Things I’ve Learned

So it’s the last night, I’m sitting at the Czech Inn again (happy!!!) and thinking about the past 15 days. What have I learned?
A. Not everyone is on the same trip and that’s ok. We all are looking for different things in life, so why wouldn’t we be looking for different things when on holiday? S’all good!
B. Every city has a different feel and it affects everyone differently. Praha was relaxed and groovy. Paris was up tight yet had lots of freedoms.
C. I LOVE Praha.
D. Making friends is easy once you hang out and relax. Unless you’re in Paris and then every guy just wants to shag you. Eww.
E. Having a good travel companion is HIGHLY important (that is if you choose to have one). Easy going and being able to laugh are important.
F. It’s ok to separate from your travel companion for chances of time. Seriously, it’s like being married. Time apart can be really awesome especially if you have different travel ideas.
G. Make sure you buy the proper metro tickets. Fines seriously suck.
H. Don’t try to make your last night the best night ever. If it’s meant to happen, it will. But it’s also good to chill and be ready for traveling the next day.
I. You might meet someone you didn’t expect and they might just sweep you off your feet. Literally. Tee-hee!
So yeah, it was a great trip with ups and downs, crazy Aussies, dancing Frenchmen, hot Germans, lots of awesome food, good pivo and wine, but most of all the experience of a lifetime.
I’ll write more once I’m rested and back in the States. Writing on my iPhone is a serious pain in the ass.
Live fiercely! Love fiercely!

Too Many Days

The idea of writing everyday or every other seemed like a good idea. Oddly, too much happens to do that. It’s like trying to write about sex when your shagging in a elevator.

Sleep? We’re in Prague!

For the past two nights, Amber and I have been burning more than just the midnight oil. Last night’s bedtime: 3:00am. Night before last: 5:30am (for me, Amber’s was 7am) Prague doesn’t really sleep and neither have we.
Friday night: Sitting outside the Czech Inn having a smoky treat, these two guys start talking to me and ask if Amber and I would like to go to Acropolis Club. They try to ply us with Brazilian guys going to the club too (one was French, the other an American mutt) which just made us laugh. I mean, really, like Brazilians make EVERY adventure better? Our clubbing group became much larger with 2 French girls and 2 Canadians, making total of 10 strangers on a search for beer, dancing, and fun. Amber almost dropped out to go back to Cross Club but I convinced her that we could club hop. Prague doesn’t sleep, so why not?
Thibault, the Frenchman, was leading our pack with Amber speaking French with him. Omar…well he was definitely hitting on me but 19 year olds definitely do not float my boat. Our little group navigates the streets around the tv tower(this is a weird tower. Huge with big ass babies crawling all over it). Once there, we descend into the club, obtain drinks, and check the place out. Two small rooms (small for a club)hold a reggae band and a DJ. I’m a bit of a techno snob but eventually I get dancing and Thibault proves to be more than a white man wiggle kind of guy. As the night progresses, we get so into dancing together that we end up unintentionally clearing a space on the floor and receive claps and hoots and hollers of approval. Wow! I don’t blush often, but I think that was one of those moments.
Amber had wanted to leave before the metro stopped at 1am but found the time to be 12:54am. No Cross Club for us since we were not interested in paying for a cab. So the night wore on with dancing and getting to know the other travelers in our group. It had been awhile since I had seen Amber, so I went looking. Nowhere. She was nowhere. I started to feel bit uneasy but I figured I probably just missed her somewhere. So Thibault and I keep dancing. We take a beer break and I look for Amber again. Nowhere. We bump into Omar and he conveys Amber’s message that she’s outside trying to talk with a Czech guy. Feeling relieved, I head out there. No Amber. I go back in, interrogate Omar who says she was just outside, I check the club again and get worried.
No Amber.
Thibault can see the concern on my face so he offers to go walk around a few blocks with me to try to find her. We walk quickly and at every corner I do a “Whoop! Whoop!” (we learned it from Denver Cruisers:-) and wait to hear a return call.
Nothing.
Yes, I know Amber is a big girl and can take care of herself, but we’re in a foreign country and she didn’t say she was taking off. She’s good at disappearing on me in the States. Here, it made me very uneasy. Thibault and I go back to the club and take another look. No Amber. We go back outside for a smoke in hopes that maybe she comes around the corner or out of the club. We wait for about 30 minutes which makes our happy adrenaline rushes from dancing fade. Thibault suggests we head back to the hostel. I agree, thinking maybe Amber had enough and went back for some sleep.
Upon arrival, I check her bed. No Amber. Damnit woman! Where the hell are you?!? I head back down to the lobby, still worried. Thibault decides to keep me company while I sit and hope that Amber walks through the doors.
4:00am: No Amber
4:30am: No Amber
5:00am: Still no Amber
5:20am: Too tired to stay up, I decide to head to my room.
Thibault asks what will I do if she doesn’t return later in the morning. Call the police. All my mind can think about is if Amber’s dead in a gutter, her mom is totally going to kill me. I climb into bed, trying to figure out what time I should wake up if I do need to call the police, when the door swings open.
Amber!
Where the hell were you?!?!? She apologizes and says, “I’m so sorry, I hope you weren’t freaking out too much. I just had the most awesome night ever! But someone is waiting for me so I have to go…”
Jeezy Chrizy, woman. Let me say, I slept like the dead.

Wandering Prague

It’s hard to believe that three days have passed. I could try to describe all the places we’ve been to but that would be on the level of J.R.R Tolkien. You are totally not getting that because I have beer to drink a city to run amuck in. What I will write is a run down of things you should definitely see in Prague. And maybe a story…
These won’t be in any particular order. If I say you should see it, that means it was freaking awesome. Like sharks with lasers on their heads. Or pizza growing on vines.
A. St Vitus Cathedral: to say it was stunning in it’s size, architecture, stained glass, and ornamentation is almost an insult. They also have pizza growing on vines and Jesus doing “jazz hands”. Buy the short tour which includes St Vitus, the Old Royal Palace, the Basilica of St George, and the Golden Lane. Only two of those make the 250 kourna ($15) worth it.
B. The Golden Lane: hobbit houses. It’s where the soldiers use to be quartered inside the castle walls. The row is now shops and some historic setting (like a soldiers quarters or the tavern) but if you see a door that’s unmarked, go in if you can. We stumbled onto the upper level of the row which is filled with suits of armor, weapons, and a crossbow shooting range. Yes. For 50 kourna ($3), you too can shoot a crossbow! We also stumbled on a lower level that had an apothecary’s quarters. Very awesome.
C. The Royal Gardens: if you need to escape the throngs of people at Prague Castle, hop over to the Royal Gardens. They’re much quieter and you get to see Prague’s new orangery and the Royal Summer House.
Note: the guards for the Castle and Gardens are way hot.
D. The random art installations: they are EVERYWHERE. if you see random humungous babies, a weird giant wooden smurf, or slanting steps with strange humanesque statues stop and check it out. Prague is full of culture. Walk around, especially off the beaten path, and you actually get to see it. Walking along the river path is an excellent idea especially since you can hop to one of the tiny islands in the river.
E. St Charles Bridge: during the day it’s filled with tourists and vendors trying to get your kourna with all sorts of cochkies or jewelry. You can see the multitude of statues. But at night, that’s the place to be (Per Amber. I might get there tonight if the rain stops.) because the locals hang there.
F. Astrological Clock: go here early in the morning. Humans are rude, especially when they’re tourists en masse. Old Town seems to teem with tourists around 11am.
G. Mucha/Dali Exhibit: if you like one of these artists, its worth the visit.
H. Estate Theatre: this is where Don Giovanni was performed for the first time ever by Mozart. If you like the opera, seriously, spend the money and get a box seat. We were classy bitches and had one. Well worth the money especially if you’re almost directly in front of the stage. It’s amazingly beautiful in blue and golden gilt.
I. Sedlec Ossuary in Kunta Hora: 40,000 skeletons decorating a church because they couldn’t throw the bones away when the cemetery became full. It’s worth the 184 kourna to get a round trip train ticket and 60 kourna to tour it. Make it a 1/2 day trip because it takes an hour to get there.
Those are my picks so far. Updates coming soon along with restaurants and beer.
Na Zdravií!

First Night in Prague

Disclaimer: I’m drinking a Budvar as I write this. It’s my 3rd beer and they cost about the same as a bus ticket except when it’s happy hour then they’re 20 kourna. You’ll get the reference in abit.
After a grueling 24 hours in airports and on airplanes, I finally made it to Prague! Since I’m savvy enough to navigate most mass transit, I hop the 119 bus into Prague. Only 32 kourna gets you where ever you need for a 90 minute period which was enough to arrive at The Czech Inn.
Note: The Czech Inn is an freaking awesome hostel. Very clean. Very safe. Decently priced. Right near the tram. The price for food and beer are super cheap in comparison to Mala Stana and Old Town. Highly recommended.
My first duty after long flights: shower. Amber finds me post-shower while I’m brushing my teeth (we ended up on different flights which separated us for about 10 hours) and fills me in on her day of walking around. I ask if she took mass transit to the host. Amber says she splurged on a cab but the driver was awesome. It was 1000 kourna (about $60). I say, “Really? I took mass transit for 32 ($1.90)…” WHAT?!?!? Yeppers. The rest of the night it was the butt of many, many jokes at her expense. To her credit, Amber did do something that I don’t do. She had made a Czech friend over Facebook that was going to meet us at the Inn.
Intro: Michel. Let me tell you, Amber so TOTALLY lucked out on him. Michel is one of the nicest, gentlemanly ball busters I’ve met in awhile. He teased her about never having seen the original Star Wars movies (which I do often). He touts liking sci-fi but is definitely no geek.
And I digress…so Amber and I are chugging a beer in the bar at the hostel when she squeals and hugs some guy that walks up to her.
Who the heck is this guy? Michel!
Amber does the intro and our Brazilian Czech friend takes us out for the night…
Our first stop is a beer garden. An honest, true blue, Czech beer garden. There’s a rock n roll band playing on a huge stage, tons of picnic tables, TONS of people, and stands that sell you grilled sausage of all kinds and beer. Beautiful Czech beer. We hang for a bit drink a beer, munch on klobasa, and get to know each other. Michel had said there was a film festival happening all week next to beer garden so we finish our beers and go walking. Not much more than half a block away is a big screen playing a documentary about Blanksy and street art. Afterward watching for about 15 minutes, Amber and Michel decide to go back to the garden and I stayed for the movie.
It was a beautiful night. The park had an amazing view of the castle and St Vitus. How could I not stay? Yes, I came to drink beer. But I also came to enjoy the culture. Watch movie…look at view…watch movie…look at view…what did you say?…sorry…neh Czechsky….yes, I do speak English. What? Yes, I have heard of tantric massage. You manage a spa that does that?
So that’s me, meeting Jan. He gives me his business card and says to stop by tomorrow and he’ll show me around the spa. I didn’t go…yet. I really need a massage so I’m tempted to schedule one there. We’ll see.
Movie over. I head back to the beer garden. I find Amber and Michel, we drink another beer, then we head to the fucking COOLEST bar evah. No, really. It’s all rebar and moving parts with awesome techno. Like beautiful house music. Music that makes anyone want to shake their ass.
Intro: Cross Club. Seriously. This place looks like it jumped out of Firefly (sci-fi tv show). If you haven’t seen the show, sorry, but you suck (at least from a geek perspective). It’s 4 floors of amazing. The only thing not amazing about it was the two drunk Czech guys hitting on me. I might be about sensuality, but if you grab my ass before I even know your name, you = looser. Homie does not play like that. The worst part was I actually had to ask Amber to save me. They just wouldn’t leave me alone! Hell, do I really look like a horny American woman who has no standards? Even with Amber discouraging them, they STILL would not leave me alone! Wtf?!?!? I would dance, see one and duck off the dance floor, hide in a booth with Amber and Michel, and when it looked safe I would hit the dance floor again. This was the drill for probably about an hour until one figured out where I was hiding. The one that was trying to grope me the most. Damn.
Amber’s quote of the night, “I was thinking about kissing you in hopes that he would think we were a pair but I really think that would just turn him on more and we’d be fucked.”
Agreed.
Quaintly drunk, we left the club.
My favorite part of the night: watching Amber and Michel suck face in the booth while I ate the fried camembert and french fries we were going to share. When they finally pulled away from each other, I started clapping and said, “Bravo! Bravo!” Scared the shit out of them. They had no clue I had sat there for 5 minutes, just watching.
Epic win.

Prague, Paris and 24 hours

As I sit ever so patiently in the airport, my thoughts go to what’s been happening to me over the past 2 weeks and where the heck I’m headed. Heading not just in the sense of physical location, but where I’m heading in my life. The idea I put out to the universe of stumbling upon a job that paid decently in either city so I could stay for however long I want put a MUCH different spin on packing and tying up loose ends before leaving. It’s also made me think more deeply about my past relationships, current relationships, and what really defines family and friends.

I’ve been dating. It feels…odd. I’ve never really been a “dating” kind of girl. I meet someone, we talk, we become friends and then some drunken night we end up shagging and *poof!* all of a sudden I have a boyfriend. On top of that, I’m really bad at figuring out that I’m actually being asked out on a date. Unless the guy says the word “date”, I never think it’s a date. Even if he pays for everything. There’s an interesting block in my head that developed from my time in New York City that says men are supposed to pay for everything even if they’re not your boyfriend. Of course having two older brothers doesn’t help either. I have always been more comfortable around guys. The problem: growing up with two older brothers meant they “persuaded” other guys to not date me (that’s what a little bird told me) and thus I was always surrounded by my brothers and all of their friends that never showed an interest in me. Now when I’m in a group of guys, I never really think that one of them may be interested in dating me. These are issues I’ve been struggling with for years. It has a tendency to create very awkward situations.
Which is why I like Hollywood. He drew the line in the sand that his interests were not just friendship. Hollywood wanted to date me.
So why have all my relationships failed? I think the answer is: I’m an intelligent conservative crazy looking for a renaissance man that’s just as crazy as me. Since I’m no longer baby crazy, it has made me wonder if the relationships I had during that time would have worked differently. Would I still be with James? Lucas? Sef? Would I still be happily married to Thadd? Probably not. Oh well…
To top the craziness of maybe not coming back, I moved out of my apartment and have committed to couch hopping. Which made the packing process even crazier since I had to decide what was staying with me, what was going into storage, what was being sold, and what was garbage. If you ever need to let go, decide on being a gypsy with no home. It makes you let go of alot of things, including your perceptions and opinions. Such as family. Yes, I have blood family, but my Colorado family stepped up to help in ways I never expected. Even new friends from the Denver Cruisers have opened their homes and hearts to me. It really is touching to know there are so many kind people still out in the world. Hopefully, I find just as many awesome people in Europe as I have in Colorado.
I’m not sure what my destination is in the big scheme, but I feel that I’m finally open to the path and all the mud that was weighing me down before has dried. Now it’s time to kick it off and follow the dragonflies.
Live fiercely!

Prague and Paris: The Saga Continues

Spooky, right?

On August 23rd, Amber and I will be boarding a plane for Prague. We will stay there for a week, then jet off to Paris for a week before we make the sad trip home. Since you have no reference to where this all started, let me fill in the blanks.

October 2010: After realizing that I had been baby crazy for years with no success, I broke down crying on my couch before I was supposed to be out on the town. A question came to my mind: “If I don’t have kids, what am I going to do with my life?” The answer was simple: TRAVEL. That was the night I decided I wanted to see Prague and it was going to happen in a year. I was pretty sure I would go alone, since most of my friends are committed and/or have kids.

Amber and I had been thinking of going to Mexico for our birthdays (she is Feb 20, I’m Feb 24) so I asked her if she would be interested in going to Prague in September instead of Mexico. Her response was an overwhelming YES!!!

So…we’ve been planning. Planning over mahjong games, tea, devil fries, beer and pizza, and cute guys (there’s a cute waiter at the Atomic Cowboy where we were getting beer and pizza and he was giving us ideas on where to go). At first we were going to Prague and Vienna but people kept telling us we would be bored with Vienna in a few days. Sad.

As we were planning at the Atomic Cowboy one night, we started looking at flights from Prague to other European countries. We found a round trip flight to Paris for $90. Score! We have our winner!

Recently, I helped organize a twilight tutu traipse through one of parks here in Denver. Of course we had to extend our mischief to the surrounding neighborhood. Amber and I went our own way to create our own special brand of fun, traipsing through the Tattered Cover and along Colfax (the longest main street in America), to our last destination for the evening: The Thin Man. It was here that a very nice man at the bar informed us of a place I had heard about.

A church made of skeletons on the outskirts of Prague. Yep. Made of skeletons. It is located in Kutna Hora. Apparently the church became such a popular place to be buried due to sand from the holy land being sprinkled around it back in 13th century that by the 17th century there was just no more room. So they exhumed the older remains and started decoration the inside of the church.

Crazy right? We are so totally going to see this!!

If you have interesting sights (or relaxing sites) that you’ve been to in either of these regions, let me know.

Beer, Sex, and Travel: Part Three

My travel companion: Amber

Part Two would have been posted much sooner if wasn’t shagging this handsome young man who will be moving next week to Wisconsin. I’m taking a night off from ripping his clothes off so you get more of me! Besides, all this sex-ercise is giving me the abdominal workout of the year (at least for 2011). I’m fit, but being 7 years older than him is giving me a run for my money. It’s still way fun and I am enjoying every minute!

Anyhoots, onwards and upwards…into the wild blue yonder!

Traveling has been in my blood for probably my whole life if not longer. My parents met during the Vietnam War, were married, and suddenly the stork dropped off my elder brothers and I. Before mom gave birth to me, my family went to Thailand (my mom is Thai, my dad was stationed there). My parents were always taking us somewhere even if it was just to the Adirondacks to camp for the weekend. If you read the About page, then you know my love for NYC at the age of 12. I’ve always been a wandering soul.

Unfortunately, up until a few years ago, most of my wandering has been only in the US and parts of Canada (yipee! Canada!). Long story short: September 2007 I was married in Greece (marriage + me = bad idea). I LOVED Greece!!! I had a 6 hour layover in London and saw everything I possibly could. February 2008 I was in the rainforest of Belize. March 2009 I was in Belize again then hopped over to Costa Rica. The worst year ever was 2010 because I didn’t leave the country. In October 2010 was the decision that my big butt was making it out of the country for 2011 and every year after that. Heck, I have a passport and it is nowhere close to being filled.

Where am I going in 2011? Ah! Good of you to ask. Prague for a week, then Paris for a week starting at the end of August. My traveling partner: Amber. Her goal is to get shagged in a castle while we’re there and see everything Mozart. Everyone has to have goals in life.

My goals: drink good beer, see as much of the cities as I can and blend in, and maybe get shagged….but those are my goals for almost every trip I go on. Except for the trips that are specifically booty calls but those are stories for another day.

Traveling is like breathing. I have to do it or else I will die (or become a raging bitch, which no one wants to see).

Welcome to my journey and hopefully you get some good laughs from the stories if nothing else!