A Wednesday Night Out

Yesterday, (Thursday, the 17th of November) was a national holiday in the Czech Republic. Because schools were cancelled, Laura and I decided to take advantage of the excitement in the air and see how the Czechs celebrate their days off. (I had really wanted to join my friend Jana on her trip to Slovakia, but I was unable to get Friday (today) off of work.)

We started by trying out a new bar for a beer and get a feel for the night, as is our current MO, and ran into one of my friends in the pub. We left shortly after in pursuit of a good social venue where we could find refuge from the brisk night air. We were walking up one of the main streets in the center of town when we heard music radiating from one of the buildings on our right. I was able to guess which window it was, and we decided to see what was going on.

The door was open, so we hiked up to the top floor and stood in front of the door as it vibrated with life from within. I knocked on the door until it was opened by a girl who saw no problem with letting us in. After asking the first person who seemed unengaged in a conversation what was going on, we learned that we were in an architectural firm and they were having an office party with live music and friends. The artistic, musically inclined group was really interesting and fun to hang out with. We started dancing along to the live music, Laura was offered some wine, and we were never short someone to talk to. There was some homemade food (including soup, freshly fried bacon, and chips) available to us, as well as homemade rum. We were welcomed by everyone we spoke to, and found that several of them knew English very well.

By the end of the night, we were invited to attend a large Thanksgiving meal in Prague, climbed up on the roof with the others and watched our hosts' light off fireworks at midnight, and I sang some songs with the musicians in one of the microphones. Overall, it was a fun night =) Now it's Friday, and will soon be time to meet up with some people we met last weekend, so I must take a bath.