Saturday, July 26, 2008

Back in Toronto

So I returned to London from Prague on Wednesday night and then flew out for Toronto again on Friday afternoon. I'm currently sitting in the patio at the cafe at the Drake getting ready to enjoy my bloody caesar and egg and bacon brunch. I've actually got to spend some time working today since I didn't get much done at the airport yesterday while waiting for my flight, but I figured I'd spend the first bit of the day enjoying the weather and updating my blog.

So I'm here in Toronto for the next two weeks before flying back to London. If anyone has any suggestions of things to do here in my free time please post comments or send me a quick mail. The only thing I have planned so far is to try and catch Dark Knight in IMAX while I'm here.

...well, brunch just arrived so I'm going to cut this one short and hopefully post again later this weekend.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Wow, all I can say is wow...

Well, not really. I suppose I can actually say quite a bit more than that. Let's start off with my opinion that the Tom Waits concerts were absolutely phenomenal. And that's an understatement. I don't think I could find the words to adequately describe how incredible the shows were. The only drawback is that, with encore, they were only around two hours each night. Short but sweet. Short but extremely sweet. Tom Waits is an incredible showman, musician and storyteller. Additionally, the members of his band were all awesome as well. Makes me want to quit my job and just follow him around for the remainder of his European tour. hmm.... ;)

So five nights in Prague and four of those nights were filled with great music. Jazz the first two nights at Blues Sklep followed by two nights of Tom Waits. Great food, cheap beer, beautiful weather....

Actually, speaking of the weather, the rain here is interesting. At least what I've experienced of it. It may be sunny and clear one minute and then boom, the sky turns black, thunder and lightning, the clouds open up and there's between 2 and 5 minutes of torrential downpour. Then it's clear again. Really a wonderful experience. I noticed most people would duck into awnings for the duration of the deluge, not me. I found it really refreshing to just wander down the middle of the empty streets and let the rain soak me. It actually made me really happy and for awhile I was laughing hysterically while meandering through the rain. People probably thought I was crazy. I'm sure they're at least half right.

Well, until next time... which will probably be some time late this weekend. I'm flying back to Toronto for two weeks for work and I'm sure there will be some interesting goings on there. Hopefully that will include The Dark Knight in IMAX.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

The laptop has been drinking, not me...

In Prague. Just got back to the hostel from a night out on the town. It's about 2am on Sunday... Really an early night if you compare to last night where I was out at a bar until about 4am . An intersting place it was. None of the workers or patrons were Czech. There were people from all sorts of other places around the world (Canada, States, Denmark, UK, various places in Africa).


So the real reason I'm posting is the place I hit tonight. Name of Blues Sklep. Initially a bunch of old guys playing jazz. Really well... Not only was the music great but the venue was great too. In the basement of a building in some old side alley. Exposed stone walls and arches (and shit...). The musicians were a bunch of old Czech guys, all of them were really good. A sax, a piano, an acoustic guitar, an upright bass and a set of drums.

After the first set they added a trombone and a chick singing. Even better times! Especially with 1/2 litre Czech beer for less than 30 koruna (that's just over $2US or a bit over a pound). Definitely think I'll be going back on Sunday.