Retrospective #1

It has been a while since I've done a proper blog post about anything, and for that I apologise. Adjusting to life in the states has been slow. Life seems kind of muted when compared to the grand adventure that our summer has been. There is still so much to write about! It might be a never-ending task to catch up with it all. So for right now, I will just tell you about the trip home, but I definitely want to share a few anecdotes in future posts.

The last full day in Prague was one dedicated to packing and getting the last few gifts we could find. It was kind of hectic, but we had a good time. We went to Maitrea again for dinner, and had the most delicious beet pancakes for what we assumed to be the lat time for a while (it turns out they're easy to make at home, and just as delicious), and then went to Letna park. I really like that park so much. It is so relaxing to just walk around, look at the city, watch people playing with their dogs, and sit under the gentle whine of the Metronome. Just writing about it is making me homesick, or rather, Praguesick.

We got up just before the crack of dawn, and got all our affairs in order. We could have watched the sun rise, but didn't have the time. That's one of my regrets for this trip - we never got to watch the sun rise. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back...

But anyway, we got the the airport via public transportation, which was quite an adventure when we had four heavy suitcases plus carry-on. We checked in with very little trouble, and started heading to the gate. By the way, the security in the rest of the world is a lot more passenger-friendly than the TSA. We didn't need to take our shoes off, which doesn't seem like a big deal until you have to pass through security three times on the way home. Leaving Prague was hard. Of course, so was leaving the apartment, getting on the bus, and even leaving Letna the night before, so whatever.

Amsterdam was interesting. It was reminiscent of London, in that the airport was one huge shopping mall, and that certain aspects of the airport and its inhabitants could be deemed adorable. And we met the best customs agents ever. My customs agent quizzed me on the X-men, and asked if I was really American when I failed to correctly identify the Ice man. I talked about it with Lauren afterwards, and when her customs agent saw where she was going, he remarked "Ah! Newark! The happiest place on Earth."

Speaking of Newark, arriving there was kind of a startling re-entry to the states. It was busy, and crowded, and everything was running late. Oh, and everyone spoke English, which was really weird. Lauren actually said "Excuse me" in Czech at the customs checkpoint.

Getting back to Denver was kind of nice, and it was wonderful to see family and start distributing gifts and stories. It's nice to hear what everyone else did with their summers, and to learn about all the absolutely insane things my sister did (catching a parasite in India? Heleskiing in New Zealand!?)

And I think Lauren mentioned this in the previous post, but we've gotten a whole ton of film developed. I've uploaded every roll save one, which will probably be uploaded at some future point. And there's still about 2000 digital pictures to upload... But you can see what we've got on the two flickr accounts, though it may soon be three flickr accounts just so we can get it all up.

More photos!

You can find them on our respective flickr accounts:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurengolder/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcbrown/

Reflective posts to come soon!