For those of you that don't know my husband he is a country boy who is most comfortable putting in a hard day of physical labor- cattle wrangling, construction, hay bailing, and in general doing all of those farmer types of things. But he is also a lean 6 sigma black belt/fortune 500 fix it guy who randomly gets flown to Europe by companies like Emerson Electric and Amazon to help get their business in order. Back late winter/early spring he flew to Germany and Scotland and sent me picture after picture that looked like this:
He kept sending me texts saying "Wish you were here" to which I responded, "Yes, me too, but I am home taking care of your kids! Driving one to a volleyball tourney out of state and working on minecraft worlds with the other." He got back and talked and talked about his time there, and said "next time I go you need to come too."
So when he got the call with dates about "maybe going to Prague, or Rome, or Barcelona" I immediately asked the boss who was nice enough to make it work so I could go.
Now a little background before the trip... Cy flew to Poland to work the week before I left to meet him, and we just met up in Prague for a long weekend before he had to head out to Romania. Yes, that meant I flew there by myself and no I wasn't at all scared to do that! Also of interest to all of you who know how I like to save money on trips (and everything else) I am an accomplished travel hacker, and used American Airlines miles for my flight. I paid taxes only which amounted to a little under $180 to get there and back which wasn't bad considering Cy's flight was over $2,000. Because I was using miles, I had overnights both going and coming. So 2 days to get there, 4 days there, and 2 days home. Cy's company paid for our hotel room as he was already there and on their dime, so we did not have any hotel expenses. Lastly, I had just started my Rodan and Fields skin care business the month before, and my first check from them all but covered my entire trip. And by all but covered I mean I maybe spent $100 those 8 days outside my Rodan and Fields check, and that includes meals, souvenirs and flight(!) Not bad eh?
So the flights... Flew from Memphis to Chicago then to London. Arrived in London about midnight their time, and spent the night in the airport in a little teeny hotel. Here's some pics of my in flight meal (American does that well! Way better than their partners who I flew with back home) and also my play by play reminder of where I was in flight.
Going over I hit customs in London which was not terrible for an English speaking American. Coming back home I hit customs in Berlin which was not bad for a German-is-my-second-language Amerikaner. So any worries you might have about international travel and customs please don't let it keep you from going! The pros far outweigh the cons and it was an easy process.
Now a little about my first impressions- the airport was nice and everyone who I came into contact with there spoke English and spoke it well. That trend continued, and Cy and I had zero issues asking for directions, reading menus, talking to people about where to eat, where to visit, exchanging money, riding public transport, etc. I would say over 90% of the Czech people we came in contact with spoke English fluently and they actually like Americans! They were super friendly. Prague is a WONDERFUL place for English speakers to go. I felt safe the entire time we were there, so much so that I would have NO problem sending Caroline with a friend by themselves. I feel confident they would be able to get around, get money, ask for directions or help, and have a wonderful time without anything to worry about. I can't give a much more glowing recommendation than that, as I am still pretty leery about sending her to Memphis by herself.
Prague is a magical place- a former capitol of the Holy Roman Empire and an ancient Roman town. It is also one of the few towns in Europe that was not ravaged by either World War. Many of Europe's architectural and cultural treasures were lost, but not in Prague. The history dates back over 1,000 years, and the beauty is unbelievable! I could not get over it. My thoughts before I went were that it would be gothic, "eastern European," dirty and industrial... but it was super clean and I kept telling Cy that the city managers are top notch- everything looked great or was under construction to look great. Lots of historic renovations going on. We saw several painters hand painting cracks on stucco to make a renovation look authentic. They worked hard, took pride in their city, and it showed. You get off the subway and see this:
Another initial impression that proved to be wrong was about how the people would look. I am an avid Olympics watcher, and from that had an idea that these Eastern European types were dark complected and dark haired, you know Slavic looking! Well Prague was a very cosmopolitan type of city and we saw all races and ethnic groups, but the overwhelming majority of people were blonde and TALL. Like we saw SO many women who were well over 6 feet and men who were well over 6'6". Of course we see a lot of tall people here (and especially at the amount of volleyball tourneys we attend) but I would say there are maybe 4 times as many super tall people there. It was pretty cool to see and something I did not expect.
Anyone who knows me knows I did as much research as possible before going. But I also tried to leave a little magic for us to discover. I wanted to be sure we hit the must sees, and then could relax and just enjoy the moment. The must sees for us (and should be for everyone going there) were the Charles Bridge, Prague castle (the largest castle in the world!), the Jewish Quarter, and the Astronomical clock. Here's some pics of those places for you:
Random building in the Jewish ghetto. On the tour they tell about how when Hitler took over a town during WWII, the first thing he had his army do was to decimate the Jewish area to eradicate all proof of their existence. For some reason when Hitler came into Prague he told the army to hold up- to not destroy the Jewish ghetto because it was too beautiful. So that is their catchphrase, the city too beautiful for Hitler to destroy. There were lots of references to Hitler which kind of unnerved me, but as a Czech fastenal guy put it to me "You have to consider we are only 3 generations past Hitler. It is very fresh for us and our reality."
Another pic of the cemetery
Charles bridge from the castle side 
Part of the reason I have taken so long to write this is I needed a little perspective I think. It is hard to describe a place and time that is magical and set apart. We had zero trouble getting around, things were cheap (and by cheap I mean 2 meals with dessert and drinks for $14 American with tip, pics to follow) and Cy and I just walked and walked and discovered and held hands and just were. I don't know how to explain it.
I am an avid writer and have written about many things that are very personal to me. But one thing I have never been able to begin to write about is Cy. Most people's impression of him is not the Cy I know at all, and that's ok with me. They might not have seen him holding my selfie stick out because he had a better reach. Probably didn't see him carrying my heavy bag I HAD to take on a 7 mile walk on cobblestone even though we never used anything out of it. And they sure didn't watch him smile and not complain about holding hands and going everywhere I wanted to. But that's ok, and I guess I like to keep that little part of him to myself.
One thing I did not research was which restaurant to go to, and that ended up being awesome. We did not have a bad meal in Prague or Kutna Hora, and we just roamed around until we were hungry and sat and ate. Traditional Czech food is stuff like fried cheese and goulash (we had the fried cheese but not the goulash) but many other things were easy to come by and cheap. Here's some pasta we both got for $4 American:
Here are some Czech menus for you to look at, many were in Czech, Cyrillic and English
We also ate at a fast food place every day, or at least ordered a drink, because they had free wifi and we could facetime the kids without incurring big wireless phone charges. It was a 7 hour delay, so if we were somewhere around 2:00 pm or so it was 7 am at home and we could catch the kids before they went to school. Cy went to Kaiser's class to talk about the trip after he got home and a little girl asked him about Paris and where he ate while there. She was horrified to hear McDonalds. But he never left the airport, lol.
Hands down our favorite food in Prague are the Trdelniks. They are awesome!!! Beer bread of some kind wrapped around a stick, rolled in cinnamon and sugar (and other things like almonds from place to place) and they taste like heaven! We had one every day we were there. We may have had two a couple days ;) They generally cost between $2 and $2.50 US and Cy and I could share one. Thus the two some days haha.
While in search of our next Trdelnik, we came across lots of unexpected cool things. We were in the general vicinity of the astronomical clock when Cy found a tour of the underground Prague. The Roman city was much lower, but was built up some 18 feet because of flooding. So the entire time we were walking around we were above old passageways and houses. Here are some pics of underground Prague, dating to the 800s.
Interestingly enough, the Good King Wenceslaus is a major dude in Prague history. They are all about him. So much so that I guess someone wrote that Christmas carol. While touring Old Town Hall they spoke of him a LOT- there were several mosaics and paintings with his likeness and that of his grandmother, who raised him. Apparently his grandmother and mother did not get along, and his mother ended up having his grandmother murdered. There are statues of The Good King and his grandma in various locations around Prague but none of his mother the murderer.
Just random 1,000 year old awesomeness.
Another place we happened upon was Kutna Hora, a town about an hour outside Prague. Though we thought initially about taking a day trip to Karlovy Vary and the Grand Hotel Pupp, many locals prefaced the how nice it is by saying "But there are lots of Russians there..." haha. They were not fond of Russians at all! So we decided on Kutna Hora. There we found the Bone Church and a beautiful cathedral on the UNESCO heritage list.
And again, this was outside the bone church on the street.
St. Barbara's cathedral, Kutna Hora, construction dates to 1388. Cy LOVED this cathedral and I thought it would be hard to beat until we went to the castle cathedral. St. Barbara's had an awesome exhibit upstairs on their construction phases over the years and Cy spent over half an hour up there looking at blueprints and drawings and reading every word. What I am sure you cannot tell from this pic is how it was on top of the world- the highest point we could see. I cannot imagine the labor involved in carrying and carting materials up that hill. We just stood in awe of this amazing structure and thinking about the peasants who had absolutely nothing to their name, but in blind devotion worked to build this magnificence. Was it devotion to their God? A land owner? I don't know, but it was amazing to witness the power that person had over the builders. 
I have many, many more pics but hope this gives you an idea of what can be seen, eaten, and accomplished in a 3 day weekend in Prague! And all for $100 out of pocket including the flight. Maybe you should give Rodan and Fields a try to get some trip money (haha) and if you have any questions about Prague or Rodan and Fields or travel hacking (how I got the free flights) I will be happy to try and help. Who knows, you could be started on your way to travel to the undiscovered and romantic places that are just waiting for you. Cy and I are already trying to figure out where to go next sans children. What about you?
