Yesterday we connected with someone who gave us some insight on the real ins and outs of Prague...the less touristy stuff. Her name is Sara Tight and she writes the Lifestyles column for Prague-Stay.com, a great resource for people looking to visit Prague; it is also where we found our apartment. Among the ideas Sara gave us was to visit a local design expo that featured the work of young and/or up and coming designers in the areas of fashion, jewelry, glasswork and porcelain. We thought this would be a fun thing to do for today and made it our plan. Plus the weather was somewhat crap again (not cold, but cloudy and looking like rain).
Before going to the exhibit, we stopped off at the Café Lounge for breakfast, a cozy and sophisticated café that Sara also recommended. It was only a few blocks from the apartment and more, or less, on the way to the expo so it was perfect. At the café we were greeted by two cute Czech girls with funky blond (dyed) hair. At first glance you would probably think they were sisters. In any event, the café had an extensive list of coffee preferences, along with the explanations for how each is made, from latte machiatto to a café americano. K, the newborn coffee drinker, was most impressed...even if it seems that everywhere we go there is a different definition of coffee drinks that involve milk. I ordered tea and K got a coffee (make that 2). For breakfast I had poached eggs with tomato and pesto sauce (the menu said tomato pesto…but one egg had tomato on it and the other had pesto) along with toast. Karl had a...ahem...healthy English breakfast with fried eggs, bacon, sausage and toast. I must say we were both really excited to have toast that was not made with rye. Rye bread is everywhere here and often the only choice. We both hate rye bread so even white bread toast was an absolute delight. K lucked out and got a couple of pieces of wheat as well…it was probably more fitting with his "healthy" breakfast choice. We ended up spending a couple of hours in the café, eating, drinking, and surfing the internet on the free wi-fi connection (the high speed internet in our apartment has been acting up lately so it was nice to catch up on email, etc...and the blog!). During this time we also got a kick out our interaction with the blonds. They had learned some of their English in the US and would occasionally drop some slang or other particulars that would crack us up because they were so formal in their service presentations (one of them actually said “okey dokey” and “no prob”).
Our walk to the exhibit took about 15 minutes. We discovered there were three floors of exhibitors: 1st floor – Jewelry/Glass/Porcelain; 2nd floor – Fashion; 3rd floor – “Chemistry”…?...basically a mix of the others. It was interesting to look at all the stuff but, with the exception of some really cool bags in the fashion area, we both agreed that the jewelry stuff was the best. And of the jewelry, we liked the stuff that was from the younger designers who really appeared to be just starting out. K actually bought some xmas gifts from them for his friends.
After the exhibit we walked toward Wenceslas Square and passed a couple of nice boutique shops. I found a nice wallet and a pair of leather boots. Much to my resistance, K insisted on getting them for me for Christmas. I think he felt bad about my last boot shopping experience (meltdown).
By now we were both starving and K decided he wanted Italian food for dinner. I was thinking that was just what I needed, NOT!. I have probably gained 10 pounds here. Eating out 2 meals a day for a month makes it hard not to…plus K has an abnormal metabolism so dessert is usually a must, ugh. Oh well, we headed to a restaurant that we had enjoyed on our second day here. We even had the same waiter this time, who remembered us, but also thought K was a famous actor...ha ha. I opted out of pasta and had chicken stuffed with mushrooms, olives and parmesan cheese. K went all out with pasta bolognaise, and profiteroles for dessert, of course. I was good and resisted dessert. It was hard.
After dinner we headed back to the apartment to catch up on updating/uploading the blog (something we had let slip for a bit due to internet issues in our apartment and a small hard drive accident). Limited pics today due to weather and being inside at the expo.
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