Helen and I went on another recce - this time to Bratislava. Bratislava is filled with awesome clubs and fantastic restaurants. Perfect for a Stag or Hen weekend! The strip clubs are great too, because they cater to men AND women. Apparently, the Slovaks like going to strip clubs with their significant other. We were told that it is absolutely normal to find husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends enjoying a good, raunchy sex show together. Maybe that’s why Slovakia’s divorce rate is lower than most…

So here are pictures from our own little Bratislava Stag Weekend

Helen fell in love with this tractor as soon as we hit Bratislava and insisted she get photographed with it. After the tractor love-in we got ready in our hotel room and headed out for some din-din at a place called Slang Pub right across from our hotel.

After a tasty Slovakian meal, we went for a walk around town. Bratislava is beautifully lit at night with a lot of nice views on the Danube River. We walked all the way to the UFO restaurant, across a really long bridge just to get a cocktail, but when we got there they wouldn’t let us in because they were closed - oh well, next time!

After that we did our own little Pub Crawl in Bratislava’s Old Town. At our first stop Helen was still needing some tea to get her party game going. The rest of us drank some local Slovak brew. We stopped by this ultra cool cocktail club with really funky lamps outside.

Our next stop was Club Trafo which was a funky little club playing pretty good dance music. Helen was drinking Breezers I think. And we did a couple of scary shots, I think. My memory starts getting hazy around this point.

We met some American soldiers on their weekend off. Helen took a ‘lickin’ to a Slovakian ad campaign. We then stopped in at Moulin Rouge, one of the better strip clubs in Bratislava. The girls were pretty hot AND they had a male stripper. I’ll spare you that picture, but check out my face in this picture - the male stripper had just grabbed my hand and was slowly running it down his stomach… BLECCCHHH!

A lot of things have changed in our Budapest office between the very last time we wrote in this blog to the new updates here in October 2007. Szilvi and Eszter have both left us. Szilvi moved to the UK to try her luck there, so if you see her make sure to give her a big hug from the Stag Republic team. Eszter also moved on to bigger and better things. Kate came back for a visit:

While we miss all our colleagues and friends tons, there is a new face in the SR offices whom we are growing to love as much - Nora. Nora is our new financial manager and she is top-notch. She is learning to speak English and Esperanto! She worked in banks before this and has admitted that working for this Stag company is much more fun and exciting - especially since she helps out a lot with bookings too. So, welcome smiley Nora!

Josey has had an addition to his family in the meantime too! The Little Bear as Josey likes to call him was born on June 16, 2007. He has come to visit us in the office a few times now. Here are a few pictures of the official heir to the Stag Republic throne:

WeeJaw at birth Jaw & WeeJAW
Other than that, we’re still pretty much the same! Like we still have these two crazy Hungarian retro-advertisements postcards hanging on the cupboards:

This one is advertising cottage cheese

This one says “Ready, Set, Cheese!!!”
We’d love to hear from you so drop us a line about a stag weekend you’ve been on recently, or if you have any questions about any of our European Stag Weekend destinations at info@stagrepublic.co.uk

Helen and I traveled to Krakow waaaaaay back in March, but I’ve only just gotten around to organising the pictures and getting them up on this here crackin’ blog. We got a little, nah, a HUGE taste of a Krakow Stag or Hen Weekend. And pun intended. We basically ate and drank our way through this gem of a city. The food is DELICIOUS and Polish people are just amazingly friendly! So here follows the saga of Helen & Rita’s Trip to Krakow:

   

We arrived at the Krakow airport where we were greeted by Mike (our director of bookings in Krakow). We wasted no time and got right to the pub.This Krakow cellar pub/brewery is famous for it’s homemade microbrew, served in gigantic beer giraffes.

Later on we headed back out with one of our own Stag Republic groups in Krakow, who booked the pub crawl with us. We headed back to our favorite pub where Helen and I got friendly with the local drunk. One of our group was on crutches, and we meet up with a crazy Dutch guy also on crutches! Only in Krakow.

Steve enjoyed a brewski at one of the bars. Next stop was Club Carpe Diem which is filled with motorcycle paraphernalia and lots of students, locals and tourists alike.

The lads enjoyed this bar. The following morning we started with a hearty English breakfast, with a couple Bloody Mary’s to knock us back into the real world.

We stopped in to check out one of Krakow’s best Day Spas and were given very special slippers. Then we headed over to the Kazimierz district of Krakow, the trendy, hip and happening part of the city. There is a flea market in the middle of the main square with all sorts of really interesting things for sale.

We did the rounds at the stalls, I bought some crazy earrings and we both bought some delicious home-made Polish cheese. After that we relaxed in the hipster hangout - Alchemia Café and drank a couple beers.

We then headed to the Main Square where we did a little more shopping at the market. That evening we treated ourselves to a scrumptious traditional meal.

Cracklings with lard and bread, damn! that was good. My mouth is watering just writing about it. The main dish - glorious pierogies with steamed beetroot!

On the way back to the flat we walked through the Krakow Main Square again and saw some fire-artists. Then I braided Helen’s hair in preparation for another hardcore night on the town!

We went to so many places, I don’t remember half their names, but there was Rust (Rydza I think, in Polish), Prozak, and a bunch of other really cool clubs. We even checked out some local live music.

More clubs and bars in Krakow.

Our last day we did some hardcore sightseeing and looked at loads of Krakow Hotels. That’s Helen and I in front of the Barbakan gate.

This is one of the hotels we use when booking our groups, it was really nice inside. Mike had some trouble figuring out how to punch his ticket on the tram.

We, of course, stopped to eat a late breakfast at this really cool joint called Dynia. It’s the hangout for the local yuppies and their kids and dogs. But the atmosphere and food were both excellent. We said goodbye to Krakow in front of our favourite pub in Krakow. Click!

If you have noticed, maybe you haven’t, the majority of people working in the Stag Republic offices are women! Anyways, the girls from the office, a couple SR guides and friends, went out for a little partaaay mid-October and had us a blast.

We warmed up a bit at my place…

7 bottles of champagne later we headed out…

Club Tabu. White chicks and gang signs!