Prague Castle with the Ficks

Day two in Prague was spent at the castle, which is on the other side of the Charles Bridge from the Old Town.   It provides some great views of the city, as well as some great sight seeing itself.

All I really remember about the Prague Castle from our last visit was the walk uphill to get there.  We didn't go inside and the walk up the stairs to get there was a trek.  This time, my lack of lung capacity due to the little guy made that climb a little more intimidating, but I knew we'd go inside, so it was totally worth it (I'm also being very dramatic and the climb isn't that bad. I just like to complain.).

Once you make it to the top of the hill, you get to the castle, which is actually a whole complex.  You can walk around the complex for free, but to go in different buildings, you need a ticket.  We bought the middle ticket, which gets you into the mid level selection of buildings, including the cathedral.







After the cathedral, we went into the Old Royal Palace.

Anna was so excited to see this window where the Defenestration of Prague took place.  She was having flashbacks to her high school European history class!

We wandered around the castle grounds for a while

before bidding farewell to the castle and heading back across the Charles Bridge. Naturally, we had to take some photos.  

We asked this woman to take a picture of the four of us and ended up getting a full photo shoot!  I'll spare you the plethora of pictures and just share this one because I think it's probably the best of 20.

The guys didn't want a picture of them together. It's fine because there's no way to capture how happy those two were to be back together.  They were giddy all week.  Anna and I would walk behind and just laugh at how happy they were. There were lots of times where the four of us would be walking and Anna and I would go to stand next to our husband, while our husbands would go and stand next to each other.  #priorities. :D 

We ended the afternoon with traditional Czech street dessert, a trdelnik.  It's fried dough with cinnamon sugar on it (I'm pretty sure you can get other toppings, but the cinnamon sugar is my fave) and so good.  Not overwhelmingly sweet, but definitely does the job. The guys got their millionth cup of coffee of the day and we headed back to the hotel to warm up before going to happy hour in the lounge and dinner. 

The Ficks Come to Visit!

We love this experience we're on and there a plethora of experiences that we know we get to have that many other people don't.  That being said, one of the hardest parts about this experience is we don't feel like we've made any lifelong friends.  Part of it is that we travel so much so we aren't around on the weekends to hang out with Mike's classmates. A problem that I don't even feel I can complain about! That being said, when friends come to visit, we get excited! When they're our best friends, we get REALLY excited!  I think Mike was excited to have a guy to hang out with (most of his classmates are girls and then me) and I was thrilled to have Anna around to talk baby things with.  Plus, it's just fun to show off your home and new town.

Anna and Mike arrived around mid-morning on Saturday and we loaded them up into our car and headed west to the Czech Republic.  We originally had planned to spend the night in Cesky Krumlov since we had all heard great things about it, but some car trouble forced us to stop early in Prague.  Not a terrible thing!  We had already been planning to spend the following few nights there, so having an extra night there really wasn't that much of an inconvenience.

That night, we ventured out for dinner and Mike and Mike stayed out for a night of Czech beer drinking. Luckily, they were able to recover the next morning as we set out to follow our buddy Rick Steves on his walking tour around Prague.

That baby bump is starting to make an appearance!

I love Prague

I'm sure Rick Steves told us why this horse is upside down, but I don't remember and it just looks like a weird statue in the middle of a mall to me.

We ventured in to the Czech/European version of FAO Schwartz, which was fun, even for four adults.  They have a merry-go-round in the store and a slide that goes from the second level to the one below.  Mike even found a life size bear.  He's now determined to get one for the nursery when we get back to the states.  

The entrance to the Charles Bridge

After our walking tour, we went and got Mexican for lunch.  I'm always glad when guests don't want German food because, as good as meat and potatoes are, I can only eat but so much.  Czech food is basically the same, so I was glad they weren't dead set on Czech food.  Plus, who can resist a good burrito?

That afternoon, we headed to Jewish ghetto which was super interesting.  Mike Hogan and I didn't do that last time, so I was glad to add something new to our itinerary.  The main attraction of the Jewish ghetto is the cemetery where they think over 100,000 bodies are buried, but there are also six synagogues you can go in and there is all sorts of Jewish history throughout.  While there was almost too much information (a trend we've noticed in European museums), we all learned a lot about Jewish history. It's definitely worth an afternoon if you're in Prague. 

We retired to the hotel for a little nap and happy hour in the lounge before heading out to watch the Ravens' game at an Irish pub.  How's that for cross cultural? Eating at an Irish Pub in the Czech Republic while watching American football.  It was a great way to end our first full day in Prague and we went to bed with tired feet and happy hearts.  It's fun having your friends visit. Really fun.  

Life in Berlin

I feel like I've gotten so far behind on the blog that I skip over the days we're in Berlin, which is not fair.  We've done a lot of cool stuff in Berlin since being here and it's definitely worth documenting.  Two of the highlights being that we've gone to two concerts, Three Doors Down and Red Hot Chili Peppers!

Three Doors Down was first and it was an experience. The concert hall was literally around the corner from our apartment and it was pretty small.  We didn't buy tickets ahead of time, so I went at 5:30 when doors were supposed to open to get them while Mike came home from class. At six thirty, after an hour of waiting outside, tickets went on sale and doors opened.  I came back home with Mike to warm up while he ate dinner quickly before we headed back out at 7:00. We found spots on the balcony and were excited for the concert to begin.  After waiting 45 minutes, the opening band came on and they were TERRIBLE.  The funniest part of it was that they thought they were so cool. They said things like "Put your hands up if you believe in rock n roll!"  They played for 45 minutes and it was pretty obvious that everyone was just waiting for them to finish.  Well, everyone except for the man next to Mike who was just totally in the zone dancing and singing.  It was great.

The opening band finished around 8:40 and we were excited to finally see 3 Doors Down.  I'm pretty understanding when it comes to time in between sets, but we ended up waiting for 45 minutes for them to get everything set up and ready.  I told Mike at one point that I was going to go home if they didn't come on by 9:30 because it was getting ridiculous.  Luckily, at 9:30, they came on and were ready to go.  People were excited and the energy that had disappeared came back.  They put on a great show and I was surprised at how many songs I knew and still remembered.   Not only was the guy next to Mike dancing and singing, but so was everyone else around us. Unfortunately, they only played for about and hour and we were home by 10:45. We were pretty annoyed because we spent so much time waiting for them and only ended up seeing them for about an hour, but for the hour that they performed, they were great!





The day that my parents left, we had tickets for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  This concert was a lot bigger and was at the big sports arena in Berlin.  Unlike 3 Doors Down, this opening band was actually pretty good, albeit a little strange. They were an American techno-y band, but had all sorts of weird dance moves and lighting.  Their music was pretty good though and got everyone pumped for Red Hot Chili Peppers.   Luckily, unlike last time, it didn't take 45 minutes to switch sets and RHCP made their appearance less than 20 minutes later.  Their performance was great and the entire arena was singing along at parts of different songs.  Unfortunately, the entire performance was only about an hour long.  Overall, it was a fun concert, but we wish it had been longer.

We've also met our neighbors from the second floor. We met them when they received one of our packages and then ended up getting invited over for dinner one night. He's an American and she's German and they lived in Brooklyn until about a year ago when they moved here.  They're a little bit older than us and have a three year old son, but we had a lot of fun discussing the differences between the United States and Germany.

Mike's classes are in full swing, although his professors seem to cancel class a decent amount.  He never seems to have the same schedule as the week before.  I don't get it, but luckily he seems to.

We got our Christmas tree and decorated the apartment. We bought the tree from an IKEA parking lot (seems to be a trend since we got our tree last year from IKEA) and it fit in the car! Apparently, tying it to the top is not a thing here.  Instead, they store it in the car.  After cutting the bottom off ourselves, we spent the afternoon decorating and listening to Christmas music.  It truly feels like Christmas!



We're preparing for two weeks of Olmsted visitors in Berlin! We're so excited that people want to visit us now and are allowed to come!  I'm sure December will FLY by because as soon as our visitors leave, we leave for vacation, but we are so happy to show people around our new home.  Plus, the city is all decked out for Christmas and it has this winter-y charm that just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Life has been so busy and I feel like we haven't been home for more than a week (without visitors) in forever, but it's been a lot of fun.  We've had so many visitors and there is so much to see in Berlin that we always have something new to try.  I still miss home and will be kissing the ground when we land next summer, but life isn't too shabby over here in Berlin :)

Bucharest, Romania

After a day of castle exploration, we headed to the capital of Romania for the night.  There is an Olmsted Scholar and his family who gladly opened their home to us for the night.  We love staying with fellow Olmsted scholars because it gives us a chance to meet so many great people and swap stories.  Taylor is a class behind Mike, so he and his family just arrived in Romania about the same time we arrived in Berlin. We arrived after the kids were in bed, which gave us a chance to chat with Taylor and his wife to hear all about their experience in Romania thus far. 

The next day, we were greeted by two little smiling faces (the third was already at school) who were excited to have people staying at their house.  We hung out with them for a little bit before Mike and I headed out to do some exploring.  We spent the morning wandering around the town, not going inside anything and instead, just taking in the feel of the city. For the most part, it felt like another big city.  There were glimpses of the communist past, but as always, I think Mike and I were both impressed with the recovery Bucharest has made.

We met up with the Francises for lunch before we had a tour to explore the most impressive building in Bucharest, it's parliament building.  It's the second largest government building in the world, after the Pentagon.  We opted for the hour long tour based on the timing, but there is a more in depth one that goes into the basement. Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed inside, but let me just tell you, it's impressive.  In one hour, we saw 3% of the building. 

My dad's dream job....not!

After the tour, we headed back to the Francises house for dinner before catching a late flight back to Berlin.  I'm not sure if Romania will be high on our list of favorite places we've traveled, but there were definitely some cool moments and experiences.  I'd give it five or ten years and Romania will have a booming tourist industry. It's definitely worth consideration if you are looking for a more off-the-beaten-path destination.

Castles of Romania

I think everyone thinks of castles and immediately thinks of Germany and Austria.  While this is justified, Romania had some great castles as well. We spent our second to last day exploring two of the "best" castles in Romania. 

Our first stop was Rasnov Fortress.  This was different from the other castles that we've been to because it was all outside.  It made for some interesting climbing in the snow, but was a cool and different castle experience.

Scout's Romanian cousin trying to stay warm

Transitioning from Fall to Winter with leaves in the background and snow on the ground.

After Rasnov, we headed to Bran Castle, which is supposed to be the basis for the Dracula Castle!  After listening to the book, I could definitely see some of the similarities.

Winter Wonderland in Romania!

Unlike Rasnov, it was much more preserved and most of the rooms were decorated like they would have been when the castle was in use. 

Mike and I wandered around the castle for a while getting ideas for our dream home before calling it a day and hitting the road for our last stop in Romania, the capital of Bucharest!

PS Happy December! The best month of the year!