Prague

travel 2 Minutes

We spent the last two days in Prague. My good friend and colleague from Prague called for potential presenters for the Prague Postgres User Group, and I figured out I can do it as a part of my vacation, because how can I stay away from Postgres for ten days! Looked like it all would work well, and we could spend one extra day in Prague. Boris suggested we could go to the Kutna Hora to see the Silver Mines – he visited it many years ago, and the tripp was planned. When it turned out that the meetup needed one more speaker, I suggested that Boris give a talk as well, so it became even better!

Everything worked as expected, except that somehow I developed a very brief but intense cold, just for one day, when I needed it the least!

I booked a suite in Charles Bridge Palace Hotel through AAPR. I started using their booking system a couple of years ago (yes, I am eligible for their benefits for several years) and realized I can find some really good deals even in Tallinn! That was yet another “boutique” hotel in my life, and the “palace” part was very pronounced 🙂

The hotel entrance
The ground floor hallway
The overpass connects different parts of the building
The sitting room of our suite
The window view – daytime
The window view – evening
The third floor hallway (by our suite)
The only problem with breakfast was that it opened very late – at 7:30. Usually, we are among the first for breakfast, and there is no rush around the buffet, but in this hotel, half of the guests were down there by the opening time.

We used Welcome Pickup for all our transportation because of a lack of time, even though the public transportation in Prague is more than decent. The only reason I mention it now is that our driver provided us with a lot of solicited and unsolicited information, and one of the things he was talking about was the closeness of the Czechs and Germans, specifically regarding their respective cousins. Overall, I had a better impression of the Czech cousin this time around, but Boris and I agree on the German aspect: very good meat dishes and very bad coffee 🙂 (well, you can say “not strong enough”, but honestly, even cappuccino was somehow “mild”)

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Published by Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

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4 thoughts on “Prague”

    1. I got it almost accidentally the first time, but since that, I always check their rates. This night was 120 euros including breakfast for two!

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