czech republic
JOURNAL:
A few months ago, a guy named Spencer reached out to us via email. He invited us to his business academy in the Czech Republic this summer. At first we didn’t think much of it, but when we realized it would work perfectly with our itinerary, we decided to go for it.
The Royal Business Academy was started by two LDS business guys from Utah. They both have ties to Eastern Europe and throughout their successful business careers have always planned to return to Eastern Europe to give back. That’s why they decided to start the RBA. For the last two years, they bring out around 20 young aspiring entrepreneurs and help them get started on their own businesses. There were students from Moldova, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Romania. They bring in other successful business men and women as mentors and give the students one-on-one advice. Garrett was invited to be a mentor.
It was fun with a handful of the students who spoke Russian and we were able to practice our Russki! It was a ton of fun to hang out with all the young people. Everyone loved the kids. The property where we stayed, Stamberk Hotel, was gorgeous. They had a pool, basketball court, small gym and a little swing for the kids. One of the students was working on a personal training business, so we had nightly workouts as a group.
One of the highlights was when we played the nearby town in a soccer match. We played 11x11. We had a few extra people and they were missing a few from the previous night drunken frivolities, so a few of us joined the Czech team. It was a blast. Garrett of course played stellar and I loved playing as well.
The program is a month long, but we joined for about 12 days. About half of our days were spent with Garrett speaking and mentoring students, the other half was out adventuring around the beautiful Czech Republic.
We had heard amazing things about Prague. Our first time to Prague was when an awesome student offered to take the kids for the night so we could go on a date. It was so much fun! We went out to dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Cestr. If you’re ever in Prague, check it out. Then send me an email and tell me how much you loved it! ;) We had to try the highly recommended tredelnik - a warm pastry roasted over charcoals, rolled in cinnamon sugar, and then filled with chocolate, cream, ice-cream, or all of the above. It was incredible! We walked through the beautiful city square and walked over to the Charles Bridge or a very romantic sunset in a very romantic city. ;) We went back a few days later with the kids to explore some more. We played in the town center for about an hour with the bubbles and ended up getting 3 tredelniks!
We loved Prague, but our favorite was a small town called Cesky Krumlov. Its a large castle and town that wraps around a little river that you can canoe or boat through. It’s way less modernized than Prague and even more charming. It quickly went to our top 5 places to visit in the world.
There were a handful of other cute nearby castles and chateaus that we visited like Hluboka Castle, Jemniste Castle, and Konopiste. Even just driving through the countryside is so much entertaining.
We’re so grateful for our time in Czech. We LOVED working with the RBA. If you are from Eastern Europe and are an aspiring entrepreneur you should really check out the Royal Business Academy. We were so impressed with the students there and were grateful for the opportunity to meet some of the other mentors.
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