The Endless Stream of Post-Trip-Posts Begins

I'm back! Try though I might, I couldn't post at all while in Europe--I had basically zero time to myself and dubious internet access. Lesson learned--four countries in 12 days is at least one country (France) too many. Plus, travelling with a person with very different ideas about how to spend time and what/how many sights to see is not a great idea. I saw a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have otherwise, but I didn't have a chance to really relax and enjoy what I was seeing--I spent more time fighting through crowds of tourists than drinking coffee in Grand Cafes, for example.

At the same time, the two main events of the trip, (the Prague (mini) Marathon and the Viennese Wedding) were both really great. I ran the 4.2K mini-marathon in less than 30 minutes, and I ran the whole way, so I definitely met my goal. My friend S__ ran the whole marathon in well under 4 hours, and since he was shooting for 4:15, it was a great time. Disappointing for me, since I arrived at the finish line at the 4 hour mark and completely missed him, but a significant improvement for him over his first marathon. More on the wedding in a later post!

The photos above are all from Prague, which was beautiful but seems to have become much more touristy and expensive than the last time I was there. Maybe it's because so many people were there for the Marathon, or because there were a lot of Starbucks (thank god), or because the exchange rate is so terrible? Maybe a combination of the three. We stayed at the super convenient Old Town Prague Hilton, which didn't seem to have air-conditioning (it was pretty hot in Prague) but was otherwise very comfortable. One of my favorite meals from the trip was at Maze in the hotel lobby, it's a celebrity-chef Gordon Ramsay venture. It was a little fancy-schmancy for my travel clothes, but the food was delicious. Otherwise, the food in Prague was unremarkable--traditional Czech food is not to my taste, and I foolishly went with pork and dumplings instead of sausage. The weather was unbeleivably good, sunny and much warmer than our spring has been in Seattle.

So that's the Prague wrap-up. I'm still a little travel-weary, and I know that this is all a little generic, so if anyone has any questions leave them in the comments!