Friday, July 16, 2010

Prague--and the scary blog that mom's shouldn't read


After saying goodbye to Maria in Bratislava, we settled in for our journey to Prague. That morning I woke up not feeling so great. I felt slightly feverish, my glands were swollen, and my neck was stiff. I am very happy to say that the feverish feeling left soon enough. I don't remember if I was able to sleep on the train or not. When we arrived in Prague I was feeling a little bit better. We put our bags in the lockers at the train station and set forth to walk around the city for a few hours. It was really enjoyable to just be at our leisure and go wherever we wanted without worrying about a bunch of people. We went to Wencesles Square, walked in a few circles through the maze-like yet enchanting streets, crossed Charles Bridge and walked up towards the castle. Prague is such an amazing city because the charm just does not end. After we made it back to our bags and got on the train to Uvaly we were spent.

We had a little confusion on what stop to get off. We ended up going two stops too far. When we got off finally it was dark and we were in a desolate place with no station, just a platform. We had to cross the tracks in order to get to the platform on the other side. No one was around but a few interesting individuals sitting by the tracks smoking. One of them came running over to us and carried my roller bag accross the tracks and we made it just before the next train. It was such a funny situation; Kendra and I were both glad we were with someone who doesn't freak out easily--and that we were not alone. My advice to the young traveller: use wisdom, be smart, but if you are forced in a situation just know that people are not always what they seem and God is looking out for you. This man got us on the right train and tried really hard through a language barrier to make sure we knew where we were going.

When we arrived in Uvaly we started walking the wrong way (totally my fault--I know I have never had a great sense of direction and should not rely on my memory from a year ago). We decided to turn around and go to the hotel by the train station to use the phone. When we passed the station, we saw Kelsie there looking for us. She had been driving to the train station every half hour to see if we were there. Because we missed our stop and were coming from the opposite direction, the times were off so she didn't see us when we first arrived. We were so glad to find her, especially after she told us that the hotel we were going to try to go use the phone was a lot like the Adam's family.

It was SO nice to arrive at the Mullen's house. We sat at the table for a bit and John kept getting up and bringing more food to the table. I kept saying I was satisfied, but the more food he brought the more I ate. Needless to say, we slept really good that night. When we woke up the first thing we heard was one of the boys telling us he made us breakfast! It was so sweet and great. He had made us eggs and they were already on plates on the table. This day was so nice. Unfortunately, I felt even more sick and spent most of the day napping. Kendra and I both really enjoyed being in a family home and just resting and having conversation--I loved talking with the boys, they are great at conversation. We had planned on going into the city with Kelsie to meet up a team who has been travelling and ministering, but we were so exhausted and my head was so cloudy that we decided to stay at the house. That night we watched "Miss Potter" with the kids--I LOVE that movie. The next morning we got up early to catch the train. We were SO blessed by John and Kelsie's hospitality. Kelsie packed us a "sack lunch" which was A-MA-zing. It consisted of breakfast, two sandwiches for lunch, and several snacks, even two bars of white chocolate. This was such a blessing and really carried us through our day of 5 different trains en route to Strasbourg, France. A big thank you to the Mullen family! We love you guys.

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