If you missed the pictures in the previous post, please find them here: PRAGUE!
And now comes Sunday—race day for the boys and church day
for us! We had decided to meet in the lobby and leave by 8:30. The race started
at 9:00, and we wanted to see the boys off. We got breakfast upstairs as we got
up and moving around—and I don’t just mean breakfast… I mean a lovely, sit down
meal with people attending to our every wish. I’m not ashamed to admit that I
get excited about things like that! I’d just spent over a week having to deal
with various hostel issues and fending for myself; not that I can’t handle that
or I’m above that, it’s just really nice and I appreciate having someone else
take care of me for a couple of days! =)
At any rate, we got our breakfast and met down in the lobby
at the appointed time. And off we went into the brisk morning! The temperature
and weather were fine for running, but my goodness, it was chilly walking over
there! I’ve never gone to a marathon before, and I really had no expectation of
what it would be like. There was a LOT of energy and even more excitement from
volunteers, friends and family who were there to cheer them on, and of course
from the runners! I didn’t realize what a huge production a marathon is. The
Prague marathon is one of the top 10 in the world, if I remember correctly, so
this is probably not the most “typical” of marathons, but I’d be willing to bet
there’s just as much excitement and enthusiasm at most! Apparently there were
people all along the route in costumes with crazy things trying to motivate
people, and there were bands and music, too, along with food, water, and
bathrooms for breaks. I can honestly say that there was a fleeting moment when
I wanted to run a marathon myself! Maybe I’ll start with a jog around the block
first. ;) Haha. It definitely made me miss running like I used to!
At any rate, we left the guys to that, and we ladies went
window-shopping around Old Town Prague until time for church! We saw several
cute shops full of marionettes (who knew Prague was known for marionette puppets?)
and other souvenirs, but the thing that caught our attention most was… the
pastry shop, of course! We smelled it first, then we saw what smelled so
wonderful. It’s a traditional Slovakian pastry (that I never saw in Slovakia)
called Trdelnik (ter-DEL-nick, for those who wonder how you say all those
consonants together). I think the concept of the bakery there is kind of like
the taffy and fudge factories in Gatlinburg. You get to watch it being made in
a very traditional way, and of course that makes you want to try it! I got
pictures, which are in the link provided below. They cover this yummy, thin
pastry dough in sugar and/or cinnamon and/or nuts, and then you wrap it around
this big cylinder, probably about 3 and a half inches across. Then you roast it
on a spit over an open flame until it’s golden and delicious! We were still
full from breakfast, but we decided to save room after lunch to enjoy it later.
=)
So now it was time to find the church. We knew (or thought
we knew!) where the church met (the YMCA), but when we got there, no one spoke
English! We tried to convey to the lady who seemed to be in charge that we were
looking for a church that meets there, but we just couldn’t get the right
message conveyed either way—to her or to us! She said something about a “Baby
Center”, but we had to idea what that had to do with anything. So we whipped
out Jen’s iPhone and used the GPS. There was a problem with the way we’d been
putting in the address—whatever, now we were on the right track! We found out
way to the OTHER YMCA in Old Town Prague, just in time to go to the church
service! I’d gotten in touch with a woman named Tami, who’s an American married
to a Czech, and they live just outside of Prague. She was so sweet, and her
husband is the one who translates the service from Czech to English for his
wife and a couple of other English speakers in the congregation. They have two
or three men there who take turns preaching, and that day it was one of the
Czech men. Everyone was very kind and seemed excited to have visitors! The
service lasted nearly an hour and a half, due to the need to translate
everything, but honestly I didn’t think it seemed all that long. I just find it
fascinating the way that other Christians worship and seeing their commitment
and devotion in adversity that we as Americans don’t truly understand. We have
our own struggles that are different from the ones that other Christians around
the world experience. I also just loved hearing the whole thing in two
languages. It’s just intriguing to me!
And then it was lunchtime! So off we went. On our way to
scope out a place, we met a guy standing on the street advertizing for a
restaurant. His name is Richard, and Jen said I have to tell everyone reading
this blog that he REALLY liked me! He was quite complimentary, which I admit I
appreciated. =) We did end up going inside that restaurant, and we’re so glad
we did! It was just like a medieval tavern inside, peasant/servant uniforms and
all! Just like Gadsby’s is to Alexandria, I suppose. This time Jen and her
mother-in-law Louise got some kind of soup (potato, I think), and I got the
old-fashioned pancake with spinach and cheese—which was kind of like a quiche
and was really good! The place was really interesting with old wood and rope
everywhere, and we were definitely sitting on some kind of animal hide on the
benches around the table! We made our way down to the bathroom—because, of
course, no good woman misses an opportunity—and were quite surprised at what we
found! We couldn’t really decide if the place was supposed to be a dungeon,
torture chamber, or simply a basement, but it is definitely a dining area now! The
place went down at least two more floors, all lit by candlelight, and full of
old tools and things like that. Very authentic-looking to us!
So after our bathroom excursion, we decided it was time for
dessert (woohoo pastries!) and to wait at the finish line for Brian (we knew
we’d already missed Steve). We went back to that same little place and get
something delicious. I got an apple-filled pastry of some sort, which was
awesome, and Louise got the big cylindrical pastry thing. Jen just wanted a
bite of that, and we all three decided it was worthwhile! Quite the tasty
little treat, if you ask me!
Walking over to the finish line, we gawked again at the
astronomical clock right there in the center of town, which is an interesting
piece of machinery—still functioning correctly to this day! We even stood in
front of a tour guide and heard her explanation of a couple of the characters
around the clock. =) And there we were at the finish line, waiting and waiting
and waiting, thinking we’d missed Brian already. But not to fear, because he
came right up to the finish just as we were walking down the tour route. Of
course he looked like he was making almost no effort whatsoever, and he even
turned and flexed his big burly muscles at us as he ran by! We met up with him
and Steve a little bit later at the hotel, and we all just kind of sat there in
the lounge for a while, allowing the guys to recover and chat a little. =)
Steve finished the race under his self-set goal of 4 hours (3:51 hours), and
Brian did a respectable job of 5:35 hours as well! Honestly, Brian running a
marathon seems like a feat—he’s so muscle-heavy, he’s carrying a lot more
around than most runners! He does an excellent job at whatever he does, despite
(or perhaps because of) anything that might seem limiting. The whole thing was
quite the task for anyone running on cobblestones! Better them than me, I’d say.
;) At any rate, we ladies were quite proud of our boys!
Suppertime came around, and so we went in search of another
culinary adventure! Brian was so pooped that he decided to go on to bed, but
that didn’t stop the rest of us. ;) We roamed the streets for a while until we
found something particularly Czech—another tavern-type place. So many of the
places around there have murals painted on the walls of the restaurant, and
this was no exception. This place had quite nice little scenes of old Prague.
Something about it made the place seem very homey. While the place was really
cute, the food was just ok. I got Hungarian goulash with bread dumplings, which
is the same thing I was disappointed in the other day in Slovakia. It was
described differently, so I didn’t realize it was the same thing. Oh well. Live
and learn!
When we got back to the room, I called my mom because, of
course, it was Mother’s Day! I woke up my parents from their nap, I think, but
they were glad to hear from me, or at least they said so. =) No worries, I got
her some very nice presents while I was away!
Anyway, bedtime soon followed because we had a full day of
touring ahead of us the next day! Please join us…
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