Ah, have I mentioned how much I love vacation?We woke up this morning, grabbed a coffee and walked up to the Prague Castle. It's about 1.5 miles from where we're staying, which isn't so bad. It was a beautiful walk over the Charles Bridge and to a different area of town.When we arrived, there was some sort of military ceremony going on (I believe it happens each day at noon) which was interesting. Just seeing the soldiers march in the "Russian" fashion in full uniform was neat. The ceremony mostly just was a lot of stomping and sword pointing and gun showmanship -- but interesting nonetheless. The photo above is of the soldiers arriving in front of the castle -- the black and white made it feel straight out of the 40s, I thought.While at the castle we explored the main cathedral, several parts of the old castle (including the dungeons, which was one of the best parts by far! You should have seen the torture devices!), a monastery and the small "village" where the staff and village workers lived. That part was interesting as you could visit the homes of, say, the blacksmith or the seamstress, which were so modest. Also, it was interesting how short the doors were! Tiny, tiny people back then!After the castle, we meandered over to "John Lennon Wall" where the wall is covered in graffiti. The guidebooks said it was all Beatles graffiti and that it annoyed communist leaders to no end, but when we arrived the graffiti covered much more than the Beatles -- some even quoted Harry Potter. There was also a busker along the wall who played nothing but Beatles tunes (obviously).But the best treat was on the other side of the wall, where there was a hidden garden cafe that was empty. We had a marvelous lunch, and it was quite a find.Beyond that, the day has consisted of finishing up in Prague, and we are now at a cafe sipping wine while we wait to walk to the train station for tonight's trip to Poland.Before we leave Prague though, I wanted to note a few random thoughts about the city -- these are by no means complaints, just rather observations.• You will never get a refill of water or wine. No one will ask if you want more. But if you're drinking beer, they will just bring you more glasses without asking.• Water is only five cents less than wine, and in some places beer is cheaper than water.• Breakfast often includes cold cuts.• The people here are much taller than in France, Italy or Spain.• The cars here are more normal sized like you see in the U.S. (some SUVs even). Hardly any bikes or scooters, like Italy and Spain.• There are buskers EVERYWHERE playing everything from violin to guitar to the bassoon. It's wonderful.To see all of my images from today, you can look over here. Enjoy! Oh, and there are photos of the "love lock bridge" here in Prague. It's where lovers go and put their names on a padlock, attach it to a bridge and throw the key into the river as a show of their eternal love. No, we didn't have a lock. But I do find the idea very romantic...

Man, today was a good day. We were going to wake up and hit the Prague castle before 9 am... but when we woke up it was 11. And hooray for sleeping in! In the most comfortable bed ever!So we slowly made our way out the door for brunch (crepes filled with mushrooms, onions, turkey and bacon) and then meandered over to the Jewish Quarter. Here we explored several synagogues, but the most fascinating part by far was the cemetery. In the 15th to 18th century, Jews were not allowed to live or buy land outside of the Jewish quarter. This meant that they had to put everyone in the same cemetery. It's against their religion to desecrate a grave in any way, so they would simply cover existing graves with more soil, and rebury the dead on top of other graves. But they would lift out the old tombstone and then put them next to each other. So what you ended up with was a sort of "hill" with all of these ancient tombstones. It was fascinating (and depressing), to say the least.After that, we grabbed a wonderful lunch at what we thought was a coffee shop but after eating there, we're pretty sure it was a gay bar. Or a gay coffee shop. Or whatever -- we're open. It's just funny how in Europe you stumble into the most unexpected places because you don't speak the language. Anyway, the servers were all extremely attractive (of course), the food was amazing (of course) and we had a marvelous time.Next we headed back to the Old Town Square because I wanted to climb to the top of the clock tower and take photos of Prague (see one of the images above). It was a lovely evening, and the views were fantastic. And then we walked around some more and then it was time for dinner!Man, vacations rule.So next we found this restaurant that was in a dungeon basement that was from the 12th century! It was the greatest atmosphere. Lots of tiny rooms with stone cellar walls and arched doorways and candlelight. We opted for a traditional Czech dinner and I had Goulash with dumplings and Jamie had some sort of chicken in paprika gravy with dumplings. The stew was great, as were the dumplings, but the meat was cooked too tough for our taste. Anyway, the atmosphere more than made up for it, and it was very reasonably priced.After dinner, we (finally) made it to Vzorkouna, which was a bar that Astronautalis had insisted we visit. He was not wrong. It was a complete dive and totally wonderful. There was a band on stage (stand-up bass, guitar and accordion) with a beautiful blonde singer who performed songs in Czech, French and English. It was an amazing performance and the beer was cheap. A wonderful end to the day.Tomorrow is our last day in Prague before we hop on the overnight train to Krakow. To see the rest of today's photos (including the graveyard) look over here.

So today was pretty awesome... once we got to the hotel. It's always so disorientating to arrive in a foreign city that you've never visited before and don't speak the language on about 4 hours of sleep and try to navigate your way through public transportation to the hotel*. But when you do it? You feel like a freakin' champion. And then you lay down and take a 2 hour nap in an attempt to feel human again.But after that, things got good. We walked around the neighborhood (which is amazing) and over a bridge to this memorial for victims of communism and then meandered back to the hotel. Oh! But in between all of that we stopped at a tea room for coffee and snacks and it was gorgeous. I took a photo of the ceiling that you can see along with my other photos from today over here. Oh, and that reminds me, I'm posting a ton of photos over on Instagram as well, so if you have a smartphone, you should follow me there (@plesserchick, obviously).After our walk and nap, we met up with Brian, who is on of Jamie's brother's old college roommates. He's lived here (or in Eastern Europe) on and off since 1995, and he was a fantastic tour guide. We visited several beer halls and some hidden gems and in general got a great foundation tour of the city.Tonight we're heading to bed a tad early so that we can hit the ground running tomorrow. But so far my impressions are that the city is gorgeous and the people are amazingly friendly and almost all of them speak English. Thank God because that Czech I learned? It will only get me so far.* Our hotel is truly phenomenal. Should you ever be visiting Prague and need a suggestion, please let me know.

Today was mostly a travel day... if you exclude that part where Memphis figured out we were abandoning her and followed us around the house with the SADDEST FACE EVER.So then we, um, abandoned her, and headed to the airport. We're now in NYC waiting for our flight to Prague. PRAGUE! I GET TO GO TO PRAGUE! Sorry. I've been so busy just getting ready for this trip that I haven't really thought much about OHMYGOD I AM GOING TO EASTERN EUROPE. Maybe I should play it cool like this is no big deal. But that's not really my style.Many photos to follow. Be patient.

Man, today was hard work. I slept in a little (9 am) before finishing up the wedding blog post from last week (which you can see here), and then I spent the next TEN HOURS cleaning the house, doing laundry and cooking food for this damn golden retriever.Preparing four meals a day for 11 days of dog-sitting on this home-made diet is a ton of work. That's 44 meals! Plus a few alternates in case her taste changes! I guess it's pretty obvious who's the "master" in this relationship, eh? Whatever, the guilt of leaving them for this long will make me do anything it takes to keep them happy. At least we know that they will have an awesome fill-in staying at the house while we're gone.Um... now it's 10 pm and I guess I should, uh, pack.Oh, and there is more than just cheerios in those containers. That's the fill-in carb that takes up the most room. I would not complain this much about pouring cereal, trust me.Oh! And also! These photos were taken with my BRAND NEW IPHONE 5. I'm not sure I like the filters I chose on them, but I'm too tired to futz any longer. I'm hoping my instagram feed gets much better with the shiny new camera :)

So this photo is not from today. Obviously, it's from the wedding I shot last weekend, and I'm cheating on my daily blog. But I'll tell you why! I took a photo today, and it got erased (ah, technology). I had worked on processing these wedding photos all day today, and I felt like posting one of them would be a better representation of my day (and more interesting) than posting a photo that I shot at 10 pm in a panic because my original file was deleted. But enough excuses.Today I woke up feeling even sicker, and because I don't want to a) travel on a 9-hour plane ride with a head cold or b) have to find antibiotics while using my broken Czech skillz, I decided to go to the doctorThey did give me antibiotics, but they also insisted on an updated tetanus shot before I flew as well as a whooping cough vaccine. They also wanted me to have the flu vaccine, but frankly with my combined illness and the other 2 shots, I told them I'd pass. I might regret that later, but whateverI asked them if there would be any side effects to these shots and was told my arm would be sore. Eight hours later my arm is sore, I have a blinding headache and I'm achy all over. And because I've also got this lovely sinus infection, my throat is sore and I'm hacking away. So yeah, things are LOVELY over here right now. Not cursing that doctor at all.So I'm going to head off to bed early and try to feel better because my to-do list for tomorrow is about 700 miles long. And that doesn't even include the voodoo ceremony to pay the doctor back for this ill deed. (Kidding, mom, relax.)But back to the photo, how wonderful is this couple? I love photographing happiness.