Organ and Didgeridoo (but not together)
Last night was a great night for music. First I went to an incredible organ concert at St. James Basilica in Prague's Old Town. Then on the way home, I saw a couple of guys busking who were possibly...
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Enlinking the Caucasus from Tbilisi to Yerevan
We took the Envoy Hostel Enlinking the Caucasus Tour to get from Tbilisi, Georgia to Yerevan, Armenia, via a scenic route. The tour is described like this, and my selection of photos here follows this...
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Yerevan, Armenia sights
Phin and I were able to walk around Yerevan and see quite a few things. Here are some of them.Manhole covers reading "telefon" in Russian:One of the LDS (Mormon) churches in Yerevan, Armenia. We...
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Prague in mid-September
Here are some interesting buildings in the area we live. This one is the (Jan) Hus House, home of the Czech Brothers' Evangelical Church (or so the front says -- I'm not sure if it's still the case or...
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Home Schooling Dream vs. Reality Our initial home schooling dream had the kids studying Latin and Greek, speaking German fluently, finished with Calculus and starting college courses by the time they...
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Ejmiatsin, Armenia
Phin and I visited Vagharshapat, Armenia, about 18 km away from Yerevan. There was supposedly a marshrutka or bus that went there, but we couldn't find it and ended up taking an absurdly cheap old Lada...
View ArticleA conversation in Czech
Yesterday, Jon and I had a real conversation in Czech with our neighbor. It's true that we didn't understand every word and that there was a lot of repetition and rewording. But we figured things out...
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Road work in Prague
It seems like most of central Prague is cobblestone streets and sidewalks. Here's what it looks like when they do road work: Well, I guess they're probably working on something under the road. They...
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Koněpruské Jeskyně (Koněprusy Caves)
Last weekend, we took the train southwest of Prague to Beroun and then a 15-minute bus ride to Koněprusy Caves, a series of caves discovered in the '50s and since opened to the public. We went with a...
View ArticleMore awesome buskers and the astronomical clock
Two videos of Bohemian Bards playing at Staroměstské Náměstí (Old Town Square) in Prague. My videos are not very good, but these guys are great musicians! Also, I don't think I've posted a video of the...
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Prague in October
It's time for me to catch up in recounting many anecdotes from our life in Prague thus far in October.We all went on a walk on a sunny day in the park Obora Hvězda:A few weeks ago I broke fillings in...
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All Saints Church Pocklington
In June and July we lived in Pocklington, East Yorkshire. In the middle of town is All Saints Church, the only church we got to know that I haven't written about here yet. We could see its tower...
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Mira's baptism
On Saturday, October 19, Mira was baptized by Jon at the LDS church building in Prague. We tried to talk her into getting baptized in the river, but she didn't find that idea appealing. We were happy...
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Final few weeks in Prague
Last Monday was a Czech holiday to celebrate the founding of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. The “founding father” of Czechoslovakian independence was Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who is widely...
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Pravoslavný chrám Zvěstování Přesvaté Bohorodice v Praze
Phin a já jsme viděli tento chrám nedávno. Jmenuje se Zvěstování Přesvaté Bohorodice. Našli jsme ho náhodou, když se jsme běželi blizko Vyšehradu. To je první pravoslavný kostel, ve kterém jsme byli v...
View ArticleSalt Lake City drug and police reform
I was surprised the other day to come across an informative six-part series in the Huffington Post about police reform and the drug war focused on Salt Lake City. I had not heard about several of the...
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Welcome to Plovdiv, Bulgaria
We arrived in Plovdiv, Bulgaria a little under a week ago. It is a very old city. Not old the way many cities in Europe are old, but rather dating all the way back to 3000-4000 BC. I didn't know there...
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Graffiti in Plovdiv
Continuing Erin's tradition of posting photos of graffiti (Prague graffiti, Dresden graffiti) for her uncle Howard Gribble, here is some we saw in our first few days in Plovdiv.Portrait graffiti on...
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More script-form Cyrillic
Here are some more examples of mind-tickling Cyrillic. This top word is a really common thing to see in the city: apteka (meaning apothecary = pharmacy), written аптека in block Cyrillic but looking...
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Plovdiv cemeteries
The other day I visited the 5 main cemeteries of Plovdiv which are all clustered together. They're in this neighborhood:Coming from the east, the first one is the Catholic cemetery (Католически...
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