We made it to Prague with no problems; in fact the flight was only about 2/3 of the way full so I had an empty seat by me and was able to spread out, which was nice. As far as sleep goes, well that’s another thing. As many of you know I can’t sleep much on flights and I usually play my ipod on softer/mellow songs and try to sleep. Then when I wake up I scroll back and see how many songs I don’t remember and clock my sleep this way. I made it 6 songs this time which I guess is about 30 minutes so not bad compared to most years when I don’t sleep at all.
We made it to Prague with no issues and we were able to go to our hostel/hotel and leave our bags until the 3 pm check-in time. We were just in time to take the free walking tour of the city that left from the Mosaic House, which is where we were staying. And I would recommend this place to any travelers through Prague. It is close to a metro stop on the yellow line, has a nice restaurant, and has decent prices for food and rooms. I stayed here this year because I knew the Josiah Venture summer interns and missionaries, many of whom I know, would be staying here at the same time. What I did not know was that in the evenings there was show in the bar area that was in conjunction with the Prague Pride Festival. So basically it was a play with a bunch of drag queens. And for the brief time we were in the lobby during the show I could overhear one of the “queens” speaking and it sounded just like the fish character on American Dad, if you’ve ever seen that show you what I mean.
We went out for a nice dinner there in Prague and I had Svickova, which is a traditional Czech meal. I’ll include the picture of it for those of you who would like to know what it is. It was very good and is one of my more favorite Czech meals. We then walked around the town for a while and headed back to the Mosaic House where I ran into many of my friends from last year and it was really cool to see them all again. The next morning I was able to see some of the others before they left as well as running into a lady who is from the same church in Chicago where my friends Nathan and Chelsea attend which was really cool.
We departed there and went to join in a tour of a city near Prague called Kutna Hora and this town is famous for the bone ossuary which is the chapel in basement of a church that is decorated with the bones of about 40,000 people. If you want to know more and see pictures just check it out on Google. After seeing the bone church we went to another Cathedral in the town and it was very large and beautiful, I was only expecting the bone chapel and not this church as well so it was a nice surprise to get to see more of this town. After the second church we had a nice Czech lunch with our tour group that consisted of wild boar goulash and cinnamon raison dumplings with cranberry sauce. I didn’t think to get a picture of it but it was really good as well.
The next day we departed from Prague and headed out to Vsetin, the town where I lived last summer. My friend Jirka who was my host last year has recently bought and new home that he and his family have yet to move into, they just received the keys to it two days before we arrived. So this is where we are staying while we are here. I am really excited for him and his family and I am grateful that we are staying here. It is also great that he is lending us his car for the week so we can get around since the home is about a mile away from the city center.
We walked into town to get the all important zmrzlina (ice cream) on Saturday evening and ended up getting trapped there due to rain. So we stopped in a restaurant called the Three Sunflowers, where I have eaten a few times before, and had some fried cheese that was quite good. I also amused the waitresses with my limited use of Czech. We were having a good time there waiting for the rain to subside so we could walk back. On the way back I received a call from Jirka and he picked us up and took us back and then we went to pick up the car we were going to borrow.
Jirka just returned from a hiking trek that he did with the outdoor ministry he is involved with here in Czech and he shared some good news with me. Two of the youth on the trek with him decided to give their lives to Christ. What makes this even more exciting for me is that one of the guys was at our camp last year. He was one of the older guys named Tomas who is involved in the youth at Majak (Lighthouse) Church, which was my home church last year and was the church from the second camp I did. We have been praying for him for a while now and I must say that hearing that last night was some of the best news I could have heard this year. I am very excited about it!!!
We went to church at Majak this morning and Jirka was giving the message today. After church we went over to have lunch with the pastor and his wife. We grilled out burgers and it was really good. They also had an apple pie for us as well. I guess it looks like I won’t be losing any weight on the trip this year. This evening we will be going back to the evening service and will see some more of the youth as well as going to play basketball with some of the guys we played with last summer. It will be a great night. We have some more stuff lined up with the youth this week before we leave for Cesky Tesin on Thursday morning for the city camp we will be working there.
I will be posting again in a few days, hopefully before we leave for the camp, so stay tuned for future updates from the man of international mystery, a.k.a. MIMA for you folks from last year’s Chicago team who are reading this. Thanks for your prayers for safe travel and good health.
I will upload some pictures tomorrow. I have to transfer them from my phone and I will do that tonight.
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