Days 23-29

I’m eating Doritos right at this very minute because last week, my Austrian friend took me shopping. We went to a place called The Snack Shop that sells all kinds of American junk food. I succumbed, but I hadn’t broken into them until today, probably because there’s so much amazing regular food that who needs junk food?

So, yes, I ate Doritos today, but I also listened to parts of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. That must cancel out the Doritos, right? Better yet, I got a library card! Which has absolutely nothing to do with either Doritos or Mozart, but it makes me happy.

Anyway, since the last time I wrote, I have attended a Back to School Night and met all the teachers and got all the forms and signed all the paperwork.

I took the gingerbread boy to Prague last weekend solo because the Gingerbread Man was presenting at a conference in New York. I navigated Prague—there, around, and back. Are you impressed? I am. Especially because my data didn’t work while we were there. And this is me we’re talking about.

Lost Girl.

We didn’t see any of the things one would normally see in Prague because we’ll be back again with the Gingerbread Man, but we did hit up a gingerbread museum (well, duh! Of course we did) and an old book store.

We ate some street food (fresh potato chips, sweet cylinders of dough), met a VCFA friend of mine for lunch (Love that Ellen Yeomans!) and learned that the Czechs do some amazing things with sauerkraut.

We walked across the Charles Bridge, had a Thai massage which alternately felt like I was getting beaten up and like the best massage ever, and found ourselves in the middle of a marathon. We took a walking tour with the Night Watchman, had ice cream in those amazing dough cone-things, attended mass at the cathedral (much to the amazement of the keepers of the door: “You want to go to mass? In Czech? Sit for an hour?”), walked down the narrowest street in the world, and slept in an amazing room that was as fairytale as they come.

I went to the Naschmarkt on Monday, simply to keep the Gingerbread Man from falling asleep. A four day trip to the States does not make for a happy circadian rhythm. We somehow ended up purchasing about $25 of green olives. I’m still kind of scratching my head about how that went down. Perhaps I can chalk it up to jet lag?

I’m making plans now for our first big trip to Italy in October. I also checked out information for a trip to the Netherlands in April. This weekend? Tacofest at Mexikoplatz, and a big flea market. Hopefully, we won’t come away from it with a ridiculous number of olive pitters.

Tschuss!