In the Spring of 2019 I traveled for two weeks around Eastern Europe. It was a last minute trip, as I was about to max out my vacation accrual at the public accounting firm I worked at. I’m not much of a travel planner, but fortunately my sister-in-law Veronica is, and she set me up with a fantastic itinerary (basically her and my brother’s honeymoon).

The trip included roughly two days each in six countries. It was my first time leaving the US by myself. Prague was my third destination after Copenhagen and Amsterdam. My arrival in the Czech Republic started out a bit rocky, being asked by military personnel with machine guns slung across their backs in the airport to produce my passport. They simply looked at it and sent me on my way though, and I loved everything after that about my Prague experience. It had beautiful colored buildings, untarnished by the war and incredible, smooth beer (my favorite was Staropramen, followed by Pilsner Urquell).

My favorite memory of Prague is when I was wandering during the day around my hostel. I came across a beautiful, vibrant green park and headed into it. At one point I stopped and just laid down for a while, looking up at the sky. After two back to back busy seasons (financial statement audits) cooped up indoors on my computer for 12+ hours a day, being outside with no agenda, no schedule, nothing to do but enjoy nature, was pure bliss. Then it got even better.

Continuing my wandering through the park, I was surprised to see a structure, like a small cabin, amidst thick trees providing great shade. There were picnic tables with just a few groups of people, enjoying beer, food and conversation. It was so unexpected, but fit seamlessly into the natural landscape of the park. No roads, no signs. For me this was travel nirvana. Burgers, sausages, and beer was on the menu, I just went for the latter (a Plisner Urquell this time). I sipped and sat and marveled at what an incredible, relaxing time I was having. I wasn’t using data in Europe on this trip, but found that getting lost – well, it wasn’t always so bad.