I am really into Murphy the red-and-white-dog. I am supposed to be writing an article, but, for the past twenty minutes, I have been mucking around on the internet / then looking at Murphy.

Also, caves. There was a New Yorker article about hardcore spelunkers a couple of years ago, maybe, and it was wonderful. The prospect of wandering around UNDERGROUND for days is equally horrifying and amazing.

OKAY. I don't know if this is weird, but I just noticed that you live in Prague -- I research in Prague ... !?!?! I am here right now... ! (Is this weird?)
P.S. My mom, who is a Praguer, has good things to say about Bratislava.

I could give you endless Prague travel advice. ENDLESS. Love Prague, have family in Prague, research in Prague, &c.

The central touristy stuff is easy enough for you to figure out on your own, though -- the usual is, I think, the castle, the Lesser Quarter, Charles Bridge, the Old Town, and so on. You could actually hit most / all of it in one super intense day, which I actually recommend because, while it's really beautiful, it's going to be a shit show in the summer (it already is in August).

If you like outdoorsy things -- Prague has some lovely green spaces, many of which include beer gardens. I like Stromovka's beer gardens; they're a little bit less touristy than the beer gardens at Letna and Petrin. Petrin has some lovely hiking around. So does Divoka Sarka (bonus because it's named after a lady warrior; bonus reduced because she supposedly killed herself out of guilt for seducing / killing this man--PLEASE).

Vysehrad is a quiet, pretty space -- fortifications, churches, and so on. For some reason, tourists don't go there so very much, even though it's in the center of Prague / visible from all over Prague.

Someone mentioned Strahov monastery. They are right; it is great. Brevnov monastery is also lovely and has a tavern...! Less frequented than Strahov. Also great.

If you're into art (especially modern art), I strongly recommend that you check out some of Prague's art museums, which are fabulous but, again, not filled with tourists (are you sensing a theme?). I love Museum Kampa, the Veletrzni Palac, and Dox; the last of these doesn't have a permanent collection, so make sure you're interested in going to their temporary stuff before you go.

The opera, symphony, and ballet are hella cheap in Prague (I'm not sure if Knowledgeable People would think that they are great, but I do). Look up the State Opera or National Theater, if you're interested.

Prague has a lot of really great arthouse movie theaters. They're generally bars / theaters, too, which is great -- you can grab a beer and then go see a movie. They're often English-friendly. One near the center is Kino Svetozor (kinosvetozor.cz) -- it's in a passage near Wenceslas Square, and there's a great ice cream place near it, too, Ovocne Svetozor.

Don't eat in the center, if you can avoid it. It will be more expensive and less good. Pubs are everywhere. One pub that is good / in the center / won some kind of beer-pouring prize is Lokal (there are numerous locations; one is not far from Charles Bridge). You can get beautiful chlebicky (these open-faced sandwiches) at Jan Paukert; it's a little far afield, but if you are super into open-faced sandwiches (/ other pastries)...Oddly, a few of my favorite vegetarian places are in Prague, including Lehka Hlava (Clear Head) -- it's really beautiful inside, but you might need a reservation.

Depending on what your scene is, I, again, suggest that you avoid living in the center. This is in case you are not into being woken up by drunk tourists (or you will need earplugs) -- but maybe you will be one of the drunk tourists, in which case, more power to you. Zizkov is sort of a hipster area, and Dejvicka is quite nice, too. The area near Karlovo namesti is pretty nice, as well. If you're near a metro stop, you can get anywhere pretty quickly. Of course, if you do choose to live in Old Town or the Lesser Quarter, you can basically walk to all of the "hot" tourist spots, so that is an advantage.

Prague public transit is excellent, though, after midnight, the metro stops and tram schedules change. You can get a three-day public transit pass, and then you'll only have to stamp it once / you can take trams, buses, metros, and so on.

Prague has a lot of American expats, whom I strongly recommend that you avoid. HOWEVER, expats.cz might have helpful information for you.

Oh my God, I wrote so much. I'm going to rein myself in now. I hope you have a lovely visit! Let me know if you want more info (COULD YOU POSSIBLY?).

I second (third?) this. I am usually okay with my several limited income, but this next year is looking to be a year of literally NO shiny new purchases / evenings out, so I think I will need some extra encouragement!

So, my father has terminal cancer and dementia. My mother is his primary caregiver, but I come home a lot, even though I'm currently in graduate school several states away from my parents. Since my father is on hospice care, we have people coming in a lot -- in fact, almost every day during the week -- a nurse, a physical therapist, a social worker, and a couple of people who just hang out with my dad while my mom runs errands. But, generally, they're only here for an hour, or maybe a few hours. My mother is around most of the time.
I am a strong proponent of family caring for family (see above re: my coming home frequently). But, to me, the ideal situation is that you have a larger family or a larger support system (friends, &c.) caring for a person, so that the primary caregiver does not burn out or feel isolated. Even with me coming as often as I can, and even with all of these fabulous professional caregivers coming in (and they really are wonderful), my mom is often exhausted. Things would be easier if my family had a stronger base of support in my hometown (i.e., family, close friends), but they don't.
So, I don't know. Being terribly ill and dying must feel profoundly isolating. I really do think that it is a duty to try to make that less isolating for the people you love. But, certainly, you are not honoring your relationship with a person if caring for them makes you resent them. Situations like this are difficult all around -- ideally, it's possible to strike a balance between care by professionals and care by loved ones. We are, at present, relatively lucky in that my father is not really in pain, and he is mostly lucid; he just forgets things.
I don't know that I really answered the question, though. I obviously have a lot of thoughts about this (ask me about dementia sometime!), but I suppose there are no secure answers.
(P.S. All of these things about emotional work, too, merit addressing! ...! But I have already written a lot.)

Help, Toasties! My sister is getting married, and I need help dealing with it. My parents and I are struggling (STRUGGLING) to be nice about the wedding, but we're a sort of weird family...I know families are supposed to be excited about weddings, but none of us cares very much -- I mean, we're glad that she's glad, but weddings (/the such) are not really our thing, and none of us are happy about the prospect of pretending to be normal for three days, with eighty guests.

I'll add that my sister has not been terribly considerate in her planning -- she's not really allowed for the fact that we are the sort of family that we are (i.e., antisocial weirdos), and, maybe more importantly, she's not really allowed for the fact that our father has moderate dementia and terminal cancer, and those are really difficult to deal with when it's just us, but will be that much more difficult to deal with when we have to do so in front of several dozen random people.

I have a lot of trouble concealing my thoughts / feelings, but I DO feel bad that our lack of enthusiasm is dampening my sister's. Any tips on this? How do I even fake this?

Looting is pretty entrenched in the history of museums and archaeology -- the UNESCO convention to which so many museums theoretically adhere dates only to 1970. This is, by no means, to suggest that people like Frel or True are blameless (and I DON'T think that True is, though she has been a scapegoat / symbol / so on), just that the acquisition of antiquities through looting / unauthorized excavations is pretty tried and true (pardon the pun).

I have to add -- I am annoyed by the implication that Jiří Frel (whose name the article naturally misspells) is some sort of wild Soviet, wantonly betting on looted antiquities because that's what they did in the Eastern Bloc. Frel was definitely not a model curator, but I'm not sure that it had much of anything to do with his origins in Czechoslovakia (where, off the top of my head, I don't believe he did very much in the way of antiquities procuring -- both because of lack of resources and limits on traveling -- though I'm not completely certain). Frel was an eccentric (to say the least), even in Czechoslovakia.

ALSO, True's suggestion that, if art is on the market, it's best for museums to acquire it -- as an archaeologist, I kind of think that's garbage. This is a super complicated topic, and I don't believe that the market forces that shape looting have been terribly well-studied, BUT I'm not convinced that museums' contribution to demand for looted antiquities is necessarily a net good...anyway, once the object is on the market, you've lost most of the information that makes that object valuable to scholars.

I am going to rein myself in now because I could talk about this shit foreeeever.

This is my year, too, except we already know that my father's cancer is untreatable. From my end of things, at least, there is nothing good to say, except that this fucking SUCKS, and I am so fucking sorry that you have to deal with it.

holy shit I have developed a recent preoccupation with going to Antarctica, which must be put off until grad school ends, and I have some kind of disposable income, but everything about my desire to go to Antarctica has to do with Troubling a Star. I am pretty sure that it will be exactly like Troubling a Star when I go to Antarctica as an adult.

Thou canst not stir a flower without the troubling of a star or something like that

Amazing! I just started doing long-ish distances -- have done my first half marathon and am signed up for my second -- but the leap from half to full is intimidating, much less the leap from marathon to FIFTY MILES...!