Big Weekend

So I've been on the move for the past few days. It's a challenge to get my thoughts together in a coherent way. I'll start with the fact that I've gotten to know a lot more people and it's been a great time. 

The TN Team. 

Kellie, Serena, Karl, David and John. They represent 3 different Churches in the Johnson City/Tri-Cities area over in East Tennessee. I think I mentioned it earlier but they worked out at Holy Hill last week doing lots of digging and getting dirty. But of course they were there to be with the guys and just be loving friends. Which for these guys comes pretty naturally.  Deidre, the "other" missionary here in Czech Republic said she felt like she's known them forever.  I think this illustrates how open and fun they are. 

Deidre is in Karlovy Vary and has been here a bit longer than me but we've got a lot of the same challenges (and some different ones). Well she spent big chunk of the week with the Team out at Holy Hill. She then rescued me from sitting around the apartment all day. Wow there's some much stuff that I can't possibly really do any justice to how much fun we've all had. 

Friday Deidre and I walked around town and did a few errands etc. Then we went to U Salzmannu, a traditional Czech food restaurant. I had some gnocchi but it was Czech style. Which means it comes with sliced pork and a healthy portion of "cabbage." To a Czech person there isn't really sour kraut there's just cabbage. At least that's what I have gathered so far. Anyone who knows me will know that I am not a fan of cabbage in general and especially sour kraut in particular. But you know what? I don't mind it. I kind of just made up my mind that I might as well pretend I like it until I do because there's no getting away from it. That's cool though. I am actually starting to like it. They've got some kind of red pickled cabbage that's really good actually. So Mom I'm proud to say that I do eat veggies and cabbage is a big part of that.  But in the interest of full disclosure I eat a lot of meat with dumplings most of time. 

So anyway, as I was saying before that tangent we went around. We happened to be near the Team's hotel friday afternoon.  Then Deidre got a bright idea. "You know what? The Team is going to Prague tomorrow. I bet we can we can go with them." I thought, "That would be super cool!" so we headed up that way and lo and behold there they were walking up the street. 

So we asked David, who was the team leader, if he thought it'd be OK if we tagged along. Of course he and the Team all agreed it was great idea.  The trick was we would need a ride but that was easily taken care of because Petr Balous was driving his car too and we could go with him. We kind of forgot to ask him about it though.  But not to worry, David got a call from Petr while we were eating (oh yeah, the Team was on their way to dinner and invited us along. Nice folks them).  So it was settled over dinner and quite a few laughs and cigarette smoke from the Germans next to us. We'd all go to Prague and be proper tourists. It was a great time. 

Unfortunately, most of my pictures from Prague will make no sense. I did a particularly bad job of photography on the trip. My execution isn't so bad. It's my choice of subject that is the problem. For example

Nice picture right? Do you know what it is? Neither do I! It's up by the Prague Castle. That's about all I can tell ya. But if you are ever in Prague you must go there it is truly a beautiful place. 

Here's the Cathedral from a bit of a distance right when you get onto the grounds. I think I caught the back of Deidre's head here on the right in the foreground.  Actually I think that might be Serena in profile there in the middle. See how observant I was? Oh don't worry I've got plenty more where that came from. 

Here's where I thought I'd be funny and get a picture of everyone taking pictures of the Cathedral. This was going to be my big "look at all the fun we had" picture where you could see everyone in a candid moment. That's John getting a picture on the left. That guy's got some serious energy when it comes to taking photos. He must have taken 300 pictures. His catch phrase for the day was "I'll catch up with y'all." Then he'd run off and take some more pictures.

You might be able to see a little bit of Petr's hat poking out between Deidre and Kelly. That's his arm pointing at the Cathedral. I think that's what he's pointing at. Anyway, as you can see (or not see actually) if I hadn't cornered the Team last night a gotten that picture at the top none of y'all would know what they actually look like.  I must apologize especially to Deidre though because I did not successfully get a picture of her face. But you folks out there will see plenty of her in the coming year. Assuming she'll let me take her picture that is.

There was a huge mob of people trying to get into the Cathedral. The let you take pictures in there and everything. It's pretty amazing Church. There's so much to see. But my camera only holds like 6 pictures at a time so I had to ration them out. 

But as you can see it's a huge building. I took a bunch of pictures inside with my camera too but they didn't come out so well. 

By the time we went through the Cathedral we walked all over the grounds and saw the changing of the guard and all that cool stuff. Nope, I didn't take any more pictures up at the castle. You see the next thing to do in Prague is to walk the Charles Bridge. Which has a great view of the Castle. Check it out.

That's the castle way up there on the hill. The bridge is really cool too though. There are these statues along the way. I set one as the wallpaper on my phone 'cause it's got a creepy skull and cool gothic (in the real architectural sense not pasty teenagers with their hair dyed black) stuff around it. Too bad you wont' see it though. Not unless you or I go to Prague again. OK so I may take a proper picture one day. You'll just have to stay tuned. Assuming you like skulls and creepy stuff. Doesn't everybody?

By the way, we ate at McDonald's just before we got to the bridge. And before you roll your eyes and groan, we had good reason. Everything up there on that hill there you see? All of that stuff costs about double what it would anywhere else. Look at all these people. All of them are tourists. It doesn't make it any less fun or anything. It was weird though, it got to where I was surprised to hear someone speak Czech.  I've gotten so used to hearing it all the time it's just normal now so it was a bit surreal. So anyway all these foreigners means "We must double our prices." to all the merchants and restauranteurs. Plus we didn't want to spend the whole afternoon in a restaurant. We had things to do and stuff to see. 

Like now I have proof that I have done a bit of traveling in my day. Woohooo!

Apparently there is this amazing clock in the old square where Apostles come out and tell you what time it is or something. I don't mean to be disrespectful. Anyway, after we all convened at the end of the bridge we needed to hustle over so that we could see the clock at the top of the hour. Here it is in all its glory.

So my camera doesn't really do it justice but we were kind of thinking the same thing you are right now. Really? OK, that's cool. . . I guess. I did like the little skeleton that rings the bell. But when you consider how old (100s of years) it is and all the workmanship that went into it it is pretty impressive. Oh and it keeps accurate time by the way.  Also, look at all these people! 5 of them are Czechs. 

I was a bit worn out by that point so I was glad to get away from the big crowds.  We saw a lot of huge and impressive and beautiful things over the day. But I think this might be my favorite.It's a statue in memorial to Mozart's mother I believe. I was all cocky and thinking I'd remember what that little plaque says. But Noooo! I can't. Should have known. This is outside a Mozart Opera House? Something to do with Mozart where they perform his stuff.

At the end of the Prague portion of the day we kind of went off to do whatever around the big Wensil Square. This was where the Velvet Revolution got started. There's so much to be said about that I just don't have the space here to get into it. We decided to split up and do our own things for a little while before we got on the subway back to the cars.

Deidre and I went to this big book store so she could get a travel book for her impending trip to Turkey. She didn't get a Visa either and her first 90 days are about to be up so she's going to Istanbul.  

So now that I've told you her business (sorry :) ) Deidre kept getting called out for holding up the group whenever we were supposed to meet up. I didn't actually notice that she was late all the time. Well my point is that we were 10 minutes late in meeting up with the group. I feel it my duty to point out that this last case was entirely my fault. 

I had decided I wanted some coffee.  There's a cafe in the bookstore but they didn't seem to do take out. So Deidre graciously agreed to sit with me while I drank a latte. (She doesn't like coffee) There was a really nice little balcony outside, we saw some folks sitting out there so we decided to sit out there too. But as I was trying to close the glass door I discovered that there is no handle on the outside. So there I was trying to swing it closed and jerk my hand out before the door came to. Finally one of the patrons inside helped me out and closed the door. Now a more thoughtful person would have considered that this might be a bit of an obstacle in the way of getting back in. Not me my friends! Did not even occur to me. 

So I had my latte and we had a nice little break from the walking around. Then Deidre noticed that we were late to get back. Woops! That's about the time I noticed that there was no door handle. What's a guy to do? Fortunately I didn't have to poke the glasslike a caveman noticing his reflection in the water but once or twice. Those same nice guys from before let us in.  Then we hustled back to the group. All My Fault.

So that was the big day. I had a great time. Petr Balous was very gracious and patient with us. He's done that trip a million times and the crowds don't get any easier to be around. But we all got to know each other pretty well over the course of the day. I have more to talk about so I'll just put in another post. This must have tried your patience I'm sure. I don't plan on making a habit of writing novellas every time I post.