Road trip...Prague! Part One

Well, Internet, I've fallen in love again. This time, with Prague!

This week is Emmy's winter break at school (last week ended the first term/semester). We'd originally tried to plan a few days skiing with friends, but multiple complications caused us to cancel that plan.  So, at the (almost) last minute, we booked a few days in Prague in the Czech Republic. It is a little over five hours from us, so it was not a bad drive. Everyone we'd talked to about it has said they loved Prague, so we were excited to see for ourselves.

We headed out Sunday mid morning. As usual, the best laid plans had us on the road about an hour after our ETD, and then we had to stop for diapers on the way out of town and TRAVELING WITH CHILDREN TAKES FOREVER.

Beautiful day! 

The route took us through Germany, and boy does Germany (and other parts of Europe) do a "rest stop" right. Not only are they, as my friend Jocelyn calls them, beacons of culinary deliciousness, they also frequently have playgrounds! It was a nice day, and the kids had a great time running around for a few minutes after we ate.

Some road work with no detour signs caused us a bit of a headache, but we finally made it to the Little Quarter of Prague. To get to our hotel, we had to drive past the US Embassy, and we'd been told that we'd have to stop for a Police checkpoint. Charles was asked to open the hood of the car as a part of the check. I could not hear what was going on, but I saw the officer and pointing and he and Charles looking at something, and then he called over the other officer to look under our hood. I was starting to get a little concerned as to what was going on with my car, when Charles finally closed the hood and hopped in. Apparently, a dead bird was under the hood. GROSS. Later that evening, Charles went back to the car with some plastic bags and deposited the cooked, headless bird in the trash. His theory is a cat killed it and dragged it up there, since a) it was headless and b) the insulation under my hood was torn up. Ahh, adventures!

The sun was in the wrong place for
a photo, but here is our hotel.
http://www.dumuvelkeboty.cz/

So, we arrived at our hotel on a quiet square across from the Germany Embassy and down the street from the Italian Embassy. A lovely lady named Lauren welcomed us, showed us to our room, and told us a bit about the hotel and Prague, and gave us some restaurant recommendations. The hotel is in a old house and owned by a family. We met one of the owners, Jan, that evening and saw him every day. He is delightful, as was everyone who worked there.

We had dinner at a one of their recommendations (which was also one of Rick Steve's guidebook recommendations) and then walked back to our hotel to settle everyone in for the evening.

We were up bright and early Monday morning and after breakfast at the hotel, we took off to start Rick Steve's walking tour of old town. (I am a big fan of his books, by the way, if you are in need of any travel guides, he gives good information that tries to keep you away from super touristy spots and get you into the local culture, and he has a good sense of humor). Since it was Monday, some of the churches were closed, but most of the sites were open. The tower at the Old Town Hall was not open yet when we stopped there, so when the tour brought us right back by this area closer to lunchtime, we headed up to ride the elevator up. I am definitely glad we took the time for this, the views were lovely! 

Gothic Týn Church in Old Town Square.

Old Town Square, memorial to Jan Hus, a symbol of Czech nationalism. Hus, a priest, was a religious reformer who stood up to both the Catholic Church and the Hapbsburg oppressors from Austria.

Walking through the Ungelt, one of the Old Town's oldest palces, where during the Bohemian Golden Age traders were able to safely stay with their wares to pay their customs and keep their goods protected at night. There are only 2 entrances to the square. 

Emmy with the Powder Tower behind her. Built in the 1400's, it was the gate of the old town wall, and where they used to keep the gunpowder. 

Havelská Market, first set up in the 13th century. 

Wenceslas Square, as in "Good King Wenceslas," turns out St. Wenceslas was Czech! We did not spend much time exploring this area, we'll have to come back! 

View of the Týn Church from the Old Town Hall's tower. 

Selfie in front of the view. 

Finally Emmy decided to join us. 

It's a long way down! 

Waiting to watch the Astronomical Clock on Old Town Hall chime the hour again (we saw it at 10 and noon, I think).  

Astronomical Clock in the background. Fascinating to watch and to read about what each part represents.

We headed over to one of the guidebook recommendations for lunch. It was a Latin American place and after not having a Mexican, or any Latin food for so long, it was heaven. We were all so happy.

After lunch we did a few stops in the Jewish Quarter. After the Spanish Synagogue, the Jewish Cemetery, and the, we could tell everyone (Emmy) was done.  We headed towards the Charles Bridge to walk back towards the Little Quarter, where our hotel was located. We stopped for supper along the way for more yummy Czech food (and beer).


After lunch we did a few stops in the Jewish Quarter in New Town. After the Spanish Synagogue, the Maisel Synogogue, the Pinkas Synogogue, the Old Jewish Cemetery, and the Ceremonial Hall, we could tell everyone (Emmy) was done.  We headed towards the Charles Bridge to walk back towards the Little Quarter, where our hotel was located. We stopped for supper along the way for more yummy Czech food (and beer).

Emmy really was interested in the Kafka stature, outside the Spanish Synogogue. 

The walls of the Pinkas Synogogue are filled with the handwritten names of the 77,297 Czech Jews killed during the Holocaust. The red letters are the family names, the black are the individual's first name, birthdate, and date of death (if known). This was very moving, though the large group of obnoxious teenagers on a tour were very distracting. 

Beautiful ceiling of one of the Pinkas Synagogue. 

The Old Jewish Cemetary, which sits above street level. This was the only place Jews were allowed to bury their dead from 1439-1787, so the graves had to be piled on top of one another, and a wall was built around it and dirt was piled on top of existing graves. 

I love this photo of us with the Charles Bridge behind us.
(Matthew was sleeping, Emmy was done with photos for the moment)

Charles IV, in Charles IV Square, right by the Charles Bridge. Charles was thrilled to see so many things named after him. Haha. 

View from the Charles Bridge, with Prague Castle in the background.

We stopped to use the Wifi at McDonald's and got coffee and hot chocolate. Matthew enjoyed one of the chairs immensely. 

Matthew was SO done by suppertime. 

Up next, day two!

Weekly Update and Charles' birthday

Happy Birthday, Charles! We celebrated the day before with our Danish-American Friends.  I feel like I was in the kitchen all day (and I just about was) but he's worth it.

We had grilled chicken and steaks with blue cheese and shallot butter, twice baked potatoes, creamed cabbage, roasted broccoli, and peanut butter pie and Sarah's delicious Danish birthday cake for dessert.

One thing about living in a new place is that you cannot always find certain ingredients. In Colorado I had the hardest time finding frozen coconut for our favorite cake we make at Easter. Here in Poland, we are missing certain items that I have to make from scratch, or find a substitute. you may have to make an ingredient from scratch first that you might otherwise have purchased. For example, before I made the pie I had to make a cool whip substitute using gelatin and cream of tarter. Simple things like that take more time, so cooking sometimes just takes longer. I find that in my kitchen here, cooking always takes longer! It is just a strange layout and after six months in it, I still haven't totally found my groove.

Anyways, I think the birthday boy had a good day! Since his birthday fell on Monday, he of course to work. My Polish lesson was canceled, so Matthew and I went to the barracks to have lunch with Daddy. Then that evening we went out to supper at one of our favorite places. Yum!

Giving Daddy good-bye hugs after lunch.

After supper hot chocolate, it's so yummy! 

On Wednesday, I finally tried my hand at making pierogis. Back in the fall, some of the ladies invited me over for a pierogi making session. Our friend, Tanya, taught us how she makes the Russian, or ruskie, kind. They are my favorite, and they have potatoes and a kind of cheese called tworóg in them, which is like cottage cheese that has been drained.

Pierogis are best served with sautéd 
onions on top. Yum!

I need to practice my technique, but
I was pretty pleased with my first attempt! 

A friend asked me why in the world I decided to make them while we still live here and can easily get fabulous ones from a pierogarnia. I figured it is better to try them while the process was still a fresh in my mind, and then if they didn't turn out well, I could ask Tanya for help. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, but maybe we'll have another session with Tanya just because hers are amazing.

So here is a story about how well Sarah and I "planned". Thursday was "Fat Thursday", in Poland people celebrate the Thursday before Ash Wednesday by eating lots of jelly donuts. They are filled with a marmalade and topped with candied orange peel. You can buy them at other times, but on this day every year, you see them everywhere, so we'd been told. So, around 13:00 Sarah and I decided to walk to the market, about a 15 minute walk from my house. We load up the three kids (it took us like 45 minutes to get them all out the door) and we mosey over, buy some veggies, honey, meat, some good local stuff. Then we decided to get in line at the best donut place in the market (or anywhere so far as I've tried here) so we can also partake in this cultural deliciousness. When in Rome, right? After about 15 minutes or more of waiting, I glance at my watch and realize it is almost time to leave to get the girls from school. Yikes! Sarah had one sleeping in the stroller and one sleeping on her, so I asked if she wanted to stay in line and get us both donuts for our families, and I'd run home and go get the girls and meet her back at my house. Then she could let Claire sleep in the stroller longer, nurse Hannah in the comfort of my house while I was gone, etc. And, I still got donuts. Good plan, right? So I booked it home with Matthew in the stroller. I knew I was going to be fine, but I like to leave so I have plenty of time to park because it gets dicey at pick up sometimes and I didn't want to rush. But I was going to be home by 3, perfect. Until I walked up and saw that Sarah's car was blocking my driveway. BRILLIANT. So I called another friend, who offered to grab both our girls and let them play on the playground, Sarah hoofed it home to move her car, and I drove over to pick up the big girls while she stayed home with the 3 littles. I think the universe was telling us we didn't need jelly donuts. Oh well, next year! Or next week, I mean the donut place is open all the time...

Friday was the last day of first school term, and so the kids had a Carnival party at school Friday afternoon and wore costumes for the day. Lots of fun! Next year I should see if I can figure out how to make a king cake for her to take for her shared snack! Apparently the peanut butter chocolate oatmeal cookies I sent no one wanted to try. :\

Here are a few photos from Friday and Saturday.

The end of the week and start of the weekend has been spent getting ready for our trip to Prague, which is were we are headed next! I'll post photos of that trip soon!

Friday is pizza night and this Friday was also
movie night! He looks so grown up to me
here. 

Such a treat to eat in the living room! 

Reading to her brother. I love this, just had a
hard time getting a good photo through
 the crib slats! 

He may kill me for this one, but too funny,
dressing up Daddy! 

Weekly updates

One of my friends here has a "blog" she posts on Facebook. She created a private group to update her friends and family about what they have been up to during their time in Poland. Each week She posts a little blurb, sometimes with a photo or two, just giving a brief run down of their goings on. It has made me realize that I'm missing out on sharing with you all more regularly the daily life here, and the cool things we get to do because we live in such a unique environment.

So, here's a promise to do that more often and not stay so bogged down in updating all that I've missed sharing the last few months. Better to move forward, huh? 

So, here was last week's fun! 

On Saturday the 23rd, our national general (we have just one here, it is actually not common for a non-framework nation to have a general in a NATO unit, but we added one this summer) and his wife hosted a New Year's reception at their home for all the US personnel. The New Year's Reception is an Army tradition, where commanders will hold a reception in their home around the first of the year. All the receptions we have attended in the past we dress blues attire, adults only events. This means Charles puts on his "fancy" uniform and I put on a nice church dress and we go at our assigned time (yes, there are usually assigned times to arrive and depart, the smaller groups give the commander better interaction with you and keeps the house from being too full at any one time). Charles calls events like this mandatory fun, but they can be fun, and it's a nice tradition, and I really like traditions. Anyways, even though he is not in a command position BG T. and his wife wanted to host a reception, which was lovely of them. Since there are only 19 personnel here, we had no assigned times and no dress blues, although coat and tie is still more formal than we usually get around here! We confirmed a baby-sitter, put on our Sunday best, and headed over for a nice couple of hours, and a lot of champagne. The servers kept coming around and refilling glasses! Fortunately, a friend drove. 

Saturday was also my mom's birthday, so we had a long Skype session with my parents when we got home. Emmy and Matthew had made mom a sign. Happy birthday, SuSu! 

Saturday night was movie night with "tapas" for supper. 
Emmy thinks eating in the living room is the best thing ever. Matthew was excited to eat olives.

Sunday, we met our Danish-American friends for ice skating. There is a little area about 15 minutes from us where there is a little ski slope, a skating rink (there are actually two other skating rinks between our house and this one!), and a sledding hill.  Emmy has been taking skating lessons at school, so we'd bought her a pair of skates (adjustable so they will last a couple of years, fabulous!). She falls down a lot, but she has fun. Our friends had other friends from Denmark in town, so all three families met and the girls (their daughter Freja is Emmy's age, and the other family has a daughter their age as well) and the dads skated. It was fun, and not too cold. We'd had a good bit of snow for this area and super cold weather the weeks leading up to it, so there was plenty of real snow to help out the artificial snow. Charles wants to go back and try out the ski slope, which is basically a bunny slope, so a great place for a newer skiier like Charles and Emmy to practice. Anyways, after skating the kids played on the hill in the snow for awhile, then we went to lunch at a traditional Polish place nearby. We'd never been, but the food was good and it's quite close to our house, so we'll have to go again.

Random photo: Matthew has discovered he loves the playground at Emmy's school. 

Monday, I started Polish lessons. Right now the instructor comes to our house and my friend Sarah and I are having lessons together.  Cross your fingers for me! I've got a long way to go, and I don't expect I'll be super conversational, but at least be able to pronounce things better and communicate a bit better when we're out and about.

Tuesday the Family Care Center hosted a "Disco" party for the kiddos, sort of a pre-Carnival (Mardi Gras) party. Emmy's age group party was right after school for about an hour and a half. Of course Matthew went to, and he had a great time dancing and watching the big kids. Plus there were balloons everywhere, the boy LOVES balloons. It is definitely a word in his vocabulary, though it sounds like "booon!"  

The friends I've mentioned over and over in this post have three daughters, and baby H is just four months old. She is frequently at our house in the mornings when her mom comes over for Polish lessons or just to hang out, and Matthew loves her. He likes to give her hugs and the other day, while she was laying on the floor, he kept bringing her toys. Yes, sometimes he dropped them on her, but his intentions were good! 

Friday night, Charles and I went to Poker Night at the home of our British friends.  I'd never played poker, but I did ok. I at least earned back what I'd put in the pot, so enough to pay for the cab ride home! Besides my photo of my cheat sheet, which I was worried they would take away from me eventually, I did not take any photos, but suffice to say we had a lovely time. I had a lot of wine and Charles had a lot of whatever he was drinking. Yay for great cab service! 

Saturday the Allied Ladies Club hosted Fastelavn, a Carnival Party, in the Danish tradition (the three framework  nations for MNC-NE are Denmark, Germany, and Poland, so the largest populations of families come from these three countries) for the kids. On Friday, I helped Danish Sarah (she is actually American but married to a Dane, hence I call them our Danish-American friends) make the traditional pastries for the party, Fastelavnsbolle, which basically means Lenten or Shrovetide buns. We made the dough, and then rolled them into balls which we stuffed with either marzipan or jam, and baked them. Then that night she piped pastry cream into them and topped them with chocolate or another frosting, depending on the filling. 

For the party, the kids dressed in costumes (Carnival is very big in lots of other countries, where in the US is it mainly Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and people dress in costumes for Carnival), Emmy wanted to be a ballerina and wear her fancy tights Santa brought her (that are not ballet tights, but whatever) and I just put Matthew in his bee costume from Halloween.  Well, Matthew won top prize in his age group for the boys and his pal Claire won as the girl in their age group! So fun!

This is the best picture I could get of the garden gnome and bumble bee winners.

Matthew taking his turn at hitting the "barrel"

There was a clown making balloon animals, giant bubbles (the kind where the kids stand in the middle and they make a bubble around them), dancing, lots of sweets and snacks in addition to the Fastelavnsbolle, and the big activity: slå katten af tønden, which directly translated means 'hit the cat out of the barrel. So apparently they used to put a cat into a wooden barrel and beat it with wooden sticks to get rid of the evil spirits. Yikes! Now they put candy in the barrels and beat them with small wooden bats. It's basically like a less safe pinata.  The littlest kids had a cardboard box to hit. They had three barrels, plus the cardboard box for the tiny ones. The child who made the candy fall out first was crowned queen and the child who knocked down the last piece of the barrel was crowned king. It was quite chilly, so we did not stay outside to see who won these honors. Emmy was too shy to participate, but we did get Matthew up for a turn, but he was not too interested in hitting the box, either. But it was interesting to watch for a bit! Plus, candy! 

Older age groups hitting their barrels. 

Claire takes a whack at it.

Emmy had a sleepover at Freja's house after the Fastelavn party, so we had quieter night at home, in preparation for Charles' birthday celebrations!  More to come on that next week. 

Merry New Year

Hello friends,

Yes,yes, I know, you don't have to say it. Long time no post. As I am prone to do, I get so far behind, and then anxious about how much catching up I have to do, and then I get farther and farther behind, and ugh. If you blog (and/or edit photos digitally), you know it takes a long time. Just uploading photos takes a long time, not to mention wedding out bad ones, cropping, then uploading them to the web, etc. so I always want to sit down when I have time, which hasn't happened much.

Frankly, this fall I was not feeling so great. I think it was my thyroid, some adjustments to my medication has helped (but getting medical care here is NOT easy or fun and I already have a lot of anxiety about seeing doctors so doing that in Poland with docs who may not speak good English, well that is a nightmare).  Around the time I was finally feeling a bit more like myself, Charles left for three weeks, then my parents arrived for a visit, then Charles left again for a week, and it was the holidays. Phew! I still have some work to do on getting to feeling more normal, but the longer days well help and hopefully warmer weather...in a few weeks or months. More on the weather later, but suffice to say as much as we enjoy living here, I'm not a fan of the super long nights, with little sunshine during what daylight ours we do have. We also now have a true toddler who is awesome and funny, but also getting into everything.

I had lots of posts I was working on earlier this fall, so I promise to finish those up and post them and back date them. And I will catch up on other goings on. I've already published a post about the house, one on Matthew's first birthday, one about his party, and I'm working on getting more up ASAP.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. Ours were certainly different this year, but lovely and relaxing and very very lazy. It was just what the doctor ordered for all of us!

Cheers to 2016!

Love,
Beth, Charles, Emmy and Matthew

Here we are cutting down our Christmas tree back in December