Row, Row, Row Your Boat
aka Why second-born kids are tougher!

Prague's Expensive? More Than LA, so they say! -Updated

Prague isn't a business or banking capital. For that, go to London or Zurich.
Prague isn't famous for its cuisine or fashion (by a longshot). Maybe visit Paris.

No, people come to Prague for the architecture, the old streets and sights.

But they're not coming anymore. It's too damned expensive. Streets are empty now. Locals are on vacation elsewhere ...and so are the foreigners, if they're traveling at all.

Why? According to this study, Prague has become the world's 8th most expensive city to live in -even more expensive than Los Angeles. Sidenote: where is New York City on this list??

Who's fault is it? Popular opinion: the Czech currency. It's a double-whammy: prices are going up (as anywhere) and the currency is growing too fast, against both the Euro and $US.

When the Jeffs came to apartment shop 2 years ago last month, a dollar converted to 22 Czech crowns (and a Euro got you nearly 29 crowns).

Today, it's down to 15 per dollar and under 24 per Euro. Scary thing is, very recently, the Czech Finance Banking Guy (~ US Fed Reserve Chairman) issued a strong warning that the Czech crown's strength isn't based on a equally strong economy - there will be a correction.
This isn't about a falling dollar. It's about a bubbling crown. A big, scary bubble of a crown.

Anymore, Maylia and Jeff (usually) think of costs in crowns. It makes sense, since we both earn & spend in Czech crowns, right? But we sometimes we experience a little culture shock when we convert to dollars.
Example: Jeff went to McDonald's and they charged 10 crowns for a ketchup packet.
Not much, unless you convert it to US$: 70 cents.
That's shocking 3 times - they charge for ketchup, they charge so much and Jeff visits McDonalds. Maybe the last one isn't so shocking.

As for prices increasing, everyone is experiencing the same, so it's more depressing than dramatic - not blog worthy.

For anyone reading this, please do not mail us any ketchup packets. That wasn't the point.

Bonn Pictures

Jeff got home late Friday and Saturday morning we all went out to the Letna park for some R&R and pizza. And for the afternoon, the Parkers did some grocery shopping and housework. But we made some time for posting some pictures from May & kids' trip to Bonn.

At Koenigs Museum our first day....I'm where?


Coming out of "Universitat Markt" metro stop, you come to University of Bonn and Hofgarten park, where you always spot someone kicking the ball around or having a picnic.


Not every day was sunny.

But it didn't stop these guys from playing some football (there's big hype with the Euro 2008 games since Germany made to the finals --played tomorrow!)


A typical street in Bonn - this shot was taken looking across the street from "our" grocery store.

Maylia and the kids explored the botanical gardens one day.

One thing we noticed about the Germans - they love their icecream. It was nothing to see grown men walking around town with icecream cones or svelte woman devouring a giant sundae at a local "eis cafe". Here is the concoction we tried.


Our second Saturday we took a 2-hour ferry ride up the Rhein to Linz, a medieval town known for its beautiful squares.

Ella looks like a natural sailor.

But we all enjoyed the trip.

DHL (Deutsche Post World Net) HQ where Jeff was working.


Throughout the week, Maylia and the kids spent a lot of time in a big park along the river (Rheinauen) that bordered Jeff's work. On Sunday, Maylia's birthday, we went there as a family to enjoy "Familienspielen", a wonderful (free) family day. There was so much to see and do and eat - it was a blast! Here are Maylia, Ella and Mattias on the little train that took you around the park.

And here is Ella getting a "swan face".


Overall it was a great trip. Maylia really enjoyed getting out of Prague and it was a treat to be able to walk along the Rhein and meet Jeff every day after work. The family time was fantastic. The architecture isn't as ornate as Prague's and it is not as big and exciting, but Bonn is a very pretty city and the people were very friendly. It has excellent infrastructure considering its size - this is largely due to the fact that it was the capital of West Germany. And we didn't miss the dog poo and graffiti of Prague! But we did miss our spacious flat and our friends...
and Ella really missed her toys, too.

Now we're just so happy Daddy's home!

Questions, Big Questions

Could we? Should we? Would we?

Stay tuned; more to come. For now, just a marker in the blog.

May, Ella & Mattias are back home

They landed back in Prague a few hours ago. What a great week in Bonn!

A few texts from May...

All okay. Kids slept from airport to home.
Starting laundry. Need groceries. Miss u 2.
30C here today! Our place is huge!

After having all of us in a 30m (320 sq. feet) hotel-serviced apartment for 10 days, May's happy to be home. Hungry but happy.

Jeff will post many, many pictures this weekend.