Surf Arena

It has been already one month since David´s birthday. We did not see each other for a long time. When he finished his master thesis abroad he decided to stay there to find a job there. Therefore, we could not celebrate his birthday together and I did not have opportunity to tell him about his present. I found it by accident. I was just searching for something and I suddenly noticed one advertisement about the new Surf Arena in Prague. I was immediately interested. Last summer when we went to Sri Lanka, David loved surfing. Since the beginning he wanted to go to Sri Lanka only because of it. He heard that there were the best spots for it and when we arrived there he borrowed his surfboard. Honestly, he was really good at it. When I tried it I was not even able to stand up on it. He could spend hours in the water. When I saw it I thought it could be such a great present especially for him.

When I checked the voucher properly I found out that it is only 2-hour training and not so cheap. I wanted to be sure that it would be worth it. Therefore, I went through all reviews I found and I was surprised. Almost everybody wrote about their positive experience except for one person. I also consider buying the voucher for two of us because they had special training for two people. In the end I decided to buy only one because it was supposed to be a present mainly for David. I was quite worried because I don’t have a good experience with vouchers. Two years ago I bought him a voucher for 20 minutes ride in a very luxurious car. At that time I liked the idea much. Unfortunately, I could not go with him that day. When he finished he told me it was amazing, but he had a lot of problems. Firstly, they told him to buy one more voucher for his ride (for no reason), which was totally crazy. Why would he have to buy more voucher if he already had one? Then, they told him to buy extra insurance. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to drive a car and I don’t even talk about the fact that if he wanted to have a video of his ride he would have to pay extra money. Moreover, we had a lot of problems with booking this ride because they did not have free spaces and David was supposed to leave Czech Republic in September. After this, I decided not to buy vouchers anymore. Although this one looked perfect for David and I did not have another idea. That´s why I decided to risk and buy it.

Surf Arena is recently built and it is located in Letnany – part of Prague. The area has a nice atmosphere, everything is new and there is also a bar offering drinks and food. When we wanted to book the date it was quite easy. They offered almost every day and time. The only problem was that they called me to postpone our ride because they were not available to turn the simulator on only for one person. We arrived one hour before the beginning. The staff was friendly. They gave David special surfing clothes for it. I was watching the whole situation from the bar. In the main room, there is a slide with water which is a simulator of surfing. Before buying the voucher I asked them if the simulator is appropriate for people who already tried surfing and they said yes. I could watch the whole training because there was a big glass-fronted wall.

In the room there were four people including David with two instructors. I liked they had individual attitude. In the beginning, they were trying to lie on the surfboard. It was quite funny when they turned the water on. Next step was sitting on the board and moving from one side to another one. It did not look easy at all. In addition, all failed attempts were accompanied by ugly slides. Sometimes it was crazy but later David told me it hurt. For instance, they were trying to turn themselves around or jumping with a surfboard. Subsequently, they tried to stand on the board and have a normal ride. It looked amazing. I was entertained the whole time. When I saw it I would immediately try it as well. We were both happy and we even got the video from the whole training and we were watching it later. If it was cheaper David would go there every week, I guess!

The day before, we decided to celebrate his birthday also with a dinner. Firstly, we were walking in Letná and having a beer. Then we were in the city centre and we wanted to have some special tasty food. We did not really know which type of food we wanted to have. We were just checking the restaurants and since we were in the very city centre everything was way more expensive than normally. After 30 minutes we got hungry. We were near the National Theatre and as I already said I like one restaurant in this area much. It is called Národní Pivovar. I found it when I was in Prague with International club and we had fried cheese sticks. I went nuts about them. It is just normal fried cheese but they serve it with a cranberry sauce which is delicious. Subsequently, I took Francois there to have their beer because they have their own brewery. Firstly, I did not want to go to this restaurant because their prices are adjusted for tourists. Nevertheless, when we saw the menu we decided to go there.

They have the biggest garden in the city centre of Prague. When we walked there I was amazed. It was literally huge. It was around 9 pm and the garden was over-crowded. We had to wait around 10 minutes and check everywhere to find a free place for us. We found one and we were choosing the food. David immediately decided to have typical Czech sirloin beef sauce with dumplings. I had a fancy for something from grill. When I went to the bathroom I noticed the chef preparing the burgers and meat on the grill directly in front of people. It looked stunning. That´s why I opted for Pork Neck on the grill with a potato baked in salt. We did not forget to have beer as well. When they brought the food I was surprised because it was nicely arranged. Honestly, I have to say that it was so delicious. No overstatements. I enjoyed every taste of the food and I could not get enough. It was even better than my favourite pork cutlet in Nové Město nad Metují or at least as good as this one. We were full after this dinner and we were walking home.

Next day, after surfing, we were planning on going for a trip. However, we had to eat something first and eating together with cooking took a lot of time and we did not manage to do the trip. Moreover, the weather was not stable and we wanted to swim. Therefore, we were cooking spaghetti Carbonara after the surfing. We bought all ingredients and I remembered the recipe thanks to Mattia from Italy. Firstly, we let spaghetti boil. In the meantime, we cut onion, meat and we mixed eggs with parmesan. We were frying the onion with meat on the pan with spice. When everything was done we just mixed it and we added eggs with parmesan. Since spaghetti were still warm the egg became almost done and it was delicious. I felt tired after this even though I was just watching surfing in the morning from my chair.

Instead of a trip, we wanted to do something. That´s why we decided to have a picnic in the park Ladronka. We prepared melon at home, we brought the wine and picnic could begin. The park was full of people. I love this one because there is a special way for in line skates and it is quite big. We found our place but later someone asked us to move because they were playing some game with frisbee there. We were taking a rest and then we went to play badminton. I already tried it few times but I did not even know how to play it. In the beginning, I did not like the game much but then I started to play it better and it was fun. In fact, it was quite tiring. We were also watching one family taking pictures there with a photographer. It was a hard task to take a good picture because the family had small baby which was probably with no smile because the photographer had to do a lot of gestures to make him laugh. We spent there some time and when the sun was gone we went also home.

For dinner we decided to have a healthy salad. We found a goat´s cheese in the fridge which was perfect. I cut to big pieces tomatoes, cucumber, onions, peppers and we added there oil and cheese. We took it to the terrace and we had a good dinner. We also made home-made lemonade.

We were watching next series of Suits. In the beginning I was shocked because I had no idea what happened in episodes before this one. I realized how weird it is that sometimes I have clear memories about things that happened few years ago and sometimes I remember nothing. Seriously. We were talking about this during the dinner. In case of many things that I have been through in my life I don’t remember details. I don’t know how it is possible but it happened to me many times that I for example forgot that I was working at one place. I mean it would be okay but I was working there almost half of the year! Therefore, I was not sure if I did see the previous episodes and I did not remember them or if I did not see them. Probably, I will have to figure it out. Although firstly, it is time to finish the best serial ever – the Vampire Diaries!

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