Drawers at last!!

Dobry den (dobree den) - means hello in more formal speak than Ahoj....

Well as of Friday we are unpacked and living out of drawers for the first time since Feb 22nd!! Yay!!! Yes we moved into our apartment on Friday afternoon, and we love it here. We are only about 800m from the Divoka Sarka park and just short of that from the tram stop.

Moving in wasn't without its dramas however. Jase had managed to negotiate 5000 CZK (about $350 NZ) worth of kitchenware as the kitchen was not equipt. The deal was we were to buy all the stuff we needed (plates, cutlery, pots etc) for 5000 CZK and they would deduct this value from the first lot of rent. So.... off we went to a huge home department store called IKEA (kind of like Bunnings on steroids). After my experience there I won't ever go back! The place was packed for a start, and the store is set up like some form of crazy treasure hunt where you have to follow the arrows, floor markings etc throughout every section of the entire store (which is ridiculously huge) to reach the long queues at the checkout.

We found a trolley and loaded it with all the stuff we needed and headed to the counter (a good hour or so later....). The heating in the shop was crazy, and I was getting pretty damn hot by the time I got to the counter. When the checkout girl reached our final item - a pillow (there was only 1 in the apartment), she starting talking to us and pointing at the labels and shaking her head.... "Mluvite Anglicky?" we asked. "Ne" as the usual response... then she rang someone who came and explained that we could not buy it as it was a display item and that we must buy another one...

Then - typical of Jase going for the most easy and not to mention least embarrassing option (he said I was good at the latter!), suggested he take the rest of the stuff to the car and I go back in that god forsaken place to find another pillow.... Lets just cut a heck of a long story short by saying that 45mins later I resurfaced from that store with a bloody pillow - Jase had come into the shop (just inside the exit mind you - he wasn't game to venture any further), and laughed at me as I walked towards him (he said he was initially getting angry because I was taking so long, but then started to find the ridiculousness of it all quite funny). I simply said to him "don't talk to me, I am very close to tears right now". And sad to say it - I was! That shop had broken me! I had managed to get lost on the first trip back to find the pillow and had somehow done 2 laps. Then upon finding a pillow, I had waited for friggin ages in the checkout - only to reach the counter and have the same thing happen - unfortunately for me, this new checkout lady, turned to ask the previous one we had been to if she spoke english - the girl just looked up and kind of rolled her eyes. Meanwhile some lady in the back of the queue stepped forward to explain to me that I must buy one folded and packaged. By this stage I was so hot (made worse by the embarrassment), that I actually had sweat running down the side of my face. Anyway - 3rd time... I got it right. I need to talk about something else now - this story is winding me up...!

On Saturday Jase and I drove to a town called Tocna and went for a good mtb ride. There are heaps of cool tracks, but we were not really dressed for the 1 degree temperature the ride began in! (the apartment is so well heated that you kind of forget it is cold outside!). As we were finishing our ride we caught up to 3 young boys who were biking on free-ride bikes. I had seen a clip on 'you tube' filmed in a free-ride park in Tocna, so asked them if they spoke English - and the oldest boy did, so offered to take us there. With that, we were off!! The little geezer took off at high speed, leaving Jase groaning that "the little whipper-snapper is kicking our arse"!! We were tired at the end of our ride, so it was hard work keeping up! When we got there I was gutted to see that there was absolutely no chance I would be able to ride the jumps etc in the park. They sure look alot smaller on video!

Sat afternoon, we caught the tram into central Prague. What a beautiful city. I loved it. Everything is so old - just awesome. We had a good walk around and it helped that it was a beautiful day. Then dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (true Czech cuisine!!).

Today we went to a place called Plzen (Pilsen - made famous due to Pilsner beer). Here we watched a World Cup Cyclo Cross race - truly awesome. I had never seen a cyclo cross race before - short and very very intense. The womens race (40mins) was won by American Katherine Compton, and the men (race of just over an hour) had a 3 way tussle for first - eventually won by Belgian Sven Nys.

Tonight we asked our neighbour to come over and help us sort out the internet (she speaks English so very handy!). She thought we were Americans. When we told her we were from NZ, she was so much more delighted, and promptly went to her home and got us some cake! Obviously she wasn't such a fan of Americans!!!

That is pretty much enough waffle for now. Jase assures me he will help with photos soon.
J