Running an 8K

The Prague International Marathon is coming up in May. We have no intention of running a marathon but on marathon weekend there will also be a 2K walk, a 4K run and an 8K run. Ideally I want to run a 5K but since that isn't an option Jason and I have opted to run the 8K. The 4K just seems too short. It will be the first race Jason has run since high school and it will be my first race ever. I'm looking forward to the challenge and to just having fun running. I have picked up my mileage a little just to get use to the distance. I had been running 4.3 miles regularly but have picked it up to just over 5 miles. I have kept my pace the same at about 9.5 min/mile. I'm hoping to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack but I will be happy as long as I'm not last. I also found out today that one of my friends will be at the water station on the race. It is funny to think that I will know people who are working the race.

Not OSHA approved

I was hanging laundry on the patio the other day and was watching the workers across the way. The builing across the courtyard had gutted the attic and is putting in a new apartment there. They have been working on it since we moved here. I see the workers going up/down the temporary elevator that is attached to the outside of the building all the time. The other day when I was on the patio I see two metal pipes sticking out of two windows and a third pipe being rolled out on them. I was curious what they were going to be doing with them so I watched while I was putting the laundry out. I went inside for a minute and came back out and there was a guy attaching the perpendicular pipe to the two that were sticking out. I just kept thinking, "this is definitely not OSHA approved!". I'm not sure if I can accurately describe this but I will do my best. Underneath one window is a patio. The patio has one of those roll out umbrellas that is attached to the wall. Next to the patio is open space and then a wall where the builing comes out at a right angle. So this guy has one foot on the wall and one foot on the roll out sunshade. He has one arm over one of the metal pipes sticking out the window and is using his other arm/hand to fasten the two pipes together. So he is basically on the 5 floor by US standards with nothing below him to catch him if he falls and he is counting on a roll out shade to hold his weight!! It was making me nervous watching him. I went inside and came back out and he was fine and back inside the apartment. A little while later he was back outside again and this time standing with both feet on the roll out sun shade. This didn't make me as nervous since there was a patio underneath him so he couldn't fall that far but it still shocked me that the workers would be so unsafe.

The butcher

I often stop at the butcher around the corner from our apartment. There are two ladies who work there with the occassional other worker. I feel like the two ladies have gradually warmed up to me. I'm not sure if it is just that they have gotten use to me coming in or if they appreciate my effort with the language. I like to believe that they appreciate my efforts. It is one place where I have been able to steadily get better with speaking Czech. When I started I would just point and then pay. Since I couldn't really see the register and couldn't understand what they were saying i would just blindly hand them money. I gradually was able to understand the amount and hand them the appropriate amount of money. I still didn't know how to tell them how much of somethng I wanted though. They would say "kolik" and I would use my fingers to show them how much I wanted. I can finally walk in and say what I want and how much of it I want!! When I went in to do this for the first time the other day it was a very warm day so they had to door open to the outside to let in some air. This is really not an American thing to do since there were a lot of flies flying around inside the store. If I walked into a store in the US that had all these flies I would probably walk out but here it is normal so I just ordered my food. Ali was in her stroller pointing to the flies and clapping her hands like she was trying to catch them. It was the first time that I ordered completely in Czech and it was the first time that the two ladies spoke about the girls. They thought that Ali was really cute. Maybe they would have thought Ali was cute anyway but I felt like I had graduated in the eyes of the butcher!

Outdoor Seating

The weather over the past week or so has been great. Coinciding with that has been the arrival of outdoor seating outside many restaurants. It has been a bit of a surprise at times because in many cases restaurants don't seem to have a deck or area that would be recognized as a planned area for tables. Many seem to just move a bunch of tables and chairs outside each morning onto whatever sidewalk space they can use in front of the restaurant or pub. Recently I have had a occasions where I would run by a place in the morning and have seen no seating but then later, when taking Watson for his evening walk, I would almost collide with the outdoor dining area that seemingly grew out of the sidewalk during the day. Of course when it's nice out it's enjoyable eating outside but the greater importance of this has dawned on me recently which is that many restaurants and pubs have no air conditioning so during the hot summer days or nights sitting inside would be very uncomfortable. Either way I look forward to taking advantage of these opportunities whenever possible.

Beautiful weekend

This weekend was beautiful. The weather was perfect so we were able to be outside for most of the weekend.I met up with a friend on Friday morning and we went to a park I hadn't been to yet. The park is Kampa Park and there is a playground there that is very hidden. You don't really even notice it when you are walking through the park. This is nice because it means it isn't that busy. The other nice thing about the park is that it is really geared to the toddler years without any of the older kid toys. The playground is right on the river too so you get the pleasant sound of running water. On Saturday we took the kids and Watson to Letna park and hung out for a while and yesterday we went back to Kampa Park to show Jason the new playground we found and to meet up with one of Jason's colleagues that just moved here from the U.S. Our timing didn't quite mesh so we only spent about 30 minutes at the playground with them but it was still fun to be there. After that we headed to Tesco to pick up a blender and some fixings for snacks and drinks. We hopped on the tram and went home. Our friends came over to hang out and we had some cocktails and snacks while the kids played. (I should say the kids played after they ransacked the snack table!) The kids all had fun together and so did the adults. It is nice to have friends so close by that we can walk to each others' house so it is easy to get together. After they left Ali just kept walking around saying "Radek" which is one of our friends name. It is funny what words she picks up and really latches onto.

Thinking of Munich

I have been thinking about Munich and the things that I found interesting. The first thing that comes to mind is that there are so many bikes in Munich. I have never seen so many bikes in one place. It seems everyone rides a bike there. There are bike paths along all the rodes. As a pedestrian you not only have to watch out for cars when crossing the road but you have to watch out for bikes as well. You also have to make sure you aren't walking in the bike path when you are on the sidewalk. The second thing that was striking to me was that farmland abutted the city. It is the same here in Prague but in New England this is not the case so it was a bit startling to go from smelling manure one minute to being in the city the next. Thirds, There are not many dogs in Munich. I think we saw about 4 dogs all weekend. It was strange since it seems everyone in Prague has a dog. It was nice though to be able to sit on the grass in Munich and not worry about dog poop! Forth, everyone we spoke to was able to speak English. This was such a contrast to Prague. I feel like in Prague we can walk down the road and speak English and not everyone can understand us. It was strange being in a place where I couldn't understand them but they could understand me. It was nice to come back home to Prague and hear Czech being spoken again. Even though I can't understand a majority of what is being said I am comfortable with the sounds and rhythms of Czech.

Control your dog please!!

Who lets their dog pee on people??? We were in Letna Park today and the girls were playing with chalk and I was sitting on the grass watching. A black lab came over and played with Watson for a couple minutes then came over behind me. It was a good thing Jason was watching because the dog almost peed on me!! The owner is lucky it didn't because with Czech or not I would have yelled at her. Who allows that to happen?? I can understand if a dog doesn' tlisten perfectly to a command but come on! If your dog does that then he should never be off a heel when there a people sitting in the grass!

Immunizations

I brought Ali to the doctor yesterday for her to have her DTaP immunization. I really like our pediatrician here. She is very friendly and great with the kids. I was surprised when she told me they would be giving Ali the shot in the leg since after age 1 all the shots are given in the arm in the US. I figured that it probably didn't really matter though so I didn't say anything. Next time I will request that she use the arm because the shot really hurt Ali and swelled up her thigh. It is the first time she has had any kind of reaction to a shot. The only thing that I can think of that is different is where the shot was given unless the Dtap shot has a different formula here than in the US. In the US she received Pediarix which is the combined vaccine where as here she only received the DTaP so maybe that was the difference too. In any event I will ask for shots in the arm now rather than the leg.

Day 4 - Drive back to Prague

We had breakfast at the hotel and then made a quick trip over to Marienplatz to pick up some souveniers. We checked out of the hotel and we were ready to leave. We had a slight delay because there was a car parked blocking the driveway. I went back inside to ask them what we were suppose to do. The manager came out and had us pull up to the end of the driveway and start honking the horn. It was amusing that this was going to be the method for getting the car to move. I thought as far as we knew the owner of the car was off somewhere else in the city. After a few honks the guy did return to his car. The manager had a few words with him in German. It was amazing to me that the car owner was yelling back when clearly he was in the wrong. Anyway, we were finally able to pull out of the driveway and hit the road. We had our map and new where we were going. Unfortantely we missed a turn and ended up in a tunnel. This little miss put us on the south side of Munich and we needed to be on the north. We added about 45 minuted to our trip which was a bummer. Once we were out of Munich the land turns to farmland. There are just fields upon fields rape flower (from which rape seed oil is made). It was absolutely beautiful. we took an exit off the highway so that I could get a nice picture of it. It is hard to capture the beauty of it since part of the beauty was just in the amount of flowers. I was surprised by the amount of farmland there was. Being from New England you just don't see farmland right next to a city so it was surprising to me to see that this was the case for Munich as well as Prague. It seems the minute you leave the city you are in farmland, that there is no middle ground between city and country. We made it back to Prague and returned the car. It was a good trip but we Jason and I were both happy to be home. Even though we don't speak a lot of Czech we were both happy to hear it again and know that we can at least understand a little of what is being said. There is still a lot of Munich that we haven't seen but being only a drive away I'm sure we will go back again. View all Munich photos

Munich: Day 3 - Schloss Nymphenburg/ Hirschgarten

Today was my favorite day in Munich. The day was gorgeous and we got to see a palace and hang out in a park.

Schloss Nymphenburg: We headed out to Schloss-Nymphenburg on the tram. The Palace (Schloss) was just amazing. It was so big I don't even know how describe it. The tram let you off in front of the palace but it is still a walk to get to to the front door of the palace. There is a canal that runs from the road to the front of the palace where it opens up into a small pond with a water fountain. We decided to go into the palace before exploring all the grounds. When you enter the palace you enter into the Great Hall. The ceilings were very high and were all painted with frescoes depicting the Olympian gods. There was also a lot of gilding. It is apparently one of the most accomplished monumental room designs of late Rococo court art in Bavaria. We were only able to see part of the first floor since that is all that is open ot the public. After walking through the first floor we headed outside to the "backyard".

The enormous park in back of the palace was also beautiful. According to our guide book the palace gardens are symmetrically laidout Frech gardens that give way to an English style landscaped park, which was established using the existing forest. The gardens feature pavilions, lodges, fountains, ornamental ponds and canals. We decided to explore the grounds and look in some of the outbuildings. As you can see in the picture, straight out from the palace is grass, flowers and a canal. Once you turn left or right you enter the woods. We started out into the woods to find the hunting lodge. I'm not sure why they needed a hunting lodge a few hundred yards from the house but I guess when you are that wealthy you can just build a house if you want one. This house was beautifully done in the Rococo style. It was built between 1734-1739. It is not what I would picture as a hunting lodge. This house was filled with silver detailing as you can see in the bedroom picture. After leaving the hunting lodge we continued down a wooded bath along another small canal. This canal fed the pump house that was used to pump wter to the fountains. We continued on to the Badenburg house which was the bath house. The basement was dedicated to bathing. It was a little strange to think that the entire area had water in it. We couldn't really ask many questions about how it worked since there was no guide at the site just the man taking tickets but I was curious as to how hogh the water was and how often the water was emptied. It seems like it would take quite a while to fill the room with water. This house is also set on a lake so when you are on the main floor you can look at the windows and see the beautiful placid lake. After the bath house we crossed back through the woods and the park to the other side of the park to see another house called the Pagodenburg. Again, I don't quite understand why they needed additional houses in their gardens but it was beautiful. We then stopped along the main canal and had some snacks. Thinking back on our day there I realized that we didn't even go to see the botanical gardens. Oh well, maybe next time.

Hirschgarten: After spending half the day at Schloss Nymphenburg we decided to go to a beer garden. We had looked on the map and figured it was only a couple stops away on the tram. Luckily we were right. We got off the tram and headed into the park hoping that it would be easy to find the beer garden. It seemed like we would be able to find it given it has 8,000 seats! We started t ostroll in the park and of course didn't see anything so I decided to ask someone. It seemed that whomever we spoke with in Germany could always speak some English. This was no exception. I asked and was told 500 meters ahead. We were happy that we had been heading in the right direction and sure enough we came upon the beer garden. We found a table amd sat down. I went up to the food area and got a few different kinds of sausages and french fries and brought them back to the table. Then I went back to find a beer for Jason. They have giants closets filled with beer glasses. You choose your glass and then bring it to one of the may huts serving beer. There are 2 different size glasses. I chose the liter size glass and that seemed to be the most populat choice and I wanted Jason to have the full experience! After eating the sasuage and fries I went back for a pretzel. The pretzels are so big they take up an entire plate. After eating our fill we found a place in the park and sat down while the girls played with the pinwheels we bought them. THe pinwheels where a big hit with the girls and with other kids. The girls had fun showing off their new toy to other kids. We should have gotten a commission from the vendor as people kept asking where we got them so they could get one for their kids as well. It was a full, fun, and relaxing day. View all Munich photos

Munich: Day 2 - Around Marienplatz

AlterBotanischer Garten: We walked over to the Botanical Gardens to start our day. It was such a quiet peaceful place in the early morning. We took some pictures and looked at the flowers. The girls love flowers so it was fun for them to be able to see all the different colors. In the center of the garden is a fountain of Neptune. It wasn't running when we were there but it was pretty to see the water in the bottom anyway.


Walk to Marienplatz: Sofia was very excited to see everything and with her late night partying she was also tired. The combination meant she was a klutz. She bumped her head at the gardens and then fell, scraping her knees. We all know how that hurts. Luckily she didn't hurt them too bad although she "really" needed a bandaid. We went in to the pharmacy and I bought band-aids. I also bought sunblock since it was such a beautiful day and I hadn't packed any. We stopped at Frauenkirche. This church is the largest Gothic basilica in Southern Germany. It was really interesting because they had pictures inside the church of what the church looked like after World War II. It was amazing to the see the destruction caused by the war.

We arrived at Marienplatz which is surrounded with a pedestrian only area with lots of shops. I think living in the city has turned me into more of a shopper because I wanted to go in all the stores and check out the clothes. I controlled myself though and just enjoyed the beautiful day and seeing all the old buildings.

The Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) dominates Marienplatz but unfortunately they had scaffolding over a lot of it so I couldn't get any good pictures of it. I was able to get one of the top of the town hall where they had already cleaned and removed the scaffolding. The town hall has a famous glockenspiel but we did not see it. I'm not sure if it was even running since all the scaffolding was around it. Maybe we will see it on our next trip to Munich.

Viktualienmarket: The market is just a few steps away from Marienplatz. It has been here since 1807 and has around 140 different vendors. It was really nice. Jason and I both commented on how we wished there was something like it in Prague. The market had vendors selling pretzels, beer, cheese, sausages, deli meats, fruit, vegetable, flowers, souveniers, herbs etc. It was fun to walk through and see it all. We stopped for a snack when we first got to the market and then continued to walk around. We picked up a couple souveniers for the kids. Sofia chose a small music box that you wind the handle and it plays music. Before leaving the market we picked up some apples, bread, cheese, and sausage to bring with us for lunch.

Hofgarten: We walked over to the Hofgarten which is the park on the north side of the Residenz. It was nice to take a break and sit on the grass and eat lunch. There was clasical music playing in the garden too. I think it was coming from the Temple of Diana in the middle of the garden. The kids ate and then played in the gravel lined walkway. It was a good thing I had bought the band-aids earlier since Sofia took another fall. This fall managed to really scrape one of her knees. It was bleeding which I think scared her but we put a band-aid on and Ali let Sofia ride in her stroller while Ali went on my shoulders. Sofia was happy to have a break from walking and she likes "borrowing" Ali's stroller. I think people where laughing at the number of band-aids on Sofia's knees but she was happy!

A Little Shopping: We left the garden in search of two stores mentioned in our guide book. The first store was known for its coffee and the second for chocolate. The first store was great. There were so many specialty items there it was fun to look at although we noticed that the prices on the meats where ridiculously high. Jason bought himself some coffee and we headed over to find the chocolate store. Since the store was small Jason and the girls stayed outside while I went in to buy the chocolate. The ladies that worked there were very nice. I had to keep asking what everything was since it was all written in German. For things they couldn't explain to me in English they would just give me a piece to try. Needless to say I didn't decline any of the samples. When I looked out the window to see what Jason was doing with the girls while I was sampling I found him looking in laughing at me and making fun of me eating everything. I was only being polite and tasting the chocolate!! hahaha. I finished up in the chocolate store and we headed off to find dinner. We really wanted to find a beer garden so we headed off to find one of the beer gardens mentioned in our book. We did find one but it wasn't what we were picturing. It was very small and more of a restaurant. Oh well, we ate dinner and headed back to the hotel. The girls had another little party in their room after we put them down for bed. I had to go in and quite them down. When I walked in, Sofia was standing in front of Ali's crib with her snugly around her shoulders as a cape and performing something for Ali. It was very cute and it was hard not to laugh but I got through it and put them back in bed. View all Munich photos

And we are off to Munich...

I packed everything and we were ready to go. Jason brought Watson over to a friend's house and then we all walked over together to get the rental car. Everything was going smoothly. The girls and I walked back to the apartment and Jason met up back there with the rental car. We brought the luggage downstairs and got the car seats out of the storage room in the basement. We took the car seats out of their carry bags and YUCK they were covered in mold!! I got the Mr. Proper out and the Magic Erasers (Thank you for sending them Pat!!) and went to work cleaning the car seats as best I could. They still had a little moldy smell but I put a towel over them and put them in the car. The kids didn't seem to mind. This put us a little late in our start time but it didn't really matter. We started our drive out fine. We eventally figured out how to turn the radio on but it didn't matter since there really wasn't anything to listen to. It was a beautiful day and the countryside was beautiful. We were quite hot though since our rental car didn't have air-conditioning. We decided to save a few dollars and get the cheaper car since it was April and we wouldn't need it. We were wrong! It was very warm and I will never rent another car without air conditioning!

Driving Through the Country: Once you leave Prague the country is just farm land. It is interesting how the city just ends and it opens up to farm land. We stopped just before the German border to have lunch at the rest stop. I love European rest stops since they aren't just McDonald's (although you can find rest stops that have McDonald's). I had a nice chicken schnitzel and Jason had pork schnitzel. They were quite tastey and the girls just ate from our plates. Sofia did get a bowl of tomato wedges as that was the only thing she wanted to eat. I was a little skeptical even though I know she likes tomato but I got them for her anyway. She actually sat there and ate a fair number of the tomato wedges. After lunch we hit the road again and crossed over into Germany. It is so strange to just be able to drive from one country into another. After we crossed the border we noticed these signs:
I know it is extremely childish but I couldn't help but laugh at these signs. After seeing a few we figured out that they must mean "exit" but if you mangle the German language with English the word just sounds funny. If you can't figure out why I was laughing then you clearly aren't childish enough. Anyway, we did go through passport control but they didn't check us they just waved us through. From the edge of Prague to the edge of Munich there is just endless farmland. There were so many fields of rape flower. They were absolutely beautiful. There were also areas where we think they must have growing hops.

Arrival in Munich: We made it to Munich and got off the highway. We only got slightly lost but made it to our hotel. By the time we were in Munich and getting lost on the way to the apartment the kids were tired of the car and Ali was crying so we couldn't wait to find our hotel. We found our hotel and pulled into where it says is the hotel parking garage. We see no garage so we just park in what appears to be a driveway and I ran into the hotel to see where we were suppose to park. The desk was very friendly and told us to bring our stuff in and get checked in and then we could come back out to put the car in the garage. We get up to our hotel room and it is hot since the hotel has no A/C and the weather has been unseasonably warm. Oh well, we opened the doors up onto the balcony and let some of the cooler air from outside in. The "suite" we had was small for a suite but it worked just fine for us. There were two separate rooms so the girls had their own room. They set up a single bed for Sofia and the portable crib for Ali which was great because it meant I didn't have to bring all that stuff with me. Once we were settled in Jason went down to put the car in the garage. I will let him describe that process. Our hotel was nice and in a relatively convenient location but the area was a little seedy and the streets weren't the cleanest. After Jason put the car in the garage we decided to take a quick walk around the historic center and then get some dinner. We ended up eating at an italain restaurant since it was outside and easy to deal with the kids. We went back to the hotel and got the kids ready for bed. We put them down for bed, left their room and the party began for them. Since we were in a different place and their beds were very close together they decided they would play for a little while. Well, Ali was crying and Sofia was playing. After a while Ali joined in on the playing. They did eventually go to sleep thankfully!

Preparing for Munich

I was lazy last week and did no laundry so this week I am washing and hanging all our laundry so that we will have clothes to bring with us to Munich. I've sent the e-mail off to the hotel requesting a crib for Ali so hopefully we won't have to bring the pack n play. Yesterday I went and reserved a rental car. THere is a car rental place around the corner from our apartment that has pretty good rates. They do have a website and a method for reserving online but after my expereince with online shopping in Prague I thought it would be better to just walk over to the rental place. The girls and I walked over yesterday and rang the buzzer for Vecar Car Rental. A woman answered the buzz in check so I asked her is she understood English and she said no so I asked her about "auto". She said it wasn't available to today so I told her no, Friday. She buzzed me into the building. The car rental agency was on the second floor so I decided to look for the elevator. I found it and waited. When the elevator arrived I opened the door (yes, opened the door since it was a very old elevator) and the elevator was tiny. It would only fit one person! The girls and I then climbed the stairs to the second floor (3rd floor in US terms). Sofia walked up and I carried Ali in her stroller. When we got up tot he rental place we had to ring their doorbell. The woman came to the door and let us in. With the little bit of English that she spoke and the little bit of Czech that I speak we worked it out that we would be renting a car for the weekend to go to Munich. It is interesting how different it is to rent a car through a little rental place. There was no computer for reservations. She just had a book to write down names of the people renting and the cars that they wanted. There was no fancy building and fancy waiting area or big computer reservation system. I'll take that method everytime though if it means I will get a car rental for less. Now I just need to find a map of Germany so that we can find our way around in case we get lost on our drive.

Easter Monday

The monday after Easter is a national holiday in the Czech Republic. Jason had the day off and we went to our friends for lunch and a trip to the zoo. Our friends live in Troja which is just across the river from where we live. It takes a while to get there though b/c there aren't many public transit options. It takes about 40-45 minutes by tram/bus to get to their apartment. We decided to walk since it was a beautiful day and the walk only takes about 45 minutes. We thought it would be better to spend the 45 min outside rather than sitting on the tram. We get to walk through Stromovka Park and take two footbridges over the river then walk in front of Trojsky Zamek (Troja Chateau) to get to their apartment. Their apartment is right next to the zoo so after having hotdogs and hamburgers we headed over to the zoo to let the kids burn some energy. We have been to the zoo before but hadn't seen all of it so it was nice that we got to see the part of the zoo that we missed the last time. It was a great day. I'm sure we will head over their quite a few times this summer. We have season passes for the Zoo so we will be back for that but Trojsky Zamek is suppose to have beautiful gardens that I want to see. There is a winery in Troja as well as botanical gardens. It is a beautiful area that we want to explore. It is nice to have friends in that area too so that we can always catch up with them when we go there.

Potty training

We have been easy going with Ali for potty training. I think mainly because it was never an issue with Sofia. Ali has been interested in the potty for a while and does like to sit on it. We let her get up on the potty and sit there for a while until she is ready to come down. We tell her to let us know when she has to go so we can help her get to the potty. (Which is the same approach we had with Sofia.) Yesterday she said she had to go so I took off her diaper and put her on the potty. I doubted that she would go since her diaper already had pee in it but I figured it doesn't hurt to put her on the potty. So, while she was up on the potty Sofia was coaching her to push. It was very funny because Sofia was making grunting sounds while she was teaching Ali. Ali mimicked her and actually pushed some gas out. It was funny because she was pretty proud of herself. She looked up with a big smile and said, "farted!". In any event, today when we got home we got the kids undressed to get ready for bed. I asked Ali if she needed to go potty and she said yes so I put her on the potty but she didn't do anything. She said she was done so I took her off. A few minutes later she came back into the room and said, "potty!". I said ok and brought her into the potty again and she peed!! She was very proud of herself and, of course, we were proud of her too.

Charles Bridge

Today the morning was very gray and overcast. Around 2pm we decided to take a walk to the Charles Bridge and buy some artwork. There are many artists selling their pictures - photos, etchings, watercolors etc. We hopped on the tram for the couple stops down to the bridge. It is amazing how many people are on the bridge already and it isn't even peak tourist season. I'm glad we decided to go though because the sun ended up coming out and it was beautiful. We finished off our time at the bridge with a stop at the playground which is right next to it. The girls got to burn some energy and we got to enjoy the view out over the river.

Company party

Last night we went to a Monster company party. I had been looking for shoes, purse, and jacket to wear to the party since I needed them anyway the party was a good excuse. I don't have much time for shopping with the kids but I was able to find shoes at the shoe store on the corner near our apartment. I didn't find a jacket or purse though. I had Jason carry my stuff (phone and money) so that I would need to carry a purse and since it was a mild night I went without a jacket. Before going to the company party we decided to grab a drink first on Na Prikope. I had hoped to see a jacket in one of the windows of the shops on Na Prikope so that I would have something to wear if it got colder out. Jason did not want to shop but he humoured me when I said I wanted to go into the Zara store. I was lucky and actually found a nice jacket that fits me perfect. It is such a rarity that I find something that fits perfect I just had to buy the jacket! We continued on to TGI Fridays. I know, TGI Fridays?? We hadn't gone there before but I was told they had excellent margueritas so I wanted to check it out. We sat at the bar and had our margueritas. They were quite large and very yummy. After that we headed over to the party. Everyone that I met was very nice. The guys on Jason's team that I met are very friendly and quite funny. The food wasn't great but I guess I can go one Friday night without stuffing myself!

Vyšehrad

On a beautiful weekend day a couple weeks ago we went to Vyšehrad (see our photos). Atop a cliff jutting out over the Vltava river, Vyšehrad ("Castle on the Heights") is a castle built in the 10th century by a prince of Bohemia's founding Premlysid dynasty. Although little remains of the historic castle but a part of the original wall near the river it is an interesting and beautiful place to spend an afternoon. The historic importance of this site is based more on the history of Prague and legends of Libuše, the mythical ancestor of the Premyslid dynasty and the Czech people, then historic structures. The church at Vyšehrad is built in an older style yet is actually quite new and the Vyšehrad cemetary is not old but does contain the remains of some of Prague's most famous people. There are tree-lined paths, open spaces and walkways around the top of the castle walls so we spent our time in the sun walking and enjoying the view over the river and towards Prague Castle.

Travel Photos

Since we moved to Prague we have not been outside of the city. We have spent weekends enjoying time in the parks or exploring the many fascinating sites in Prague. Next weekend we are going to Munich though and as we've mentioned before have three weeks of other vacations already booked for this year. Since I know we will take a lot of pictures I felt we needed to get our 2002 pictures from Italy and France onto our photo site. It took working on pictures most nights this week but I finally have a good number from that great trip uploaded. Check out the pictures from Tuscany as well as pictures from Provence. Very soon we'll begin really building on our collection of travel photos and can't wait for the chance to do so.

Running

I broke the 10 min mile today! Granted it was only at 9.95min/mile but I'm pretty happy with the accomplishment. I really enjoy running as I have said before. It is my own time which is really the only time during the day that I actually have time to myself and it gives me a chance to explore different roads around our neighborhood. I ran down a road the other day that I now just call embassy row as it seems that every house on that road is an embassy. Watson enjoys running with us although he desperately needs a haircut. He hasn't had a haircut since before we moved to Prague. I think he is starting to get really hot when we run since by the end of the run he seems a little sluggish. We will get him cut in the next couple weeks.

Divoká Šárka

Last weekend we went to Divoká Šárka. It is a huge nature preserve in Prague. It is about a 20 min tram ride from our apartment. We enjoyed the day there but didn't see much of the park. We ventured into the park on the paved walkway and quickly came upon a field that had a hill that we decided to climb. There was a dirt path so I figured I would just push the stroller up the hill. That worked out fine and you did get a nice view from the top of the hill but it wasn't a place we could hang out with the kids since the side opposite the hill that we climbed up was a cliff. We ventured back down the hill and along the paved path. We were hoping to find a large green field we had seen from the top of the hill. After about a 10 minute walk we came upon the big green field and that is where we spent the afternoon. It was so pleasant to just sit in the grass and lets the kids run around and play. It was hard to believe that we were so close to a city. We really felt separated from the hustle and bustle of life.

Detsky Ostrov

Yesterday the girls and I went to Detsky Ostrov. It is a playground area on an island in the Vltava River. There is a footbridge that connects the land to the island. Here is a picture of the girls standing on the footbridge with the river behind them. It was a little windy on the footbridge but once you were on the island you didn't notice the wind at all.




The island is great. It is all fenced in so you don't have to worry about the kids falling into the river. It is also quite large. Towards the end there are some courts of some sort but I didn't take the time to look to see what they were. I was too busy running around watching the girls go from one toy to the next. Ali loved one of the swings there. There are very few parks in Prague that have actual baby swings but at least the swing that Ali loved at Detsky Ostrov was a small swing so I didn't have to worry about her going on it.

After we left the park we walked along the river for a bit. It was really neat because between the land and the island is the system of locks that the boats have to use to get around the water falls in the river so we got to watch the boats go through the locks. I didn't get a chance to really see it work in full since the I had to keep the girls entertained and I wasn't sure how long it would take so we just kept walking. By the time we reached the next bridge though all the boats had come through the locks. I tried to explain how it worked to Sofia but I don't have a full grasp on it myself so I will have to do a little internet research. Here is a picture of the boats coming through the locks.