Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Hello Vienna!

Prague = absolutely gorgeous!

Prague was such an awesome time. Levi and I ventured into Prague from Rob's town of Dobris on Monday and immediately began wandering the winding medieval streets of old town. After exploring old town we made our way across the Charles Bridge and to Prague Castle, where we climbed 287 steps up a narrow spiral staircase to the top of the southern tower of the cathedral within Prague Castle. The view was incredible! A complete 360 degree view of the entire city of Prague. After hiking down from the castle we enjoyed a delicious, but over priced, meal of food at a cafe. This is the point in the story where we picked up our new travel partner, Pinnochio! Of course, you have all heard about him.

When we made it back to Dobris, we found that Rob wasn't home yet from work, so we enjoyed a Pilsner at the bar adjacent to his apartment. Thinking that he would walk by from work, he never did. After a half hour or so, we went back to his apartment to find a note that read, "Nate, I went to play tennis. Should be back by 8:00. Call my cell phone." It was only 6:30, so we walked to a pay phone to give our Slovak a call, but no answer. I walked up to two teenage girls and asked them if they knew where the tennis courts were. They were obviously embarassed to speak english, so all I got was giggles and some vague directions. Anyways, we began to walk and luckily saw three other kids walking in the same direction with tennis rackets. Cha-ching! After a half mile walk (we would have never made it on our own) we found Big Rob attempting to play tennis. The sport club was incredible! Two clay courts, a childrens' playground, and a wet bar! For 18 crown a beer, you can't beat that! After hanging out at the tennis courts we went back to Rob's and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Yesterday, we spent our final day in the City. Having already seen most of the sites, we decided to take a pedal boat out on the river. To say the least, we had an enjoyable relaxing hour of floating on the river. We ended the day short and went back to Dobris to spend our last evening in Czech with our Slovak friend.

We hopped on the bus, metro, and train to finally make it to Vienna this afternoon. We spent a few hours wandering around the city before making it back to our hostel. We were greeted by a happy hour at the bar within the hostel. Relaxing and drinking some beers, two fellow Americans pulled up some chairs to join us in the courtyard. There names are Mary and Bobby, two students from the University of Hawaii. We chatted for about an hour or so until their friend David showed up. Mary craved something "salty" and Levi was hungry so the five of us grabbed something to eat at a Turkish restaurant around the corner. Good group of people and definitely good times.

Here I am. Wels, Austria tomorrow to meet David Adams and Roger Lewis at the Rotax plant to see some Operational Excellence in action, then back to Vienna tomorrow night.

Peace

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