Michael Carøe Andersen

Category: Living in Prague

  • IAESTE Day 2007 in Prague

    Yesterday the local committees of IAESTE in Prague organized the annual IAESTE Day to promote the IAESTE programs at different universities across the world. I was happy they asked me if I wanted to give a presentation about how I had benefited from IAESTE. So I told the story of How I Ended Up In Prague Because of IAESTE (Some of it is on page three of this IAESTE UK alumni newsletter). Its been a while since I had done a presentation but I really enjoyed the afternoon talking with people about going abroad.

    Uuuuuuummm cake

    Even better was the evening were they had organized a banquette for business contacts, alumis and member. Good and free food and drinks is a great thing that I come across way to seldom.

    Mingeling people at IAESTE day 2007 Prague

    See more pictures at flickr.


  • Parental visit

    These past seven days my parents have been in Prague and its been great seeing them again and showing off this great city. Prague has gone in autumn mode but the weather was with us and most of the days, the sun was out making the city beautiful.

    Charles Bridge from Kampa and my parents

    My parents were in Prague 34 years ago on sort of a honeymoon in the dark days of communism, coal burning, side street money exchange and disrepair. What met them today was a very different sight. They were very thrilled about what the city had become. Almost all of the central city has been repaired and today its an amazing trip to walk through the city both at day and at night.

    Autumn day in the sun

    They asked me if I never get tired of living out of a suitcase and that got me thinking. First off Prague is my home now, so I dont consider it living in a suitcase. It didnt take long before I felt very comfortable here. I also realized that I dont need that much to be comfortable. As long as I have a place I can call mine with a bed and another place to sit with my computer I can manage.
    We are sticking around in Prague for another 8 months and then its time to move again. Where to is still up in the air

    Joanna one of the AIESEC girls from Ann Arbor was in Prague for autumn break as well so we went out and had lunch with her. Great catching up on old days.
    Joanna dropped by for a visit


  • Visit from Denmark

    Solveig og Jens

    Last week I got my first visit from Denmark :) Solveig my aunt and Jens came by for five days. They brought me some aquavit and winter clothes which was useful since the autumn seems to have seriously taken its grasp on Prague.

    Getting coffee

    I showed them some of Prague and on their own they discovered some areas like the Jewish cemetaries that I still havent been to. One thing I discovered when they were here was the beutiful Wallenstein Garden below the castle. A really nice (and free) spot in the middle of the city.


  • Danish bloggers in Prague

    Rasmus from the Danish BlogMagasinet asked in one of the recent podcasts, how we use blogs to meet people. So I figured I’d tell about how I’ve used it here in Prague.

    Before I moved down here I search on google.com, technorati.com, blogbot.dk or overskrift.dk for people blogging about Prague in either Danish or English and I found two Danes.

    Jazz at U Maleho Glena

    The first one is Laus Sørensen. Laus runs the vacation agency Prag Eksperten and has made a business from renting apartments and giving tours to Danes. He is blogging at prag.urbanblog.dk were he writes about the city, his business and his friends. As a newcomer in town there is definitely some good information about the city and his company site has the most comprehensive site about Prague in Danish.
    A couple of weeks ago I went to dinner with Laus at U Maleho Glena (picture above) a very cool jazz spot in Prague. We talked about the city, running businesses and realized that we both have parents in Jylland so maybe we can carpool to Denmark sometime.

    The second Dane is Holme but he is actually not in town yet. He is going to stay in Prague for a year with his Czech girl friend while studying. I think he is moving down here sometime in August so I’ll try and see if I can catch him over a pivo sometime.

    In my daily life I only speak English – apart from when I’m calling home – so it’s nice that there is a few Danes in town.

    There is of course also a number of English blogs about life in Prague. The ones that I am keeping a tap on these days are:

    [Update 18/9 ’07] Just came across another Dane in Prague called Pavel-Helge – he has a lot of updated info in Danish about what’s going on in Prague.

    [Update 14/1 ’08] Just came across another Danish blog about Prague called Prag HotSpots by Jens Gregersen.


  • The Swedish Invasion

    Back in 1631 a Swedish army invaded Prague and now they are back! – This time with a more peaceful aim.

    Backsell the Swede was an intern in Michigan at the same time as Femi and I and after spending a year in Germany him and Toni (another Swede) did a trip of central Europe before heading home.

    Its a weekend of Swedish style drinking, snus chewing snusing and partying sprinkled with a little touristy activities in the mix.


  • The Apartment

    My parents asked me for a video of our place. I made the video Friday – its in Danish so if you dont understand you have to follow the plan below for explanations.

    Here is the ground plan of the place.Ground Plan of the apartment

    The stairs you can see outside of the house are the once shown below here. They led to the Belohorska street were the trams goes. So even though we live at the ground level there are still three stories of stairs to climb to get home

    Stairways to the nex street


  • People Watching Going Down

    A 1 minute clip from the escalator at Hradcanska Metro station in Prague.

    When you are standing on the escalator for a short while you experience the optical illusion that you are going straight and the people are leaning in weird ways.


  • Karlv most – 650 years today

    Charles Bridge (again)

    Today is the 650th birthday of Charles Bridge – the first bridge in Prague to cross the Vltava river.

    The foundation stone was laid at 5:31am on July 9, 1357 with the help of king Charles IV. He consulted his astrologers and the date and time were chosen so that the odd numbers that ascend and descend on the scale of 1 – 9 would form the palindrome 135797531. – My Czech Republic

    Charles bridge is probably the most photographed spot in Prague – there is something magical about this bridge. Ive already taken ten pictures of it and Flickr reports that its users has tagged 24,914 pictures of the bridge.


  • Colorful Prague

    Flowers in the window
    My parents went to Prague back in the 70s. They brought home a book of pictures from Prague. The pictures were of the beautiful castles and buildings in Prague but they were all gloomy and very dark grey – almost black. Prague is not grey and black any more – it is full of colors.

    You can still see the grey buildings but in the city center nearly all houses are newly restored and in the suburbs a lot of construction and refurbishing is going on. This two-family house not to far from our place were one side has had a makeover you can really see what differences it makes to the impression.
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  • Prague – but why?

    Busy city

    – When we told people that we were moving to Prague for six month – everyone without exception asked why?. The why? was usually accompanied with a frowning face and a look that said are you crazy?. Let me try and see if I can explain it

    Our goal of starting our own company has been to enjoy life and gain experiences while making money building software that works. We started this company to let us try something we probably wouldnt experience if we were working for an employer.

    After setting up the company and working in Copenhagen for about 8 months we realized that it is not crucial for us to be stationed in Denmark to work for Danish clients. We had Danish clients but also clients wed never met and who were sitting in US, UK and Germany. We were web workers and all we needed was (roughly) a chair and good Internet and we could do our work. When we truly realized this fact and our lease in Copenhagen was nearing an end, we started to look at a map – in the beginning just for fun – but quickly it became apparent that we had to try to move to a different country.

    We settled on Prague for a number of reasons – cost of living is cheaper (since we are still paid by Danish rates), trains and flights are frequent and cheap to Denmark and the rest of Europe and finally Prague is a beautiful metropolis with a thriving night life.

    Our plans for our Prague adventure is to stay here for six months as a work holiday where we can get more value for our buck while we focus on developing products for other companies and one of our own products. Arb Design the company is still based in Denmark in terms of tax, VAT – its just the two owners that are sitting in Prague for a while.

    – After explaining this some people said I guess it makes sense in a way or I wish it was me – and a few continued to shake there head.

    We have now been in Prague for nearly three weeks and moved into our new apartment Sunday and it already feels like home. At times we have asked ourselves whether or not it was a good idea to make this move – now I know it is.