Checking out Czech

We headed to Prague early Saturday morning...what a beautiful place. We are about a 3 hour and 15 minute drive, so not bad at all. It would be much faster but most of it is 2 lanes and through a lot of small towns. I wouldn't call the drive pretty, especially this time of year...but the City of Prague (Praha) is fantastic.

Pictures: Jewish Cemetary (see below), open air market with tons of food booths - this one was the biggest pan ever cooking a potato,onion, bacon concoction, Toy and Barbie Museum (see below), soldiers outside of the big palace/castle, our family on the famous Charles Bridge.

We arrived in town by 11:30 and spent the rest of the day and through Sunday at 3:00 exploring. There is much to see and even more to eat! The city has some amazing history - as do many European towns, but it is fun to learn as we go. One fact that stunned me as there was a thriving Jewish culture in Prague, about 120,000 successful and hardworking Jewish people and after WWII there were only about 10,000 surviving. Astonishing and sad to learn more and more. We were able to see the Jewish Cemetary and a few synagogues, but we look forward to seeing and learning more when we go back. The cemetary was somber and interesting, they only had so much room (not much) for their dead so they had to keep stacking graves and dirt up so the ground is all uneven and the tombstones are leaning all over.

The food and lodging was inexpensive, which was a nice change from Vienna. We found some really great local food. Lots of potatoes, cabbage, dumblings, ham, these dough sugar things (Trulniks or something like that) YUMMY!! Eric had to roll me back into the car.

The people were SUPER friendly there. This was also a nice change from Vienna. There are MANY things I enjoy about this city - but the general friendliness is NOT one of them. I think I have been here long enough that I can make a generalization: The Viennese are crabby. Not ALL, but most. They do NOT smile often - especially to strangers. I asked a local about this and he said that it is considered flirty -- so I guess I have been flirting with many people these last few months! I understand it all a bit more after talking and learning - but I still miss the friendliness of the USA.

The Czech's were very friendly and welcoming of the English language. I know this sounds crazy - but I had such a wonderful feeling speaking English and not feeling badly about it... and actually enjoying it!! I didn't have to try to think so hard for a weekend and it was lovely that they didn't look down upon you for being a foreigner.

We went to the Toy and Barbie Museum - random but fun. Julia and I LOVED the barbie section -- ones from the beginning all the way to now and even prototypes that weren't ever made. They had so many I didn't know existed - including Gestational Barbie (not really the name I don't think!) -- I laughed ALL weekend on this one.

That is definitely a city we will have to return to at some point prior to our departure from Europe!

Eric leaves tomorrow for Kazikstan (I think I spelled this wrong!) He is excited...