exploring prague

we walked for miles and miles on saturday in the snow and freezing conditions. but we had many beer stops. and i loved every second of it.

traditional czech meal

after arriving at our hotel on friday night, we drank our complimentary bottle of czech sekt and then headed out to a local restaurant/bar (after asking for a recommendation from the receptionist). we drank lovely dark beer and had a great traditional meal in a traditional setting.

i had roasted duck with potato pancakes and cabbage and sauerkraut (it was HUGE!) and kev had... well a plate of meat! he had all kinds of things on there.... pork, sausage, duck. it was interesting to discover that potato pancakes are very similar to irish potato bread (with a few additions like little bits of bacon). i love potato bread. probably something to do with it being potato and fried.

a surprise weekend in prague!

i'm a very lucky girl. it is mine and kev's anniversary today (we have been together 8 years!) and kev took me away on a surprise trip to prague. he really is such a sweetie.

our journey started on friday afternoon with a kebab sandwich (ha ha) at the train station (delicious. seriously the kebabs here are so good you can eat them sober!). its 5 hours by train to prague (praha) from vienna (or wien i should say). it was lovely to see the beautiful snowy scenery passing by. and we did have a couple of cans of budvar on the way to help pass the time!

i really was so excited. i've wanted to visit prague for many years and it was even more special being able to go by train from austria. living in mainland europe really does have its advantages!
i took 556 photographs over the weekend (yikes) so there will be plenty more to come. i just need to figure out how to narrow them down!

glühwein anyone?

during my snowy walk in the city yesterday i obviously needed a little something to warm me up. so what did i do? go to another christmas market of course!

this one is weihnachtsdorf maria theresien-platz (in between the two big museums). it was a little bizarre standing outside drinking glühwein (couldn't find any glühmost at this one) with snow coming down... but also pretty special. and it does help warm you up!

snow in the city

well, its still snowing. and i was far too excited to stay at home so i decided to head into the city.

i saw father christmas! (he was ho ho ho-ing to the passers by).

and i bought €40 worth of thick socks and tights from h&m. very much needed though!

on the underground on the way home a random drunk (who kept burping and sneezing REALLY loudly) decided that he would like to talk to me in german. he kept trying to offer me a sip from his can of beer (mmmmm). obviously i politely refused. but he continued to try and talk to me and offer me beer. he then placed his empty beer can in my tote bag! what a cheek... but i was too embarrassed and didn't have the right vocabulary to say anything. er, yeah thanks to all those people in the carriage for saving me.

i bought supplies on the way home. red wine, cheese and chocolate biscuits. although i've eaten a quarter of the biscuits already. they are milka chocograins. i would say they are a cross between a chocolate digestive and a chocolate hobnob biscuit. uh oh. bad discovery. and there is no one here to take the packet from me.

snow on 1st december!

this is the view from my bedroom window this morning. there is a light covering of snow at the moment but its still snowing. how exciting! i really love the snow. although there is no one here to play with at the moment. might have to go out and throw some snow balls at some random kids! ha.

i was planning on venturing to ikea today... but i think i might give that a miss and stay indoors instead.

yesterday it was the birthday of the lovely '29'. we met for late lunch over at karmelitermarkt in the 2nd district and went to madiani (a georgian restaurant). i've never eaten georgian food before so it was great to try something new (although i had no idea what i was ordering).

whatever it was it was nice. they were filled with cheese.

these were the georgian crepes that 29 had. they are filled with mince meat. yummy.

we then had a little adventure on the S-bahn (overground train) and nearly made it outside of the vienna city border by getting off at the wrong stop!