Blogs from Prague, Czech Republic, Europe - page 171

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Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 10th 2006

Nancy and I had not given much thought of going to Karlovy Vary until our friends, Mori and Lilly, returned with raving comments about this small Czech city. So, we decided to spend a weekend there. Earlier in the week I bought round trip bus tickets and picked out a hotel. Mirka, do you remember her picture from last year, called the hotel, making reservations for us. I copied a map of the location from the Internet and we were ready. We got up and ate breakfast in our room. Our bus was to pick us up too early for us to wait for the dining hall to open. When we arrived at the Jeneralka bus stop we were surprised, the bus schedule had changed. Fortunately there was one bus coming in a few minutes ... read more
Czech Countryside
Hops

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 8th 2006

We just got dropped at our hostel in downtown praque. Vera and George are absolutely hilarious. They spent the last couple days with us and we love Praque. George took us on a 8 hour hike through the city and we saw everything we wanted to see. Then last night we went for a night hike to see Praque lit up. It was awesome. Anyways, we drank a couple of good bottles of wine last night and then Nicole noticed that there were ants crawling around on the ground in Vera's flat. George flipped out and was using a magnafying glass to find them and it looked as if they were hunting ants. The pictures we took of this incident were hilarious. Anyways, we are going to meet up with Nicoles friend and go out for ... read more

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 6th 2006

After resting, I went out to see some of the city but I was feeling run down and pushed it too hard. It's bound to happen to everyone sooner or later--getting sick on the road. My time came sooner. The only thing you can hope for is that you're in a decent place. This pension couldn't have been better--large, cozy, clean room with TV and tub, breakfast included and a good computer. For three days, I was laid out with something like the flu--fever, chills and the lot. When I finally came around, I was too tired to make any blog entries and when I was ready to do that, the computer mysteriously disappeared. Finally I got to get out and see some of this lovely city. It's a very charming place and a very "old ... read more

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 4th 2006

We lounged around in the club room at the Hilton for a while. By the end of our stay; the entire club room staff just wanted us to leave. I wore sweatpants there, and we did take advantage of the free booze and food, but they really didnt need to hate us. No one ever actually said anything to us, but you could tell. Anyways, we headed out for a second day around the city. We ended up walking a ton, probably close to 15 miles in like 6 hours. We saw the "Dancing House", the City's main park, and walked generally all over the city again. As I said already, the city was awesome. It was so clean, and nice, but it was generally small. By 7, we were ready to head back before it ... read more

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 3rd 2006

We woke up a little late at the wonderful Hilton Prague. We came and used the internet for like an hour since it was free, then headed over to a free breakfast. The food at the breakfast was amazingly good, and I ate my fair share. Then, around noon, we decided we would head downtown to explore some of the city. I wasn't sure what to expect from Prague since the only thing I know about the Czech is that Bednar (my Pitt hockey teammate) was born there. But it MORE than exceeded expectations. We headed down and saw all the big sites. As usual, we took the metro. This is like the 7th city metro we have used, and we are yet to get lost (knock on wood). We walked like half the city, and ... read more

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 3rd 2006

Deciding to leave the safe confines of a country where I speak the language, I headed off to East Midlands Airport near Nottingham and caught a flight to the Czech Republic. Flying into Prague was thrilling, except for the load of boisterous British men flying with me for some sort of stag party. I had never visited an eastern European city before and I wondered just how different it would be from western Europe. After all, the fall of Communism in places like the Czech Republic is a fairly recent event in the scheme of things and surely it must have left an imprint on this new republic. Since I seemed to have made such and impression on British passport control, I wondered what sort of questions I would be asked as I entered the Czech ... read more
Charles Bridge and Prague Castle
Entrance to Charles Bridge
Colorful Synagogue

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 3rd 2006

We set out today to visit the new Botanical Garden that is on a large piece of land near the zoo. In fact the stop for the zoo, the Botanical Gardens and the Troja Palace is one and the same. They sit on a high bluff overlooking the river. When we visited the zoo a week or so ago neither of us paid attention to the Troja Palace that lies just across the road from the entrance to the zoo. This time, as we were not heading to the zoo, we saw the palace and wondered at our blindness in not having seen it before. Walking to the entrance to the Palace we looked in and saw that there iwas no entrance fee to the grounds. From where we stood we could see formal gardens. These ... read more
Formal Gardens at the Troja Palace
Formal Gardens at the Troja Palace
Labyrinth at the Troja Palace

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 2nd 2006

Nessie and Don, from Scotland, visited IBTS for a week or so. Last year Don was here painting for two weeks. He was scheduled to come with Bob earlier this year, again to paint, but health problems prevented him from making that trip. We were so sad when he didn't come with Bob. But our sorrow turned into joy! He got well and not only did he come but his wife came with him. She is also a very dear lady. We got to eat breakfast with them quite a few mornings. They came for the reunion of the students in the Certificate of Applied Theology program. The two of them had worked as volunteers one year a few years ago and Nessie had taught English to the new students that year. They have kept in ... read more
Don

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 2nd 2006

This evening we were walking in New Town Prague, which is only five hundred years old, when we made a wonderful discovery. This is a section of town where we have not walked often. In fact, I can only remember walking in this particular area once before yesterday. As we approached an intersection a van came speeding by, and I do mean speeding, tore through the intersection and slammed on his brakes. The tires squealed and smoked. The delivery van leaned one way and then slid the other before coming to a halt just a few inches from another van that had pulled out into the street. Whew, no accident, no one hurt, but two drivers with nerves shot for the evening and shaking from adrenalin highs. This was not, however, the beautiful discovery. Across the ... read more
Joseph Holding Jesus
A Single Blossom
Blue Columbine

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague June 2nd 2006

Who EVER could imagine the day when a full TON, yes 2,000 pounds of books, were delivered to their library? We can now. Today a truck pulled up with books we had been expecting. Our school made a good trade with a company in the USA. In return for our donating a set of very valuable books to them for resale to another library, they are sending us much more than the equivalent cost of those books (which were totally irrelevant in our library since they supported none of our curriculum). (And today's shipment was merely the first of many we will receive.) The unloading was quite a feat! Various library workers, staff and volunteer, were running around doing this work while I, Nancy, was safely upstairs in the English classroom teaching for several hours. That ... read more
Unloading the Books




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