Restaurant: Grand Cafe Orient

On 05/29/201605/30/2016 By NomadIn Eat, Prague, SurviveLeave a comment

Once again my carefully laid meal plans fell apart. After finding that my original destination was too packed to accommodate me I started wandering aimlessly until I came across Grand Cafe Orient.

The building has an impressive facade and a second story terrace that drew me in. I also believe the building contains a cubism museum and the cafe itself is billed at a “cubist cafe.” What that means I have no idea. …My food wasn’t even cubed.

I opted for an espresso and the “complete breakfast” which wasn’t so much a meal as the constituent elements of one.

The "complete breakfast" at Grand Cafe Orient... some assembly required. — The “complete breakfast” at Grand Cafe Orient… some assembly required.

This is yogurt, corn flakes, a boiled egg, ham, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, honey and apricot jam. Not knowing what to do with all this I dumped the cornflakes into the yogurt like granola which was actually pretty good.

Overall, it made for a satisfying breakfast but nothing to write home about (just blog) and probably not worth your time unless you’re… you know… really into cubes.

Restaurant: Bredovský Dvůr

On 05/28/201605/30/2016 By NomadIn Do, Drink, Eat, Prague, SurviveLeave a comment

During one of my first nights in Prague I set out to get dinner having not eaten all day. I had originally planned on getting something to eat at a small outdoor cafe that I had spotted earlier during my randomly walking all over the city. However, when I returned in the evening it wasn’t looking too lively and may have even been closed… who knows. Facing this set back I dealt with it as I usually do in these situations; I started wandering aimlessly down side streets looking for an alternative.

I recall my father remarking frequently when I was younger that in choosing restaurants you should simply go by the one with the most cars out front. There may have been something about local license plates in there as well. Anyway, having nothing else to go on I applied this method to my search for a place to eat. I wandered away from the more touristy parts of town and started looking for places that seemed to draw a good crowd. That’s how I came upon Bredovský Dvůr. The restaurant is (or at least appeared to me) a rather authentic Czech beer hall. I feel correct in this assessment because the staff did not speak English as they tend to around the major tourist attractions.

After burning up my very limited Czech and rigorously augmenting it with some desperate pointing at the taps I ended up with a very good Pilsner that I believe is brewed on site. Despite being from Colorado I’m no beer connoisseur but I thought it was good anyway. However, the real stand out was the entree I ended up ordering:

This is venison in a red wine sauce with walnuts and potatoes… I can’t be more specific than that because the rest of the words on the menu were outside of my limited vocabulary. I was able to gather that the venison is slow roasted over the course of 8-10 hours which meant I was able to cut it with my fork. The whole thing was excellent.

On top of this I loved the atmosphere of the place. The front room had more of a bar feel to it, but heads up people can and do smoke in here. I had forgotten that people used to do that and while it doesn’t bother me, I know it is a turn off for some. I happened to arrive during a soccer match that had the bar area full and quite excited to boot. Behind the bar area is more of a restaurant setting and there is even a nice patio outside which I didn’t get to experience.

But the best part was that for two (very large) beers and an excellent entree I managed to walk out spending approximately $16… and that includes the generous tip that I left for their having to put up with my limited Czech vocabulary.

Bottom line, if you find yourself in the neighborhood I’d highly recommend stopping in. It’s not upscale but it is a great value for the money.

Survival Sans Bankrupty or… International Health Insurance

On 05/09/201605/10/2016 By NomadIn Do, Prep, SurviveLeave a comment

My approach towards insurance, and indeed my health in general, has typically been characterized by the thought; “that’s future-Ben’s problem. Sucks to be that guy!”

However, facing the prospect of being out of the country for a year and possibly having to get my leg amputated by some… horse-doctor left me reconsidering the wisdom of my prior policy. The subsequent discovery that this would also allow me to give the finger to Obamacare sealed the deal.

Let me take a moment to clarify that when I am talking about travel insurance here I am referring to travel or global health insurance plans. Not trip cancellation insurance, which I still consider to be a waste.

Having now looked into travel health insurance plans I consider them a great deal, especially if you’re going to be out of the country for more than 330 days as I am. The reason being that travel health insurance is much cheaper than domestic insurance plans.

As with most other aspects of life, Obamacare has made this process needlessly confusing as well. But let me cut through the crap and give you the rough bullet-points on the present situation:

If you’re outside the U.S. for more than 330 of 360 days then your travel health insurance will leave you in good stead.
If you’re out of the country for less than 3 months you can also rely solely on your travel health insurance as you most likely fall into the “short coverage gap” and can reacquire a compatible U.S. healthcare plan upon your return as you’re changing coverage.
If you’re going to be on the road for more than 90 days but less than 330 then you’re screwed. You must have a domestic plan that meets the Obamacare minimums.

Like most folks in my demographic cohort (young, healthy, male) my healthcare premium tripled when Obamacare passed and I now pay about $300 a month for health insurance. And that’s for a plan that basically only provides coverage if I accidentally fall into a wood chipper. However, my new travel health plan has now lowered that monthly premium to about $90. (The sum of all these little bits of savings is the enabling factor in my traveling the world for a year).

Options on the international healthcare front. As part of our trip preparation we were provided a few names: IMG, World Nomads & HCC.

World Nomads seems to get a lot of chatter within the Digital Nomad community and seems to be many folks’ preferred provider. World Nomads expands in some coverage areas that the others do not such as covering trip disruptions or lost baggage. However, as my primary concern is catastrophic injury the caps on coverage were lower than I was interested in.

I chose IMG and went with their Patriot plan. This seemed to be the most popular choice among my fellow Remotes. I chose a high deductible ($2,500) but high coverage ($2 mln) plan that cost me just over $1,000 for the entire year. I tend to favor the higher deductible in favor of the lower upfront payment because my injuries tend to be of the variety that can be cured by just pouring whiskey on it.

If your injuries tend to be more of the “bone-protruding-from-skin” stripe then you may want to consider these services as well: MedJet Assist, ISOS & Global Rescue.

For an even smaller fee, MedJet Assist runs around $400, these services will evacuate you to the U.S. to have your injuries treated. As I mentioned above, if you’re in a situation where you have to keep your U.S. health coverage this might be the best option for you to pursue. If you’re going with a purely international health plan, though, many will have additional options that cover this service as well.

More unique to services like these, though, are options whereby they will rescue you in the event of a natural or unnatural (read: political) disaster. Having seen (or rather heard first hand) the Global Rescue folks in action I can attest that there is a high level of badassery there. But these options may not be ideal for everyone unless you’re traveling in a dangerous area.

The Bottom Line – What You Need to Not Die