Prague, September 2018

Highlights from a week-long company trip

Kollegorna is a remote-first team, which means that, even though we get to talk to each other every day, we rarely have the chance to sit together in the same space. So we try to meet somewhere, at least twice a year, to sit down and talk about our lives and work over coffee and beers. A few weeks ago, we went to Prague. Here’s what we liked best about it…

The neighbourhood

We rented a couple of places in Karlin, for everyone to live for a week and a half. Ivan tells me the area got hit hard by floods a few years ago, after which most of it had to be rebuilt. Maybe that’s why it feels so lively these days.

For us, it was perfect: central, but not too crowded. And you’re always a stone’s throw from great food and cheap beer. Speaking of which…

The beer

Most of us enjoy a good beer, and Prague definitely delivers. It’s good, of course, but it’s also cheap and easily available—things you can’t really say of some places I know…

Dennis making his way through some Bernard

The sights

The constant and overwhelming stream of tourists crowding its bridges and public squares cannot overshadow the simple fact that Prague is a drop-dead gorgeous city. Just walking through its streets and alleyways is a treat, so that’s a highlight in our books.

Ivan had to claw his way through hordes of tourists to grab this shot, so please enjoy it

The food

Czech food is great, and there are plenty of places where you can get a traditional meal for a very reasonable price. But you’ll also find a ton of restaurants trying to reinvent Czech cuisine, fusing it with new flavours and techniques. Overall, the food scene doesn’t feel stale or overly attached to the country’s past, which is great.

Some of the places we’ve been to and would definitely recommend:

Luka Lu

Amazing Serbian-Croatian food with a Czech twist. I came here on my first visit to Prague and loved everything about it, so I suggested we come for our company dinner. Everyone seemed pretty happy, by the end of it...

Henrik making a point about company policy on beards, to Ivan’s obvious concern

A lovely fish ragout

Eska

Slightly over-hipster-y place serving some amazing food. Great spot for a nice brunch or an evening meal. Gets pretty crowded, so book in advance.

Eska brunch. That yogurt bowl was no joke… 🤤

Music was nice too

Můj šálek kávy

If there’s one thing you need to know about Ivan, it’s that he’s a superstar backend developer. But if there’s a second thing you should know, it’s that he’s obsessed with coffee. Every time we go on a company trip, we just know he’s been googling coffee places for weeks in advance and knows where we should go for coffee. His top pick this year was Můj šálek kávy, and we ended up coming here a lot. Totally worth it.

Apple Museum

Ok, I didn’t actually go… But Per and Dennis tell me it’s a great place of worship. It’s the largest private collection of Apple products in the world, so it’s worth a visit if you’re into that sort of thing.

I don’t have a photo of the museum, but here’s the team watching Apple’s keynote like it’s the World Cup final…

The team

This is usually the highest-of-lights for all of us. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter so much where we meet, as long as we get to spend some quality time with the gang. It helps bring the team together and create memories we’ll look fondly on for years to come. This trip was no exception, and I’m already looking forward for the next one (where we’ll try to fullfil Raymall’s life-long dream of getting away from the clear water beaches of Punta Cana to enjoy a proper Swedish winter).

Most photos in this post were taken by Ivan and Nikolay.

Eduardo Nunes is Head of Design and Partner at Kollegorna, a team of designers, developers and strategists building first-rate digital products and services.