I updated the site design a little.  I’ve tested it with Firefox
and IE 6.  Anyway, I hope you like it and let me know if you have any problems or see any
weirdness.

Work environment matters quite a bit to me.  Work is where I spend
the majority of my life these days, and I would like to enjoy as much
of my life as possible.  I had thought that the most important
aspect of a job was the people that you work with.  I now have a
different belief.  To go along with the people that you work with,
I really think that the environment must suit your personality,
also.  I think that it takes some career moves to get a good
understanding for the type of environment that suits you. 

For me, the environment means the physical work environment,
flexibility with that environment, as well as tools to get the job
done.

I am currently having an internal conflict with my job.  They hire
people as salary, but then they treat the people as children.  The
fact that I have to keep track of every minute I work pisses me
off.  I could see if I was a contractor and my time was billable,
but I’m a full time employee working on a single project.  Give me
the benefit of the doubt and put some faith in your decision in hiring
me.  I know that I work more if I have more freedom… I have
proved this with prior jobs.  But lock me into strict hours (8-5)
and I will only put in that much time.  When I have to worry about
how much time I put into the work, I find it hard to do things related
to the job, outside of work.  Another thing bothers me with the
current hours that I work is that if I take off to go to see a doctor
or some other appointment, I have to submit that I wasn’t at work for
that short period and I don’t get paid for it.  But if I would
stay a couple hours later, I also wouldn’t get paid for that.  It
would just be a bonus to the company.

I think a lot of this comes as a culture change for the company. 
The company is trying to start a software business, but they’re
neglecting the talent that they’ve hired.  They’re used to
providing a work environment that suited office workers from the
70s-80s.  I personally don’t see that the work culture will change
enough to suit me.  I have to admit that I get jealous when I see
the work environments of other tech companies.  We always hear
that change is on the way, but I have yet to see anything beneficial to
our work environment.  Again, if I were in this business as a
contractor, I woudn’t be bitching about these types of things.

So currently… I’m not happy when I go to my job.  It’s not that
I’m totally unhappy either, but rather I am somewhere between the
two.  Unfortunately, I feel that it’s getting to the point where
my current situation is draining the joy of working with
computers. 

Now that the trip details are written, I’d like to write some of my
thoughts about the trip.  Overall, it was a blast.  The only
thing that I’d change would be to bring medicine with me… it’s a
bitch to figure out where to buy medicine and what exactly is medicine
in countries where I’m not fluent with the language.

People ask me which place I liked the most… that’s a hard question to
answer cause each place has it’s good points.  I do know that I’ll
visit Hungary and Germany again.  I didn’t feel that I had enough
time in each place to really get a good feeling for the culture,
people, and sights/sounds.  I’m not sure when I’ll go back to
Prague, but I’m sure it’ll happen at some point.  It is such a
beautiful city and there are so many other things I want to see around
Prague that we didn’t have a chance to see.  I’d like to see Kostnice,
a church in Kutna Hora, built out of bones from the plague in the 14th
century.  Also, I’d like to go to Pilsner to checkout the Pilsner
Urquel brewery.  At this point, I’d probably only go back to
Amsterdam in the spring.  I’ve heard that the spring bloom is
magnificent to see. 

Other than that, everyone that we ran into were really friendly and
didn’t really seem to mind that we were Americans.  On the other
hand, EVERYONE that we talked to HATED Bush.  They don’t agree
with his plans and generally seemed to have a better understanding of
the situation than Americans do.  Even watching the news (CNN
world news) made me feel as though Americans are sheltered with the
news that we receive.

Another question I’ve gotten a couple times is whether or not I’m happy
to be home.  Again, it’s hard for me to answer that.  I
really enjoy seeing new places, meeting new people, and living through
the day without worrying about work (and money).  On the other
hand, I was sick for the last 5 or so days of the trip, so getting back
to familiar medicine is nice.  Having my own shower, bed, and
clean clothes are nice amenities that I generally take for granted.

As far as the drinking/partying goes… I think I’d go out for a couple
beers at a pub or two, but I’d leave the drunkeness and discoteks for
the weekends…

Other than that, I wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything.  I look forward to many more….

Thursday morning, we took a train from Prague to Munich.  It took
about 7 hours and gave us a nice view of the countryside and
surrounding hills.  Once again, all of the money I had from the
previous country was useless.  For some reason, I usually had
about $50-100 extra from each country we visited on this trip.. 

We made our way to our apartment (in Arabella Park).  Our landlady
was a real bitch once she found out that there were 5 of us staying
there.  Apparently something got lost in translation and she only
thought that there were going to be 4… we ended up paying about $120
more for the 5th person.  That night, we went to the Hofbrau House
and enjoyed some food, singing, prositing (toasting), and talking with
people.  The Hofbrau house is largely a tourist place, but since
tourists from all over the world go there, the people are very
diverse.  For example, we initially talked with some guys from a
North East territory of Spain.  I found out that parts of Spain
don’t really get along with other parts, to the point to not wanting to
say that they are from Spain.  When I cheered Spain on their
behalf, they got all emotional and explained to me that they were from
the territory… not Spain.  After a little while, we moved to a
table closer to the band and for the rest of the night talked with some
local Munich people…

Fox and I went home after the Hofbrau House closed (around
11:00pm).  We had to wake up early Friday morning to head to the
airport.  The other guys stayed out long into the night and proved
that German beer can get you very drunk.  So… the joy of buying
a plane ticket last minute for a town that is sold out.  There
were 3 seats available from Munich to London for Sunday.  We got
them, but had to pay around $800 a piece for them.  To top it all
off, Phil was the lucky winner of the 7:00am ticket, while Fox and I
had 12:00pm tickets back to London.  So, with that out of the way,
we headed to the Hippodrome at Oktoberfest.

We got to the tent and easily found where Brad, Hann-Ah, and Phil were
sitting.  They were sitting at a table talking with some guys from
New York and Washington DC.  Because it was Friday morning (around
11:00am), the place wasn’t that full.  We were able to talk to the
waitresses and find out some information about how Octoberfest works. 
The waitresses (Eva and Babsi) were extremely nice (not to mention
cute) and explained that people without reservations are allowed
entrance to the tent only when the front doors are open in the
morning. 

If you don’t have a reservation, you can stay in the tent, but if you
leave while the front doors are closed, you won’t be let back in.  In
order to be let back into the tent, you have to have a bracelet.  They
have bracelets for the afternoon and bracelets for the evening.  The
afternoon bracelets last until 4:00pm and the evening bracelets go from
4:00pm till close (10:30-11:00).  So you can reserve a table for lunch
and/or reserve a table for dinner.  The hippodrome is the smallest tent
and it holds around 6,000 people, while the other tents on the grounds
hold around 12,000. 

So… this is how we did our two days at Oktoberfest.  We tipped when
we ordered beer… around 1-3 Euro per liter of beer.  It seemed that
most people in the tent did not tip.  After talking for a while, we
were able to get bracelets for $10 a piece.  We paid $15, again
throwing in a tip. 

After we got our bracelet, we decided to go out and see the rest of the
fest.  We headed towards the Lowenbrau tent, but it was
packed.  So we
only stayed for one beer.  After that, we headed toward a grassy
hill
by a big statue.  We ended up taking a small nap there, in hopes
of
sobering up a little.  Phil, however, was a lost cause… he ended
up
just doing somersaults and annoying other people on the hill. 
After
the nap, we headed back to the Hippodrome to drink away the
night.  It
was harder to find room for all of us, but the ladies helped us out
once again.  We danced, sang, and drank throughout the
night.  I can’t count how many times we sang “Ein Prosit”… it’s
a great song where you sing about cheers-ing the people around
you.  Amazingly, Phil made it through the entire night…

Saturday was much of the same.  But because it was Saturday, the tents
filled up extremely early.  We got to the Hippodrome around 9:30 with a
pretty healthy line outside.  Once we got inside, all of the tables
were taken already.  The really cool thing is that Eva and Babsi saved
us a complete table, though.  So, for the second day in a row, we had a
full table to ourselves (until 4:00pm).    Once again, Phil got wasted
early again… There must be something in the beer that reacts
differently with him.  We ended up taking a nap again on the grassy
hill…  it just works out well to take a break between drinking… 
When we woke up, Hann-Ah, Fox, and myself thought it would be nice to
pickup some food for everyone else.  When we got back to the hill,
everyone else was gone, though.  We waited for a while, and then
thought it would be a great idea to go on rides… the first ride was
cool, but the second spun us around so much that it made me feel pretty
sick.  A tasty beer helped even that out, though.  I have many great
memories and will post pictures of the festivities… I hope to run
into Eva and Babsi the next time I’m in Munich!  They really made our
time in Munich special.

The only downside of the fest is the Italian guys.  They are relentless
with girls… They basically assault anything with tits, in hopes of
getting laid. 

We ended up going to U Marcanu for dinner on Monday night (Sept.
19th).  That place was amazing.  The food was excellent, the
service
was good and funny, and the entertainment capped everything off
nicely.  We got to the place (via the 18 train) around 7:30 and
ended up missing the first course (potato soup).  We did manage to
have the second course…  a very tasty concoction of ham, potato
dumplings, and sauerkraut.  After that, we had the main course
consisting of a steak, mushroom, veggie kabob, a helping of scalped
potato casserole, and some assorted veggies.  Finally we were
given a traditional dessert of ice cream and a fruit crepe.  I
decided to drink a lot of white wine throughout dinner, so I was
happily buzzed by the end of the meal.  After dinner was finished,
we stayed at the restaurant for another hour and a half.  We got
involved in singing and dancing to native Czech and Gypsy songs. 
That night, we went out to some bars in our neighborhood (Praha 1)

Tuesday was a rough day for me.  I was pretty hung over from all
of the wine that I drank the night before and didn’t start feeling
normal again until late in the day.  We walked through a lot of
the shops while it rained.  Some of the styles (camouflage) were a
little too much for me to try to pull off.  Some of the other guys
enjoyed some of the clothes, though.  That night, we decided to go
to a strip club.  Prague has people trying to sell strip places,
among other things, in the squares.  We went to one and I was
nominated to be the scout to see if it was worth it.  One or two
girls were cute, but I figured that we should continue to look… So we
went to another club and were all allowed to go in to scout it
out.  All of the girls were absolutely beautiful.  If I knew
the name of the place, I’d mention it, but I don’t.  I just know
that we paid 300 crown for 5 beers and shows.  We got to see a
nice show with two girls while we were there, too.  Overall, I
recommend going to this place as much as I recommend going to U
Marcanu.  After seeing the show, we went out for some drinks.  Double
Trouble had the best music for the trip and wasn’t too crowded when we
were there.  It might be worth checking out, if you get the chance.

Wednesday involved more of a tourist way of life. We hopped on a two our bus tour of Prague. It took us through Old Town, New Town, the Jewish quarter, and up to the castle. Since I had visited the castle previously, I decided to walk to the nearest cafe for a cool beverage. While enjoying my still water, the waitress convinced me to take a shot of

Wednesday
– Tour
– Brewery Tour
– Smoked at night

We did more touristy type things on Wednesday.  We hopped on a
two our bus tour of Prague.  It took us through Old Town, New
Town, the Jewish quarter, and up to the castle.  Since I had
visited the castle previously, I decided to walk to the nearest cafe
for a cool beverage.  While enjoying my still water, the waitress
convinced me to take a huge shot of Becherovkawhich
tasted pretty yummy.  If I were to make a similarity, I would say
that it tastes like a weak Schnapps type liquor.  While she tried
convincing me to take
another, I got her to give me a massage.  that was a nice
bonus.  After
the tour, Brad and I decided to take a walk and see the U Flaku
brewery.  It is the oldest brewery in Prague and I have to admit
that
they had excellent beer.  Again, make a reservation if you’re
interested in going there.  We didn’t, so we couldn’t go on a
tour…
we just had some beer cheese dip, bread, and beer. 

These our the rough expenses so far. 

Amsterdam
Hotel: 30-50 Euro
Coffee Shop: 6-8 Euro per gram
Beer: 2-3 Euro

Budapest
Apartment: 250 Euro for 5 nights
Beer: 200-300 HUF (1 Euro) for a liter
Typical meal: 1000-2500 HUF (3-10 Euro)
Internet Cafe: 100 HUF / 10 minutes  (about $0.50 / 10 minutes)

So yesterday, we went to a really nice local park.  It was
basically an island in the Danube river and the park encompassed the
entire island.  There were a couple hotels toward the north
of the park, but we didn’t go there.  We rented some electric
cars and drove around most of the island.  we were even able
to explore some ruins of a very old church.  

I woke
up pretty early today (around 7:45 or so) and decided to go for a nice
run.  That sucked… my lungs must still have Amsterdam
goodness in them cause they seemed a little
irritated.  Anyway, Phil and I had some cappuccino, a light
breakfast pastry and then headed to the train station to pickup our
Prague tickets.  We’re scheduled to leave at 6:00am tomorrow,
so we’ll just stay up all night and sleep on the train.  It’s
about a 7 hour ride so we should get to Prague right in the afternoon.

As
far as today goes, I’m going to go to a spa for a swim and Thai
massage.  I’ve never had a Thai massage before, so hopefully
it helps more than it hurts.  btw, I”m currently at a “fast”
internet cafe.  A 256kbps leased line for 50 pcs…. it sucks to
upload pictures

Other than that, I’ve been thinking
about what it would take to live in Europe for a while.  I
guess it’ll depend on how much I like Prague, to see if I should
investigate it further.  I really like the culture here,
opposed to the American culture.  The people seem to take
much more joy in their life and aren’t so strict with work.  
For instance, it doesn’t seem like there is a time limit for
lunch.  Relax, eat comfortably and return to work when you
want to.  That’s just one of many examples…

Anyway, if you’re ever in Budapest and you’re interested in staying at an apartment, give this one a try.

Dora Draganel
Reservation Manager
Budapest 1052 Aranykez Str. 6. 6th floor/64.
www.budapesthotels.info.hu
00-36-1-209-9215

It is near the Casino Las Vegas and the Sofitel hotel