Nothing brings a family together like Absinthe

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To cap off our adventurous spring break, we headed to my personal favorite city in Europe, Prague. The great part about it was that we were meeting my dad right when we got there and he had rented an apartment. When we arrived we headed to the apartment to quickly drop off our bags as we were trying to catch the start of a hockey game. We were slowed down when we got there though. Not only because everyone had to pee, but becase we were in awe of the apartment. This place was swank. It was swank for America, let alone Europe. Anyway, we made it to the hockey game just a little late. The atmosphere at this place was awesome. It was totally local. I can pretty much guarantee that we were the only Americans there. It was intense. These fans were crazy. They were reminiscent of the Duke student section...just jumpin' around and waving giant flags and chuggin' czech beer...just like Duke fans. Their section didn't even have seats. You just had to stand, which I don't suspect they had a problem with. In the end, the home team won and there was much rejoicing. We didn't let ourselves get caught up in the childish galavanting that ensued, but instead, made our way back to our apartment like responsible adults...or maybe we went out...I don't really remember, I was kinda drunk from the game. The next day we went to take the Staropramen brewery tour that my dad had scheduled. It was short, but informative and it was fun to eat malt. At the end they gave us a couple free beers (on top of the ones we weren't supposed to snag on the way in). Afterwards, we did the classic old town tour and it was, of course beautiful. We walked all around Prague hitting mostly the key sights. Pretty much what one expects out of a first day. That night we went to a restaurant that my dad had picked out and ate excellent czech food. The coolest part, though, was the giraffe we got. To explain, it's a four liter, three foot tall, beer glass with a tap on the bottom. The place was a microbrewery so we got some of their beer and it was also delicious. On saturday we had to buy our train ride back and that was a big hassle, but afterwards we headed for Mala Strana to walk the castle grounds. I'll let the pictures talk for that part. Later, after we'd walked through prague again and rested up for a while, we took a walk to see Frank Gehry's Dancing House. I'm not much of a Gehry fan, but this building at least didn't make me angry. We left that to eat our last dinner of our spring break vacation. We made it a good one too. We started we some cigars and beers we lasted a good hour and a half. Then we ordered dinner which was, as usual, fantastic. Then as a little finisher, Audree, my dad, and I all had a shot of Czech Absinthe. We got the whole procession too. Burning the sugar cube and all. It was a lot of fun and a good way to end an awesome trip.

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Photos

outdoor market
one of thousands

My dad and I
on the Charles Bridge

Saint Vitas
this time with a little scale for your face!

Prague
from the castle grounds