Off to Prague
We spent last night walking around Budapest seeing what the city looks like at night. We had seen lots of pictures of the city lit up and we wanted to see it for ourselves. We started walking through our neighborhood and the place was jumping! With two teenagers well under the drinking age we have stayed in our apartment most evenings. We thought the city was cool during the day, it was buzzing last night. Now, it was Saturday night, but there were people everywhere. The bars were packed and the park by the big temporary Ferris Wheel was just teaming with young people between 20 – 35 years old walking around with open drinks and just enjoying the evening.
We went to take pictures but we got a whole different feel for the city. We found our way to the Chain Bridge which connects Buda to Pest between the Four Season hotel on the Pest side and the Buda Castle on the other. The pictures views are just amazing and I’m not sure I was able to capture all the beauty of the evening in pictures. We got back to the apartment around 11:30 pm and were planning to head out to Prague this morning around 9 am. So, we got everyone to bed and Ilise finished up the packing so we didn’t have much to do in the morning.
I awoke around 7 am and got my morning routine complete. These days my morning routine includes a 15 minute little exercise routine called the Five Rites, from the book “The Ancient Secrets of the Fountain of Youth.” I’ve been doing the Five Rites for about 2 months now and it feels good to have a routine each morning. After the Five Rites I will typically meditate for about 15-20 minutes and then start my day. I plan on continuing this routine when I return and I also plan on getting a lot more regular exercise playing tennis and volleyball on a much more regular basis.
We got everyone up and were gone from Budapest by 9:30 am, not bad for a family that usually doesn’t get out of bed until 10 am. The trip was supposed to take about 4 hours and 45 minutes but we hit some major traffic somewhere about an hour outside of Prague. Inching along for about 30 minutes was no fun at all. When we leased the car from Renault we were offered a manual transmission and I’ve been so excited about driving a manual transmission for a few years now. When I get back to the US I was planning to buy a manual convertible at some point in the future. After this trip I don’t see that happening. When you are on the open road and having fun on a winding road it’s great, but get a manual transmission car in traffic and it’s a pain in the butt!
We stopped for lunch somewhere in the middle of nowhere and couldn’t find a restaurant. We ended up at a super market and bought a whole bunch of stuff to make our own lunches. We have been very resourceful on this trip and making up things as we go has been a critical skill set that we have honed over the past 4 months. We finally arrived in Prague around 4:15 pm and got into our new AirBnB apartment. We met Pavel out front and he helped up schlepp our bags up to the 4th floor. There was an elevator, but there were still a few flights of stairs to manage. Ilise and I then went to the local super market and picked up food for the week and specifically for dinner tonight.
All in all it was a long but productive day. We have 10 days in Prague and I’m looking forward to seeing this city and getting to know some of the locals. We don’t have any more schools for the kids to go to this week, but it looks like we might have found a Jewish Youth Group for them to join in Berlin.
To a life well lived!
Larry Kesslin 