Rebekah's day off

Two weeks ago on Saturday Petr gave me the day off - the entire day! After we all awoke, I fed Magdalena breakfast and got dressed and left our apartment around 8am. Relaxation and quietude were mine all day. Here, dear Reader, you will learn the happenings of my day.

Fresh pastries from the metro station's bakery and book in hand, I strolled through Vyšehrad until finding a bench overlooking the city. I enjoyed every morsel of pastry as I took in the beauty of Prague, Vltava River, and nature surrounding me...then sat for close to an hour reading For the Love of Prague by Gene Deitch¹.

My stomach and mind satiated, I continued along the path until coming to the Gotický Sklep-Expozice (Gothic Cellar-Exposition) of Vyšehrad and ventured indoors to the chilly dankness of underground. The room wasn't so large, but it held treasures unburied in excavation digs on site, beautiful pictures and reprints of paintings of Vyšehrad through the centuries, and ecclessiastical parapharnalia related to the cemetary by the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul. I read every sentence on the display boards without having to run off mid-word to catch a little one! Ah, the pleasures of written words!

An hour later, I found myself in a brief chat with the exposition's caretaker before heading out the door. "What next?" I thought to myself and then saw the little art gallery lodged in a house built into the fort wall. For $0.50 I was able to take in the beauty created by a local artist, quite well known here, and see how much the peices were selling for - some were up to 52,000kc (about $2,600)!

By this time I was more than a bit hungry. Pastries may be delicious, but they certainly aren't filling for long! So, off I went to an Italian restaurant for an early lunch and some time answering questions in my accountability group workbook.

For the remainder of my free day I walked around the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, through the adjoining cemetary, and to Cream and Dream for ice cream with Sunny and Stacy. Stacy and I hadn't ever met before but it was just as much fun spending time with her as it would have been with another friend of old - she's super nice, a Christian, an American, and married to a Slovak!

When I arrived home giggles were coming from the bathroom. Poking my head through the door, I saw Magdalena with her little bath toy buckets - one on each hand and another balancing on her left foot as she held it above the water! She and Daddy had had a fun-filled day and had even managed a grocery store trip, too! I'm thinking this "day off" practice needs to be repeated - and I don't mean after another 16 months! :)

¹If you're living in Prague, read it now! If you've been to Prague or plan on coming sometime soon - read it now! Even if you will never touch European soil, I recommend this book. It has humorous antics, reveals the red-tape/paper-work craze of Communism, and enlightens the reader on how socialism effected and continues to affect Czech life. Thanks, Momma, for buying it for me!