Oslo

From Dublin we made our way up to Oslo on Scandinavia Airlines. This was our first time on SAS and were quite impressed with their efficient service. We arrived early evening and made our way by train to the area where our apartment that we rented through AirBnB was located. We stayed in a beautiful 1 bedroom apartment in the Aker Brygga area, which we later learned is a pretty posh area and is a popular area for professional athletes to live....not that we'd recognize any Norwegian professional athletes, but perhaps we brushed elbows and didn't even know it. The neighbourhood is a peninsula and is filled with shops, restaurants, residential apartments and some office buildings. The train station was about a 15 minute walk from the apartment and knowing that the area is closed to traffic and that taxis cost a pretty penny we decided we'd walk it. Z had purchased a sim card when we first arrived in Europe and this gave us access to GPS without running an exorbitant roaming bill. It proved to be extremely useful throughout entire trip and saved us from getting lost a few times. 

I'm not really sure what I expected for a Nordic country, but I found it cold in Oslo. After we settled into our apartment, our AirBnB host wished us a good evening and suggested we go enjoy dinner on a patio on that beautiful summer evening. Z and I walked around a little and saw all the locals sitting on the patios enjoying themselves immensely while we were both rather cold and decided sitting inside would be better for us. We enjoyed a lovely Italian dinner that first night. Yes, not exactly local cuisine, but we had just arrived and the restaurant was packed and the food looked really good. Which it was, but we got our first taste of how expensive Norway really is. We shared a margarita pizza and a risotto, each had a glass of wine and were astonished at the bill. But we were on vacation and knew that Norway would be the most expensive leg in this trip so we just blissfully ignored it....OK, I blissfully ignored, I could tell Z was going the exchange math in his head. We determined that it's around 4x more expensive there than it is back home. So we set out to find as many free or inexpensive things we could do for our 2.5 day stay there. 

We decided to buy a 24-hour Oslo Pass which gave us entry access to over 30 museums and free public transport....there are other perks but these were the two we were after. We ended up visiting the Nobel Peace Centre which celebrates Nobel Peace Prize winners. From there we walked along the waterfront, passed City Hall and to Akershus Castle and fortress; a medical castle from around 1300AD. The castle and fortress was originally built to protect Oslo, but has also been used as a prison. It is now used for official events and dinners for dignitaries and foreign heads of state. It is open to the public and you can walk around different parts. 

Just a short walk from the fortress are the ferry docks and from there we took a ferry across the Oslo Fjord to Bygdoy so we could visit the Norwegian Maritime museum and the Polar Ship fram museum. With Norway has over 25,000km of coastline making it the 8th country in the world with the longest coastline and it's no wonder that it is one of the world's leading maritime nations. Also not surprising then is that they would have several nautical museums. The Norwegian Maritime museum gave us a good look at the seafaring culture of Norway. On display are numerous different model vessels used in Norway over the years. We travelled along the Norwegian coast via a panoramic video presentation. 

The Polar Ship fram museum houses two of the world's most famous polar exploration ships, the Fram and Gjoa. You can walk onto the Fram and get a taste of what the ship was like and the confined working and living spaces. To think that these ships were used to explore the Arctic and Northwest Passage in the late 1800's and early 1900's is just amazing. A 15 minute walk from there is the Viking Ship Museum which displays the archaeological finds 3 viking ships including the completely whole Oseberg ship. 


We really wanted to see Holmenkollen ski jump, so after a wonderful lunch on the waterfront, we hopped onto a ferry to bring us back to Aker Bryggs and made our way to the train station. Holmenkollen is quite the site to see. We arrived a little late but during the summer it's set up with a zip line from the top. To get to the top you have to take an elevator, but once up there you have an amazing 360 degree panoramic view of Oslo. It's quite breathtaking. Inside you will also find the world's oldest ski museum and it was quite fascinating to see old wooden skis that were used in competitions. 

We also ended up in the latest Oslo City Hall which opened in 1950 just in time for the city's 900th anniversary. Adorned on the walls of the central hall are motifs depicting Norwegian history, culture and working life. City Hall is one of Oslo's most famous buildings because each year on December 10th the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held there. 

Oslo is a mix of old architecture and new modern architecture. A good example of new architecture is the Oslo Opera House. The angled exterior is made to look like it is rising from out of the water. Construction started in 2003 and was completed ahead of schedule and under budget in 2007. The architecture of the building is such that it allows for people and in fact invites people to walk up the roof and enjoy beautiful panoramic views of the city. 

We made a trip to a town called Drobak which lies at the narrowest point of Oslo Fjord. It's about a 1.5 hour ferry ride from the docks in Oslo. This quaint town is known for its 18th and 19th century wooden houses and for the region's all-year Christmas house. I can only imagine what this town looks like snow covered in the winter....probably a little like somewhere where Santa Claus might live. In fact he might actually live there and spend his summers providing information to tourists at the town's tourist centre while making his way through the pile of letters addressed to him. Walking around the town's main attractions didn't take too long...we had planned to stay the day there but it started to rain a little and we really did finish exploring in just over an hour and so luckily the return ferry was leaving at the same time so we caught it back to Oslo.

Like our other two stops in this adventure, we did a free walking tour in Oslo. Hats off, or perhaps better to say hats on....to our guide who took us around the city despite the cold and rainy conditions. It was a very informative walking tour that took us around to some of the well known sites like the Royal Palace, the National Gallery, and the Parliament. This tour provided enough insight to determine whether at some other point in your stay you'd like to go back to any of these places and tour them more.

Another popular attraction is located in Frogner Park. This beautiful park houses the world's largest collections of sculptures made by a single artist. The artist, Norwegian sculpture Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures all depict humans and appear to be expressing the many different emotions that we as humans feel...not sure if that was the intent, but that is what we settled on as the meaning. The sculptures are immaculate and are all made of either granite, bronze or wrought iron. It is fascinating walking along the path that leads up to the Monolith Plateau where you find the Monolith totem that is meant to represent the circle of life. This is a main attraction at the park, but the park itself also provides plenty of open space, 45 hectares, for people to enjoy. We saw families enjoying picnics, runners out for their evening run, friends and families enjoying each other's company. It looked like a serene place in the middle of the city to get away from it all.

Oslo was a great stop. The city has a lot to offer tourists with plenty of things to do rather inexpensively. The transportation system is very good with trains, trams and buses that will take you pretty much anywhere. The city is pretty walkable too and we stayed in just the right area to be able to walk around to most of the attractions we wanted to see. There is probably a lot more that we didn't get a chance to explore, but our visit gave us a good taste of what Oslo has to offer.

Dublin

Dublin is the capital and the largest city in the Republic of Ireland. We really enjoyed our time here and had some time to explore after our races were done. We decided to do a free city walking tour through the same group as in Prague. Our guide was Carl, a native Dubliner. He was a great storyteller and provided us with a great overview of several of the main sights in Dublin and some history of Ireland and its struggles for independence. Our meeting point was city hall, but our first real stop was Dublin Castle, just around the corner. Started in 1204 and finished by 1230, the castle served as a defensive fortification for the city and later as the royal residence. Nowadays it hosts formal State visits and inauguration ceremonies for the elected Presidents of Ireland. Fire severely damaged the castle in 1684 and most was demolished and rebuilt except for the Records Tower which remains standing today. 

The castle has a very different look from your typical European medieval castles which date back to the 1200's because of the fire. The Dubhlinn Gardens is a circular garden situated just behind the castle and has a touch of Celtic nationalism within its design. By just looking at the garden one would never know that it is also designed as a helicopter landing pad in the centre. It's a peaceful place to enjoy some down time and I would never have known it was there. From here we continued on through to an alleyway where a scene from the movie P.S. I Love You was shot. I love that movie because it has so many beautiful scenes in Ireland. We made our way to the Temple Bar district past the Christ Church Cathedral and past the Clarence Hotel which is owned by U2's Bono and The Edge. Unfortunately for me no chance encounter happened. Temple Bar is a district within Dublin's city centre that many tourists confuse with being a bar...it is true that there is a bar called Temple Bar within the Temple Bar district and they lucked out that the area was named that after they opened. Food and drink in this area is rather overpriced according to the locals, but there is no shortage of great atmosphere that is worth experiencing even if you end up paying a little more. Our tour ended on the grounds of the impressive Trinity College. 

The college was founded in 1592 and the main buildings all face inwards. The Old Library is home to the Book of Kells, a lavishly decorated copy of the four gospels written in Latin. The library is also the legal deposit library for Ireland and holds the rights for the United Kingdom which means that the library is entitled to receive a copy of any published material within Ireland and the United Kingdom for free. On another day we went back to the library to view the Book of Kells and the library. The library's long room is most impressive at 65 metres long and holds roughly 200,000 of the library's oldest books from floor to ceiling. Marble busts of different famous writers line either side of the room.

We did a tour at the Whiskey Museum where we learned the history of Irish whiskey making and how it came about. I'm not a whiskey fan, so the tasting portion of the tour was enjoyed by Z. He got to sample four different types of whiskey and learned that some whiskies actually taste better with a drop or two of water.

The Guinness factory is located in Dublin and was a short tram ride away. It only made sense that we also tour the factory while here because this is the only place you'll taste the freshest of fresh Guinness. We did a self tour and part of it included an opportunity to learn how to pour a perfect pint of Guinness. It takes about 119 seconds to complete the perfect pour and this includes settling the initial pour prior to topping it up. It was pretty cool to have an opportunity to pour my own pint and it tasted that much better while on the observation floor overlooking Dublin city.

On our last evening we decided to have dinner at The Bank Bar and Restaurant. This is an elegant bar and restaurant with live piano music. The building as the name implies was originally a bank with the building built in the late 1890's. The Victorian interior boasts stunning stain glass ceiling, mosaic tile floors, pillars of marble and intricate hand carved plaster works and cornicing and served as the main banking hall. In the basement, you can still find the bank vaults, though no longer used, they sit locked. This place was definitely worth the visit and having dinner there.

We had a load of craik in Dublin...now before this gets too misunderstood the term craik in Ireland means having lots of fun, or having a great time. So yes we had a load of craik!! The weather cooperated for us especially on the run days. While Dublin is an old city there are traces of modern throughout. It was nice to see that they do not allow high rise buildings to be built and this provides a nice unobstructed view of the cityscape when on a higher floor. I learned there are way more Irish expats around the world than actually live in Ireland....a lot of this had to do with some tough economic times Ireland experienced over its history. Not sure if this one is true, but there are more cattle than people in Ireland?!? Dublin is expanding its Luas tram lines and the downtown core is a bit of a messy construction zone. The plan apparently is to make the downtown car free. Our hotel was perfectly located in the city centre and made it very easy to walk to and get to all areas that we were visiting. All in all this as a fantastic stop as part of our vacation. It will hold a very special place forever in my memory as the place I completed my first half marathon.

Day trip to Northern Ireland

We wanted to see a little more than just Dublin, so Z found a day tour to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. The day started quite early to catch the tour bus thankfully a short walk from the hotel. Our tour was through Irish Day Tours and our guide and driver was the very entertaining storyteller Jim. He made the long drive quite fun and interesting. Our tour brought us first to The Dark Hedges, or more famously known as the Kings Road in Game of Thrones. The road is lined with ancient beech trees whose branches have grown intertwined with one another forming a canopy over the road. It's quite a sight to see, Game of Thrones fan or not. 

Our next stop was Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge near Ballintoy in County Antrim. This suspension bridge is roughly 20 metres long and is 30 metres above the rocks below. The bridge links the mainland to a tiny island called Carrickarede which gives you amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean and breathtaking cliff side coastline of the mainland. The wind was blowing quite hard which made walking across the bridge that much more interesting. It was actually a little scary and I found myself holding on with both hands and looking down at my steps but also being able to see the rocks below....maybe not the best idea when the thoughts going through my mind where: I hope I make it across.

From here we made a quick lunch pit stop at a great little restaurant called The Giant's Barn Cafe, where the food tasted like home cooked comfort food, before we arrived at the Giant's Causeway.


The main attraction of the tour was the Giant's Causeway which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site is a geological wonder with over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns most of which are hexagon in shape. We heard a few times during our time in Dublin that the Irish don't let the truth get in the way of a good story, so as the story goes, the Giant's Causeway is steeped in myth and legend and is the making of giant Finn McCool who was trying to build a causeway across the North Channel so he could meet and battle the Scottish giant Benandonner. Regardless of how these rocks ended up in the formations and piles they sit today, this is an incredibly impressive site to visit with the Atlantic Ocean right there in the background.

After the Giant's Causeway, we drove to Belfast city centre and had about an hour to explore. Unfortunately we were quite behind in our schedule and arrived late in Belfast after some of the main attractions in the city centre were closed for the day. We were all pretty tired by this time, so we just walked around a little and found the iconic Crown Saloon. This pub dates back to 1885 and the interior decor, stain glass windows and woodwork are most impressive. The place was crowded with locals and tourists alike so we didn't stay for a drink.

This was a great day with lots to see and explore. It was well worth it, and our driver Jim made it even more interesting with all his storytelling....whether truth or just story.

Rock'n'Roll Dublin

From Prague we flew Aer Lingus to Dublin. This is my second time flying the Irish airline and both times the flight was delayed. It was somewhat predictable that our flight would be late because we found a flight tracker that showed over the last week this particular flight was averaging about 30 minutes late. After waiting in a long queue to drop off our luggage, they only had two agents working the counter for a reasonably sized aircraft, going through immigration was a breeze. The security check was right at the gate which I thought was a little strange, but Prague is a safe city and I guess they don't have any reasons for any other system.

The flight was roughly 3 hours which brought us into Dublin around 7pm on a Friday evening. Thankfully our luggage arrived and was out relatively quickly so we could get to our hotel, settle in and meet up with our friends who also traveled to Dublin to run. This first evening we went to the Temple Bar area and found a restaurant called O'Sheas where we had a good first taste of Irish food; I ordered Guinness beef stew and Z ordered the Irish stew. Mine was incredibly tasty and made me think that adding Guinness to my stew back home is a must do. The Guinness certainly tastes 100% better in Ireland.


The next morning we were up and off to run our 5km run as part of the Dublin Rock'n'Roll Marathon remix challenge- running two races in two days. I've done a remix challenge once before but it was a 5/10km distance vs this time being a 5/half marathon (21.1km). What was I thinking outside of being crazy and getting two extra medals!! The 5km route was in Phoenix Park and because we arrived later on Friday we had to pick up our race bibs the morning of the race. This was a little stressful for me because I felt we were a little rushed in getting to the race, finding our pick up place, final bathroom stop and getting to the start. In the end everything worked out just fine, we ended up getting a bit of a warm up jog in to get our bibs and get back to the start, but we made it with some time to spare. I think I really need to work on worrying a little less. The race was a good route, mostly flat but with a couple gradual hills. The three of us, Z, Viv, and I ran together and finished in 30 minutes. Not bad for taking it easy as Z and Viv said. I have to mention though that I crossed the finish line before Z but his official time is 1/100 of a seconds faster than mine. Go figure!?!

The 5km run happened to land on my birthday and that morning my wonderful Z gave me my awesome birthday card which had a button attached to it which said "one year sexier"! I ended up wearing this button during the race which made him very happy! After the race we had lunch at a great place called Queen of Tarts. I had an amazing butternut squash and roasted red pepper soup with a chicken sandwich while Z had the avocado and bacon pie and we both ordered fresh lemon iced tea. The food here was fabulous and reminded me of " home cooking". This place is also well known for their desserts and pastries and we couldn't resist ourselves so we ordered a vanilla swirl cupcake and carrot cake for take away. Very yummy when we finally ate them the next day. We needed to get to the race expo to pick up our half marathon packets so we parted ways with our friends for the afternoon. The expo was at Trinity College, a stones throw from our hotel, the Dublin Westin. The expo was quite small but we still managed to buy a couple token souvenir items because this was my first half marathon. We spent a little time walking around along the River Liffey before deciding it was better to rest up for the big day. It was later afternoon at this point and still about an hour and half before our dinner reservation. I was starting to get a little peckish and said I wanted to go back to the hotel to have a couple snacks we had in the room. Little did I know a surprise was waiting for me when we got back. I don't know when or how he did it, and like usual he won't tell me, but when we got back to our room there was a lemon cheesecake slice with a chocolate happy birthday sign sitting on the desk with two forks. He really does treat me amazingly!!! I'm really lucky. It was a really good cheesecake and yes I did share. It was a very nice treat and I felt no guilt eating it right before dinner!!

I had found an Italian restaurant called Toscana before we travelled over. They offer a 3-course menu option for a set price before 6:30pm so we had made a 6pm reservation. The food here was very good. I wish they explained that they charge for water before we ordered 3 bottles because that was a bit of a surprise when we received our check. I ordered the bruschetta which came on very thick bread, the linguine with meatballs and a panna cotta for dessert. Z had the fish balls, also the linguine and the tiramisu for dessert. This meal was just what I needed to carb up before the race the next day. We didn't do much more that evening besides prepare for the next morning which included laying our our running gear, making sure we knew where and which team to catch and making sure we got a good night's sleep. The sleep piece was a problem however. After our first night in Prague, I've been having significant trouble falling asleep. I usually wouldn't fall asleep until 2 or 3am which just wouldn't be OK this night. During this week of insomnia I really couldn't figure out what my problem was....I didn't think the jet lag would last that long....I think my subconscious was getting the better of me and was stressing about the run because once the run was done I slept just fine every night after in Dublin. Long story short it did still take me awhile to fall asleep the night before the race but because we went to bed earlier I still got a sufficient amount of sleep.

Race morning started with a 6:30am wake up. With everything I needed laid out the night before, getting ready was quite simple. I was just about to run a half marathon so no morning shower was really necessary.....just needed to get dressed. Pre-race food consisted of a banana and a couple handfuls of Cheerios with a little water. I was ready for the race, physically and mentally and I felt good. From there it was meet up our friends and walk to the tram station. The tram was jam packed with other runners but we managed to get ourselves on and arrived at the start area in very good time. It was a coolish morning with the wind blowing quite steadily. The clouds overhead were quite daunting and threaten rain for a good amount of time. After gear check, we queued up in a very long line at The Gibsons hotel nearby to use the facilities one last time before the start. I'm sure the hotel staff were thrilled to see hundreds of runners line up through their lobby to use the restrooms. They didn't say anything which was nice. There was a very cool mural of Bono and The Edge in this hotel and of course I had to get a picture because this was closest chance of "seeing" Bono.


Z and our friend Bry are both faster runners than me but we decided that we would all start in the same corral even though I was supposed to start in corral 11. With the wave start I would have started a good 15-20 minutes after them which would have put me at a much later overall finish time. We all "snuck" into corral 5 even with the race announcer saying with only 30ish seconds before the race started that everyone should line up their assigned corrals otherwise their timing chips wouldn't work. This was just mean to announce just before the start and particularly because it isn't true! Race started at 8:30 and we were off, starting at the Docklands and running along the River Liffey on the north side. Just before the 1.6km mark we crossed over one of the city's many bridges to the south side still running along the river, past the Guinness brewery, Christ Church Cathedral, and briefly into the beautiful park grounds of Royal Hospital Kilmainham before continuing through residential areas and past the Longmeadows pitch and putt and continuing along St Laurence's Rd before crossing over the River Liffey again and running along the road bordering Phoenix Park before entering the park and finishing the last 8km in the park. Overall the scenery of the route was beautiful with all the old architecture in the city centre and riverfront and because it was all new to me it helped keep my mind interested and focussed. The wind was at times quite strong and challenging particularly when it was a head or cross wind. It didn't rain except for a few minor sprinkles right at the beginning but it didn't last.

I had a very good run....I didn't have any aches or pains, no cramping, no feeling of needing to walk and didn't hit any mental walls. I was very proud of myself and very thankful for Z's supportive coaching in getting me ready for this day!! I finished my race in 2:18 beating my target of 2:30.


As with all Rock'n'Roll races, there is music blasting at the start line and they have bands or DJ's along the course. The bands along the course were all local bands and quite good!! I made an effort to either clap or give them the thumbs up because that can't be an easy gig especially on this morning where there was a constant blistery wind.

After the half there was a 3km family fun run which our friends, their 17 month old and Z signed up for. I thought this was a great race idea they had to encourage runners' kids to get into running.

After all races were done, we made our way back to the city centre and found an Insomnia Cafe where I had an amazing flat white and the best tasting pistachio macaroon as a snack before our lunch at Hanleys Cornish Pasties in the Temple Bar area. I had the chicken tikka pastie and Z had the mint lamb. This place was a great find and taste for money was right up there. Definitely a place to visit while in Dublin!!


After satisfying our hunger needs from the run, we got ourselves smelling like more civilized people again before hanging out for the balance of the afternoon. The Dublin Westin is in an old bank building converted into the hotel. As such their restaurants have financial names. My plan after finishing my race was to have a Guinness and so we went to The Mint, the pub in the hotel in the basement which we assume is where the vault was kept back in the day, and after first downing a cocktail I had my pint of the best tasting Guinness. I felt accomplished!

For dinner we went back to Temple Bar and found a great pub called Merchants Arch which had a great local atmosphere with a live musician playing guitar and singing. He was quite good and really made me wish we had more establishments like this back home. The food was great....I had the Guinness beef pie which had a huge helping of tender beef over a layer of mashed potatoes. And of course I had a Guinness, half pint this time, to wash it all down. Z enjoyed a pint of Guinness with his fish and chips.

The Taste of Prague

Gastronome in Prague is reinventing itself with a focus on modernizing Czech food. Over its history the food scene in the Czech Republic has been strongly influenced by foods from other cultures. You see a lot of German, Austrian, and Italian dishes around. In Prague the food industry is certainly catering to the booming tourist industry and you can find over 4000 eateries to choose from. The hardest decision is finding a good restaurant with quality food that doesn't overcharge because it's in a touristy area.

We decided to experience the revolution of Czech food by taking a foodie tour. Our guide, Jan, a local Bon and raised in Prague took us on a four hour tour of eight different eateries. We started at a fairly new establishment called Sisters where we tried a beet root purée with goat cheese open sandwich called a chlebicek and a pickled herring with wasabi mayo chlebicek. The first was quite good but I only tried a small bite of the second because of my dislike for fish. Our second stop was a butcher called Nase Maso where we tried a very flavourful meatloaf on bread, a juicy Weiner sausage, Gothaj salami with vinegar onions, and finally smoked pork cracklings. From there we walked to a popular Prague pub called Lokal. It's the oldest establishment on this tour at five and a half years young. The interior though is made to look like an old Czech pub. Here we sampled pork schnitzel with potato salad, Prague ham with horseradish cream, beef goulash with bread dumpling all with a local Pilsner Urquel lager to wash it down.

By this time I was already feeling full but there was more still to come. We made our way to a new wine bar that just opened in November called Bokovha. The Czech Republic has a small wine industry which is quite regulated and in fact no new wineries are permitted to open. All that exist today remain from the production level the Czech's had when they joined the EU.

We got to sample the 2014 Creme de Cambrium by Mr Nejedlik, the 2013 Welsh Riesling by Mr Nepras, and the 2009 Blaufrankisch by Mr Madl. The setting of this wine bar is quite quaint and made for a good atmosphere to relax and chat. From here we walked to Maso a Kobliha. 








We learned that Maso means meat and Kobliha donut. Here we were served a Scotch egg (minced pork meat with a cooked half egg wedged in the middle) along with a Matuska California IPA. As a finisher we enjoyed a freshly made vanilla custard donut dusted with sugar - this was one of the best donuts I've ever had.

Our last stop called Eska restaurant was a a short tram ride away. One of the things we learned on studs tour was that the Czech people really like their beer and really like meat....vegetarians would have a bit of a difficult time here. This last stop however was inspired by the vegetarian wife of the chef. We sampled fermented raspberry soda, burnt potato in ash with potato espuma, fermented red wheat with root celery instead of the same dish with sous-vide egg and button mushrooms (a slight variation due to our dislike of mushrooms) and for dessert we had zemlovka: a bread pudding with apples in an espuma of vanilla and rum. During this tour we learned a lot about how Czech food is starting to

revive itself. Under communist rule for so long chefs were not encouraged or maybe it's better to say not allowed to exercise creativity. A new generation of chefs is taking over the food scene and things are starting to change with several going back to the Czech roots but with a modern flare.

We tried several other great restaurants during our stay. The Creperie was already mentioned but we found a couple amazing breakfast spots. Both were in close walking distance from our apartment....Den Noc - a tiny establishment with amazing food, good coffee and extremely friendly staff; and Home Kitchen - serving a uniquely wholesome breakfast. We had a very tasty yet strong flat white at a coffee shack called Coffee Cube. At Potrefená Husa we enjoyed lunch consisting of beef goulash with bread dumplings for me and pork ribs for Z the waitress here asked if we wanted any sides and we declined only to discover that neither dish came with any sort of vegetables. Z's plate was literally a plate full for pork ribs, the equivalent of what I thought were two full racks of ribs. Our last dinner was at a place called Karavella, a restaurant down one of the many streets off the main Old Town Square. The service here was good considering only one waitress was on staff. I red red a caprese salad to start followed by beef goulash which to my disappointment was under seasoned and not overly flavourful. Z ordered garlic soup to start followed by pork tenderloin along with a beer. We also ordered a side dish of croquets. We ate a lot of food and for the most part it was all very tasty. Hopefully the walking around counter balanced the eating, but who knows until we get home and step on the scale. We also indulged a few times with pastries and gelato. Our best discovery was Amorino gelato....not only is the gelato some of the best ever, they add a cool twist to making your cone into a gelato flower and we opted to have a macaroon added to the middle....go big or go home, right?

There is certainly no shortage of eateries in Prague and plenty of spots to enjoy a great cup of coffee of a refreshing beer. There is a microbrewery scene emerging as well opening up the varieties of beer available.

Exploring Prague

When planning for this trip started we booked an apartment through AirBnB for Prague, but when our flights changed slightly we ended up arriving one day earlier than originally planned which is why we ended up in a hotel. A beautiful hotel I might add, the Prague Marriott and when we checked in they told us we were upgraded to a one bedroom king suite and we received a personalized welcome letter and a box of specialty Czech wafers in the room - how special is that? So on day two we moved from the hotel to our apartment which was a short walk away. Our host met us at the apartment, gave us the tour and we were set to "live like locals" for the balance of our stay. The apartment building is old and not really anything to write home about, but the unit itself is quite nice. It's located on a rather busy street we've learned with a very popular bar just down the street where most of the pub crawls seem to frequent. That's one thing we noticed, the amount of pub crawls every night. I guess when the beer is as cheap as it is and as tasty as it is, there would be a huge market for that! But back to the apartment....it's a one bedroom with full European kitchen and cozy living room. The washroom also has a washing machine in it which was great because knowing this before travelling here made it easier to pack a little less.

We've felt very safe in Prague. There isn't a very visible police presence anywhere, though we have seen quite a few police officers because the police station is just around the corner from our apartment. The only other place I've seen police is in the Old Town Square and even there they seem to be more for show. We've seen a few people begging for money, but they appear to keep to themselves and actually knee in a very humbling position. Haven't really seen any "homeless" people sleeping in the streets.

Prague is a very walkable city and it's quite easy to get around by tram. The streets are all cobblestone as are the sidewalks so you do need to pay attention when walking because the ground can be uneven.

Z found a food tour called The Taste of Prague, which we decided would be cool to try. We booked prior to arriving because the guide limits the group to 8 people. More to be written about this in another post. The tour was four hours long and needless to say we were rather full after. We had also wanted to do a river cruise so we booked a Jazz boat cruise the same evening we did the food tour. We chose the dinner option for the cruise and later really questioned why we chose dinner as well. The cruise too, is up and down the Vltava River. At one point we had to go through a lock because the water level drops roughly 10 metres. This was a really neat experience to see and quite unexpected for me until we were in it. I had no idea. The jazz artist was a local Czech artist by the name of Martina Fišerová Quartet. They were quite good and provided great background entertainment while we enjoyed the sights of Prague from the river.

Our last day in Prague was spent walking with some more walking....and have I mentioned walking? We ended up walking something like 20,000 steps as we toured around Prague Castle and then over to Petrín tower - Prague's version of the Eiffel Tower. We walked up the tower to take in the breathtaking cityscape which on a clear day like ours was just stunning! By the time we walked down the countless stairs of the tower we had been walking around for probably a good five hours so we decided to take the funicular down. We ended the evening watching the anticlimactic hourly Astronomical clock show in the old town square. This was just as our guide Terry warned us....a big yawn.

Praha as it is known in Czech, is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic. It is a beautiful, vibrant, lively city filled with rich history and is situated on the Vltava River. It is also the historic capital of Bohemia. The Czech Republic has had many different influences over its existence with the last being Communisim which fell in 1989 through the Velvet Revolution. And in 1993 the Czech Republic formed after peacefully splitting with Slovakia.

We landed around 3:30pm and after buying our 3-day transit pass at the airport we made our way to our hotel. After checking in we wanted to stretch our legs and get our bearings a little. We were quite close to the Old Town Square, which was pretty packed with other tourists. We found a market on the edge of the square where we later had a very tasty grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. We tried one of Prague's most famous pastries, the Trdelnik, a rolled dough wrapped around a stick for grilling and can either be eaten coated is sugar or be filled with different fillings or ice cream. We chose the sugar option.

I continue to be amazed at the incredible architecture in Europe and Prague is no different. Prague managed to escape World War II relatively unscathed and so their buildings are in very good original condition. What surprised me about Prague was how modern, yet old it is. For some reason I pictured it would still have more remnants of Communism but that doesn't appear to be the case. The locals we encountered were very friendly and we got by with English quite well. Tourism is huge here and the city certainly caters to that, though everyone is also advertising to get a TripAdvisor review. The jet lag really set in around 6:30pm and by 7pm we were back at the hotel and in bed. We managed to sleep pretty well except for waking up in the middle of the night for a couple hours before falling back asleep.

Tuesday morning we had booked a free walking tour of Prague through Sandemans Walling tours. Our guide, Terry, was born and raised in Prague but has travelled the world. She was a great storyteller and made the 3 hour tour entertaining. We walked through the old town and learned about the history of Prague and the Czech Republic. We made our way to Wenceslas Square where several demonstrations have taken place in Prague's history attempting revolution from the normalization of the country. From there we ended up in a local pub for a short break and Z and I ordered a local Czech beer on tab. Despite not being much of a beer drinker anymore, I found it to be quite tasty and I didn't suffer from any side effects. After the break we walked through the Jewish Quarter before ending the tour at the river.

We spent the rest of the day and evening walking around and exploring the city. We spent some time walking along the river searching for the famous Charles bridge. At one point we thought we had found it and were surprised to see that it wasn't as busy as we read that it would be, only to figure out that we were one bridge too early. Ah, when you're new in a city these things happen. Walking over to the right bridge we saw right away that it was a lot busier. The Charles bridge was started in 1357 by King Charles IV and was finished in the 15th century. It spans 2037 feet across the Vltava River and is 33 feet wide. As we passed the first of three bridge towers we heard the beautiful sounds of a violinist and accordion player and stopped to listen for awhile. Making our way across the bridge towards the "new town" where you can find the Prague Castle, we heard several other buskers performing; all were spaced out well so as not to interfere with each other. On the other side Z found a great restaurant called Café & Creperie Pod Veží. I had mentioned that it would be cool to try a crepe so he made it happen! We shared a caprese salad and chicken panini before each ordering our own extremely tasty crepes. I indulged in the pistachio, honey and mascarpone crepe while Z indulged in the lemon juice, sugar and butter crepe. We of course allowed each other a taster but devoured them pretty quickly. Best crepes (besides Z's homemade ones) ever!!!! We also each ordered a fresh lemonade which was amazingly good! I believe we were served by the owner who was gracious and very attentive, but not intrusive. I find the service at restaurants here to be very non-intrusive; they let you eat in peace and don't rush to bring you the check. In fact you have to actually ask for the check.

en route to Prague

Our Swiss Airlines flight was quite pleasant despite a delayed departure and a slightly disorganized boarding process, we still arrived in Zurich on time. This was an overnight flight when factoring in the time change and so having redeemed points for business class seats we were fortunate enough to have lay flat seats/beds. The service onboard was pretty good, there was one flight attendant that seemed bothered to be working but other than her everyone else was great. We were served dinner, we both had the chicken with couscous dish which was pretty good for airplane food. I tried a Swiss white wine, Blanc Neuchâtal, which was not good. The Swiss should stick to what they are good at, namely chocolate, cheese, and watches. I switched to a lovely Malbec from Argentina, Finca Agostino which worked much better with my palette. I tried sleeping and even with the comforts of a flat bed, no such luck. I knew that this would be trouble but what can you do? Shoulda taken that sleeping pill. Before I knew it breakfast was served, mini croissants, fresh fruit, strawberry yoghurt with coffee and we were touching down in Zurich. Exhausted at this point I knew the next 6 hour layover was going to be dreadful. Our flight to Prague was also on Swiss Airlines and was a short 55 minutes. Take note AC, again in business class during this short flight we had beverage service and a meal. The flight attendants on this leg were not only very friendly but incredibly efficient. And so after two days of travelling we finally landed in Prague and our land adventures could begin. 

settling in for flight to Zurich

dinner on Swiss Airlines

lunch on Swiss Airlines

Off to Europe to run?

Just over 3 years ago I took up running and while it started off feeling like a chore, over time it became more enjoyable and then to the point of necessary. It helped signing up for races to keep myself motivated and with a goal. Why am I starting off with this? Because running is the initial reason why Z and I are off to Europe. I decided that I wanted to run a half marathon, but not just any half marathon back home. I wanted my first half to be memorable and somewhere fun. After participating in several run put on by the Rock'n'Roll Marathon series, I thought it would be cool to head to Dublin Ireland and run my first half there. I think Z at first thought I was joking and maybe even a little crazy but eventually he realized I was serious and so the planning began because who flies to Dublin just for a run? Why not make a proper vacation out of it too?

The tricky part of planning was how to split the trip up....do we plan around the run being the beginning, middle or end of the trip? After some consideration we determined we'd put the run in the middle and explore two new cities on either end. And so our European vacation was born...a few days in Prague, a few days in Dublin, and a few days in Oslo. Before we left we had to make a couple logistical adjustments, which allowed us to overnight in Montreal and provided us an opportunity to meet up with a cousin of Z's.

Flying AC is always some sort of misadventure for me. I really think this airline could use a massive customer service culture change. We dropped our luggage off where the agent checked our passports and gave us the gate number because we had printed our boarding passes at home. At the gate as we are boarding Z breezes through no problem, but my experience was taking longer. The gate agent comments/questions that my passport hadn't been checked. To which I replied that's funny the agent when we dropped off our luggage did that. The gate agent didn't quite like that comment and took her jolly time doing whatever it was she needed to do. Z noticed I wasn't right behind him and stepped back and says is there a problem to which the gate agent says my passport hadn't been verified and to which Z says what I did about the first agent. After being made to feel that this was somehow my fault, the gate agent finally did whatever and I was free to board. And for anyone who knows me, I walked down the gangway expressing how frustrating it is flying on AC. Just once I'd like to write a vacation blog and not have a story to tell and AC. Thankfully the next legs on our journey to Europe were on a Star Alliance partner airline. Just to finish this off, the flight itself was good and the flight attendants provided reasonable service.

We landed in Montreal and stayed at the airport Marriott which is literally attached to the terminal. Very convenient and quite a nice hotel. It was actually nice to break up the journey this way. After a good night's sleep we met Z's cousin Pascal for brunch. She took us to a great restaurant called Restaurant Passé Composé. This place is very popular especially when we showed up with a massive line up out the door. After walking around on Sherbrooke Street for awhile after leaving our name with the restaurant we returned only to find they had called us but we weren't there. Pascal did some sweet talking and we ended up getting seated at the bar where we enjoyed a great brunch.

 
              Enjoying mimosas and grapefruit juice

The best French toast ever!!

This was my first time meeting Z's cousin. Although our visit was brief, we had a great time and it was great that she could meet up with us. After brunch it was back to the hotel to repackage quickly and walk over to catch our flight to Prague connecting through Zurich. This time we got to experience Swiss Air.