You probably didn’t even miss me.
For the last month, (until two days ago) I’ve actually been blogging from across the pond — in Prague, Czechia to be specific. My husband Jack had secured a 6-week Fulbright Specialist consultant position in that beautiful city, which he started on April 1. Ten days after he got there, I joined him, and had four wonderful weeks to explore and discover, and become part of the community of Prague, before returning to Webster very early Tuesday morning.
I knew there was no way I could take a vacation from blogging for that long. So, before I left town I worked hard on writing a handful of blogs in advance, and scheduled them to post automatically. It was business as usual the rest of the time, connecting with the community through emails and texts to find blog topics. In short, I posted something every day I was there. There were a few night owls who might have wondered why I was cross-posting them to Facebook at, like, 1 a.m. (7 a.m. Prague time), but otherwise I hope no one noticed any difference.
This was actually our second trip to Prague. Back in October, when we were pretty sure that Jack would be awarded the Fulbright grant, we decided to visit the city for a few weeks to get to know it. When we got there, we were tourists. By the time we left, we felt like part of the community. We had learned so much about the city, the tram system, the best beer gardens, and even got comfortable using some of the language.
Thanks to that experience, when we got to Prague this time, we already felt like we were part of the community. Plus, the fact that we were familiar with the basics — the money, the public transportation, the grocery stores and most popular tourist attractions — meant we were free to explore even more deeply and discover things we hadn’t done in October.
Jack’s Fulbright work left us plenty of time to do that exploring. We took day trips to the Pilsner Urquell brewery and a cute little town called Český Krumlov. I went on a river cruise and did a Haunted Old Town guided tour. We went to a monastery beer festival on Jack’s birthday, and had a traditional Czech dinner at a restaurant for mine. We enjoyed the Easter markets, went to a Witches’ Night festival, cheered on some marathon runners, saw a light show projected on a building, saw peeing statues and a huge rotating Kafka head. We drank a lot of really good (and inexpensive) beer. We had the luxury of time to really discover many more things than we had seen in October. I was even able to keep up with my half marathon training, running miles in a nearby park. (Not easily; Prague is exceptionally hilly.)
Plus, we had visitors, so we were able to play tour guide and introduce them to some of our favorite places in the city. But our guests had also done their own research and guided us to places and things we hadn’t seen and done before. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Even five years ago, there was no way we could have imagined that we’d spend more than a month living in a city in which we didn’t know the language, in a country I’d have had a hard time finding on a map. Now, though, I would definitely say that Prague is one of my favorite places to visit.
By the way, I did keep a travel blog for friends and family. It’s called “Czeching out Prague.” It goes into much more detail about what I did on our adventure and has a lot more photos. If you’ve made it this far, you might be interested in reading that. You can see it here.
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(posted 5/14/2025)
webster on the web 
Missy, thanks for the memories! Just after the Velvet Revolution in the 90s Tom taught every fall in Prague, and we loved the emerging culture, the recent and old history, the architecture, Much. I even found an old, building that I was sure I had lived in in another life! What a marvelous city and wonderful people. Thanks for sharing your pictures of the updated Prague! We would love to see your travel blog. Jane Hopkins
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What a nice comment! Knowing as much about Prague as you do, you’re sure to enjoy my blog. You’ll be my test case to see if you can access it directly through this link: https://czechingoutprague.substack.com/
Let me know if it works!
It works! Sending to my hubby
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Yay!
Welcome home! What fantastic pictures! Such a beautiful city! I think I would find it hard to come back to Webster after such a trip as you took. Thanks so much for sharing your experience 😀
Sharon Gavens
I would love access to your travel log.
Sharon Gavens
Hi Sharon! You should be able to access it directly at this link: https://czechingoutprague.substack.com/
Let me know if that doesn’t work! Thanks for being interested 🙂
wow, super….think you might find a way to share experiences with some Webster folk in the next few months…or year? – Dave
We MUST get together for coffee sometime soon. It’s been too long. Find a clear spot in your schedule and maybe I can pop by!
Missy, you are so amazing! How thoughtful of you and nice for us that you kept your blog going like that. I’m so glad you had the opportunity for such a neat trip. I’d love to read more about it.
And thank you. You have a wonderful way of ministering to all of us Webster folk. We are so fortunate that you are in our midst
Heather Himes
Get Outlook for Androidhttps://aka.ms/AAb9ysg
What wonderfully thoughtful things to say, thank you Heather! You should be able to get to the travel blog with this link: https://czechingoutprague.substack.com/ Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing your amazing experience!
So glad you enjoyed reading about it!
Wow, Missy! Sounds absolutely fabulous! Very happy for you to have experienced that!
Daphne Geoca
Recreation Supervisor
55+ Coordinator
Town of Webster Parks and Recreation
1350 Chiyoda Drive
Webster, NY 14580
585-872-7103 x 7105
websterny.gov/http://websterny.gov/104/parks-recreation702/parks-recreationhttp://websterny.gov/104/parks-recreation
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Thank you!
thanks for sharing ! I would love to read your travel blog,
You should be able to get to it with this link: https://czechingoutprague.substack.com/ Enjoy!
Could you be persuaded to give a travelogue at WPL this Autumn? I’d bet it would be packed (especially if you offered free samples of Czech pilsner …)
I’m not sure my ramblings measure up to the travelogues I’ve seen on the library schedule. But thanks for the thought 🙂