Return to Nuernberg

We've made our triumphant return to Nuremburg.

Prague

Shelley got here on Monday.



It snowed most of the day on Tuesday.



The subway here is really easy to figure out, and useful for getting around.



The height of the escalators at most stops here surpasses the descending-into-the-bowels-of-hell effect represented at Porter Square in Cambridge.



Sandino, Shelley and I tried to find some jazz on Tuesday night. Tuesday night was supposed to be Dixieland jazz night at a particular pub downtown according to some anonymous, undated, suspiciously 1994-styled web page I found on the internet. However, inexplicably, there was no jazz to be found there when we arrived. Instead, we enjoyed a round of pivos.



Undeterred, the following night Shelley and I tried again, this time consulting something called "Frommer's Prague, 2004 Edition".







The music was good, the prices high, and the singing reminded me of Snorp's extensive Sade collection.

Karlstejn

We took a train out of Prague on Saturday. There is a small town with a big castle called Karlstejn, maybe a 45 minute train ride from Prague.







It turned out, the castle is closed during the month of February.



The area around the castle is a nature reserve. We made a friend who stayed with us for a couple hours and whom we deemed Karlos Santana. For some reason, he didn't come when he was called.



I tried to teach Sandino some winter mountaineering skills.



With mixed results.

Hotel Carol

It snowed all last night.



My commute is about 1.5 minutes from my room to the office.

The Prague Office

The Prague SUSE Office is about 10 minutes on the subway from downtown, and only 2 doors away from the Hotel Carol where I'm staying. I got set up here no problem on Monday.





After work, I took the subway downtown and wandered around the old city. My pictures don't really do it justice.

Czech Republic

I arrived in Prague yesterday evening.

Tartu

On Monday, we walked around Tartu a bit.



There's a fair amount of Russians still living in Estonia, and they have a thing for bridges and padlocks. The keys end up in the river.



The downtown is a college area - Tartu University. Some students were walking around too.

Correction

We were 23 people short of the biggest superbowl party in Estonia.

Estonian Sauna - Part 2

When in Estonia...

The Biggest Superbowl Party in Estonia

In Estonia, superbowl parties start at 1:00am. I happened to be at the largest one in all of Estonia.



We also had the best bean dip in the country.



Although it was originally purported that we would have to watch with commentary in either Spanish or Finnish - I was pulling for Spanish- it turned out that we found the original American broadcast on a German station. However, where there should be ultra-expensive high-profile commercials being played, instead we were showed random shots of coachs, fans, players, in complete silence. Sometimes, instead, the apparent two foremost experts on the NFL in Germany would come on.



For some reason, they interviewed Micheal Phelps several times during these periods.

"...so, Micheal Phelps, i bet you'd feel pretty silly running around out there on the grass..."

"...not much like swimming at all... now is it, Micheal Phelps?"

"..so, Micheal Phelps, you're an American.. any idea what the rules of this game are?"

etc.

In Estonia, superbowl parties go all night.

Estonian Sauna - Part 1

We rented a cabin with a sauna for Saturday night. It was about a 1.5 hour drive south from Tartu.



We ended up just a few kilometers from the Russian border. Tambet, his wife Julia, his baby Tim, and myself drove down first to get the keys to the place.

Five of Tambet's friends met us there with food and beer.

Estonian sauna's were rumored to be very, very hot - so we would need a cooling mechanism.





Tambet made me admit that his favorite Estonian beer was pretty good.





After the traditional Estonian sausage fight, we cooked them.



We listened to some Estonian drinking music...

The Estonian Office