So last weekend I went to Prague. I decided to wait to post about it because I wanted to give it some time. Prague is about the only other capital city in Europe that I like more than Berlin. In Scandinavia, Copenhagen is the cosmopolitian capital. In the West, I would argue that Berlin actually matters more than London or Paris, whose main draw is accessibility and historical charm. Prague is the capital of the East. I like Prague because even though I was there in 2001, and just went back last weekend, it is clearly still a capital in transition. It is gritty and raw and beautiful and inspiring at the same time. That’s the best way I can describe it.

Anyway, I arrived on Friday early afternoon. I stayed at the renaissance hotel, which is a nice place and where I stayed last time. The hotel was nice. I wanted to immediately go and see the castle, but I got a call from work and that forced me to spend a few hours in front of the machine (now that I think about this, I’m going to charge them for the internet access for Friday). But after that, I went off to see the castle and take some pictures. The problem was that I forgot that I had left my memory sticks for my camera at home, so no pictures to show.

Anyway, on Friday night I went to see Brokeback Mountain. I then went out to a few bars and I had a really nice time at the bars. There was a problem on Friday, but that will be in the friends-only area.

On Saturday I did some shopping and walking around. It was a pretty good time. You would not believe just how cheap everything is in Prague. It’s like a sale on money! Got some alcohol from the shops because it’s 40-60% less than in Stockholm. Forget for a moment that I have 75 liters of alcohol of various types — a bargain is a bargain. Met up with a really cool guy named Alec on Saturday. It was cool to hang out with him. We went to a club and I hung out for awhile until I got really drunk and left without saying goodbye. oops! (sorry Alec). But he’s really cool so we’ll keep in touch I am sure.

On Sunday, I had a nice and lazy day. No rush to go anywhere except to the airport. When you pass through customs and immigration, there’s the Czech Airlines tax-free shop. A mecca of everything a human wants that is bad for them. Eager for more bargains, I purchased more….alcohol. Including absynth. Sigh. So now I have bags and bags of stuff. ANd as usual, when I landed in Stockholm, I hold my bags of booze up in front of customer and yell “Kiss My Ass, Systembolaget.” The corresponding strip searches and urine samples are small prices to pay for those 4 seconds of glory.

So anyhoo. I have lots of good reasons to go back to Prague, including an unspent €300 SAS voucher 😉 So I will be back there in late-April, early-May

So I passed out due to the bottle of wine i drank. now i am awake early and tired.

oh well, at least i am going to Prague today 🙂

So I have been drinking a bit. A bottle of white wine. Wheeee!

Today my neck hurts. A lot. I must have slept wrong and it just plain old hurts. I hate when my neck hurts. That and my Palm T3 stopped working with EasySync Pro and PocketQuicken like 2 months ago. I reinstalled everything last night and still no luck at first. Turns out that IBM Lotus Software put out a $70 upgrade which I had to purchase to fix the problem. Ugh. And then my Documents To Go would freeze, which meant a $30 upgrade to make that work. So $100 later everything is working, but I had to pay to do it. Grrr….I hate that.

On the positive side, I can check my mail, read the news, update my LJ, manage my life, and some other stuff while listening to my iPod. And when I get bored with music, my iPod plays video. And I will hang out for a bit with Sipho tonight, so that is fun. No idea what to cook though, but will be really simple. Probably just a steak, salad, and some starch of some type (whether it is mashed potatoes or rice I am not sure of yet). And for me, a glass of wine. It’s Tuesday. My neck hurts, I can submit expense claims for my business travels because the system is down, etc, etc, etc. I deserve a glass of wine. Or two.

So it is Sunday and I am at the airport in Copenhagen. I actually should be on the plane to SWtockholm, but due to EasyJet forcing me to check a bag, there was no way in hell that I was going to make a connection to SAS. In some airports it would have been possible, but not Copenhagen airport. CPH airport takes about 20 minutes to deliver bags, no matter how close or far away the gate is to their arrivals hall in Terminal 3. So I am on stand-by for the 19.50. It doesn’t look good. So I could be at the airport until 22.45 tonight. Which would not be a bad thing except that I might not make the Arlanda Express home and have to take a taxi. Which I might do anyway and save the Arlanda Express travel for another day.

But I won’t let this coming home experience ruin what was a great weekend. Worst-case scenario – I have access to the SAS Scandinavian Lounge, I have some space left in my bag for tax-free shopping for NON-ALCOHOLIC items (I already have a bottle of Dom Perignon, a bottle of Tanqueray, a bottle of bombay sapphire, and 2 bottles of Absolute Blue), and they have an A Herreford’s Beefstow stakehouse now in the airport and I have been jonsing for a well-made steak.

So this weekend was better and cheaper than I thought it was going to be. The tickets were cheap, I spent a total of €35 on transportation (most of that came from taxis to/from the clubs on Saturday), a total of €30 on food, and €180 on the hotel. Which combined with the flight and some spending cash total was about €350 for a night out. I made a comprehensive spreadsheet and pivot table about this, but I realised that only I care so I won’t post it.

On Saturday I ended up going to Berghain and Connection. Both have great music. I actually fell asleep around 22.00, but then I woke up at 02.30 and decided that I wasn’t going to waste the night inside falling asleep, so I got showered and went to Connection. Connection for me a fun little place. After some hours (read: sunlight on my face), I decided that I would follow a group of random people and go to Berghain. That was a cool experience. I gave out around 09.30 and went back to my hotel to get some sleep. It was much needed. I slept until about 11.00 and then I asked the hotel if I could check out at 13.00 but ended up needing until 13.30. Ah well, they didn’t mind. Berlin is truly a care-free city. I like to call it “Managed Chaos” — so many worlds seems to co-exist together well enough to not cause anarchy. I declare this now: I will live in Berlin at some point in my life. Before I get too old and unpretty. Some of you will say that I passed that devastating milestone somewhere between birth and when you read this, but I don’t care 🙂 Bastards 🙂

Anyhoo. It’s about time for me to go and beg for a seat on the flight. Really beg. After all, as much as I like the steak house, I’d rather be at home watching episodes of arrested development and spending a night in my own bed. Or more realistically, the cozy couches that are in my apartment.

To quote a cutie “This Be How It Be Going Down” 😉
(the partial week in review)

Oslo
Was there on Sunday for meeting on Monday. Sunday night one of my work colleagues invited us over for dinner. She made a terrific dinner and Peggy and I gave her a terrific bottle of Dom Perignon vintage 1998. It was sooooo yummy. We chatted for hours and hours until i started to get drunk and had to leave. Was supposed to meet up with other friends for a late-night drink, but at the risk of being hammered, that fell through. The meeting was very productive and went well on Monday, and that was a good thing. Flew to Copenhagen on Monday afternoon. Had a very good duty-free experience too. More booze. Like I need that. Sigh….

Copenhagen
This week in Copenhagen I actually felt quite lonely. Usually I have some personal friends to hang out it, but everyone is getting sick But I hung out with members of the team there to review our work one night. I bought them to my favourite Thai place in the city — Porn-Sac (lol). And the other nights I spent studying up for my CISSP examination next month, or just trying to get caught up with work. I had been looking forward to back to Stockholm over the weekend and getting to sample that beer collection I speak so much about, but then when I searching some low-cost carriers for another personal trip in April, I ran across an incredible offer from EasyJet which basically was that I would pay a little more than the taxes and airport fees for a flight for a weekend in Berlin. And since we all know how much I heart Berlin, guess what I did? After a bit of tax-free shopping of course (which involved no alcohol this time, but creams and potions designed to make me look younger longer – LOL!)

Berlin
Arrived to Berlin on Friday night. This time I decided that I would take the train. A taxi would be about €28.00. The train in contrast is only €2.10. Already a major savings over last time, since I want to keep this trip even cheaper than the last one (you will all see how I did once I am done since I am keeping track). Met up with a friend for coffee whom I hadn’t realised would be in Berlin at the same time as me. It was nice just to relax and hang out. Didn’t have too late of a night, and unlike the last time, I didn’t go out on Friday. Mostly because I wanted to actually see the city this time and get in some shopping. And I need to visit a bookstore to pick up a TimeOut guide to Berlin and to Prague. And I want to try and see what is left of Checkpoint Charlie and get in a museum. Too bad I didn’t have the forsight to bring my camera…something I usually always have in my bag. Oh well…hope the camera phone does the trick for stuff I am interested in seeing. I will go out tonight though, probably to Berghain. So far I have just sent €40 on a suitcase (I have a huge duffle bag, but it does not have a strap or wheels and when one is carrying 6 liters of alcohol that matters. A lot. And besides, I need something in between my huge you-could-fit-sipho-in-there suitcase and my louis vuitton light travel case. A good purchase indeed. At €40.00, it won’t make the year, but I get what I pay for, especially since I bought it in a shop within the former East Berlin section (meaning that in East Berlin, purchases seems to focus more on being tactical than strategic long-term purchases). But still than what I would have paid in Scandinavia.

So anyway, long post, but besides the slushy snow, the fact that I am almost out of clean underwear, and I have no party clothes (I will go out over-dressed) with me as I was not planning to be here, I am here to have fun 🙂

And next week – Prague, using SAS for tickets that I got for 800 kronor (which is 1/3 the normal price) during the European Holiday sale.

I heart everyone! Ciao!