BYE-BYE, GRAMMY AND GRAMPY!
HELLO AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNTIE ERIN!

So sorry for our lack of postings. Things have seemed a little crazy lately. Grammy and Grampy left last Wednesday. Before leaving, they got to see Vyšehrad...and Marilyn even got to ride the metro! It was a wonderful day.


The best part of the visit was Ella being able to spend time with her grandparents.


As always, goodbyes were sad...


Auntie Erin celebrated a birthday yesterday...we'll be celebrating again after she arrives here Saturday. WOOHOO!

In between visitors we enjoyed a long weekend of R&R (Friday was a holiday in honour of Saint Wenceslas) . The weather was rainy Friday and Saturday, which made it easy to be lazy. Other than that we've been dealing with a broken washing machine (UGH!) and some heated negotiations regarding the purchase of our flat (DOUBLE UGH!). Looks like the moving date is pushed out yet another month to the end of November. The big question is starting to be, "What will come first? New flat or new baby?"

I can't say "new addition to the family" as that has already happened. Yep! Jeff and Ella came home with a pet the other night. SURPRISE! No, not a dog or a cat (those who know me know that would NOT have gone over well) but a budgie bird. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed at first (mildly stated). But I've warmed up to the idea and conceded that if I was to be the not-so-proud owner of one caged bird than I would prefer to have two caged birds so that at least I feel they are happy. And they do seem crazy about each other! Jeff has been true to his word and taken full responsibility for their care. Ella was pretty frustrated at first that she couldn't hold them...but now we've all settled in and they've become part of the family.


We've also been getting psyched up for Halloween. Here's one of the costume options.


In other news, we welcome the birth of Sophie Louise, born Friday 28/9/07. She's the little sister of Alice and the daughter of our friends Lucie and Jeremy. Welcome to the world, Sophie! We're sure we'll be meeting her as soon as they are up for visitors.

And, tomorrow, we look forward to seeing Annika, Victor, and LInnea, who are in town for a few days while Ingvar does some work in this neck of the woods. Very exciting to have a visit from them! (They moved to Greece about a month ago.)

Signing off and hitting the sack,
Maylia

Yesterday and the Drink Before

Yesterday was a trip to the Castle. The castle (especially St. Vitus cathedral as its highpoint) is one of those "must sees" for visitors. The cathedral is in nearly every tourist picture of Prague (& typically someone took the picture from the Charles bridge).

If someone chose to walk to the castle from our place, it could be a 90 minutes taking the round-about way through a large park. (Incidentally, the walk is barely be a third that once we move.) Well, yesterday we took a taxi to there, but we attempted to walk it coming back. I'd say we did well, going through Letna Park, down to Old Town Square, up to and through Wenceslas Square...a bit over 2 miles with hills...but then mom's scooter quit on us and a taxi was in order. Pretty impressive distance, though. I think the record for a single day's walking is still held by our first visitors, Jenn & Courtney, who walked to the castle and back, plus some.

The castle always seem impressive to walk around, but it seemed another couple thousand people had the same idea. Armed with a camera and guidebook, we all plodded along the courtyards, watched the changing of the guards and bumped into each other on a mission. Can't blame anyone - it was really nice weather yesterday, maybe our last good week of summer (or "babi leto" = grandmother's summer, here).

Let me put up a couple pics of our strolling through the castle and cathedral...





...the drink before
It's burchak (Burčák) season again. Burchak is fermented wine, sort of.
Burchak looks like orange juice, tastes like apple and orange juice mixed (& a bit soured) and is unappetizingly cloudy. Once you've gotten used to the cloudy look and the awkward taste (wondering if it's safe), then it kinda of grows on you.
By the 2nd glass, you've long forgotten it's as potent as wine, at 15 proof.
By the 3rd glass, you're thinking to yourself "Wow, I feel like I could just chug this stuff." (Dad actually said this out loud).
Maylia was at home with Ella, so we had no control of ourselves. That explains how we bought (and drank) two 1.5 liters of burchak between the 3 of us. Yup, that's a liter each. We felt it that afternoon, through supper and during our castle stroll.
The burchak festival at our local park is a grand mock-medieval affair with jousting matches, band music, and kiosks selling crafts, rotisserie cooked chicken, cotton candy, balloons, etc. But it's clear people go there for the burchak.
To make sure there's enough for the festival, burchak is brought in by the tanker...

...bottled on the spot in 1.5l bottles...
...and sold to people waiting in long lines (...guilty).
One and a half liters of burchak costs you 114 crowns this year (~$6). I figure that is under half what the same amount of beer costs this year at Oktoberfest this week, plus we can stumble right home in 5 minutes, so we'll pass on Munich for another year. :)

See you next year at the Burchak festival!



One more photo ... Jeff's favorite picture of our castle trip. Can you guess what daddy gave Ella (and will never, ever give her again, if he knows what's good for him)?

Just a Couple Pictures

Yesterday, the girls and Parkers went to the Wallenstein Gardens
The Gardens are a fairly convenient place to visit, right outside the Malostranska station.
Ella being coy, showing Grammy her ducks...and coy

Big attractions there are the statues down the main path.
Can you tell Mr. Parker is pleased to be carrying Mrs. Parker's purse?


Our favorite picture of that trip

Greetings to Eric, to all

Doing well here. A bit tired by the end of the day, so we'll try writing to the blog in the early mornings...

Ella definitely is her "Ne" phase. Although it is cute to hear her picking up Czech, "no" is not our favorite word she's picking up. Below is the "John Lennon" wall, a famous landmark where the old regime's police would crack down on the younger, rebellious crowd trying to give their opinion. We were role-playing here. You can almost hear history being remade...

Overall, we've had a lot of fun, touring around.

A couple of the girls had a small bout of sickness. When Jeff got ready for work Monday morning, May said "My throat's sore." Oh-oh. When Jeff went to pick Ella up out of bed, she said "Ella neck scratchy." Oh-oh. (but darn cute to hear). Then when May checked in on the Parkers later in the morning, Jeff's mom also had a sore throat. We figure it was because May, Ella & mom shared a bottle of water during a walk Sunday afternoon. That was Monday, but by last night everyone is feeling much better.

All of us went out for dinner last night. We didn't share any water, but did share a lot of laughs. I'll post one picture:

From a walk along Charles bridge, here's our favorite picture taken so far:


Well, should leave now ... till later. -parkers

All Parkers are in Prague

Ma & Pa Parker arrived Wednesday evening, safe and sound. Us 3 met them at the airport and Ella sure impressed. I'm not sure Ella took in a full breath the whole ride home.
Over the past few days, they've done some day-to-day life with Maylia, like walking in parks, Ella's 'music class,' (a.k.a. toddler anarchy) and exploring the neighborhood. Friday afternoon, they babysat Ella while we had a dr. appt (all is looking good).

Yesterday, we went to Old Town Square, the Charles bridge, and explored a bit of Malastrana (west of bridge).

Today, we're about to head out and celebrate mom's birthday, starting with brunch at Radost.