Prague - Praha - Прага - Prag

I'm back in Russia after an awesome weekend in Prague! My co-worker Masha and I enjoyed the beautiful capital of the Czech Republic in cold but sunny weather. We ate loads, we had lots of beer, we walked a lot and slept well :-) What else you need!?

Thanks to the 2 hours time difference, we woke up early on Friday morning after a refreshing 9,5h sleep and set off to discover Jewish Prague. Our hotel, Certovka, was/is located right next to the Charles Bridge and from our room we could see the Prague castle.

The Charles Bridge

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View to the Prague Castle

We saw ALL the synagogues and exhibitions in Prague. I won't recite my feelings and impressions of the Jewish Prague tour, but it was very impressive!!! One thing that got me was the old suitcase of displaced "Otto Schwarzkopf", and the children's drawings... the drawings are the only items left in memory of these children!

Poser Anna in Prague

I fell in love with the hat, but I didn't buy it... Wouldn't be fashionable in Piter ;-)

Sightseeing

On top of the Tower Hall


On top of the Tower hall: View to the Prague castle and the "Eifeltower" (both at the horizon, and we climbed on both the next day)


Masha on top of the Tower Hall


Delicious dinner with beer and Becherovka
By the way, people thought I'm Russian! Some started guessing where I'm from, and the last thing that would say was Germany.
People also must have been very confused meeting Masha and me... A Russian and a German girl in Prague, speaking English with each other. WHAT???!!!

YUMMY!!!

Walking home...


Meeting old friends
The trip to Prague was a perfect gift... I had never been to Prague before and I wanted visit Simona this year anyway! Remember my cool Czech friend Simona? She was a trainee in Piter when I first got here.
Simona picked us up from the airport, took us around for a night sightseeing tour in the car, drove us to the airport on Sunday morning and went clubbing with us :-) THANKS!!!
The bad news for Simona: I want to go soon again to Prague and bug her! ;-)

The Prague Castle
Saturday was dedicated to the Prague Castle, which turned out to be a "slippery" and very cold adventure.

The stairs and paths were like skating rinks; it was more sliding and crawling than walking. However, we never fell :-)


The Prague Castle


Night sightseeing with Simona in the car

We had a safe flight home and I miss Europe again :-( I truly love my time in Russia, but it is time to go back. GREAT thanks to TELPHIN for this awesome weekend, and thanks to Masha for being such a great companion and her effort of speaking English with me all weekend long! And... see you soon, Simona ;-)

Simply cold

It's really warm today, it's only -5 or so! Due to the coldness, I didn't do much last week and over the weekend. Most apartments are cold, down to +15 (at least there is a "plus"). We were partying at Igor's again on Saturday when the electricity went off and it didn't come back until yesterday evening (Monday...). I heard the city needs to save electricity these days...

I'm going to Prague on Thursday with my co-worker Masha. We will stay in a **** hotel and I can't wait to see Simona and Libby!!! Remember the two Czech girls from the summer?

Nothing more to say... I'm doing excellent :-) watching movies, eating and sleeping all the time! Work is extremely busy these days, but I like it!!! Hope you are also doing well!

Finally winter!

Yesterday the weather forecast promised that we'd have -18 today and I gave it a smirk, because they also said it would be REALLY cold for New Year's eve and we hardly had minus degrees. However, I put on an extra sweater this morning before I walked out of the door.. I got out, sniffed the air and thought, 'silly forecast, this isn't cold'. I walked down the stairs and crossed the square in front of my house and thought, 'Hm, well, it is colder than yesterday, but not -18! (I always have a very hot shower in the morning plus very hot coffee so usually I can't wait to leave the building, because I'm overheating...) Finally, by the time I arrived at the metro I was ready to admit that we indeed have -18 today... but at least the sun is shining! In Moscow it is -25 and Novosibirsk has -40 :-)
I spotted wonderful ice stars in the hallway towards my office though.
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I had a fine weekend with lots of "health activities". First of all, I started to take cold (very short) showers in the morning!
On Friday we had Chunxiao's farewell party (the 1st one in a long list) in her apartment and I refused to get up before noon on Saturday. Sonya had spent the night in my apartment and we were being lazy tattletales till 5 in the afternoon. We finished the day with a great sweating session in a banya with most of the trainees and a great dinner at a Chinese restaurant on Vasileovsky Ostrov - where I used to live in summer.
On Saturday I went skiing - Yay - and made it down all the hills more or less gracefully... at least I didn't fall! :-)
Followed by this was Chunxiao's 2nd farewell party in her apartment. Her 3rd one is taking place tonight and we will see her off at the train station tomorrow! She says she discovered her "housewife" qualities at the age of 32... So, I hope it will also hit me some day! :-)

2006 says hello

Hello everyone!

THANK YOU for your wonderful emails, pictures and comments! I'm so happy to be in touch with you and know what you are doing! I will answer emails bit by bit... works has gotten busy again!

I hope you all had a great New Year's eve party and a promising first week of the new year! I certainly had a crazy and bizarre, but really cool week :-)

I met the new year on Place Square, right outside the Hermitage with all the foreigners after an awesome dinner party at "The cottage" (Daniel, Louise and Cristina live there). I was dancing on Nevski Prospekt at Gostiniy Dvor till 3 in the morning and had a blast!
Sonya and Anna

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It's Russia and you'd think that nothing works on New year's for it is the biggest party event during the year, BUT the metro started working at 4 am already! AND the security lady in the metro was in the best mood ever, smiling and greeting everyone! If that isn't a promising start??!!

We had visitors from Germany, from the West-Harz to be exact (the small mountain region where I come from, only that I'm from the east) and all German speaking foreigners hang out a lot together. So on New Year's! :-) With the VERY convincing argument, "I haven't been to Zoom yet this year", we went to Zoom... my favorite restaurant as you might know by now!


Kanal Griboyedova

On Monday I went to "The castle" to join the ENJEC-New Year's party. It was quite sad to be there without Mari Sophie, Armen, Masha and Samson! We miss you guys!!!
It was a fun party though, although sleeping in two armchairs wasn't really... so I dragged myself home at 6 in the morning :-(

On Tuesday I went to the movies with Sonya, Tyoma, Vitya and some unkown girls, and watched "Broken Flowers" with Bill Murray! Awesome! That dude just sits on a sofa not doin' anything and is just filling the scene and atmosphere! Great movie followed by a bizarre evening... We go to a cafe after the movie and eventually Tyoma and Vitya get up and force Sonya and me to pay, get our jackets and leave the cafe within one minute, because Tyoma has a super important appointment with someone. It is 11pm by then and Sonya and I decide to go home... As we walk down the street, the guys INFORM us that we are going to Tyoma's apartment for dinner and a movie. Of course, we have to stop at a shop and buy a movie... All of a sudden this urgent appointment is forgotten and they take 20 min to choose a movie. By the time we arrive at Tyoma's flat it is too late for the last metro :-( But I really, really wanted to see Mishka (Tyoma's cat if you remember?). Cutie Mishky remembers me and is all nice - look at the picuture!!!
However, it is getting even more awkward now. Vitya and Tyoma apparently have been playing "house" for the last 4 days... cooking, cleaning etc. together. All Sonya and I have to do is to sit down and look nice (well, me being silly with Mishka). We got a superb dinner!!!
Mishka, the cutie, climed on my chest while we watched the movie later on. He put his paws around my neck and rested his head on my shoulder! I was extremely flattered!!! I never allowed him this sort of thing when we were living together. He loves me! Yay!!!



Sonya, Tyoma, Vitya and Anna

I spent the night after the dinner at Sonya's and we had a great time laughing! I didn't sleep very much and was practically dead... but got my old form back during the day: Hermitage and party till 5 am in my own apartment for a change! :-) Me getting old? Ha! Nope! ;-)

(I slept 13 hours the next night...)

On Thursday I went... tja haahahaha... to Zoom again, this time with Sonya and her Latvian friend Lauma, who is visiting for a few days. Below you can see me and my very favorite dish: Spaghetti with cream chicken sauce! It is a little boring, but I can't get myself to change...


Friday was dedicated to sleeping 12 hours and I only went out with all the trainees for a beer.

On Saturday ice skating was on! Finally outside activities on Krestovski Ostrov with Sonya and Lauma. Lauma was being a diva while Sonya and I were playing "ducks without balance on the ice". Was fun though! Getting better ;-)


After the skating adventure we set off for the famous Marinsky theater, which was simply awesome! The theater itself is soooo beautiful, and the performance of the opera "Mazeppa" by Tshaikovsky perfect. Imagine world class singers and actors, a stunning theater and stage with wonderful music AND English "subtitles" to what was going on made it a perfect event! No theater is ever gonna impress me again :-(



The Marinsky

Sunday... the last day of the holidays! We (Sonya, Lauma and me) decided to go for a walk in the center which turned out to be like a miracle - no kidding, see the photos we took! It was finally a sunny day and it was late afternoon. The city was as pastel-colored as I saw it in summer, but still different because of the coldness and the snow.

Peter and Paul fortress and the Neva


St. Isaac's Cathedral


Sonya and Anna on Palace Bridge


Anna on the Neva (in summer I used to cruise around that very spot in a boat)