city – Shay Thomason

Happy Father’s Day!

In another incredible adventure we have made our way today back to Prague. I never thought we would end up here as much as we have, especially in the past few weeks, but it’s been really fun and crazy all at the same time. Just like we did a few weeks ago, we made our here today via the train station right by our house. We walked there this morning, caught an 8am train and got into Prague about 20 minutes after noon. Below are a few photos from the train ride, including the one above. In the photos below we walked to the “kids car” and played for a bit. These aren’t are actual seats (those were in a different car), but the kids made a little friend while we were in the there.

When we got in to Prague we made our way down to the Metro (subway) and accidentally got on the wrong side of the tracks, took the elevator back up and over, and finally got to where we needed to be. We packed really light this trip since we’ll only be here one night so it wasn’t too bad getting around with all five of us. The Metro took us to a transfer station where we caught another Metro headed towards a lunch place that we made reservations at. There is a burger joint in Prague that supposedly has the one of the top five burgers in Europe and a friend had recommended it. Since burgers are my favorite thing on the planet and they are not super common here, we had to go for it. I’m STOKED we did because it was amazing and my Father’s Day belly left full and happy! Here’s a photos of the kids and Bethany as we walked.

What I never understood as just a tourist, but now understand so much better, is if you’re going to stay in big European cities…rent an apartment. Tonight we are staying in a literal castle view apartment that is about a stones throw from the U.S. Embassy (which is why we’re here this weekend) and it’s costing us less than you’re cheap Motel 6 in the States. Not only that, but this is a large 2 bedroom apartment with a full kitchen! Check out this view from one of our windows.

Here’s a few more shots from around the building.

Here’s a view of the American flag that we can see flying above the embassy from the other side of our apartment (small flag in the upper left).

Tonight we (unbelievably) had dinner on a boat on the river, in Prague, with a view of the Charles Bridge and the castle. I’m not kidding you. I never in my life thought I would ever get to say or write that, but it’s another recommended, affordable restaurant that was walking distance from our apartment. The only issue we had was that the kids kept asking why the boat wasn’t moving! Here’s a few photos from the place and then a shot of it from the bridge.

The restaurant is in the middle boat (dead center) next to the wall (in the photo below)

Our appointment for Karis’ U.S. citizenship, passport, and social security card is tomorrow at 9:00am so we’ll be up early to get packed up and make sure we get to our appointment early. I’ve tried to check and re-check every document that is required and we’re really hoping the process will go smoothly. I no reason to doubt that it will, but I’m always weary of government things like this, even ones that only involve the U.S.! Pray for us as we go tomorrow that things would be in order and go smoothly so we can get Karis’ documents and then take the next step towards getting her a visa.

Well, that’s not a bad way to spend a Father’s Day and not a bad way to end this post. Good night!

Czechs love to walk. Especially if it’s not raining (and somtimes if it is!) or if the sun is out or both. You can walk pretty much anywhere you need to in our town. The post office, the grocery store, the city hall, the bank–it’s all within a few minutes of where we live. Today I had to walk to the bank to finish up the crazy situation with our rent and finally was able to deposit the right amount for our landlord. I asked Titus if he wanted to go with me but he wasn’t up for it so I went alone. There were a lot of other people out just walking. It almost feels like downtown New York to me. That’s the only place I know of and been to where you just walk. It was nice to walk today.

I really enjoyed our Czech lesson today. I’m not sure if it was because I had just gone on a nice walk and my mind was more clear, but I felt like I was really making progress today. I would say the same for Bethany. Of course, I could use more discipline, but I think the work we’re putting in is paying off during our lessons. Below is a photo of Bethany working through a little exercise where we were given a photo of “our” family (it was actually a photo of someone else’s family) and we had to say what relationship we had to the person in the photo and say what their name is…all in Czech. It wasn’t easy but I really thought Bethany and I did pretty well (I better be careful not to overstate our progress because I know our teacher reads our blog!). For sure language learning is slow process, but I really enjoyed it today. It was nice to study a little Czech today.

On my errand to the bank they gave me some paperwork along with our new Czech debit cards that had come in. I wasn’t able to get Bethany’s because she has to sign for it so we decided to walk there after our Czech lesson. The second walk was better than the first. I think mainly because I didn’t feel rushed and we didn’t have a super set plan. It’s nice to just slow down and not have a set plan.

Once we finished up at the bank Bethany said we should go to the Christian book store which we hear may be one of the only ones in the entire country. It was just a block down the road from the bank and I’m glad we went. Bethany was able to pick up a little stack of postcards with Czech verses on them and the kids and I just kind of looked around at all the fun things they had. It was nice to just enjoy the bookstore.

We actually made two more stops before we went back home. The first was at the town square water fountain where the kids and I played while mommy went to get a few things at the “kosmetika” store. I chased Avery around with the stroller and Titus basically ran in a circle around the fountain for fifteen minutes. The second stop was to the little mini-mart grocery store where I decided to spend 77 cents to get the kids a little juice drink and where mommy was getting the last few ingredients she needed for tonight’s lasagna dinner. The whole trip from the bank to home was only about an hour of time, but I loved our little outing. It was nice to walk a second time today.

It was nice today. The weather was cooler and it didn’t rain. I got a few projects done for JV. We had a great Czech lesson. We had a fun time walking the city. Maybe I needed a nice day like today more than I knew. I do know that when I sat down to write this I was happy and smiling and as I finish I feel the same. It was nice to write about today.