Even though Stockholm is at the northern point of Europe, it is a 2-3-hour flight to reach alot of new places that we’d never been to before. When a couple of my sisters came to visit us in Stockholm one winter, the three of us craved an unplanned 48 hours.
Prague’s flights were cheap, it wasn’t the tourist time of year, so we hopped on a plane flew a few hours and landed in a completely new culture, to spend a weekend of fun, a lot of laughs, heaps of walking and just hanging out. Sophia was also with us, in my stomach I was 16 weeks pregnant.
Snow is still the environmental theme. Stockholm had been home base for just over a year, when the sisters came to visit. Stockholm is unique, but it is not on the “we were just passing by” radar. You have to make a special effort to get there, but it is worth it, 100% definitely put on the bucket list to experience a Scandinavian summertime.
It is lovely to have visitors when you are living overseas, especially when it is family, you just pick up where you left off, no explaining to do. I’d been speaking Sw-English (English mixed with terrible broken Swedish) for 12 months, it’s a relief to joke without words.
Knowing they were on their way; I didn’t want to frighten them, by mention we were heading into a pretty cold time of year. It turned out to be one of the coldest winters ever, dropping to -25 degrees when the sun was shining, and it gets dark at 2.30pm. Don’t let this deter you because it is beautiful to experience from the window of a cosy Scandinavian coffee house, drinking endless cups of hot chocolate with freshly baked cinnamon bulla.
But when the girls arrived in denim jeans and leather jackets, whilst this is timeless it is not going to keep the chills away from the bones, so we had to raid friends’ and family’s wardrobes for winter clothing. When they stepped out in their groovy snow gear, we could have done an Ad campaign for a vintage ABBA reunion poster, they looked like 70’s Swedish snow bunnies.
Ok, all dressed lets go ice skiing, I was pregnant so had to be the by stander, or the “I’ll walk behind you and catch you, if you fall” But seeing my sisters out there on the ice in -20degrees, never having ice skated before in someone else’s clothes was a true reflection of their spirit. We lasted 30 minutes, tick that off the list. Ice skating on a beautiful peaceful lake in the heart of Sweden. Done.
We decided to do a spur of the moment adventure, the best kind, where shall we go? Prague was never on the list, but the flights were cheap, it was only 2.5 hours from Stockholm super easy, lets go. Off we head for the weekend, of eating, walking, photo taking, cheese platter eating and beer drinking.
I don’t remember a lot of the precise details, but I do remember climbing up the hill to stand and look back on the beautiful city, walking through the old city, sleeping in a foreign unit, but warmed by my sister company. There is something about an old city, that captures you the minute you land, the architecture, the bridges, the stones of layered memories. I just enjoy getting lost in amongst the streets and through the back streets especially, this is where you find the hidden treasures.
Looking at this now, I see the memories are made with the people you hang with. Doing something spare of the moment makes you feel alive and Prague was a safe place for 3 Australian sisters, to wonder freely.
Lovely things to do in Prague...
- Walk across Charles Bridge
- Check out the beautiful and intriguing Astronomical Clock
- Eat cheese platters and drink beer.
- Walk through the tiny narrow windy streets of the old town.
- Stand in the old town square and stare at one of Europe’s largest castles.
- Laugh so hard with your travelling gang and make good memories.
Love always, Emma
