Prague and Beyond

Last weekend was Matt's last four-day weekend before he leaves for Iraq so we wanted to take a vacation. Considering we'd taken two other vacations in the past two months, we thought it might be a good idea to head to eastern Europe to see if we could cut down on costs. And where is the closest eastern European city? Prague! Though certainly not the cheapest of cities, it promised to be cheaper to get to and most likely cheaper to travel around.

July 3rd Matt got online and booked a hotel for the following evening...I still can't believe we are able to do this. We are going to be ridiculously spoiled after living here. It is certainly not fair that we can plan our trip to Prague one day in advance when others plan months in advance, but knowing that, we are taking as much advantage of our situation as possible. Now is the time to have adventures like this, so we're diving right in!

July 4th (a 1-year anniversary of our engagement!) we made it to Prague. We got an incredible rate on a place right in old town, just a 5-minute walk from Old Town Square. The first afternoon/evening there we meandered around the square, across the Charles Bridge, and then back to square for dinner. Oh, and in the middle of that, my parents were able to call and wish us a happy 4th, and it didn't cost us a cent! How awesome is that? It costs an incredible amount to make phone calls, but to receive them is free, no matter if we're roaming or not, apparently.

The Old Town Square

Matt in front of the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square

Prague Castle from Charles Bridge

The next day we walked back the same route and headed to the castle. The path from the square, over the bridge, and to the castle was just lined with shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants of every kind and color. Everything along this path seemed fun, beautiful, safe, and very clean. Once we got to the top of the castle the view was incredible. We wanted to go inside the cathedral which was inside the castle walls, but the line looked ridiculously long, so we just enjoyed it thoroughly. We promised ourselves that the next time we have visitors in town for a while (most likely the Melone family) we'll have a look inside.

Cathedral inside Prague Castle

We received complaints that we were never in photos together...this is the view from Prague Castle


The sun sets on Old Town Square

That evening we decided to do a pub crawl. Sadly there are no pictures of the crawl because I didn't think it wise to carry the camera around while we were imbibing potentially large amounts of alcohol. Nevertheless, we had an amazing time! The first pub was really the place to get all the drinks in...they gave you three shots as you walked in the door, and then randomly came around later to hand out more. You also got as much beer or wine as you could handle, and even offered a beer bong if you wanted it.

The second place we went to had a normal pub upstairs, but downstairs had quite a few rooms for the club they had going on. We took a shot at the door and immediately went downstairs to the loud music and bar. Matt and I got some drinks and sat down near the dancing area. My oh my, we were not prepared for the kind of dancing we would see on the dance floor. Don't worry, it wasn't lewd or anything, it was just ridiculous. It looked more like the chicken dance (or the rabid chicken dance for some) than anything else. Finally, Matt and I took the floor, and once other people realized that there were some people on the floor that weren't crazy, they joined as well. So we felt really cool after that, because we got the night started :).

We followed our guide to the next pub, which was this ridiculously awesome...cellar. I can't explain it better than opulent stone rooms underground. Candles on all the tables, wonderful nooks and crannies, circular stair cases leading up to upper levels...so fantastic! Great pub crawl!

The last pub was more like a club than any of the other ones. I won't say much, but the bouncers at the door definitely found Matt's "insurance" (read: knife) he had in his pocked and kicked him out to go "hide" his weapon. We didn't stay there for long, but all in all, the evening was a great hit and we're so glad we did it!

All in all, this is probably our favorite city that we've seen so far. Venice might be arguably more beautiful, but there were hardly any Venetians there, only tourists. In Prague, though the tourists are a huge part of the economy, it's not the only thing sustaining it. It was a real city.

The next day we packed up, bought some yummy chocolates, and headed on our way. On our drive back we saw a sign for a very cool-looking castle, so we followed the signs off the highway for 16 kilometers on country roads. What we found is in the picture below. So cool! It was Charles V castle, built in 17 years in 14--. It was beautiful and commanding.

We got home that afternoon (yesterday) and just crashed. Earlier today we went to get some food and on the way back decided it was high time we invest in some beer. We had seen a little store in our village that said "getranke" (un-elegantly put: booze) on the side, and had also seen people walking out with cases of beer, so we decided to check it out. We have found a gold mine! We got about 14 different kinds of beer, and 20 bottles total. And what was the cost of it all, including a deposit for the bottles and case? About 16 EUR! For a variation of the best beer in Germany! Yeah, we live in an awesome village.

Job for Rachel? I applied to work at the outdoor rec. Hopefully I'll find out in the next day or so if I got the job. I wouldn't imagine too many people would apply for it, but all I need is one woman whose husband has been with the military longer than mine and the job is hers.

I know you all want to hear about when Matt is leaving, but all I can say is sometime at the end of July. There's something called OPSEC, which stands for Operation Security. This security is mainly for intel like troop movements and other kinds of information that might be valuable to the enemy. It's probably not AS big a deal to know about a couple of new guys (which is who will be on Matt's flight), but if a unit of 6,000 men were about to enter or leave hostile territory, that kind of information could cause a lot of damage in the wrong hands.

There are more pictures that I want to share just from the area, but I'll get to those at a later post.