Weather in June/July

For those of you that have never visited eastern Europe, the weather can be a very interesting topic. While many people tend to compare the summer months in Eastern Europe to the summer months on the East Coast, there are some small differences.

On occasion, the weather in Eastern Europe mirrors the hot humid temperature of the East Coast, but this is very rare. It tends not to reach the high levels of humidity that characterize many East Coast states. Rather, the weather usually falls into 2 categories: hot and sunny or overcast and chilly. Sometimes its a mix. Nonetheless, it rarely gets as hot and humid as the East Coast and if it does, it lasts for a much shorter period of time.

Perhaps one of the most unique things about the weather in Eastern Europe is day length. Because many Eastern European countries are so far north, the sun doesn’t go down until after 10pm. Madrid is at about the same latitude as Philadelphia. In most of the U.S., the sun tends to go down around 8pm in the summer months.  Thus, many Eastern Europeans don’t go out for dinner until 11pm while some Americans may already be in bed.  This promotes a very unique and active nightlife for many Eastern Europeans. I remember on one occasion, having been clubbing all night, emerging from a club around 4am to find that the sun was already out.

This unique weather pattern allows for some down time after work and before dinner. It adds a more laidback element to the culture of Eastern Europeans. While many Americans are equated to a “rush rush rush” mentality, the length of day allows Eastern Europeans more hours in a day, and perhaps more time to relax and enjoy the sunshine after a long day at work.

Reconnecting in Prague

To start off, it’s been a LONG time since we’ve posted anything on here. For any loyal readers, we sincerely apologize.

This post is going to focus on my return to Prague in 2007 and my experiences while I was there. In 2007, I returned to Prague for the first time since leaving Europe in 2001. The opportunity arose to visit following a conference for the Licensing Executive Society International in Zurich. The purpose of my visit was to reconnect with colleagues I had known whilst doing business there who were either Czech or had remained in Prague over the years, in furtherance of my international corporate law practice.

Upon arriving in Prague, I checked into the Hilton. Back in the day, the Hilton was called the Atrium. It is now the Hilton Atrium Hotel. Once I had checked into my room, my first stop was to see whether one of my favorite pubs was still in business. The restaurant was called V Jama, a Czech pub a few hundred yards from Wenceslas Square near the first McDonald’s in Prague.  The pub started right around the time I was trying to get my own American Bar and Grill off the ground in Prague. This American succeeded.

To my everlasting joy, V Jama is still in business. Today, the restaurant serves a wide variety of foods including a mixture of Tex Mex, traditional Czech and contemporary American dishes. The choices range from fried chicken wings to spicy burritos. I went into the familiar restaurant, sat at the bar, and ordered a Czech beer. I properly worshipped this half liter of wonderful beer before drinking it. After a few more, I realized that I was sitting right next to the owner of the bar. After a little while, we recognized each other and began to reminisce over several other people I knew from the days I lived there. It was a wonderful beginning to what turned out to be a great visit to Prague.