The Neighborhood

It has been a while since I've posted any photos of Prague. And since this is a Prague blog I'll correct the oversight.

Here are a few photos of our neighborhood. We live in the old part of town (Stare Mesto) and the streets, buildings, etc. in these photos are representative of the area.

On the left is the Bakeshop. Two or three morning visits per week is our norm for the espresso, baked goods, and the International Herald Tribune.

This statue is in honor of Franz Kafka, Czech author of The Metamorphosis and other works. About 90% of tourists snap photos of the statue, so I thought it was time I took one.

That's a little sample of our neighborhood. When spring arrives I'll take some more photos. To that end, we're heading to Egypt tomorrow for a week of sunshine. Catch everyone when we return!

Prague February

Greetings all. This week has been rather uneventful, however several events standout to make it a representative expat week:

• Last Friday we attended a going-away party for our friends Chris & Suzanne. A Russian couple brought 'Putinska' vodka to the party: "you know, like Putin" is how Ivan described it. When I asked Ivan who Putin was, he was totally shocked. Then he got the joke (thankfully), we had a good laugh, and everyone took a shot.
  
  
• After seven months of patronage I'm being recognized at several neighborhood cafes. Finally.
  
  
• Although things are well at the cafes, things are tenuous at the grocery store. On Tuesday at the checkout I did something to cause great debate among the checkers. Naturally neither of them speak English and my rudimentary Czech is of little help. It was one of those instances when I knew they were talking about me but I had no idea what they were saying. So I just paid while they ranted. And I avoided that checker on my next visit.
  

That's a sample set of my daily adventures in Prague. It's great. With that, here are some photos of our last trip to London. Cheers.

Having pub dinner at the Monkey Puzzle*. Bangers & mash for me, fish & chips for Molls. Four pints total.

*For those of you who are arboreally challenged, the monkey puzzle is a species of tree native to South America. I have no idea why this pub is named after it.

At Tower Bridge...

...and the Tower of London.

Berlin

Happy February. Still mostly grey and cold here, but warmer than January...so that's progress. Since my last post we've done a little traveling and spent last weeked here at home.

We took the train to Berlin Jan 23-25, then made a quick turnaround to London Jan 29 - Feb 1. Molly worked for a couple days in London, before we spent the weekend riding Londons chaos. (We flew home the night before London's record snowfall. We lucked out).

Here are some pics from Berlin. This was our introductory trip. We estimate there will be several more. After all it's only a four-hour train ride away.

At the Brandenburg Gate...

...and Molly at the chocolate version.

Enjoying currywurst at Bier's Curry 195. Currywust is sausage served with curry ketchup. It's delicious. And yes that's mayo on the fries.

PJ, this one's for you: Snack Point Charlie at Checkpoint Charlie.

Leave it to the Germans. Why work at a sausage stand when you can wear a sausage stand?

It's rewarding when your travel books are tattered and dog-eared. It means you've made the most of your travels. In Berlin not only did we bend, fold, and scribble in the book...it was also dropped in a dog turd. Not much damage was done, but we are talking about a dog turd...I mean just a little is enough, right?