the job, so that I’d have a job and all of the security and whatnot that entails — but I also kinda really wanted to come back to Prague and see how that works out — and everything was contingent on whether they actually offered me the job or not — and that took weeks to find out. Kind of a surreal time, but really no more so than the previous few months had been.
In any case, needless to say, I did not get the gig — so my decision was made, and less than 3 weeks later I was on a plane heading east. And now here I am. It still kinda amazes me, 3 weeks later, to look around me and have it sink in that I am a temporary resident of this groovy old city, and that I have so much time available to really experience it even more thoroughly than before.
Adding to the amazingness was the fact that, on the way over, I was able to spend 3 incredible days in Italy! Holy crap! I spent 2 days in Rome and 1 day in Florence. It was so totally worth it, even for such a short time — and those of you who know me know that visiting Italy has been a dream of mine forever, so I was so psyched to finally be able to get there.
For maximum user-friendliness, I think I will post separate entries about my time in Italia. After that, I’ll throw in a few highlights from the past 3 weeks here in Prague, and then we’ll really be up to date.
In the meantime, I highly encourage you to check out my photos from Italy by clicking here. I will select some for further commentary when I post the details of my trip, but for now these will give you a taste of how freaking beautiful it is over there…
Going forward, I will try to post more often — I should mention that one of my roles in working on the new edition of the guidebook is that I am now in charge of researching and writing a section on Czech beer and Prague pubs / beergardens — so this blog will soon include some of the findings of my exhaustive research efforts for your edification and amusement…
Like for example, you will definitely be reading more about the wonders of my new favorite local pub, Hrom do Police, and the 6 varieties of delicious beer they serve, which cannot be found elsewhere in Prague — and where I’m about to go to meet Karen for a few Sunday evening beers.
So — that’s it for the intro to Untapped Goodness, Mark II.
Stay tuned for more, coming soon…