Czech Republic

May 21-23

I love the Czech Republic! I was here in 2005 for the wedding of Stani’s cousin, Monika, and had a wonderful time touring the country with Stani’s parents. Stani’s father is from the Czech Republic, so it was really special to be able to visit places he knew. Now 5 years later, it’s great to be back! It’s such a beautiful country with fields of yellow rape seed flowers, castles, rolling green hills, yummy food and incredibly friendly people. This time our tour guide is Stani’s uncle, Mirek who lives in the US. It worked out that he was going to be in the Czech Republic the same time we were. For two nights we stayed in a small village called Novy Jachimov, where Stani’s grandpa owned a house. Mirek is here working on fixing up the house since no one has lived in it for years. There’s a lot of work to be done, but knowing Mirek, after he’s finished remodeling it, it’ll be really nice.

For most of the day Friday, we walked around Prague. This is one of my favorite cities…it’s really a very romantic place with incredible architecture, winding cobblestone streets, shops with unique gifts, delicious food, the biggest castle complex in the world and the lovely Charles Bridge. Old Town Square (Staromestske nam) is an energy filled place dominated by Tyn Church, St. Nicholas Church & the Old Town clock tower. When we were there, we listened to band called Rusty Circle playing Czech folk music. You can click on the video below to get a taste! I showed the band members this video which I took with my camera and they responded by giving me one of their CDs. I couldn’t believe it!

Our May 22, we drove east to another small village called Odry. This is where Mirek grew up and many of his family members still live here. We stayed in a condo that belongs to Mirek and was his mother’s before she passed away. It was really fun being able to see big cities as well as small villages.