Farmers Market in Prague

After a week of being comfortably at home with my parents, visiting family and our cottage and so on, we went on to Czech Republic to spend a couple of days in Prague, the town where I spent the last seven years of my life.

The first thing we did the moment we got off the train was to deposit our bags in the hotel's baggage room and went oto the river to see one of the early morning farmers markets on the riverbank.

The atmosphere of these markets is incredible. The early morning people shopping for their weekend fruit and veg and the odd-bit hunters looking for interesting things at the flea markets plus all the casual strollers having their favourite cups of coffee, tasting various cakes and browsing through the handmade products from around the country whilst walking their dogs and children.

Ther ewas even a little flea market on an old boat.

Handmade baskets and pottery with the river in the background looked idyllic.

And with so much good food, there were always swans, pigeons and ducks to clean up the leftovers and beg for bits.

Summer in Prague is just amazing and there are farmers markets all the time. I could just stay there and have homemade cakes and good cappuccinos and lattes for breakfast every single day.

Visiting Jasovska jaskyna (Jasov Cave)

The cave is considered a national natural monument.

In 1995 it also became one of the sites of the world heritage.

The cave is located in the eastern part of Slovakia, not far from my hometown. It is a great system of many caverns on various different levels, which was made by now quite tiny river Bodva. Not all of the cave is accessible to the public, but the parts that are are definitely worth it. There are stalactites, stalagmites, stalagnates and a lot of other rock shapes, colonies of various species of bats and a couple of archaeological and historical relics.

The permission to take photographs costs more than a single person entry fee, so I gave that up, but there are lots of interesting photographs online (here)

Of course, there are rules when visiting caves.

The entrance to the cave is in the building
in the foyer of which there are maps and interesting
posters as well as some specimens from the cave.

Even though I did not take any photos inside
the cave, the forrest aroud the exit was interesting
enough. The top picture shows the area around
the old exit of the cave. It is currently barred up
and you cannot see into the cave at all, but what
you can do is come close to the gate and listen to
the colony of bats on the ceiling inside.

Chilling in Košice

Another summer holiday is nearly over, but before I go and fuly throw myself into the perils of a teacher's life, I would love to recap the summer in a couple of blog posts. 
My first stop this summer was my Slovakian hometown Košice.

The theatre and the singing fountain - during the day and at night.

The good food. From top left: traditional halušky, Gran's stuffed chicken with rice, Gran's soup with meaty dumplings and homemade noodles, Grandma's pork with cabbage and potato dumplings. Yum!

Urban's tower in the centre of Košice.

The little cafe in the lane of crafts.

St Elizabeth's Cathedral at night. A little shame about the scaffolding, but that only means they are making it nicer ;-)

It was two lovely weeks of seeing friends, visiting family, eating out or endulging in my Mum's and Grandma's cooking, admiring the cathedral, theatre and singing fountain in the town centre and overall (mostly) having a good time.

Amy's New Red Octohug

I cannot believe that until now I have not had the time to make my niece an octohug. Of course, I have made other toys for her, like the blue owl, blanket for her doll or biscuits, but no octohugs. So now I sat down and made one. She took some time warming up to it, but I think they're pretty good friends now :)