Praha

Prague was AWESOME. We could have spent weeks there, we only got 1 day (took over 130 pictures). We saw the big things. We began at Prague Castle. The church there was amazing. We had to wait over 30 minutes to get inside. Imagine , a country full of atheists and we have to stand in line to go see a church. The Castle (or church; i don't remember) took 600 years to complete. It was great here are some pics from inside:



Here are two guys guarding the gate to the castle:Did you notice the homoeroticism of these statues? Why would they want the Guards to be naked?



While there we met up with Jodie' s roommate from E&H, Mele. How funny that they got to get together on their Homecoming Weekend on the otherside of the world. It was fun to see her and talk to her about working in Prague. She spent the day with us including taking us to a great Cafe on top of a hotel:



This cafe had great views, even though the pic is fuzzy you can see the castle behind Jodie:


We saw Charles Bridge and all its statues. Really cool. Really crowded. And it was under construction in some places:

But the statues there were great:
Here is a statue of Jesus and you can see the castle on the hill above:

(my favorite picture from today)

Here is Jodie and Mele on the bridge
And me and Jodie on the bridge.

And the tower at the end of the bridge:


King Karl was a great King in Bohemia who lived in Prague and is considered very great by the Czech people. This is his statue:

We also went to the town square and saw the big clock tower, but the Astrological CLock was cooler than the real clock.

Also they have a line that marks the Prime Meridian. What is the prime meridian anyways?
OK, enough for now. tired from today.

Wood

We moved wood all morning. We moved wood in wheelbarrows. We moved wood in plastic trays. We moved wood in our arms. Long strips of wood. Planks of wood. Scrap pieces of wood. An entire trailer of wood. We tried to calculate it, and we think that it was 4 tons of wood. A large 18 wheeler brought a trailer filled with wood. Imagine a wooden pallate. Imagine its the bottom of a box that is 2 meters tall. Imagine its pull of pieces of wood. Imagine it has 19 friends. We unloaded the truck and moved all the wood by hand. Lets just say this. we are tired.


After we moved all the wood, we walked to the top of Holy Hill, where there is a small Chapel, and we played around. Jodie Even Found an outdoor Pulpit to preach in.

Dinner

Tonight we ate with a Czech Couple. They are part of a worship team that was a church, and the husband is a worker at Holy Hill. They are Radim and Alice. They are in their twenties and have been married 2.5 years (sound familiar?)
This is them leading worship on Wednesday. We went with them and a friend of theirs who could translate. They live in the flat located at the only other Methodist Church in Plzen. It was very nice. Very big by Czech standards. Kitchen, living room (where we ate) office, bedroom, bathroom, guest room downstairs. The made us a great meal- Czech sandwiches, tuna steaks wrapped in spinach, wrapped in a pastry. And a dessert called snails- basically cookies. They gave us great drinks, WITH ICE. our first ice since Charlotte, NC.




Also it should be noted that Radim Collects reptiles and insects. He has 2 geckos, 2 hissing roaches, 2 centepedes, 1 snake, 1 bearded dragon and 1 chameleon. He is planning on buying some scorpions.




Yep. I got to where some of them. All in All we had a great evening with Radim and Alice.

Something funny happened on the way to work.

So today we were on our way to the rehab center to begin work. As we turned left we noticed that there were some Police on the side of the road. The first van approached them and the police man waived his hands for them to slow down. But then he waived them past. As our van approached the officer turned his sign around revealing a red Circle. Then he pointed over to the shoulder of the road telling us to stop there. Yes, we were stopped at a Czech point. He came to the window and Doug rolled it down. The officer began to speak, and Dave asked him, "Englitchke?" The cop looked at his partner and said "Englitchke". Dave told him he spoke no Czech and so the officer said. "License" Dave searched through his bag dropping things as he pulled out his US Drivers' License. Then the officer asked for "Green Card." Dave searched but couldn't find a copy of his passport. I looked through what had fallen out and handed him the photocopy. He handed it to the cop, who responded by saying "no" and shaking his head. Then i saw that the Car information was printed on a green card, so i said try this. The cop took it and then marched around the car, checking it out. He asked about our lights and then circled again. He came back to the window and said, "We have small problem." He grabbed Doug's seatbelt and then pointed to the three women in back seat (including Jodie) and said, "Czech rules" We said, "They have to wear a seat belt?", He said, "yes." Then he waved us back into traffic. Not sure how good Dad is at Extradition Law, but i thought i was about to find out. Anways- make sure you wear a seatbelt in Czech no matter what seat you are in. Our Czech friends say it is rare that you get pulled over and not pay.

Plzen Tour

Today after work we went on a tour of Plzen. Very enjoyable! The town is super old and has lots of great history. Our Hotel sits just a block or so from the 3rd Largest Synagogue in the World.

We From there its only 2 blocks to the Town Square the largest in Bohemia (western Czech). The centerpiece of the square is this Church, which we saw inside and even climbed its steeple, the tallest inthe whole Czech Republic. It gave us great views:


Even a good view of that Synagogue:Here are a couple pics of Jodie and I (one from the top of the church) and one in front of a gate in the old Medieval Wall that used to protect the city.



Here is Jodie in front of a pretty building facade, and a pic of a really Old church we saw in passing.




This is the oldest Synagogue in Plzen. It is very old but very unimposing. It was built long before the other one, but is the one that is in use. The larger one was built in the early 2oth Century once the Jewish community had amasses a large following anf large assests. Since WWII very few have returned. Maybe 100. The communists that ruled Czech for so long did not try to restore or even upkeep these types of buildings. So it is very run down:

This is a monument to Celebrate the US Army's liberation of Plzen. POI- The communists were allowed to Liberate Prague, the capitol, b/c of politics and the the communists would not give credit to USA for liberating Western Czech. They took credit for it and forced that version of history taught in schools, even though they and everyone in Plzen especially, knew it was not the truth. Peter is the one in the picture. He is telling us this story.

Holy Hill

So, Holy Hill is a part of Teen Challenge- a project to reach out to those who suffer from substance abuse. Those at Holy Hill are people who have chosen to seek help to overcome their addictions. While their they learn life skills that their addictions have taken from them- they learn to cook and they learn computer skills for example. They live together in a very old building (400 years)




We show up to help with rennovations and facility upgrades. This week a big tak is clear a pile of debris from projects completed earlier this year. So we have been moving wheel barrows of dirt and stone and brick and tile to a dumpster:


Also we have helped with a fence but mainly we have done work on the debris.

Each day the men of Holy Hill make a lunch for us. And after we eat we get together and sing songs and talk. We sing the song in Czech, then English, then in both. very neat.