Praha Personal

Since Prague has such a bloody history, there are many Ghost tours available for tourists.  Andrew and I are not big ghost people or anything, but we along with a few friends we made, thought it might be fun/funny to go.  It was quite funny, not really at all scary, and we actually had a few people in our tour group from the area of the world we are currently living, so that was exciting.  So here is Andrew with a ghost or grim reaper who was our tour guide.

While in Prague, we got to go seen Pirates of the Caribbean.  They had an IMAX theater and we were hoping to go there since we have never been to an IMAX before, but it was only showing in Czech so we had to go see the normal version, but it was fun none the less.

Andrew and I with a knight at a traditional Czech restaurant.

While we were in Prague, Andrew and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary!  To celebrate, we went out to a steak restaurant called "The Crazy Cow."  It was decorated with Mexican and Texan posters which made us feel at home.  The steak was delicious, but the dessert was what I wrote home about.  It's called "Hot Love."  A huge spiraling dish with vanilla ice cream, warm raspberries topped whipped cream, raspberry drizzle and a couple of mint leaves.  It was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my whole life and I think we're going to try to figure out how we can make that here :)

The old town square is definitely the place to be if you are in Prague.  Almost every night they had some kind of production, be it a concert or international festival.  In the square you can find just about any type of person, where anything or anyone is accepted.

Here are Andrew and I on the train to go visit the bone church.  As soon as we found our seats on the train, I immediately felt we were on Harry Potter's train to Hogworts.  I was so excited the entire time.  We ended at the bone church which was not quite Hogworts, but I guess it worked

We had a great trip to Prague.  We almost didn't want to come back to real life.  But we are back with renewed energy and vigor.  We are glad to be back in our own bed and not having to eat out every meal.  We miss that everyone there had a dog and the independence I had to go out on my own and the use of public transportation rather than taxis.  We look forward to more visits to Prague, but are thankful for the friends and relationships we have developed here and look forward to how He is going to use us in this place.

Praha

We kept ourselves very busy while we were in Prague.  Andrew spent most of his time in classes, but I was able to get out a lot and see most of the city.  All of the sites were incredible, rich with history that we just do not get to see much of in the States.  I am not going to lie, at many times throughout our trip, I was overwhelmed with all the green vegetation, cool air and even a few bouts of rain.  It was a huge difference from where we currently live, and it can easily overwhelm the senses.  Here are a few pictures to give you a brief overview of our trip:

These two pictures were taken from a Jewish cemetery in the center of Old City Prague, in what was the Jewish ghetto before World War II.  Years before the Nazi regime, they forced all the Jewish people to live in a ghetto with limited space.  Because of this, they were forced to burry their dead on top of each other, up to 10 or 12 graves on top of one another.  The Cemetery surface is at my estimation about 8 feet above the streets that surround it.

This famous clock tower is found in the heart of the old city square.  Tradition holds that the powers that be blinded the engineer of this clock so he could not recreate it for anyone else.  Then, being so depressed over the situation, he committed suicide at the place of this clock tower.

Prague's history is one of religious strife and blood.  This church seen here at the City Square, throughout history has changed between Catholic and Protestant and with each change, blood was shed by throwing people out of it's windows to their death below.

This Cathedral is found just inside of Prague Castle's gates.

A city landscape of Prague with the Vltava River running through the center.

The Dancing House

The famous Charles Bridge

About an hour outside of Prague is located the Bone Church.  This church is decorated with every bone from the human body, it is estimated there are about 40,000 to 70,000 bodies located within these walls.  Some traditions hold that a monk in medieval times went mad during the Black Plague and began this design of the church with the bodies of those who died during the Plague.

Here some local musicians preform on the Charles Bridge

Memorable

On our first day of touring around Prague, we saw the Charles Bridge, the Square, Prague Castle and several other places around downtown.  Surprisingly, this was our most memorable sight and the only thing we took pictures of on day one:

What Not to Do

Last night I was down at a coffee shop with a friend and a lady there had a seizure.  The moments that followed should be recorded as "what not to do if someone has a seizure."  Thinking back to the experience, I should have taken charge of the situation, but for some reason I thought they would have a better idea of what to do.  Next time, I have told myself that I will respond quickly to such a situation.

We were just sitting and chatting and all of a sudden all the ladies at the table next to us jumped up.  I saw a hooka (argela or shisha) fall over, so I thought there might be a fire (it happens sometimes).  I never saw flames so my next thought went to, there was a child somewhere it shouldn't be.  Finally we realized it was a lady having a seizure.  The first thing they did was sit her up while she was still seizing and proceed to give her mouth to mouth.  The mouth to mouth quickly came to a halt as she began vomiting.  They continued to hold her in the upright position and throw bottles of water at her and run away screaming.  Finally, and surprisingly, she came to and they immediately stood her up to get into a chair.  Everyone left her alone at this point and she continued on with her evening as if nothing had happened.  When it came time for her to go home, yes, she drove herself.

The Rock 2

We just got some pictures from some friends, from our Weekend excursion the other weekend, that I felt needed to be posted as well.  Enjoy :)

1st Birthday (Overseas)

I would have to say that my first Birthday overseas was a good one.  I am now 27 years old, I hope that my life has been fruitful so far, but I hope that it will be even more fruitful in the coming years until the day that I leave this world for another, better one.

We actually celebrated my birthday with friends the night before my birthday.  I unfortunately had to make my own Gluten-Free cake, but I am thankful that I was even able to have cake :)  My favorite thing about birthdays here are the flaming sparklers atop a birthday cake, not simply candles that are easily blown out.

The morning of my birthday, we got on the VIP bus to head to the capital city.  I am not going to lie, Andrew and I were both a little nervous about boarding this bus and traveling with all that has been going on in World news lately, but there were absolutely no problems on either leg of our trip and we felt completely safe the entire time.

When we arrived in the capital and checked into our hotel, we promptly went to Chili's followed by Starbucks and a movie.  It is such a treat to be able to get away to the capital and get some American things.  Not quite the same, but close enough to make us feel at home.

After the movie, we dinned at Fudruckers.  Not quite the burger and fries dinning experience we know in America, but a fine dinning, sit at a table and be waited on dinning experience.

At Fundruckers we enjoyed milkshakes:

 Andrew enjoyed a southwest burger and fries:

Notice his bacon is not really bacon but more like bologna

 And I enjoyed a delicious steak and potatoes:

 The next morning we ate breakfast at a nice little bakery that sells Gluten-Free bread on Sundays.  Unfortunately we were not there on a Sunday, so they had nothing Gluten-Free for me, but we decided to support them none the less by ordering coffee and omelets.  Yum!

As we were leaving the bakery, we saw this herd of goats crossing the street and heading down the road.  Not particularly an uncommon site, but I still can't get over being in a big city and seeing a guy herding his goats.

After all of our birthday celebrations were done, we headed off to the dentist.  The dentist was a whole new experience overseas.  The dentist had his own office.  He had no assistant (at least not the day we were there) and did all of the work and cleaning by himself.  He seemed to be quite a good dentist though, and had lots of complaints about my previous dental work.  Unfortunately we will be making a few more trips to see him in the coming months when we get the time.

We also had our first language evaluation while we were in the capitol.  We were both nervous about this, but felt in the moment that it was going pretty well.  Unfortunately when we were finished, the proctor did not think that we did as well as we should have done.  We will not get our final results of the evaluation for a few more weeks, but it was a bit discouraging to hear her reaction.  We have had a difficult time finding and keeping language tutors in our time here.  Because of this, we unfortunately have a few gaps in our learning and are a bit behind where we need to be.  But we are encouraged, because maybe we did do alright and she was just over exaggerating, but none the less, we are going to continue to try to learn this very difficult language and keep at it even if it does take us longer than it would others.

The Rock

Here are a few pictures from a little weekend excursion we took.  We were very excited because now as residents we were able to get in for a little over a dollar, whereas non-residents (aka tourists) have to pay about an arm and a leg for the entrance fee.

I have been wanting to get a picture with one of the camel crossing signs, but it is difficult to get the bus driver or taxi driver to stop on the side of the road.  Since we rented a car for this trip, we were finally able to stop and snag a picture.

It was such a beautiful day for our excursion!  It even rained on us a little bit, but it was a welcomed rain in the desert.

Don't jump Drew!

Andrew ridding a camel

I tried to get a picture of myself on a camel, unfortunately I got none of the camel, oh well.  Also, notice the necklace I am wearing now.  I purchased this from a village lady.  It was advertised as camel bones, but I'm not entirely convinced.  Also I think she was impressed with my bargaining skills.