Steem 'n' gold in Prague, Merry Christmas in Jeseniky and Harley the beach Pig

I'd rather be hanging out on the beach with Harley the pig then spending winters in Canada. Although I grew up in Czechoslovakia and cold winters did not seem to bother me back then, I'm not a big fan of long winters anymore. By the end of October the Vancouver rain stops being lovely and by the end of November I am already thinking which warm country I'll escape to. This year the journey started in a different way though. 3 days after my last exhibition of the year we took off from snowy Vancouver to even colder destinations in Europe. To spend Christmas with my family and connect with an amazing Steemian @lichtblick .

Prague is my favorite city in Europe

This year the month of December was quite different in Vancouver. To start with- the whole autumn was super rainy, even in the measures of the famous Rain-couver. Also the intensity of rain on some days was mind boggling. Downpours which left streets inundated within an hour happened more then once. And then, in second week of December, came the snow.

I saw that happen before, particularly in 2010, but the snow never lasted more than a day. Not this time. @gladysmak joined me in our Vancouver home few days before our departure and she brought a mighty downfall of snow with her. Hong Kong girls are trouble, I'm telling ya. The day before we were supposed to take off, Vancouver was experiencing the thickest layer of snow in many years. To be honest we loved it. If I can choose between cold winter rain or snow, I am all in for snow. But then came Monday and I had to drive around to eliminate a monstrous pre-departure to-do list. We live on a hill, and my car does not have winter tires (never needed them until now). Yup, it was lots of fun, totally reminded me of good ol' sleigh times.

At the rooftop of my art studio thinking about how I'm gonna get home

Needless to say, we left in a rush and I forgot to bring some life saving things (goggles for Christs sake!). Packing one carry-on luggage for several months trip over 3 continents in few minutes is my specialty after all. As far as I have my Lion King towel, I'm good (Galaxy Hitchhikers know it!).

British Airways flight to London was nice, but I'd still prefer to fly with Cathay. It's about time BA upgrades the pre-historic mini screens with resolution of Atari monitors. I'll skip the details of what we went through in Heathrow. Enough to say- after 9 hours flight and 4 hours wait for our connecting flight to Prague, we did not manage to get on board. We barely managed to buy last two seats on the next day's flight for a sum that would feed an entire African village for a month or provide me with a luxury vacation in Mexico with unlimited tequila & tacos & tip to toe daily massage. At least we became members of Ibis hotels, got 10% discount and free glass of wine, and breakfast that set my stomach from green-smoothie regime to bread, butter & sugar regime. Gotta look at the sweet side of life.

On our way to finally take off from Heathrow (it only took us 16 hours)

Prague welcomed us with hassle free airport, easy public transport to the city center, no snow and freezing cold. Last year when I visited this absolute gem of a city, it looked like this:

We got to our cozy hotel (Pension u Lilie) , located a stone's throw distance from enchantingly beautiful Charles Bridge. Jochen (@lichtblick) arrived from Berlin yesterday and was already waiting for us in the same hotel. What a pleasure to meet an awakened and beautiful soul like him! The heart connections go beyond the reasoning of mind and in such cases the amount of time spent together becomes irrelevant. Trust springing from intrinsic feeling of meeting a long known fellow brother flowers immediately. And so it was with meeting my first European steemian brother @lichtblick.

I led our 3 musketeers steemit group to my favorite coffee place (Cacao on Namesti Republiky) whose manager Milan is a friend of mine. He recommended us his favorite first flush green tea from sunny slopes of Darjeeling. Once our cups empty we took metro to Radlicni sklipek restaurant at Smichov to treat our hungry tummies with some bad ass big plates of filling and yummy but not necessarily very healthy Czech food.

Walking back through Kampa we reached the Charles bridge wrapped in the beauty of cold winter night. By the time we got back to the hotel we were all shivering which probably helped digesting the copious dinner.

Jochen, Gladys & me

Jet legged honey @gladysmak gave in to fatigue or maybe she just got tired of waiting for us to finish our never-ending conversation in Jochen's room. We had lots to share and eventually took our visions of how to awake humanity to the undisputed best pub in Prague 1 – Hany Bany (keep this gem “secret” please :)

Hany Bany is an eternal tribute to Tarantino's Pulp Fiction

Before leaving Prague the following day, we had the absolute pleasure of having breakfast with CEO of Silverseek.com and Goldseek.com Peter Spina (21st anniversary!), who just recently moved to Prague, not to seek for Gold, but for his Czech ancestry. Huge shout out to my buddy Randy @hilarski who told me about Peter because they used to do business together. I know this might sound bit cheesy, but I cannot but admit that talking to Peter I experienced exactly the same kind of connection as with Jochen. Two hours breakfast felt like 5 minutes and we couldn't but help laughing at the long list of parallels and similarities of our life journeys and passions.

Peter's office has amazing views of historical Mala Strana

As I'm typing these finishing lines, the dark is slowly giving way to the first signs of the misty morning in the snowy slopes of Jeseniky mountains in eastern Moravia. My darling @gladysmak is still asleep and so are my two nephews and sister-in-law. Just me and my oldest brother are witnesses of the flickering light of flames coming out of the fire place, sharing this sacred moment of silence and peace away from hassles of civilization. It is Christmas Eve and deep feeling of gratitude floods my whole being. Soon the house will be filled with joy of children decorating the Christmas tree which we got straight from the depths of forest surrounding my brother's house.

Alex was helping Gladys to decorate the Christmas sweets :)

Best spot by fireplace

I am extending the peace I feel within to all of you, to the whole world, to the whole Universe.
Thank you for today. Thank you for every step on the Journey, thank you for every breath.
May the Humanity awaken and thrive in Joy and Abundance, which IS our true nature.

Much Love & Light,
Merry Christmas,

Jan

Encounter with Harley the beach Pig month and a half ago in Maui's Baldwin Beach