our first week in prague, czechia

this is post 1 of 2 about our trip. yes, i write them during down time while we are still on the trip. that's how i keep this thing going and can actually remember what we did each day. let me preface this by saying overall we had an amazing time. but traveling halfway across the world with kids is tough. even kids that aren't so little anymore. lots of whining, complaining, and bickering. i'll be honest, some moments it just didn't feel worth it, but i know it is. i hope they will appreciate what a special trip this was when they are older. everything went smoothly in general, so i just had to roll with the punches and not let it get to me. wine usually helped :) now onto the fun stuff!

we had two flights to get to prague from seattle. the first one was a 9.5 hour journey to helsinki, finland. 

 

we left at 7:40 pm on june 20th. since it was summer solstice and we flew north over greenland, it didn't get dark all night, which was wild. the flight itself went pretty well. the in-flight entertainment wasn't working, so that was a bummer on such a long flight, but we survived with what we brought. we arrived in helsinki at 2:30 pm on june 21st. we had a 2.5 hour layover. we had to go through customs during that time. 

our second flight was from helsinki to prague and it was only 2 hours (hallelujah!). prague is an hour behind helsinki, so we arrived at 6:40pm. anders met us at the airport and helped us get our transit passes. we all took the bus then the tram to get to their apartment.

 they live in a beautiful late 1800's building right in the heart of the city. they have three bedrooms, which made our stay with them very comfortable. having a free place to stay also helped balance out the cost of the flights for us. 

 

our nephew moss who is almost 7 months, was already asleep for the night when we arrived, but we got to peek at him in his crib. :) nith had dinner ready for us when we got there, which was so nice. our first night of sleep was pretty rough due to jet lag. i thought i would feel really tired, but instead i was awake for hours in the night.

our first full day, we all spent time playing with moss in the morning. he is such a sweet, happy boy. we are all obsessed with him. 

 

 

their apartment has the prettiest view out of these giant windows that open. i loved standing here each morning. i wish i could bottle up the feeling of seeing europe again after 16 years. it's so special. the tram runs right outside their building and was so easy to hop on and off with our passes.

 

 

thatcher and i had our first of many morning coffee dates, where we would get coffee from a different cafe each morning and walk around the neighborhood while the kids stayed back with the others. 

anders took thatcher and me to see the u.s. embassy where he works and nith took the kids to get ice cream. we met back up and went for a walk in the neighborhood. 

 

later i went for a walk through the huge park near their house called petrin that overlooks the city with anders, nith, and moss. 

 

we relaxed at their place and had thai/vietnamese takeout in the evening. 

thursday thatcher, the kids, and i left bright and early to walk across the charles bridge and over to old town. it's the most well-known, touristy area of the city.

 there is a famous astronomical clock that rings every hour and luckily we were there just 10 minutes before the hour. 

we also went in a beautiful church that unfortunately didn't allow photos. we grabbed some lunch at a cute cafe called 'pizza and pasta factory.' 

 

then we hit up a london-based toy store called 'hamleys'. it was two stories tall and really fun to explore. we also visited a lego museum (because of course!). it was fun and especially nostalgic for thatcher :) we all went for a walk through petrin, but it was hot!  

 

that night we made spaghetti for dinner at their apartment.

friday morning thatcher and i went on a coffee walk and the kids stayed back to play with moss. i loved checking out all the cute coffee shops so much.

  

 then we all took the tram to vehryad castle, which overlooks the city. it was really cool! it also had a cemetery that was really interesting. 

 

after that we got lunch nearby at 'fasu italian street food.' 

on the way back we stopped for gelato and walked through a farmers market that was going on. it was another hot day, but storms rolled in in the afternoon and it continued to rain/storm all evening. 

saturday morning we woke up to more rain. thatcher and i went to get coffee and it ended up being a cafe with table service, so we hung out there instead of walking, which was fine with the rain.

 

 then every one took the tram to go to the prague transit museum.

 

 it was a really nice one, with lots to look at, though all the signs were in czech. ;) we stopped to pick up pastries at 'artic bakehouse' then came home for lunch and moss's naptime. 

 

thatcher and i took the tram back over the river to walk around some new areas, including taking the underground metro train.

anders and nith took the kids to park. we made every one tacos for dinner. 

 sunday was our last day in prague before heading to vienna. (we'll be back in prague again for a few days before heading home). thatcher and i went on a coffee walk. 

the four of us took the tram to tower park prague and went up in the tower. it was an awesome view! 

 

 

 

then we went for lunch at 'the tavern'. i was cracking up at this giant beer i got that cost a whopping $1.45 us dollars.

 after moss's afternoon nap, we all walked over to petrin to ride the funicular to the top of the hill. it's a special rail that goes up the hillside. it was very hot and stuffy inside, but a nice short ride.

 

 at the top of the hill there is a planetarium, rose garden, house of mirrors, and some other attractions. we did the house of mirrors and it was fun. 

when we got back down, we stopped for some pre-dinner gelato near the apartment. i fell in love with citrus gelato on the trip. so freshing in the heat! 

 

that night we had dinner at the apartment, and after moss went to sleep anders and nith went out for a little date night while we packed for vienna! the next morning the kids got their playtime in with moss knowing we would be gone for the next 4 days.

 i'll have my second post some time next week :)