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Prague was the first city that we know we want to go for this trip. It ended up being the last place we visited; I guess we save the best for last, and we weren't disappointed. It was certainly a good change of environment (away from 2 weeks of German speaking world) It is quite a pleasure just to walk around in the historic town with all those cobblestones street and red-roof baroque houses. Even though the weather were not that great, at least it wasn't wet like Vienna, and all of us were grateful for that.

I was quite impressed by the apartment we stayed in and the company that operates the apartment. Not that it was luxury or anything, (because it was one of the cheapest we could find) but most of the things were new, and the door locks between the front gate to our apartment gave us a sense of safe and secured feeling. It is by no means an unsafe neighborhood, but it is so close to two of the major attractions there (Charles Bridge and Old Town Square) so there are lots of people walking around. In fact I can walk to Charles Bridge and Old Town Square in 5 minutes from the apartment. It allows me to go to those places early in the morning, to take some pictures with very few people around.

As for the food, it is quite similar to what we been seeing in Austria in terms of local cuisine. We did notice that most places serve some variations of Potato Garlic soup. I ordered it whenever I see it in the menu. They all make it a little differently, but all of them were good. There is also a traditional dessert I saw in quite a few places there; it is really pancakes with blueberries and ice cream (a little too sour for me). However we often skipped the dessert part for dinners; instead, we usually visited the ice cream store on the ground level of our apartment building to end our day.

Here is the list of places we visited for lunch and dinner:

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These gardens in Mala Strana are highly recommended by most travel guidebooks, and we have seen other tourists there as well. But these places seem like a well-kept secret, and that makes it even more enjoyable. The gardens are not as big as the ones we saw in Salzburg or Vienna, but they are just as nice (probably prettier at the time we were there) Within Mala Strana, there is a big green space occupied by the Petrin Hill. We actually walked up the hill to get to the Petrin Tower, but we didn't go up on it; we figure we don't need another bird's eye view, and save the admission fee. After that we passed by a quiet residential neighborhood called Hradcany, and headed back to the castle.

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Well, I did feel bad being a little rude, but I think it's better to be a little more careful. There was another time when we were walking on the street close to the National Theatre, we walked past a street person. After walking for another minute, I noticed him were just behind us. So I stopped and pretended to take a picture or something, gave him another glance at the same time. He noticed that I spotted him, and so he just kept walking. I kept my eye on him for some more time as he crossed the street and seemed to be targeting someone else.

Again, maybe I was just being paranoid. I asked Vincent if he noticed that man, but he said no. (I can see Naomi and him are enjoying their time there, maybe they barely notice me too) I figure us being Chinese are so obviously tourists, we become easy target. But I do feel Prague is a safe place, it's definitely no worse than any other big cities.

On the east side of the Vltava river, there are the Old Town, New Town, and Jewish Town (really a part of Old Town) The Old Town Square is one of the few places that gave me the "wow" reaction when I saw it. I mean I read quite a bit about it while doing research, and when I was finally there, it's so much bigger than what I pictured. There is more people and more lively than I thought. The Jewish Town, they called it Josefov, is quite nice as well, but I didn't think it's a must-see. The New Town is a bit more commercial, but they do have the nice Wenceslas Square, leading from shopping area to the National Museum.

I read it somewhere that one way to enjoy Prague's Old Town is to be "lost" in it; to walk in small streets and hallways. There are people everywhere so it's quite safe. So I don't need people offering me help; just let me be lost.

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There was a long line at the entrance when we got to the Cathedral. Most of the people were actually with tour groups. It rained a little that day, so it was kinda funny to see all those tour guide using umbrellas, instead of flags, to lead tour groups. It was also kinda interesting to see a group of French tourists standing next to us; I just have never seen a tour group that is not speaking Chinese or English. We have seen quite a few churches or cathedrals earlier on this trip, but this one is still quite impressive because of the sheer size of it. Also impressive is the stained glass windows and the Chapel of St Wenceslas.

It is true that you can spend the whole day wandering in the castle, but the Cathedral is the only Can't-Miss building there. And it is free to visit the Cathedral (not so for other buildings of the castle) So technically you don't have to spend a dime to visit the castle. We did purchase the ticket to visit all the other buildings (almost all, but the Old Royal Palace was not opened that day for some reason) and personally I think they are not that remarkable, except maybe for the Golden Lane, a small area within the castle where you need a ticket to access.

After spending most of the day exploring the castle, we visited some of the gardens just outside of the castle. The one near the exit (it's really another entrance) is called Garden on the Ramparts, and that is where we get a nice view of red roof top houses. There is also the Palace Gardens that is on the slope leading down to the Lesser Town. Those gardens require separate admission, so we weren't sure if we want to see it. We did go in after all, and the gardens were quite nice, but we thought it was a little pricey to get in.

We actually passed by the castle again on another day, around evening time. I thought it would be nice to hang around inside the castle after dark, but that wasn't really the case. The castle is better looking from the outside, with the spotlight beaming at it.

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They say the bridge is very busy during the day time; we didn't really find out because we were never there in the middle of the day. We were there either early in the morning, or early evening, when there was only a few (or none) of temporary shopping stalls set up. I suppose it would be a nice experience when it is super busy, but it would take a lot longer to get through the bridge. Besides, we would much rather to see the cityscape at night with the lights on; it's much prettier that way. It is also quite neat to be there when there is almost no one around, i.e. before 7am. That is the time when I could have the tripod anywhere on the bridge, and take long-exposure pictures. The bridge is quite safe at night. They have a sign saying that it is 24-hr monitored. I spotted the two plain-clothes guys patrolling early in the morning; it was easy to tell because most other couples there that late at night were holding hands.

Another place where we enjoyed the river was the sidewalk next to the river on the east side. There weren't as much light posts installed, so probably not a very good idea to be there after dark. We were there on our last day around sunset time, enjoying a little bit of sunlight that had been terribly missed.

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I heard this song called "Perfect", by Alanis Morissette this past Sunday (at church, of all places), and the last line of the song is "We'll love you just the way you are if you're perfect."

Many Asian kids can relate to this song because it is about how parents push theirs kids to be better, to try harder.  But I do think that's not exactly how parents feel; I suspect the song is coming from the children's point of view, thinking their parents will only love them if they are perfect.

So how do parents really think?  As a single guy, what do I know about that?  As always, I can only draw "experiences" from movies.  The song reminds me of the movie "The Joy Luck Club", a movie about 4 pairs of Chinese mother/daughters.  Most memoriable scene for me is when one of the daughters complains to her mother, that she always expects the best from her daughter.  Her mother replies, "I never expect, only hope for the best."  That is probably the first time I see how parents feel.  Like most parents, their love for their child is unconditional (or close to unconditional), it's not when children becoming perfect, but they certainly hope they can be closer and closer to perfection.  So when children feel that their parents are expecting, instead of hoping, they don't feel the love, and hence, a lot like Morissette's song.

So how does all this related to church? We know that God's love for us is unconditional.  And we are to follow God's will, that He has a plan for us, to be more and more like Christ.  He has even prepared the plan for us, and we are "expected" to follow.  Maybe in the same way, we feel God's love for us is not unconditional, because whenever we are expected (or even demanded) we don't think it's love.  Maybe it helps if we think that God hopes for the best for us, just like the Chinese mother hopes for the best for her daughter; we are just encouraged to follow God's will, strongly encouraged.

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Weather in Toronto since I came back from the trip has been unbelievably beautiful; I wish I could say the same for my trip to Central Europe.  Unfortunately it wasn't, especially for most of the time in Austria.  In fact my standard answer to friends who ask how my trip went go something like, "it was good, just wish we had better weather."

But it was indeed very good; vacation is always good.  And everything basically went according to plan, everything went rather smoothly.  Especially with transportation and all those accommodations; we stayed in 7 different places across Austria, plus Germany's Munich and Prague in Czech Republic.

The trip was 19 days long, including time on the plane.  It is one of the longest trip I ever went; definitely the longest self-guided trip.  The initial idea of the trip is to visit Prague.  And then I guess we weren't totally comfortable visiting Eastern Europe, we looked westward, and decided to visit Austria.  And then after some shopping on airfare, Munich seemed to be a good place to start our trip.

Now that the trip is completed, the most important thing to do is to properly capture the memories of the trip, i.e. going through all the photos, posting them, and do some blogging.

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