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Christmas 2019 – Sweden

December 29, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

Our initial plan was to be elsewhere during Christmas, but several things made us rethink and spend this year’s Christmas with family, so Sweden it is for us this year.

It is Othilia’s second Christmas, but the first one she can walk around and touch things. We were excited for her to experience snow, but it looks like we have a daughter that prefers the summer months of Europe. Othilia is a bit reserved about snow, darkness and coldness. We put her down on the ground when we go out with her and she just looks sceptical at the snow and then reaches her arms toward us and wants to be carried most of the time we are out. We got snow for Christmas so at least us parents were happy. Pictures from our Christmas are coming below. Merry Yule and a happy new year!

Vår första plan var att vara någon annanstans under julen, men det var flera saker som fick oss att tänka om och tillbringa årets jul med våra familjer, så Sverige blev det för oss i år.

Det är Othilias andra jul, men det är den första som hon kan gå runt och röra saker själv. Vi var glada för att Othilia får uppleva snö, men det ser ut som om vi har en dotter som uppskattar Europas sommarmånader mer. Otilia är inte särskilt exalterad över snö, mörker och kyla. Vi sätter ned henne på marken när vi går ut med henne och hon ser bara skeptiskt på snön och sträcker sedan armarna mot oss och vill bäras mesta delen av tiden vi är ute. Vi fick snö till jul så åtminstone vi föräldrar var glada. Bilder från vår jul kommer nedan. God jul och gott nytt år!

Walking short distances was alright, but most often she wanted to be carried.

Balls are always fun according to Othilia.

We had a few christmas smorgasbord (julbord). The first one out was a vegetarian one. It was interesting to try, but let’s say that we prefer an original one with meat.

Othilia found stuffed animals here and she liked them a lot. Her hair is getting longer, we are letting it grow so up to this point no scissor has yet touched her hair.

We met with our friend Lynn (she met up with us both in Netherlands and in Czech Republic) and Othilia recognized her immediately.

The snow disappeared just before Christmas, but it would return on Christmas Eve, the day we are celebrating Yule.

Christmas smorgasbord number 2, with a lot more meat on it.

We had Christmas gifts opening several times during Christmas.

A lot of lamps and other things Othilia wasn’t allowed to touch. It was an interesting experience to walk around here with her. The Coca-cola truck was on display, a famous Coca-Cola Christmas commercial for no use, the Swedes mostly buy julmust during December.

Another Swedish tradition during Christmas is to watch old Disney clips on the TV every year at 3 pm on Christmas eve for one hour. This is the most famous clip shown during this hour of Disney.

Christmas smorgasbord number 3 on the actual day we celebrate, Christmas eve.

Ulrika and Othilia next to the Christmas tree.

The snow came back so we explored the winter landscape with Othilia.

Othilia would only stand on the ground next to lights. The darkness up here in the North require a few shining trees. This was not so late in the afternoon and complete darkness surrounds us.

Next Christmas tree and Othilia in our arms. At 15 months, Othilia’s word knowledge has increased and it is mostly Swedish word she knows and say right now. In Swedish she can say: mer, igen, lampa, mamma, pappa, titta, “vaärde?” (vad är det?), tack and hejdå, but a few English words are in her vocabulary (mummy, daddy and happy). She of course understands a lot more words than she can say at the moment.

And more Christmas presents to be opened. We want to thank our families for all the lovely gifts Othilia got this Christmas!

Merry Yule everyone and we are looking forward to what the year 2020 will bring. Happy new year!

Nomads on family vacation – Lanzarote

December 23, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

Our journey North would bring us all the way to Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands along the coast of Africa’s horn, but belonging to Spain. This time we would not be alone traveling.

We met up with Ulrika’s family in Sweden so we could go on a family vacation together. The last time we did such a thing was in 2017 when Ulrika’s sister Rebecca was expecting Filip and Ulrika’s family met up with us in Indonesia (Bali, Gili Air, Lombok and then Bali again).

This time we had two more people with us, Othilia and Filip, and it was lovely for them to spend so much time together. There will be a lot of pictures of them below!

Vår resa norr skulle ta oss hela vägen till Lanzarote, en av Kanarieöarna längs med Afrikas horn, men tillhörande Spanien. Den här gången skulle vi inte resa ensamma.

Vi mötte upp med Ulrikas familj i Sverige så att vi kunde åka på familjesemester tillsammans. Förra gången vi gjorde något sådant var 2017 när Ulrikas syster Rebecca väntade Filip och Ulrikas familj träffade oss i Indonesien (Bali, Gili Air, Lombok och sedan Bali igen).

Den här gången hade vi ytterligare två personer med oss, Othilia och Filip, och det var underbart för dem att spendera så mycket tid tillsammans. Det kommer finnas en hel del bilder på dem nedan!

With a family spread out in the world, Ulrika’s mother managed to gather all her children and grandchildren for a vacation together on Lanzarote with the focus on these two – Filip and Othilia.

The flight down to the Canary Islands went so smooth with the young ones. There were a lot of families with small children on this flight so imagine the noise level. However, Filip and Othilia were so calm and happy so they even got praise from our flight chair neighbors for handling the 6 hour flight so well.

This family vacation was all about letting our kids play in and around water. So they did! It will be a lot of pool pictures below.

The first evening enjoying the sunset. It was so magical. Especially for the family members that had been in Sweden during November, not many hours of sun in that month.

Othilia and Filip loved to run around on the beach and walk next to the ocean.

Here is Othilia running down to the beach. She is not as fast as Filip, that is why we haven’t any pictures from him running around.

Another sunset on this island formed from volcanic activity.

We usually don’t live like this while we are traveling. Traveling for us is a life style. This was a vacation 🙂

Lots of play and swimming in the pool during the days.

Mormor (maternal grandma) is a crocodile!

It was a hotel designed for families with young kids so Filip and Othilia had plenty of things to do there.

Not only water play was on our daily activity plan.

Pontus were up taking his morning walk and managed to capture the view in the morning as well.

Othilia developed tremendously during this week. She was a bit reserved playing in the water in the beginning of the week.

A few days later she had mastered the arm puffs and was now swimming and turning in the water and even dared to jump from the stairs into our arms. Filip, on the other hand, is a fish in the water and can remain in the water for hours if allowed.

Here is Othilia jumping in the water. Brave girl!

We had an amazing sunset one evening from the boardwalk in Puerto del Carmen.

Ulrika managed to capture four planets in one picture. From the top: Saturn, Venus, Jupiter and Tellus. The planets were almost aligned in the sky.

Ulrika’s brother Niklas and his girlfriend Caroline were with us! Niklas had just come home from Mali so he was freezing here on Lanzarote. We did have lovely weather the week we where here though, he was just used to much warmer weather!

The hotel also had a children’s pool that was played in as well. Filip wanted to be in the deeper pool so he was often climbing out of there.

Othilia got tired of all the play during the days. She slept really well on a sunbed next to the children’s pool.

Filip and Othilia tried going into the ocean one afternoon, but Othilia was not a fan of the waves.

Our last evening on our family vacation on Lanzarote and we went back to the restaurant we all liked the most – Royal in Puerto del Carmen. One didn’t want to be in any pictures so that is why we have a blob sitting at the table 🙂

The week went so fast and soon it was time for Othilia’s second flight in her life. It went as smooth as the first flight so we are now not concerned taking Othilia on longer flights.

Back in Sweden and now it was time for Christmas celebrations with our families – Othilia’s second Christmas in her life! Thanks Louise and Marika for lending us a few suitcases!

A road trip through Poland

December 19, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

Approximately one hour from Prague lies Poland. We haven’t thought about taking the route North passed Poland before, but this time we did. We felt a bit anxious, but also excited, when we decided to take this way.

It is almost 800 km to Gdansk (Northern Poland) from Prague (Czech Republic), so we picked a random town along our path and booked a room for one night. It ended up being Świebodzin and what we didn’t know was that we would be sleeping next to a giant version of Jesus the King (Poland is Catholic).

We had heard that the roads in Poland were not great so we had calculated a large margin for when we had to be in Gdansk. We thought that the roads we used were good, so traveling from South to North was no problem for us. We also used the few toll roads that Poland has and they were really easy to use. You collect a ticket when driving on to them and then pay at a booth, either with cash (złoty or Euro) or card, when you drive off the toll road.

We stopped at Toruń for lunch and we still had a good margin to when we needed to check-in for our journey over the Baltic sea, so we had time to walk around in one of Polands oldest cities.

Cirka en timme från Prag ligger Polen. Vi hade inte tänkt på att ta rutten norrut genom Polen tidigare, men den här gången gjorde vi det. Vi kände oss lite oroliga, men också förväntansfulla, när vi bestämde oss för denna väg.

Det är nästan 800 km till Gdansk (norra Polen) från Prag (Tjeckien), så vi valde en slumpmässig stad längs vår väg och bokade ett rum för en natt. Det slutade med att vi hamnade i Świebodzin och vad vi inte visste var att vi skulle sova bredvid en jätteversion av kungen Jesus (Polen är katolskt).

Vi hade hört att vägarna i Polen inte var så bra så vi hade räknat med en hel del marginal till när vi var tvungna att vara i Gdansk. Vi tyckte att vägarna vi använde var bra, så att resa från söder till norr var inget problem för oss. Vi använde oss också av de få tullvägar som Polen har och de var riktigt enkla att använda. Du tar en biljett när du kör på tullvägen och betalar sedan vid ett bås, antingen med kontanter (złoty eller Euro) eller kort, när du kör av tullvägen.

Vi stannade vid Toruń för lunch. Vi hade fortfarande en god marginal till när vi behövde checka in för vår resa över Östersjön, så vi hade tid att promenera runt i en av Polands äldsta städer.

Othilia on her way and taking her parents with her through Poland.

The last thing we did before leaving Prague was to visit Othilia’s pediatrician. Then we were on the road.

We divided our journey through Poland into two days. Othilia is great during travel, but we don’t want to push it so it is better to travel more slowly with her. Our first night in Poland we found a local pizza place with great and cheap food.

We had booked a hotel in Świebodzin and without us realizing it, we were going to sleep next to a giant Jesus statue. This is biggest Jesus statue in Europe – 33 meters high.

Day 2 in Poland and we got a tip to stop in Toruń on our way North. We happened to pass Toruń around lunch time so we decided to have lunch in this old town.

Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The first settlement has been dated back to the 8th century.

Toruń wasn’t so affected by bombings during World War II. Especially, the old town was left intact so all of the important architectural monuments are originals here.

The astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born here in Toruń and he stands as a statue next to the Toruń Cathedral.

We ate lunch and tried Polish pasties. They were really good, and cheap! Othilia got potato pancakes and Ulrika ate most of them, so delicious!

We went to Nicolaus Copernicus’s house after lunch. It is a museum, but we didn’t have time to go inside today. We had a ferry to catch and we still had 180 km to drive this day.

The journey through Poland went smooth and we arrived exactly when we wanted at the check-in in Gdansk. We tried a new ferry company, Polferries, and we slept really well on their ferry. We had crossed the Baltic sea, and soon it was time for Othilia’s first flight!

Zoo and the National Museum in November

December 14, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

November came and the sun had a harder time to stay up during the days. We had to dig up our winter clothes so that we could enjoy our last days here.
We managed to tick of a few things on our list, things we wanted to do before we left Prague. We wanted to take Othilia to the Zoo and see how it could be when the temperatures was closer to zero degrees Celsius. We went to the Tutankhamun exhibition at the National museum and we spent our last days here in Prague with friends.

November kom och solen hade svårare att hålla sig uppe under dagarna. Vi var tvungna att gräva upp våra vinterkläder för att kunna njuta av våra sista dagar här.
Vi lyckades bocka av några saker på vår lista, saker vi ville göra innan vi lämnade Prag. Vi ville ta Othilia till Zoo och se hur det kunde vara där när temperaturen var närmare noll grader. Vi åkte till Tutankhamun-utställningen på Nationalmuseet och vi tillbringade våra sista dagar här i Prag med vänner.

November was our month of departure so we had a few things we wanted to do before leaving this wonderful place. This photo is from our last day in Prague, the day after we started our journey North.

We took a day to visit Prague Zoo. The bigger animals, who were not used to the cold, were all indoors.

We saw the Horn bills and both of us thought it was a plastic dinosaur put at a random place in the zoo for entertaining. Then it moved and we got so surprised. This was an actual living bird – so cool!

The flamingos added some color to the grey of November.

We mostly looked at the animals that were indoors.

Othilia was not so impressed by most of the animals.

Comodo dragons, Othilia paid no attention to them. She enjoyed the vending machines and the flying bats in the Zoo.

We also visited the National museum in Prague.

They had an exhibition about Tutankhamun that we adults wanted to visit. The exhibition was filled with visual effects so Othilia liked it as well.

Othilia enjoyed climbing the stair in the museum.

It was our first time seeing this building from the inside. The national museum can be seen from Wenceslas Square and we have always wanted to see the building from the inside.

Wenceslas Square seen from the stairs to the National museum.

The Czech people have a great sense of humor. An add from one of the metro stations in town.

We had to update our wardrobe so we headed out to the mall in Cerny Most. They have awesome playgrounds for children.

They have a big area on the upper floor dedicated for children.

November also gave us the last day of lovely weather. So we headed out to explore a new area in Prague – Thomayerovy sady!

Thomayerovy sady has a small hill that we went up on.

Prague is building new houses and this area has developed tremendously since we saw it the first time a couple of years ago.

We had some adventures just outside of our house as well. A tram had a fire and Othilia was fascinated by all the lights outside our window.

Suddenly, our time in Prague was about to end. This was our last sunset here in Prague for a while. It was time fo us to travel North.

Park Mirakulum and the end of October.

December 10, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

We visited Park Mirakulum on the last weekend they had open for the season. It is an outdoor adventure park in Milovice, 40 minutes with car from Prague. We went there with our Libertarian friends in Prague and had a lovely day. Othilia was only 13 months, but there were still plenty of fun stuff to do for her.

Our trip to Park Mirakulum happened in the end of October and a few other things also happened that we will show photos from.
We had noticed that Othilia made huge developmental leaps during this period, leaps which started around our weekend in Budapest, so we wanted to throw her a small birthday party to update her toys. We also met fellow Swedish families in Prague at a pumpkin party, visited a farm in the middle of Holešovice and there will be pictures from Pontus morning walks in this blog post as well.

Vi besökte Park Mirakulum sista helgen de hade öppet för säsongen. Det är en äventyrspark utomhus i Milovice, ca 40 minuter med bil från Prag. Vi åkte dit med våra libertarianska vänner i Prag och hade en härlig dag. Othilia var bara 13 månader under vårt besök, men det fanns fortfarande massor av roliga saker att göra för henne.

Vår resa till Park Mirakulum skedde i slutet av oktober och andra saker hände också runt denna tid som vi kommer att visa bilder ifrån.
Vi märkte att Othilia tog stora steg i hennes utveckling under denna period, språng som började runt vår helg i Budapest, så vi kände att vi ville ge henne ett litet födelsedagsfirande i efterskott för att uppdatera hennes leksaker. I slutet av oktober så träffade vi också andra svenska familjer i Prag på en pumpafest, besökte en gård mitt i Holešovice och det kommer att finnas bilder från Pontus morgonvandringar i detta blogginlägg också.

The Mirakulum Park is a big playground for both children and adults. The different climbing areas are spread out in a forest so the setting feels like something from a fairytale.

The park is quite big in comparison to the price you pay to enter (10 Euro for adults, Othilia was to young to be a paying visitor).

All lot of things are for bigger children and grown ups.

But Othilia had so much fun there and she was so brave. Not afraid of heights at all.

We were there with friends, but with kids in different ages it was hard to keep in contact. Astrid is the same age as Othilia so our families went around in the park together.

It was in the end of October and we had a lovely day with almost 20 degrees Celsius.

A part of the park was designated for the youngest ones.

The rest of October was about enjoying the weather in Prague, soon winter would come. Here is Othilia at the duck pond in the Stromovka park.

Othilia at the playground near our place.

She is so fascinated by balls and she steals older kids balls when they are around trying to play football. These boys were kind enough to lend Othilia a ball.

We were invited to a Pumpkin party at Lya Beer Café, which is owned by a Swedish guy from Gävle. While there I also meet another Swedish person, Malin, and we realized quite fast that we had gone to the same Gymnasium in Gävle. The world is small!

Othilia took a water break during the pumpkin painting. Her friend David showed her how to work the paintbrush.

We visited the club house for the Boys Adventure Club (Navigators). They were building it at an abandoned area in the middle of Holešovice.

Next to the Club house is the Metro Farm, a collaborative farm that volunteers are taking care of. They accept bitcoin for the eggs!

An artist has put his metal work in this areas, making this a wonderful oasis in Holešovice.

Othilia made huge developmental leaps so we needed to update her toys. So we celebrated her birthday again with a few gifts.

We want to end with the usual morning photos of Prague from Pontus walks.

The old town Square before all the tourists arriving. Next blog post will be in the month of November and this was the month where we departed from Prague.

A weekend in Budapest

November 20, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

Budapest is just a train ride away from Prague, so when our friends announced a weekend gathering in Budapest, it was just for us to book train tickets.

It was a loosely planned weekend with organized lunches and dinners, but what we did in between was up to us who came for the weekend. We have already been to Budapest once before, so this time we were focused on doing fun things with Othilia.
We had a lovely weekend with lots of play and discussions, the later with both old and new friends. We also meet up with our Hungarian friends and anarcho-capitalists who we first got to know at the Philosophy Europe convention in Prague back in September. Due to the nature of our whole weekend we won’t publish any pictures on our friends, but much more on us and what we were able to see of Budapest.

Budapest är bara en tågresa bort från Prag så när våra vänner tillkännagav en helgträff i Budapest var det bara för oss att boka tågbiljetter dit.

Det var en löst planerad helg med organiserade luncher och middagar, men det vi gjorde emellan var upp till oss som kom till helgen. Vi har redan varit i Budapest en gång tidigare, så den här gången var vi fokuserade på att göra roliga saker med Othilia.
Vi hade en härlig helg med mycket lek och diskussioner, det senare med både gamla och nya vänner. Vi träffade också våra ungerska vänner och anarkokapitalister som vi först lärde känna vid “Philosophy Europe”-konferensen i Prag i september. Eftersom våra möten var av mer privat natur så kommer vi inte att publicera några bilder på våra vänner, men fler bilder på oss och vad vi kunde se av Budapest.

This is our favorite picture of Othilia in Budapest. The Hungarian parliament in the background.

Now how did we get there? The train from Prague to Budapest took 6.5 hours and went via the Slovak capital Bratislava. The two-way tickets for us three (two adults and a child) were around 45 Euro. Othilia had fun during the train trip running between the wagons, here a well-deserved nap in Ulrika’s arms.

This is lovely to see bitcoin Atms and several of them here in Budapest. Not the best conversion rates though.

Our first evening in Budapest and what a welcome we got!

We love to walk around in Budapest due to the impressive architecture.

Our first whole day in Budapest started with Othilia showing her independence. She suddenly didn’t want any help and wanted to walk by herself. Here looking more closely at this purple scooter.

We tried to avoid this part of Budapest the last time we where here, so it was nice to see the tourist part of the city this time around.

We used google maps to find small parks for Othilia to run around in.

We found the Budapest eye, but we didn’t try it out.

Szent István Bazilika had a lovely square where Othilia could run around.

Liberty square had a water installation and Othilia was scared of the water funny enough, she usually loves water.

We just happened to come to Liberty square because we had found a playground that we wanted to take Othilia to. Best of two worlds, her parents could enjoy the surrounding on a macro level and Othilia enjoyed the playground on the micro level.

Othilia made huge developmental leaps while in Budapest. Suddenly, she wanted to push her stroller by herself.

We took several walks along the Danube river, it is a beautiful view from almost any place along both sides of the river. Last time we where here we visited the memorial for the 20 000 Jews that got murdered along the riverside during world war II, a place we really recommend people to visit.

This building in Budapest gave us “Atlas shrugged”-vibes.

New day and a new picture of the Danube river.

We had lovely weather here in Budapest. Othilia in her “Dalarna” dress in the end of October. She got that dress from her paternal granmother (farmor) and we love it. We truly enjoyed the feeling of late summer here even if the leafs had starting to fall down to the ground.

We got to see the Hungarian parliament building after sunset and it was spectacular. Our feeling of Budapest is that it is quite similar to Prague, but that Budapest is more of a large Metropolitan city, and feels bigger than Prague.

The weekend went by so fast and we had to say goodbye to all of our friends and head back to Prague. Thank you Sofia for organizing this weekend. You are welcome to visit Prague some day!
Next up is the end of October and our activities in Prague.

Othilia in pumpkin land

November 17, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

A pumpkin exhibition at the botanical garden in Prague made us happy when the temperature dropped again in October. Autumn was temporarily back with colored leafs and more puddles for Othilia to jump in. We went to the pumpkin exhibition with our friends in the Prague libertarian parents group and the kids had so much fun.

We are now reporting from the middle of October and the weather changed back and forth between late summer weather and autumn weather so we tried to take advantage of all the nice days here in Prague – we knew that winter was coming.
Now a few pictures comes from the pumpkin land and from the nice late summer days in mid-October.

En pumpautställning i den botaniska trädgården i Prag gjorde oss glada när temperaturen sjönk igen i oktober. Hösten var tillfälligt tillbaka med färgade löv och fler vattenpölar för Othilia att hoppa i. Vi åkte till pumpautställningen med våra vänner i Prags libertarianska föräldragrupp och barnen hade så kul.

Vi rapporterar nu från mitten av oktober och vädret ändrades fram och tillbaka mellan sensommarväder och höstväder så vi försökte dra nytta av alla de fina dagarna här i Prag – vi visste att vintern var på väg.
Nu kommer lite bilder från pumpalandet och fina sensommardagar i mitten av oktober.

Pumpkins in different colors matching the autumn.

We stopped at the pond where Othilia always tries to jump in.

Edward and Othilia plays in the South America garden at the botanical garden.

The botanical garden in Prague has also put up tipis near the South America garden.

The mothers inspecting the pumpkin garden.

The view over Prague from the botanical garden. Jana and O are enjoying the beautiful view.

The metal creatures are an art installation at the botanical garden.

Then we said good bye to the botanical garden for this time.

Othilia looks so “grown up” in this picture, not a baby anymore. The weather changed quite a lot in the middle of October. One day we had to dress Othilia in her overall (I don’t know how to best translate this word to English, winter suit?)

The other days we could put Othilia in summer clothes.

We took advantage of the lovely autumn days and she got to be outdoors and play with Edward.

Our friend Lynn decided to come visit us in the middle of October. We were so happy to have her here and Othilia loved playing with her. Lynn was a great guitar teacher for Othilia as well as stroller pusher. We hope to see you soon Lynn!

I have to end the blog with Pontus amazing morning photos of Prague. I can’t get enough of them.

Next up for us was a trip down South and visit another city we like – Budapest. More about that in our next blog.

Opt-out – Hacker’s Congress 2019

November 14, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

Hacker’s Congress is always at Paralelni Polis here in Prague around the first weekend in October. This years theme suited us well (Opt-out) and we bought the tickets as soon as they were released. The price was a bit higher this year, but the quality of the conference was higher as well. They had much more sophisticated recording equipment and most of the talks were recorded. Some speakers declined to be filmed for obvious reasons, but the open talks are available here if you are interested.

More and more children attend each year, so this year Othilia had a friend near her age to play with. Older kids also had things to do at the conference so the attendees of the conference is turning into a mix of young hacker’s and families with children.

I will show a few photos from the conference, but I highly recommend you to visit their Youtube page and look at the recordings from the conference.

“Hacker’s Congress” arrangeras alltid på Paralelni Polis i Prag runt första helgen i oktober. Årets tema passade oss bra (Opt-out) och vi köpte biljetter så snart de släpptes. Priset var högre i år, men kvaliteten på konferensen var också högre. De hade mycket mer sofistikerad inspelningsutrustning och de flesta av föreläsningarna spelades in. Vissa av talarna ville dock inte filmas av uppenbara skäl, men de öppna samtalen finns här om du är intresserad.

Fler och fler barn deltar för varje år som går och i år hade Othilia en vän nära hennes egen ålder att leka med. Äldre barn hade också saker att göra på konferensen så deltagarna på denna konferens har förvandlats till en blandning av unga hackare och barnfamiljer.

Jag kommer att visa er några foton från konferensen, men jag rekommenderar dig starkt att besöka deras youtube-sida och titta på inspelningarna från konferensen.

Othilia checking out the Bitcoin ATM. The only accepted currencies at this conference are cryptocurrencies, mainly bitcoin and litecoin.

The history and background of Parelni Polis was presented. Václav Benda was a Czech Roman Catholic intellectual and mathematician, that lead the anti-communist dissident organization Charter 77 when Czechoslovakia was under Communist rule. He wrote the essay Parallel Polis (parallel cities) in 1977 and he is an important person to the crypto-space here in Prague.

Some words about Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra.

Some talks was live on Youtube and more are now available on Youtube.

Ken Schoolland was one of the main speakers at the conference. He is an Associate Professor of Economics at Hawaii Pacific University and the author of *The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible*.

Othilia chilling in the bean bag at Paralelni Polis. We couldn’t bring Othilia to the lectures so we had to divide the interesting talks between us.

Othilia had her friend Astrid (and her mother Hayley) at the Hacker’s Conference. They already met at last years conference, both just a few month old and in a sling back then. Now they are running around at Paralelni Polis.

We also took Othilia out to playgrounds so she wouldn’t be indoors all day.

Othilia is an expert at stealing other children’s balls (look how happy she looks :)). We bring her own balls to the playgrounds, but she is never interested in her own balls, only those of others.

Back to the conference! We got handed a Venezuelan Bolivar at the conference – this piece of paper is now worth less than 1 satoshi (0.00000001 BTC).

The people who put the conference together – a big thank you for all the work you put in to make this happen!

We will end this blog post with a few pictures from the morning walks Pontus does.

Some boats on the Vltava river is part of the public transportation system, so a regular ticket is enough to go from one side of the river to another. They also start to go quite early as you can see by the morning light.

Libertarians in Prague and the Kokořín Castle

November 10, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

We get to meet Czech libertarians every time we come here, we have even started our own chat group with Libertarian parents in Prague, so that our children can meet and play with each other. The group is still small, but we hope that it will grow slowly.
The beginning of October means that our favorite conference of the year is coming up and this also means that a bunch of our friends shows up and we get to hang out with them. This year we took them to the Kokořín Castle, a castle totally surrounded by forest, and it is a nice day trip from Prague.

Vi får träffa tjeckiska libertarianer varje gång vi kommer hit, vi har till och med startat vår egen chatgrupp med libertarianska föräldrar i Prag, så att våra barn kan träffas och leka med varandra. Gruppen är fortfarande liten, men vi hoppas på att den kommer att växa långsamt.
Början av oktober betyder att vår favoritkonferens går av stapeln och det betyder också att ett gäng av våra vänner dyker upp och vi får umgås med dem. I år tog vi dem till slottet Kokořín, ett slott som är helt omgivet av skog och som är en trevlig dagstur från Prag.

The weather got a bit colder in the beginning of October, so we needed to dress up a bit to meet other children in our Libertarian parents group.

Our first meeting was at a playground in a park in the South of Prague. They also have a man-made cave system for older kids to play in.

It doesn’t even look like we are in Prague anymore,

Prague has so many playgrounds and we love that with Prague, so child friendly.

Our first Libertarian parent/child meet up was with the first lady of Liberland (Jana) and a thought-criminal mother (Caroline) according to the Swedish state media. If you don’t know what I mean about thought-criminal, you should watch the YouTube video linked at the end of the blog post. It is hilarious!

Some early morning pictures taken by Pontus on his walks.

It is so nice to see a city slowly waking up to a new morning.

The weather turned into summer again and we got invited to our unschooling friends Martin and Zdenka. Zdenka is involved in the Czech un-/home-/worldschooling community, but we have a lot more common interests than that subject. They are also interested in biohacking and longevity so we had so much to talk about.

Their newest family member Astrid is so adorable. We have met a few babies named Astrid and even a Margit here in the Czech Republic. It is interesting to hear such Swedish names pronounced with a Czech or English twist on it.

This is the conference that keeps us coming back to Prague each autumn. It is always the first weekend in October, so this means that a lot of our friends tend to show up here in Prague in the beginning October.

We can even have a Swedish Libertarian meet up here in Prague.

The first weekend in October means that we are inside a building most of the day so we decided to go on an adventure out in the nature to counteract being indoors all day.

our adventure took us to the Kokořín Castle. An old castle up on a rock in the middle of the forest.

You park at the river and then climb the stairs all the way up to the castle.

Kokořín Castle was built in the end of the 14th century.

It was heavily damaged in the Hussite wars (1419-1434) and stood as ruins until 1911 when a 7-year restoration took place.

The Kokořín Castle is open for visitors and we were able to climb up one of the towers.

The view is fantastic and a day out in the nature was just what we needed.

SVT (Swedish state propaganda channel, yes it is founded with taxes) found out that Swedish families are thinking and caring for their children’s future and calling us criminals for giving the advice to move abroad to be able to homeschool (it is still not criminal SVT to move from Sweden!). Our friend Caroline was “exposed”, because she is an administrator of a Facebook page about unschooling. It is hilarious to watch. Link to youtube (with English subtitles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GFdbYfCGZI

Prague botanical gardens and Philosophy Europe Convention 2019

November 1, 2019 / Ulrika / 0 Comments

Prague has a botanical garden, and and we went there with our friends, the King family, and people from the worldschooling community. The botanical garden is up on a hill in Northern Prague, so when you reach the bottom half of the garden, the view is lovely – especially over Troja castle. Time-wise, we are still in September when we did all these things. I know I promised you October in our last post, but we’re not quite done with September yet 🙂

We also went to the Philosophy Europe Convention that focus on philosophy, Libertarianism and Austrian economics. It was the second time we attended this conference and we like how it is put together, both with workshops and lectures mixed with excursions in and around Prague with the group of participants that we now consider our friends.

Prag har en botanisk trädgård och vi åkte dit med våra vänner familjen King och människor från “Worldschooling”-gruppen. Den botaniska trädgården ligger uppe på en kulle i norra Prag, så utsikten är vacker när man når den nedre halvan av trädgården – särskilt den över slottet Troja. Tidsmässigt är vi fortfarande i september när vi gjorde det här. Jag vet att jag lovade er oktober i vårt förra inlägg, men vi är inte riktigt klara med september ännu 🙂

Vi deltog också i “Philosophy Europe Convention” som fokuserar på filosofi, Libertarianism och österrikisk ekonomi. Det var andra gången som vi deltog på denna konferens och vi gillar hur den är sammansatt, med både workshops och föreläsningar blandade med utflykter i och runt Prag med den grupp deltagare som vi nu betraktar som våra vänner.