Today I wanted to give you all a little tour of our neighborhood here in Prague, so you could catch a little glimpse of what life is like for an American mommy living in Europe. I’ll show you the street we live on, our local grocery store, our local health food store, the park nearby, and a few other little things in the blocks right around our house.
A little background which you may or may not find interesting…
Prague is made up of a number of different quarters. We live in Karlin, which was the first district to be built just outside the walls of old Prague and is situated just to the east of city center, along the river. It was first established as a town in the early 1800’s and grew very quickly. It’s proximity to Wenceslas Square and Old Town Square made it appealing then and continue to make it an appealing district today. Industrial plants played an important part in the areas original development as well, with a number of significant factories located in Karlin. Today most of those old factory buildings have been turned into office buildings and shops.
Karlin became part of Greater Prague in 1922 and has sense then gone through many transitions. Originally it was a very nice area to live in with a lot of money poured into the beautiful buildings and architecture. One site I read said this about it, “This area was very, very interesting from a social point of view… The bourgeoisie lived here together with workers, and there were no social problems. The whole spectrum of society lived together in Karlin.” In the 1950’s the area began to decline and eventually it got a little bit of a bad reputation.
In 2002, the whole area was completely flooded. Karlin had the most damage from the flood and the whole district was two or three meters under water. This meant that after the flood there was a lot of reconstruction in the area and many of the old buildings were redone. Some are still being re-built and renovated. All this construction gave Karlin a new image and a number of new companies moved into the area.
I kind of feel like, now, Karlin has returned back to its roots of being a place where “the whole spectrum of society” lives together.
Well, here’s a little bit of Karlin for you to enjoy!
Rejoicing in the journey-
Bethany Stedman
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Beth Stedman. wife. mommy. daughter. friend. homemaker. sinner. believer. writer. cook. dreamer. artist. yogi. photographer. 
How did I miss that you were in Europe?! Nearer than I realised – I love Prague, though haven’t been for a while and my husband, who’s in films works there sometimes, though last long overseas trip was to Budapest (the ‘new’ Prague, ha, not a chance!) What’s the food like, it is quite different from the old Eastern-bloc country I visited about 20 years ago for the first time now – don’t know about Prague but in the countryside in Hungary my husband’s driver used to take me to a tiny village where an old man decanted fresh, raw milk and the most wonderful sour cream into unmarked containers from a little van shaped like a large, horizontal milk churn! Hope you can find good stuff too!
Beth, LOVED LOVED LOVED seeing you and Thad in video…. loved seeing Prague too! It looks incredibly beautiful and peaceful. Thad is so cute. Hope to see more videos coming soon, and if by chance you make it to southern california on your trip to the states please let me know, would love to have coffee or see you at Grandmas or something..
Karen, Oh, it’s alwasy so fun to meet others who have been to “our” city! I had no idea your husband is in film’s that’s really fun! And I love your story about finding fresh milk in the countryside in Hungary! I am sure there are places like that around here, but I haven’t been able to find them yet. I struggle often to find good food here and I’m still trying to figure it out. It would be a lot easier if I spoke more Czech, but learning the language has been a very slow process for me. Our local BIO stores are pretty good sources for somethings, but I haven’t had much luck finding much variety when it comes to local and/or organic produce and I’ve been completely unable to figure out how to find a good source for meat (one of my biggest frustrations currently). I did recently find out about a local farm that sells gently pasteurized milk and need to talk to them to see if they would sell us some raw milk, but haven’t had a chance to yet. Anyway, that’s a little bit of our food journey here. I’m hoping it will get better as I learn more Czech!
Thanks for sharing about your Prague/Eastern Europe experiences – I loved hearing them!
Sandra, I’m so glad you enjoyed the video! I was just thinking that I need to email you and some others with our plans for the states so that we can get together. I have been so distracted lately I haven’t really told any of our friends and family yet that we were going to be in the states or what our schedule was! But, yes, I’d love to see you! We’ll be in Cali the second week of August I think for my dad’s dad’s birthday and family reunion. I’ll find out the schedule and let you know when we could get together
I seriously teared up watching this. Thad is just adorable and how I miss Prague and walking-culture. And, how I imagine we’d walk together with Thad and Isabelle and Isaiah running around us entertaining the kids….someday we will be back for a visit! Someday! Thanks for posting that video! It touched my heart.