Cabbage Soup Diet

 

After a very long drawn out winter, my winter love handles seemed to be taking hold of me. Winter just means you pig out more because you have the layers to cover it up and every time you pull off those layers to take a shower or get dressed, there is a big fat reminder that unveils itself that its time to get your body back into shape. Do you listen...Hell No
You carry on and hope the problem resolves itself without involving you.

But then something triggers your mind; either its a new year (that's my case), a wedding coming up (my case too) summer will be here eventually(another reason for me) and all these reasons give you the kick up your ass you need to make a change.

I did a lot of research as I didn't want to go on a crash diet but I needed something that boost me in the right direction. There was a lot of stuff on the internet!

I do not believe in crash diets, I do not believe in some pill that will make me weigh less but I can eat whatever I want, I do not believe in becoming a vegan or living on celery and carrot sticks. I believe that it takes hard work, discipline and dedication and that means a good diet and exercise...plain...simple...difficult. I LOVE FOOD TOOOOO MUCH to say AU revoir

My goal is to shed at least two kilograms on the cabbage soup diet, by doing this diet I will be able to retrain my brain on what healthy eating is all about, I hope to curb my sugar cravings. I also hope to instil discipline in my day to day and realise the consequences of what I put in my mouth. I hope this diet isn't easy so that when I get through the week I look back and I realise it was hard work but worth it and when I get that feeling it will help me maintain good eating habits. I hope to cleanse my body and give it a good new start for the new year. I then plan to add more foods to my diet following the seven days but stay away from sugars, biscuits, cake, chips, chocolate, ice cream and bread. I will also change my milk to skim milk going forward and start eating oatmeal and each morning as my breakfast.( highly recommended by dieticians and health sites) I plan to eat more simply at night; ie: soup, baked potato, salad and stay away from heavy foods that leave me bloated. I plan to cook more simply using fresh herbs and spices and stay away from sauces and condiments. Through following this way of living; I plan to shed my last kilogram and maintain my weight.

GOAL:   shed 2KG
CURRENT:  59.6KG
AFTER:        58
DIET:     Cabbage soup diet
TIME:     7 days
START:  7 January 2013
END:      13 January 2013
INITIAL EMOTION:   frustration
END EMOTION:        happy
NEED: willpower, discipline and not cheat yourself

READ MY PROGRESS OVER THE LAST FOUR DAYS AND WILL KEEP YOU UPDATED THE REST OF THE WEEK.

THE SOUP

6 large green onions (also called “spring” onions)

2 green peppers

1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)

3 carrots

1 container (10 oz. or so) mushrooms

1 bunch of celery

half a head of cabbage

1 package spice only soup mix (In the US, Liptons is a good choice)

1 or 2 cubes of bouillon (optional)

1 48oz can Low Sodium V8 juice (optional)

Season to taste with pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc. (Little to NO SALT!)

Directions:
Slice green onions, put in a pot on medium heat and start to sauté with cooking spray. Do this until the onions are whiter/clearer in color (about 4-6 minutes).
Cut green pepper stem end off, then cut pepper in half to take out the seeds and membrane. Cut the green pepper into bite size pieces and add to pot.
Take the outer leafs layers off the cabbage, cut into bite size pieces, add to pot.
Clean carrots, mushrooms, and celery, cut into bite size pieces and toss them in. Add tomatoes now, too.
If you would like a spicy soup, add a small amount of curry or cayenne pepper now.
For seasonings, you can use a spice soup packet of your choice (no noodles!) or use beef or chicken bouillon cubes. These cubes are optional, and you can add spices you like instead (make sure not to add much salt, if any at all).
Use about 12 cups of water (or 8 cups and the 48 oz of Low Sodium V8 juice), cover and put heat on low. Let soup simmer for a long time – about 2 hours or until vegetables are tender.

DAY BEFORE DIET - PREPERATION

I am a very organized individual and in order for me to see something through, I need to feel prepared. I had already planned to go on this diet a week before and so I already had it in my mind and everyday I reminded myself about the dedication I would need.

The day before came and I did the following:

• I cleaned out the fridge of any items that would be tempting. I threw out items that I knew would not be fresh in a weeks time.
• I prepped my jars of vitamins on the kitchen counter so that I would remember to take them each morning. It is essential that you take a multi vitamin during the 7 days to make sure your body gets an extra something
• I went grocery shopping for all my ingredients and lots of bottled water
• I made a pot of soup on Sunday night and stored it in the fridge

DIET PLAN OVER 7 DAYS

 

Day One:

Fruit: Eat all of the fruit you want (except bananas). Eat only your soup and the fruit for the first day. For drinks- unsweetened teas, cranberry juice and water.

I drank green tea in the morning to wash down my vitamins, I would make a fresh batch of soup each night so that my ingredients were fresh and made slight alterations so that the taste wasn't the same everyday. Day one was about breaking habits, I often found myself reaching for something and then realising I wasn't allowed to eat.

Day Two:

Vegetables: Eat until you are stuffed will all fresh, raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. Try to eat leafy green vegetables and stay away from dry beans, peas and corn. Eat all the vegetables you want along with your soup. At dinner, reward yourself with a big baked potato with butter. Do not eat fruit today.

When day one was over it was a relief, day two meant a potato, if you do this diet, you will realise how much a potato means to you. I got a big potato, scrubbed the skin and sprinkled with coarse salt (naughty but I had too) and poked it eight times before putting it in the oven at 250 degrees for 60min. the skin came out perfect and inside was flaky and soft. I poured some of my soup over the top to add flavour

Day Three:

Mix Days One and Two: Eat all the soup, fruits and vegetables you want. No Baked Potato.

I started day three with some green tea and a bowl of fruit in the morning. By this stage you will experience headaches, mild but constant. day three is tough as you feel like you are half way there and then you remember its seven days, your sugar tooth is gonna cry blue murder but don't give in. I saw a woman on the metro with a bag of cupcakes and I nearly became a criminal that night. By this stage you are dreaming of croissants and pastries with a good cuppa coffee. On this day I grabbed a salad for lunch as I couldn't bear to eat soup for supper and lunch. my salad wasn't exactly angelic, I added a few blocks of feta and cashew nuts because I couldn't bare a bland salad. for supper I had a big bowl of soup - incredibly filling. I also had a fruit salad to quieten down my sweet tooth to a light punishing scream.

Day Four:

Bananas and Skim Milk: Eat as many as eight bananas and drink as many glasses of skim milk as you would like on this day, along with your soup. This day is supposed to lessen your desire for sweets.

today...you live the dream. you get to eat bananas...despite the fact that you kinda feel somewhat like a silly monkey for doing this all in the first place...you will also feel like a monkey and delve into those bananas as if it was your staple food. I had a banana for breakfast, soup for lunch and skim milk and two bananas for supper. My tolerance for eating more soup is diminishing. Its also difficult when you make it every night and eat it everyday, for me there is something about making your own food and eating it that can become tiresome. Today is meant to curb your sugar tooth and when I was in the stores, I looked at chocolates and didn't feel like it...I call that PROGRESS! To assist myself in actually swallowing these dietary requirements; I added cinnamon to my bananas and I heated my skim milk up and put literally a raindrop of honey and cinnamon on the top... I had to do it in order to drink it.

I had some butternut left over from last night so I added it to my soup today

Day Five:

Beef And Tomatoes: Ten to twenty ounces of beef and up to six fresh tomatoes. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water this day to wash the uric acid from your body. Eat your soup at least once this day. You may eat broiled or baked chicken instead of beef (but absolutely no skin-on chicken). If you prefer, you can substitute broiled fish for beef on one of the beef days (but not both).

Today was testing, instead of soup for lunch I had a salad and substituted the beef with salmon. The migrane I had today was intense, previous days proved to have a mild headache but today it was bad and I had to take a pain killer.

Day Six:

Beef and Vegetables: Eat to your heart’s content of beef and vegetables this day. You can even have 2 or 3 steaks if you like, with leafy green vegetables. No Baked Potato. Eat your soup at least once.

I had chamomile for breakfast , soup for lunch. Felt very light headed and so I munched on some popcorn out of sheer desperation. For dinner I had beef and veg.

Day Seven:

Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables: Again stuff, stuff, stuff yourself. Be sure to eat your soup at least once this day.

Today I cannot bare to even look at soup, although it is the last day of the diet and it counts, I have decided to resume normal eating in moderation, breakfast will be oats, no sugar and skim milk.

SOME GOOD TIPS FOR YOU TO SEE THIS THROUGH

 

• PREPARE YOURSELF MENTALLY AS TO WHEN YOU WILL DO THIS DIET, IF YOU HAVE A DINNER OR DATE TO GO TO, THEN DONT DO IT THAT WEEK. THE TEMPATATION WILL BE STRONG TO ORDER WHAT YOU LIKE AND THE MENU WILL NOT BE SERVING CABBAGE SOUP...I CAN PROMISE THAT
• DRINK LOADS OF WATER, IT WILL ALSO FILL YOU
• DONT KID YOURSELF AND THINK YOU CAN TEXTBOOK DIET THIS, BY ADDING CINNAMON HERE AND THERE OR A SMIDGE OF HONEY WONT DO HARM.
 
• ADD VARIOUS SPICES TO THE SOUP TO ENHANCE TASTE
• CINNAMON IS A GREAT SPICE, IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY HEALTH SITES.
• KEEP A DIARY OFYOUR PROGRESS AS TO WHAT YOU HAVE EATEN AND TICK OFF WHAT YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED, THAT WAY YOU LOOK BACK AT THE DAY AND YOU CAN HONESTLY SAY YOU DID IT.
• PREPARE YOURSELF FOR A MILD TO STRONG HEADACHE.

 

After the diet, I maintained a no bread and no sugar restriction for a week. I only drank water and ate normally. I lost a further 1kg by doing this. I am currently maintaining healthy eating, and having small doses of sugar and restricting myself on carbs. I continue to eat three meals with no snacking. 

 

3 Days In Lisbon

3 words to describe Lisbon:- intricate
- grand
- colourful

I'm not really sure how we ended up booking this destination, if anything it seemed a bit randomly selected by means of flight availability and affordability. We knew what we were aiming for: some sunshine and a temperature above 15 degrees would suit us just fine, hence Lisbon.
November the 17th: we landed at the Lisbon airport, excited and hungry for an authentic experience. We had three days to make the most of it. Residential florentia was our home for 3 nights, affordable and central, it provided an excellent base for us to commute from, everything was a short walk.

Taken on the sands of Cascais

Day One:

We arrived at our hotel and settled in, the room was "cosy" and it often took some coordinating for us both to manoeuvre around the room without bumping into everything and each other. Walls were slightly paper thin but the exhilaration of being in a new city made us quickly forget the rooms downfalls.
Eager to explore but famished, we literally walked a few steps and turned to the right: on the corner was Bonjardim restaurant; our first Lisbon meal just had to be grilled chicken and chips with Portuguese rolls.

walking down the streets of Lisbon near Rossio square

Belly full and hungry eye's, we headed down Rua Augusta and got an immediate feel for the city, waiters lined the street, ready to coax you into their establishments. We walked all the way down and through the main arch clock tower, the sea air slaps you in the face and your appetite is awakened once again :). Walking across the marbled square, you will come to the edge of the city that looks over the waters, in the distance the lights of a Seattle style bridge sparkles while the moon crescents in the navy sky.

view from the coast

Amorino...my love

 It is beautiful. I was pleasantly surprised to see our favourite ice cream parlour: Amorino. We first came across this heavenly shop when we were in Barcelona and took full advantage of its variety of ice cream flavours. Chocolate always hits the spot for me.(as for the rose inspired ice cream and select as many flavours as you want, it all gets crafted into a beautiful rose)

Day Two:

I had done some research on the top ten sites to see, Sintra came highly recommended and so we decided on a day trip to this extraordinary location. We woke early, an hour too early as we had not changed our time difference, we wondered why the city was still sleeping so heavily :)
We boarded a train from rossio station to Sintra, the journey took an hour. The scenery was rural but still interesting to see. We Arrived in Sintra,

Sintra train station

winding slopes leading up to the castle

Still wondering why our train was running late? ( and still not picking up we were an hour early) we finally boarded the bus and made the steep journey to the Moorish castle. Because of our limited time, we picked our two must see sights and stuck to the plan as we still wanted to fit in Cascais. As we rolled through the town of Sintra, the calmness of the town with its peaking tree tops and mossed rocks gave us a spiritual feel. My excitement peaked as I saw the tell tale signs of cobblestone rock in the distance, indicating the up coming castle. Moorish castle was our first stop, from there it is a short walk to Pena Palace. I enjoyed doing Moorish castle first as it set a tone for Pena.

green moss

picturesque

one of the castle towers

winding stairs

Moorish castle took me to a different era, my camera went into over gear as the photo opportunities were endless, the stark green moss and vegetation contrasted with the speckled cobblestone grey and the blue sky enveloped it all. I was in photo heaven.

Geronimo the tour guide

We had a feline tour guide which I named Geronimo, he spent more time brushing up against the trees than showing us around, but it was still good to have an extra companion.

Queen of my very small castle

Pena Palace sat perched high up on a green hill, as I winded my way through, I caught glimpses of worn jewelled colours through the tree's, I knew this place would take my breath away. Pena Palace has thousands of visitors and is one of the most visited sites, it is also listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. First a chapel was constructed and later a monastery, for many years, this site was a place of worship. An earthquake took the place to ruins but left the chapel relatively unharmed. Many years later, King Ferdinand bought the palace and grounds and commissioned a romantic style palace to be built which was used as a Summer house.

The palace changed royal hands over the years and was the home of Portugal's last queen: Amelia. As the royal funds declined; the state of Portugal bought the Palace and it now stands as a museum for all to savour.

Pena palace sign board at station

breath taking and Grand

Entrance to Pena

Beautiful tiles lining the inside of an arch

Pena tower

Contrasting rugged colours of walls

At this point my appetite was starting to soar and we ventured back down the hill, through the town and back to the station to catch the bus headed for Cascais. A short ride with many stops finally got us to the little fisherman's village, I immediately took to Cascais, it is small, quaint and has ample character. Flower pots in windows, locals chatting on the corner and the sea air whisking through the streets.

Our view from the restaurant

Local walking on a Sunday

We grabbed a prego roll with a beautiful view on a secluded beach, the sun was by no means hot but temptation took hold of us and we headed down to the coved beach and just lay on the sand for an hour...it felt soooo good. The waves lapped romantically while some traditional Portuguese guitar melodies played in the background. I was full, sleepy, happy and elated.

I was very surprised by the food in Lisbon, we have quite a big portuguese population in South Africa and I have also been to Mozambique which has the same; I always thought the food would be saucy and heavily spiced, quite the opposite here, main flavouring ingredients are simple coarse salt and garlic and you will get a peri peri based oil on the side. Our first prego roll seemed quite plain, it had flavour but I was expecting a kick in my tastebuds, we ate at many more places and it was the same thing. I like it when I think something and then I am pleasently surprised by the true authentic experience of it.

We were over enthusiastic to think we could fit Belem in too on the way back, we just looked at it as our train passed by. The view from the train is beautiful and you get a good idea of the coastline from this vantage point.

A little afternoon siesta was much needed and then we were back up on our feet looking for a good eating spot. We went to Sacremento in Chiado; I really loved this spot, beautiful modern decor, attentive waiters and delicious food, it all went down so well with the local bottle of wine we ordered.

Day Three:

Shopping shopping shopping, Lisbon is very affordable when you are coming from Copenhagen and so we took full advantage, a good 2 hours was spent in Zara alone. We off loaded our parcels and headed back out to catch tram 28, this came highly advised on trip advisor. I was disappointed and nauseous, the tram driver was unhelpful and after 30min we ended on the other side of Lisbon after a journey that was interrupted, crammed and bumpy. We had to wait 15min to catch the same tram back along its same route, we decided to take it up to St Georges castle which was our original plan but because there are no announcements, its hard to figure out where to get off. My advice is, grab the tram behind Mundial Hotel, take it up the hill and when you see the ocean and a white umbrella deck restaurant overlooking the ocean; GET OFF, this is the best stop, the rest of the journey is not pleasant and you can barely see everything out the window. By this stage we were famished; we shared a sandwich and drinks at Portas do Sol and lapped up the phenomenal view and slivers of afternoon sunlight.

the white umbrellas

We found st Georges castle easily and strolled around the outskirts, we made our way down very easily back to Rossio square, my sweet tooth was hammering at my brain to satisfy its sugary needs and I could not leave Lisbon knowing I had not tasted their traditional custard tartlets, so we stopped at Casa Brasileira on Rua Augusta at a popular patisserie and restaurant, warm heaters and chairs lined the centre aisle of the street and we took residence there. An enthusiastic and surprisingly quick handed waiter served us cappuccinos and deserts; we had a pumpkin fritter and a custard tartlet in two varieties, one traditional and one with pine nuts.

My happiness

My patisserie delish

 Everything was scrumptious. For dinner; we went to a local establishment called Licorista...something or another . I had fried sardines for the first time in my life, how appropriate to bite into these delicious little fishies in Lisbon. Some white wine went down well with our meal. The ambiance was cosy and local and it was a great send off for our last dinner in Lisbon.

Overall, Lisbon is now in my top three destinations, the city has so much to offer its visitors. Prices are affordable all round; and what I love about Lisbon is you don't fee like you have been taken advantage of, the locals are all around and eat and shop at the same places so they are willing to pay those prices too. I have often found cities have tourist traps and you always need to go in search of some neighbourhood/back street local joint to get value for money. Lisbon differs in this respect.

If there were some negatives to be mentioned it would be two things; i am a realistic traveller and will always paint in colour but I do like distinguishing between the black and the white too.

1. when you walk past restaurants, every single one of them have a waiter perched outside for attack, they all want you to eat at their restaurant and are eager to pull the tourists in. It can get very annoying when you are trying to have a romantic stroll.

2. every ten minutes some shady character will come up to you and offer you hash or cocaine(day and night). They slide up to you like snakes and whisper in your ear, or worse yet, they actually touch you to get your attention. After three days we were still not used to it and it really was the one thing that exasperated me and my partner as it happened too often to ignore. It happened mainly on the main streets as this is where the tourist hives are.

Otherwise, Lisbon is a true must see

OBRIGADO

Door at Pena Palace

Trainee buyer Work Back Agreement

I really didn't want to blog about this...but it seems my heart is shoving my head out the room and typing freely at will. The following message goes out to all the wannabe buyers and planners out there that find themselves with a piece of paper needing a signature, a signature that you really don't feel that comfortable signing; THE WORK BACK AGREEMENT.

I have been in this position and managed to get out albeit a few scratches, but my heart goes out to the Bambi eyed fashion lovers out there who just sign anything to be part of something.

In South Africa, I worked at one of the top fashion houses, I will not be mentioning names. As a young and naive, eager, bright eyed fashionista... Buying was just up my alley and so I applied to be a trainee buyer.

I went through a series of interviews, three to be exact. They wanted me and I wanted to be there.

I felt so fortunate to be given the opportunity to be selected as a trainee buyer, in my third interview, HR mentioned there was a work back agreement, I was barely listening and at that point I would have signed my life over just to get the position.I was going t be a trainee buyer at the top fashion company in South Africa, nothing could deter me. The new group of freshly hired trainees had a big surprise, we would be the first group to sign a work back agreement, as with the previously hired group of newbies; this had never been the case.

Big Mistake, always read the fine print, always be sure you know what you are signing.

Companies implement work back agreements for various reasons, in my opinion in this case, there were tons of people applying for the position, companies invest a lot of time and money with new trainees and the last thing they want is for you to take the knowledge and go somewhere else, e.g their competitors. They are investing in you and so they want their investment back; d.o.u.b.l.e.d.

Some companies do not implement this work back agreements and usually just put a prevention clause in place, that you may not work for a competitor within a certain period of time after you leaving the company; semi understandable if the time constraint is acceptable.

Work back agreements can take various shapes and forms, some say that once you become an actual buyer, you need to work back all the years of training and it can take up to 2 years to become a second level buyer, so you are not even a senior buyer at this stage. It will begin to feel like you are stuck, that you cannot leave and if you do...they will take everything you worked so hard for.

Bottom line is that the company wants their investment in you to stay put, there is usually a period of 6/7 months whereby you can freely leave in the beginning, but over and above that period you are stuck like velcro. If you choose to leave, you will need to pay back all your training costs and your accumulated salary back to the company - no matter what training they supplied (could be very little, for example, shadowing a real buyer is not necessarily training, it is shadowing that person so that you can learn from them, fully fledged buyers do not get paid extra money to take you on as a trainee). So as for the training costs, the company will probably come up with some ridiculous amount of money that needs to be paid back to them and when you ask for a breakdown as to how they came to this amount, well ...there is no breakdown. It is their way of catching you in their develish and greedy web and it is a scary web, its a huge company with a huge reputable name against little old you.

I am not even sure, if the whole work back agreement is legit, well it must be because companies need to follow legal procedures, but the fact is that it is a form of bullying you and sapping you of all you have by using intimidation and signature/contract control techniques to get you to stay.

Without going into to much detail, make sure you check the following points.

• If you are not sure that buying and planning is for you in the first place, the last thing you want is to be stuck with a company, miserable or leaving and paying them back everything you earned.
• Make sure you read the fine print and understand what you are signing from the start
• Ask questions and then ask more questions
• If you are brilliant; why not challenge them and say that you will not sign, it is a risk but if you have the ball's ...go for it
• Do not be overwhelmed by the glamour and glitz, if it sux...you are going to be stuck and miserable, chances are you are just starting out and would never be able to pay back a company because you wanted out.
• Don't let them bully you
• Speak to a lawyer and get them to look at the agreement, remember it is an agreement, if you did not receive adequate training (courses, development sessions, manuals,...) then you didn't get trained so the agreement becomes void because most work back agreements agree to train you to perform. Also, question the training you received, was it all in house? , did they fly you somewhere? did they pay for lectures and practical sessions? 
• I am in full agreement that if a company spends money on you and your development and you decide to bail for greener pastures with the wealth of information imparted to you, well then you owe them.

Just don;t get starry eyed and say you will worry about it later, ask yourself the questions that matter and don't get stuck in the corporate web.

Good luck to all the trainees out there, i hope you keep your head screwed on, your eyes on the prize and steady on your stilletto's.

European Door Art

I started a fascination with beautiful ornate doors when I moved to Europe, through my travels this year, I was able to find and capture some amazing pieces of what I call an art form.

From Ibiza, to Prague, Sweden to Paris, Barcelona to Poland... each door has a story to tell...

SUSPENSION of life.. Prague

As a walked through the intertwining pathways in the heat of the European sun, my tour guide rambled on about King Charles the fourth...my mind drifted and  I couldn't help but have a big smile on my face...

How good is this? I said to the Italian that had joined us... and I will never forget his words as he fumbled to find the right way to say what he felt..." It its ...suspension of life" I asked what he meant already knowing the answer but wanting to hear him explain in his slightly broken English. Its life, but the suspended one, it takes you higher, a little faster and the view is better. I could not agree more.

Life in itself is a blessing , but when life is better than good... I am suspended, and by suspended I by no means restrained, if anything I am lifted to a euphoric state, absorbing the pleasures of my state, knowing that it will settle back down and this can't last forever.

Prague was my Suspension of Life

Winding street, cobblestones creating click clack noise as the cars and hooves of horses clamber onwards, the smell of beer, the castle shadowing the city, the coolness of the air as you walk over Charles Bridge and see the shimmer on the Vltava river, you so badly want to dip into it and really submerse yourself in this jewel of a city.

The river is crossed by 18 bridges but the most fascinating would have to be Charles bridge, at each section there are sculptures, some speak of horror, others of delight but the bridge in all its glory is a tourist haven.

In the four days I was there, I managed to cram enough to walk away and feel pleased and satisfied with my endeavours but still feel relaxed.

Our first day was a walk along the bridge as the sun set, a hot air balloon sweeped the skyline, the water still, and the eve palmy...it was an exceptional start and welcome.

A delicious Italian meal with some spectacular wine set off my visit into a great culinary experience. Prague like other Northern european cities are known for their starch based meals, cabbage, pork, dumping, meat and beer. Not exactly my idea of indulgence but dig in and you will find it all too pleasing.

If I made a list of what needs to be seen and you must do: this is it

• a beautiful eve deserves a beautiful view, go up to Petrin hill by tram, pack a picnic or jut grab a beer at the garden cafe, go up Pragues baby version of the Eiffel tower and get an al round view of Prague, take a stroll down, as the walk is short
• Charles bridge; just go and maybe get a sketch done
• Vltava river paddle, grab a paddle boat in the early morn or late afternoon especially in summer for 120 czech per boat and that gives you an hour which is just enough
• Thai massage, if you are feeling the burn and your feet are crying out after all the waling, grab a thai foot massage, short but effective
• A vintage ride through the city is a must, we got a Jerry, an enthusiastic and accommodating driver. We were picked up outside our hotel in a red vintage, champagne awaiting , as we swirled through the streets our first stop was the ...
• John Lennon wall represents freedom, it was started by the youths of the city and still carries on today, Original graphic art is long gone but every few years new ones are sprayed, truly something to see
• A stone throw away from the Lennon wall is the love lock bridge, I try and find one of these every place I go, Poland, Paris and now Prague. Grab a lock, write you and your loved ones name in, try and find a spot to lock it and then throw the key in the stream, now ur in love forever
• Avoid Kampa restaurant, over priced and the service is terrible, try Minstral Cafe for their goats cheese salad or The School for an awesome Ceaser salad or Arrabiata pasta...awesome!!!!
• Try an old pub, great spots just below the castle, grab a traditional czech beer and avoid the Pilsner, you wont regret it. A meat platter is also a great idea.
• Tour of the castle and surrounding areas is  a great way to get some history behind this amazing city, we got the four hour one which was adequate by a long shot
• The castle is a must see
• All over the city you will find some great art, look out for works by the controversial, David Cerny, the revolvers are my favourite
• I tried the fruit dumplings but if you don't like doughy foods, avoid avoid avoid
• Inferno restaurant was a highlight, Angelina and Brad have been here for dinner :) Summer months it is quiet, we almost had the whole restaurant to ourselves. TRY the duck....wow, the romantic moody colours combined with the cave walls create an intense atmosphere but in a good way
• p.s Don't get ripped off by a taxi, always check there is a meter or negotiate, they are dodgy
• The astronomical clock...enough said
• A drink out, go to the James Dean bar r just wander the street, your gonna get dragged i somewhere amazing, and go balls to the wall and have yourself a absinth

Graffitti

Quite a view on the hill of the castle

Minstral cafe...fantastic

Absinth :)

Our little vintage ride

A birthday dinner at the castle

So basically what I am trying to say is GET YOUR ASS TO PRAGUE, and experience a holiday like no other. It is affordable by European standards, beautiful and well, its just gonna steal your heart.

a Meat platter at a local pub

red roses in the Kings garden

The astronomical clock

John Lennon wall

A Ceaser salad at The School