A FACETIOUS GUIDE

It’s that time of year again. The days are getting shorter, the evenings darker, and the locals are starting to light things up to have some glimmer of hope ...

I had to focus on writing my latest book, A Facetious Guide to Prague. I wanted to get it done before I left Prague, so I could double up my

Most of the Jewish Quarter was destroyed in the early 20th century to make it posh and Parisian, and in addition a bit more resilient to flo

Behind every front cover, there’s an inside, a story to be told, long and wordy and often quite boring. Yawn. Who wants to read books anymor

“I’m not sure I like this element,” my friend Tom said, chomping into his gigantic, onion-covered sausage, grease dripping down his chin and

It was a beautiful place, a weird place. My friend lived out in the village of Olesko, just south of Prague. Olesko is a beautiful village t

All across Prague, bonfires would be lit up, and effigies of dark cloaked women would be set on fire and roasting, the wicked cackling of th

We were howling through the night, crossing the bridge that seemed to lead across the netherworlds, fog wrapping up and down, and soon we we

Imagine the only way some invaders think they can get into your castle is by flinging cartloads of crap and dead bodies over the walls? But

We’ll continue on the Royal Road that we started the last blog. The Royal Road was the Baroque era coronation route of Bohemian Kings and Qu

Prague can be a bit intimidating. It’s an overwhelmingly beautiful city, and to really experience its full life, all its corners and alleys

Nothing says Christmas like mulled wine with raisins and tangerines, laughing children, a 20-foot tall fir tree, a parade of woolly-haired d

There was a great disturbance in the Internets when the monster of pastries in the picture was released last year. Cyberspace exploded and t

When I was on my hiking trip the other week with my work, I was caught up in a discussion with one of my co-workers. Evidently he was a danc

As the season winds down, I thought it fitting to put one last episode of trekking up. It’s not quite too cold to go for some walks outside,

Take a train or a bus to your preferred hiking location. For that, it’s best to have Google Maps and an Internet connection. Google Maps for

My first exposure to Kafka was like anyone else’s, a reading of “Metamorphosis” in high school. When you’re that young, it’s truly impossibl

There's not much room for comfort these days in Prague. Every spare inch of shade is taken by someone in yearning for a cooler place. Th

So you’ve been in Prague a couple of days now and are ready to range outside of the old town? Or the old town kind of stuff just isn’t your

The Czech town of Plzen is known as the birthplace of one of the greatest beers on the planet - Pilsner Urquell. It's a very easy and wo