praha

After living and working in the states for a long time, my mom recently moved back to czech republic, her home country...since i'm in ukraine, on the same continent, it seemed like a good idea to go visit her:)
this was my first time flying out of terminal D in kyiv's borispil airport...this terminal was built quite recently, as an update to infrastructure to help accomodate visitors when ukraine and poland cohosted the euro 2012 tournament...the building itself is quite modern, but getting through emigration/passport control was slow, and there is almost no food available after you go through security...are any plans in the works to change that?

i flew friday, late afternoon, landing after dark in praha, mom met me at the airport...she is retired, so she gets to use all public transport in the city for free...how awesome is that? she'd already bought me a ticket to use for the evening, so we hopped right on a bus, which took us to a subway line...her flat isn't far from a subway stop, it's a great location...
as i love to do, we stopped at a grocery store on the way to her flat...i found the yogurt section, mom said the yogurt she'd grown up eating was still sold, i figured i should try it...and i'm sooooo glad i did...AWESOME...BEST YOGURT EVER...really thick...probably loaded with calories, but i loved it...it's probably a good thing i've never seen this particular yogurt in another country, as i would be eating it constantly...
we stayed up fairly late that night, just talking...getting caught up with each other, what has happened with each of us since we last saw each other in september at my sister's wedding...she told me ideas of how i could spend my time during this visit, and she told me a bit about the people she hangs out with on a regular basis...

i woke up before mom the next morning, which did not surprise me at all...she's retired, she doesn't have a reason to get up early every morning...plus, my body thought it was an hour later, since kyiv is one time zone to the east of prague...
another jar (did i mention that this fabulous yogurt comes in a glass jar, i love it!!) of yogurt for breakfast, and my version of milk tea...after i dumped out the tea leaves mom wondered what they were, she hadn't seen them sitting in a sink like that before...(yes, i know, i should've dumped them straight into the trash, and i did do so after i finished drinking my tea)

after a while we left the flat, and bought me a 24 hour ticket for the metro/tram/bus...since mom is retired, she gets a card that entitles her to free public transport all over the city...how awesome is that??? after the metro we hopped on a tram, which took us into the center of the historical area of the city, the area most tourists visit...immediately upon alighting (how's that for a fancy word??) she pointed out a coffee shop, and mentioned that her dad used to go there every day for a coffee...sadly, this particular shop is now a starbucks...if i'd been able to take a photo that would've meant something, i would've done so...but it doesn't look the same or have the same atmosphere as it did when deda was alive...

at that point, mom showed me where i would want to go as a tourist...we both recognized that since she lives in the city, and grew up there, she didn't need to visit tourist sights, especially those that haven't changed in the past 100 years...i started by walking into a big baroque church...i loved the decoration, even if i found it all to feel a bit 'busy'...one of the aspects of this church that i enjoyed most was the chance to go up stairs, to the gallery...looking down into a big church is such a different perspective...i was disappointed to see a lot of names had been scratched into the wooden railings...why do people do that?

i followed a few tourists (early march is not heavy tourist season, but i don't think the city is ever empty of tourists) up the hill toward the castle area...of course i took a photo with the guards...i wonder what goes through their heads all day as gbillions of people pose next to them all day...
i walked all the way through st vitus' cathedral, which is stunning...i was frozen by the time i came out, as a stone church is never particularly warm...the stained glass all through the church is beautiful, and i love the color that these windows provide to the rest of the church...there are quite a few smaller chapels arranged around the main altar, each is very different...the outside of this church is beautiful too...
i made my way down the hill (on a different street from how i'd walked up) while checking postcard prices in every shop i passed along the way...
i walked along the river for a while, it was absolutely lovely...then i walked across the charles bridge...arguably one of the most famous bridges in europe...there are statues at regular points along the bridge, and vendors set up every couple of feet...it's a great place for people watching, if a bit crowded...

i continued following people into another area of the city, eventually stopping when i saw the crowd gathered around the famous clock tower...as a new hour comes close, the crowd gets to be quite large; the 'show' put on by the clock each hour is neat to see...it's a beautiful clock, a very old clock...it's been working for hundreds of years...
that clock is right next to a large square, another great place for people watching...i stayed there for a while, then tried to make my way to another square (wenceslas square) to get home...i took a wrong street at some point, thankfully i figured out that mistake sooner rather than later :)...from wenceslas square i hopped on the metro and went home to mom...

she made me a traditional czech food for dinner, a salad made with celery root...yum:)
i didn't sleep all the way through the night, argh...oh well...
mom had made lunch plans for us the next day...we got out the door a bit earlier, so mom was able to show me a bit more of the city...we walked through palladium mall, which is a fully modern mall, filled with all the brand names westerners know and love...for mom, it's still crazy to see a mall like this, as it never would've existed while she grew up in the city...
we walked under the powder tower into the last square i'd visited the day before, stopping along the way so i could buy postcards...we also looked into two churches...in some ways it's amazing so many old churches still exist here, since the communist regime that ruled for so long did not permit religious expression and gatherings...in many countries who used to be ruled by the communists, churches and religious buildings were completely destroyed...

we met mom's childhood friend for lunch...they grew up in the same building, and went to the same schools...we ate at a restaurant in the municipal building, the menu is traditional czech food...the decoration is art deco, and there is art on many of the walls throughout the buildings...
after lunch, the three of us took the metro and tram to the neighborhood in which the two of them grew up...for both of them it's interesting to return to this area of the city...neither one of them lives there now...the building in which they grew up still stands, they pointed it out to me...howeva, the inside of the building has been completely renovated, the apartments in which they each spent years no longer exist...or rather, they do, but smaller flats have been combined to make larger flats, so it isn't the same...the building is about a block away from their first school...

there is a large park on a hill at the other end of the street, mom said she and her dad sometimes went for a walk there...
we rode the tram again to malostranska, this is the same route mom rode thousands of times when she was younger, heading to university, or for another reason to go into the city centre...'experiencing' history is awesome...
as we arrived i discovered the jewish quarter sights were already closed for the day, so i put those off for another time...we walked around for a while, talking about everything and nothing...i was thrilled to see a milk frother in the window of one store, so i went in and bought one...i'd been looking for a milk frother for ages, i haven't found one in ukraine...(strange purchase, i know)

that night we attended a ballet performance at the national theatre...the exterior of the theatre is amazing, even though it's under renovation at the moment...the inside is fantastic as well...the ballet was a modern performance, (an adaptation of an old serbian legend,) definitely not the style i normally prefer, but i still enjoyed the performance...the dancers were great, everything was really well done...
walking across the street from the theatre i was able to take a photo of the castle all lit up at night...beautiful...i'm sure that's one of the most commonly taken photos in the city:)

the next morning we headed to the rudolfium...another theatre/performance hall...the prague philharmonic orchestra has a full season of performances, i learned they also have a full season of rehearsal performances...each month (or maybe bi-weekly? i don't remember exactly) people are able to buy tickets for dress rehearsal performances...the choir and musicians were all in casual dress, but the music was still incredible...proper theatre etiquette was observed by everyone in the audience, which i loved...i sat separately from mom, who normally attends these performances with a group of friends from her university days...i hope i get to see another of these performances, it was awesome!!

after the performance, mom went with her friends to lunch, i decided to explore the jewish quarter of the city...there is an entrance fee, it struck me as rather steep...visitors are able to go into several synagogues, each of which is totally different...each synagogue is a small museum as well, different bits of history are presented...you can also walk through an old jewish cemetary...
my lunch was the traditional czech food called halushky...
i tried to walk back to the main river through the city, and eventually found it after getting a bit lost along the way...i went back to mom's flat...

mom lives across the street from a cemetary...we went for a walk through the cemetary, she translated some of the gravestones for me...we saw the tomb of the first mayor of prague, as well as that of the first czech consul to the US...some of the graves were really old, and haven't been cared for in quite some time...the cemetary is quite large, we only walked through a small area...
that was the last time i walked around outside in the city...the next morning mom and i hung out in her flat before she came with me to the aiport...prague airport has free wifi:)
the security line i went through moved VERY slowly, as they seemed to be looking at all cosmetics in particular...i changed planes in munich, which has a terminal almost exclusively for lufthansa...free tea, coffee, and newspapers available for lufthansa customers...how awesome is that???