Photographic overview of Prague so far *yes, photo heavy*

The outer castle walls (note the arrow holes along the bottom of the wall)



The arrow holes




The entrance to Prague Castle



The front of St Vitus' Cathedral




The side of St Vitus' Cathedral



Inside the Royal Palace (within Prague Castle)

Vladislav Hall - the Royal Court, which in its day was like a public market)



All Saints' Chapel, built in the 1300s, partially rebuilt after fires in 1541



All Saints' Chapel again



The "Diet" - medieval parliament, also the Throne Room



The New Land Rolls - these rooms were decorated with the crests of clerks who worked there



St George's Basilica, founded between 920 by Vratislaus I (Duke of Bohemia), and enlarged in 973, and rebuilt following a fire in 1142.



Inside St George's Basilica, this is where we saw the classical concert



Vratislaus I of Bohemia's tomb



I'm guessing they're not his bones, but it's still kinda creepy!



The ceiling of the tomb



The back corner of the basilica



Inside St Vitus' Cathedral



One of the many beautiful stained glass windows in the cathedral



Tomb of St John Nepomuk



Chapel of St John the Baptist



St Wenceslas Chapel. Also known as, Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, he was son of Vratislav who founded St George's Basilica. St Wenceslas is also known as "Good King Wenceslas" of the Christmas Carol.



More stained glass - the detail was amazing



At the top of the 287 step staircase to the top of the Bell Tower, was a gorgeous 360 degree view around Prague



From the top of St Vitus', looking down



Looking down Vltava River



One of the spires of St Vitus', looking north-west



For the rest of the photos, check out our photo website

In Prague, Czech Republic!

For reference, "Přihlásit se" means "sign in". The clever people at Google know I'm in the Czech Republic, so have changed all the Google sites into Czech for me (until I sign in, then it changes back to English).

We left the US on Friday, flew to London, then Zurich, and picked up a hire car in Zurich and drove to Prague. We had some delays, so we didn't get to our hotel in Prague until 1:30am, but that was ok. It was a really nice drive - nice, fast highways, gorgeous scenery - quaint little houses in Switzerland, snow capped mountains in Austria (wow, I typed Australia initially...) and green, pretty farmland in Germany.

Sunday we finally dragged ourselves out of bed after midday, went for a wander in the streets near the hotel, and weren't immediately impressed. It was shabby old rather than "historic old". We then found the Metro, and figured out how to get to Prague Castle. Once we stepped out of the Metro, we knew we'd found the historic Prague. Beautiful old churches, castle, palaces, cobblestones. Gorgeous. We were near closing time at the castle, so only got to wander around the grounds, but that was still impressive. We poked our heads into St Vitus Cathedral which took our breath away. It is located within Prague Castle itself, and is the biggest and most important church in the country as it contains the tombs of royalty.

The stained glass windows were beautiful, the architecture (Gothic style) was so incredibly intricate, and the church just felt sacred. There was a choir walking through the church when we arrived, and they were at the opposite end of the church to us initially, and the sound carried so well, and really set the atmosphere.

After that we were going to wander back toward the Metro, but we were stopped by people selling tickets to a "Castle Gala Concert". Members of the Prague Royal Orchestra were going to be playing Pachelbel, Mozart and Vivaldi in St George's Basilica. We figured why not?

St George's Basilica was a beautiful old building. It's a church within the castle grounds, and is long and narrow, with a raised platform at the front. The atmosphere was beautifully haunting, and of course the acoustics made the music even more lovely.

Monday was the first day of Andrew's conference, but I had to get an assignment finished, so I worked on that all day. In the evening we went for a walk toward where we heard was a nice restaurant. We're staying in Vyšehrad which turns out has a castle - aptly named Vyšehrad Castle. So we wandered through the grounds, found another beautiful old church as well as a gorgeous cemetery where the like of composer Antonín Dvořák are buried. The restaurant we found (Rio Vyšehrad) was also really nice - great quality, cheap food (as opposed to the hotel's ok, bloody expensive food).

Yesterday I worked some more on my assignment, then at lunchtime, made my way back to the castle to have another explore - this time taking photos. I got to have a good poke around in St George's Basilica and St. Vitus Cathedral (including walking up the 287 step tight, spiral staircase to get to the top of the clocktower) as well as explore some of the other buildings within the castle. It kind of blows your mind that some of these buildings are around 1000 years old.

Today's plan is to put the references into my assignment, then head back into the city to try and find a post office to post the assignment (that will be an adventure!). It's cold and wet today, so will try to find some indoor activities to do.

Made it to the pool!

And it was GORGEOUS! I made it to Mountain View Pool, and the water temperature was gorgeous, and the pool was nice and clean. I also managed to swim for 30 minutes straight which was nice. I'm slow, and I feel weak, but gee it was nice to get out there!

I have a spot in my chest (on the right side) which hurts occasionally, usually when I sneeze. It's quite a sharp pain when it hurts, sometimes it's a tightness across the whole top side of my chest. It's only things like hicupping, sneezing and coughing that makes it hurt, so I'm not too worried - the docs think it may be some damaged cartilage.

It felt a little tight while swimming tonight, so hopefully the swimming will help stretch things out, and maybe help the pain.

Frustration with public swimming pools

I thought given California had a pretty good climate, and people like to swim that finding good pools would be easy. Not the case!

For a start, all the pools are 25m (or worse 25 yards, which is about 22m), and there really isn't many of them. I finally found a couple nearby, and they're all outdoors, so not very pleasant in winter and you have to wear lots of sunscreen in summer.

So I finally got time to go to the pool, with the plan to go a couple of times a week during the day. I looked up the address of the pool that looked the nicest, and noticed the public swimming times - 10am - 2pm, then 6-8pm. Bummer, it was about 9am and I had to be at the shelter by 11, so wouldn't get time. It's at a school, so I understand they have some restrictions.

I looked at the 2 public pools in Mountain View, and they are ALSO only open from about 10:30-1:30, then 6-8pm. I called up to see if those hours were just for lap swimming, or if they were the opening hours. They are the only hours they are open. The pool is used for nothing else, why the hell is it closed for most of the day???

I next tried the Stanford University Pool, and once again 10-2, 6-8pm.

So apparently anyone who wants to swim has to all go at the same time during that couple of hour window. Anyone who works can only go for those 2 hours in the evening. I generally have stuff on in the middle of the day.

Every pool in Australia that I've been to is a nice, usually indoor 50m and generally open from 6am - 9pm so everyone can go when it's convenient to them.

In Canberra (population 300,000 or so) within a 10 minute drive of where we lived, I had the option of 4 different good quality pools that were open all day (except AIS which was still open more them pools here despite catering to Olympic swimmer schedules).

I can't believe that with such a big population there is not one pool that is open the entire day. The water at the beach is way too cold to swim in, so there really isn't any options.

Rant over.

Officially off restrictions

I meant to post this on Thursday...

Thursday was exactly 3 months since surgery! That means I am officially off restrictions now - woohoo! I can't believe how fast it's gone. I feel perfectly fine now as well. Well, I have a couple of minor niggles. In my right chest muscle, there's a little spot which hurts when I sneeze. It's like a little pull. So I go "ahchoo OW" when I sneeze... I hope to start swimming soon, maybe that will help stretch it out and get some more movement in there.

The only other niggle is my scar itself, it's a bit tight feeling, it's still a little sore if I try to lie on my stomach - I can only do that for short periods at a time - and there's still a bit at the top that seems to pull on a nerve. They're only very minor things though, and generally I feel great.

I've been for a couple of jogs on the treadmill - jogged 1 mile (1.6km) each time. I'm still struggling a little to get back into study mode, but I'm catching up again, and hope to get ahead by the end of the mid semester break which starts next week. Once I'm caught up I'll get a better routine happening which includes regular exercise.

We're off to San Diego next week for 4 days. We're planning on going to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World which are both supposed to be very good, and the other 2 days we'll spend just relaxing at the beach and doing a bit of exploring.

Otherwise life is quiet - just the way we like it!

Scar update *warning, slightly gross*

When they told me that the hole in my chest would close up again and you wouldn't be able to tell anything happened, I didn't believe them. 3 weeks later, and you can hardly tell!

This is the day before the abscess burst open - it's red, swollen, and sore.



This is today:



It's still a little wider where the last part of the wound closed up, and more obvious than it was before it got infected. I do recall someone saying the scar would be more vascular while it was healing.

At the very top of the scar, I get some little shooting pains off into my neck when I turn or stretch my neck. I think something (a nerve??) is pulling there when I turn, which is getting annoying. I'm sure it'll get better with time.

Given the all clear!

I saw Dr Miller, my surgeon, today and he is very happy with my recovery - WOOHOO! He said I can start building up my exercise in both intensity and frequency and wants me to work on just pushing myself more over the next month, then as of April 1, I'm off restrictions!

I can start riding my bike, I'm going to start very slow jogging to see how it goes, and just try and do lots of stretching for my poor, tight muscles.

I'm so pleased to know that everything went well, and I really do feel so good now. I'm off all the drugs, I'm sleeping well, and while I get tired after a few days of walking, I know I just need to work to build this up, and rest when I need to.

The other good news is that the hole in my chest is almost completely healed! We stopped stuffing it with gauze on Friday night, and I didn't even need to cover it up today. It's looking really good, and the doctors were impressed with how fast it healed.

Interesting things from my talks with the team today:

Apparently my sternum is stronger now than it was before surgery. Something to do with when it knits together, the core is much stronger, so harder to break.

Because where my aneurysm was is in the most dangerous place for an aneurysm to be in case of rupture, and is now replaced by virtually indestructible Dacron, I'm out of the woods. If I have a dissection anywhere else on my aorta, it would be in a place where survival rates are much higher, even if it takes days to get checked out.

The "Stanford Modified Tyrone David Valve Sparing Aortic Replacement" or whatever its called is such that it recreates the natural blood flow of the aorta and sinuses through the valve, so theoretically everything should last as long as someone with no heart problems.

The condition of my aorta that was replaced was very fragile and thin, which I knew, but that's not "normal" of an aneurysm, which I did not know. Apparently it's not at all common for an aortic aneurysm to be in such a fragile state, and could certainly explain why, even though my dad got in for surgery very soon after his aneurysm dissected, that they weren't able to save him. I know that the aorta was tearing as they were trying to fix it, so if it was in the same condition as mine, there is probably no way they would have a chance in a fragile, already dissected aorta in such a vital position. Makes me even more relieved to have mine fixed.


Going in to talk to everyone is always more fun that seeing a surgical team is expected to be. Everyone is incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, professional, and gives us as much time as we need to ask all of our questions. We have never felt rushed - quite the opposite - we always spend more time talking than we thought we would! Everyone takes our concerns and questions seriously, and never seems to forget that while it's routine surgery for them, it's scary for us, which is something we really appreciate.

I know I've said this before, but we cannot speak highly enough of the Stanford team.