. . . Continued

This week has been a little too crazy for me to take the time to sit down and continue about my vacation. On Monday Gustav was sick, so I had to pick him up from the Kindergarten at 1:30 instead of 4. Then on Tuesday I had to go to the customs office (AGAIN) to retrieve a package that was being ransomed. That was a big waste of time because it was something that I had ordered on the internet before Christmas, and it never came so I told them to forget it and they gave me my money back. Now here it shows up, and because I had no idea what could possibly be in the package (they don't tell you who it's from, just that you have to go get it) I didn't have an invoice from the original purchase. So I went all the way there, opened it, told them I didn't know what it was about and made them send it back. So there went Tuesday. Yesterday I had to get the kids early again because Esther needed the car to drive to a seminar. Instead of being able to update my blog I spent the afternoon watching the kids play in the garden (kind of forcing them to play in the garden, because it was a nice day and I didn't want to have them inside all afternoon) and baking pumpkin pie and chocolate chip cookies for my language class. Last night was our last meeting, and I told them I would bake something and bring it in. Someone else brought beer, so when we finished with all the stuff we needed to do, we just sat around eating pie and drinking beer until the time class was supposed to end and everyone was ready to go home. Nobody ate the cookies there, but they all took some for the road. Esther said that these cookies are by far the best thing that I've made since I got here. Way to go Crisco! The pie crust was much better than last time because of the Crisco, too. Anyway, today it was way too beautiful outside to sit at my computer all day, so instead I played/slept outside in the garden with Amelie. Then I picked up Esther and the kids at 3 and brought everyone home to play in the garden. By 6 it started raining, and it should be raining for the next few days, so it's a good thing we enjoyed the nice spring weather today.

So now I'm caught up on this week, and the kids are in bed, and I can try once again to catch up on my vacation.

Thursday, Mar. 4
It was a pretty easy day, not really a whole lot going on. I had an appointment at around noon to get my nails done one last time before we left on vacation, so Lee and I just hung around Königsdorf all day. First we went to the market, just to kind of check it out and show Lee what it's like when I say "I went to the market today." There really wasn't much to see; it's a small market. But we bought a pastry that Lee feels was inappropriately labeled as "Schokokuchen" (chocolate cake) because it definitely wasn't what Americans think of when they think of chocolate cake.
We ran out of stuff to do about an hour before my appointment (like I said, it's a small market) so we went to see if there was any way she could take me in early. That wasn't a problem because she didn't have any other clients until later in the afternoon. While she was doing my nails I realized that I didn't have any cash, so I sent Lee to the bank down the street to pull some out for me.
After my nail appointment Lee and I went across the street to the Chinese restaurant next to the train station. I had never been there before, but I've been wanting to try it for a long time, so we thought it would be a good idea to check out their lunch buffet. We were right; it was cheap and delicious!! I'm going to have to go back there again sometime.
There really wasn't much going on after lunch. I think Lee and I just hung out at home with Amelie and then later with the kids. Like I said, it was an easy day.

Friday, Mar. 5
Lee came along with me and Pauline to join us in our weekly routine. After dropping off Esther and Gustav and taking Amelie for a walk, the 3 of us headed to Frechen to go to the market. We didn't really need all that much, just some aufschnitt (coldcuts/deli meat) for the next week, some lettuce, and some meat for dinner. We also bought some mett (just like me, Lee could not get enough of that stuff) and some rolls and had breakfast in the bakery there next to the market. Then we went home, and Lee played with Pauline all day while I did the little bit of housework that I needed to do. I think they wore each other out, which was a good thing.
After Olaf got home and we put the kids to bed, we had raclette for dinner. It was so delicious! I wasn't sure at first if it was necessarily going to be as enjoyable for Lee as it is for me, but like he said, you can cover just about anything with melted cheese and it will be delicious. We all had a really good time just hanging out, talking and eating all sorts of yumminess. It was kind of a farewell dinner before Lee and I left on our adventure.
And so much for the idea of not having any more snow this year! It started snowing in the evening and kept going (though not very hard) all night. It was beautiful, and I was glad Lee was there to see, but I don't think he was as excited about the cold as I was.

Saturday, Mar. 6
Since Lee and I were going to be flying to Prague, we all got up in the morning and had an early breakfast. Our flight didn't leave until 11:40 am, and you don't need to be at the airport an ungodly 4 hours before your flight leaves over here, so it wasn't all that early, just earlier than usual for a Saturday.
After breakfast Lee and I finished packing what we were going to be taking with us for the next week, and then Olaf and the kids drove us to the airport. We went to the observation deck so that Gustav and Pauline could watch the planes take off for a little bit before Lee and I had to leave. They actually have a terrace for people to go sit outside and watch the planes take off, kind of like I remember you used to be able to do in America before they got all anal about security. It was snowing, though, so the terrace was closed and we had to watch from the inside.
The flight to Prague was fast and easy. It was kind of like flying from LA to San Francisco, but I still managed to sleep a little bit despite the short duration because I was so tired. When we landed in Prague we got our luggage and headed toward customs only to find that there really was no customs. There's nobody there checking passports or anything. It was really shocking, and kind of a bummer because we both wanted stamps in our passports. The next step was to get some money. There was a Sparkasse ATM in the airport where I could pull money out, but we had absolutely no idea how much. We looked at the sign for the money exchange stand and thought we were missunderstanding something because it just didn't seem right. Turns out we were right: the conversion rate was 26 Czech koruna to every 1 Euro!!! The smallest amount I could withdraw from the ATM was 500 CZK. I decided to take out 2000 CZK (a little less than 80 EUR) and it actually gave me a 2000 CZK bill. It was a little rediculous.
After we got our enormous bill changed for some not-so-ridiculous ones, we went to get a taxi to take us to our hotel (since taxi is the only way to get to and from the airport). The taxi cost 640 CZK. We were really excited to get to the hotel, partly because it was freezing balls outside, and partly because we were excited to experience a 4-star hotel. I found it on a German hotel booking website (like hotels.com) and was stoked because it cost less than 100 EUR for us to stay there for 4 nights, and it was a 4-star hotel. Everyone said that Prague was cheap, but this was amazing. We quickly discovered, however, that the rating system in Eastern Europe is a little different ( or, as Lee put it, they must mean Communist Red stars). The first thing we noticed when we opened the door to our room was a strange odor that smelled kind of sweet, but definitely not in a good way. Then we looked down, and saw the huge patch of black mold in the carpet next to the bathroom door. Nevermind the fact that the room itself was incredibly small, the carpet was not so much carpet as a sisal rug covering the whole floor, the TV was about a 15" that I'm surprised had color, and the "king-size bed" was 2 small beds pushed together, there is no way that a 4-star hotel would have rooms so horribly infested with mold that you could practically feel it in your lungs. We basically went straight to the front desk and told them we needed another room because that just wasn't happening. I refuse to get a lung infection from breathing mold spore filled air on my vacation.
The new room was just like the other one, but without the mold, which is really the only problem we had with it anyway. It doesn't really matter if you get a 2 star hotel when you only pay a 2 star price, so there were really no complaints.
After we got settled into our room, we decided to head out and wander the area a little bit, particularly in search of food. We were a little way outside of city center so there weren't exactly things to do and see and eat everywhere you looked, plus neither of us can read or understand a word of Czech, so we basically walked along the tram lines so we didn't get lost. We were so hungry and so tired that all we really wanted was something easy and familiar. What we found was a shopping mall equipped with a McDonalds and a Sbarro (the very best of American culture that has been imported by Europeans). There were other things to eat there, too, but as I said, we wanted easy and familiar. Part of me is a little ashamed to admit that we ate that crap on our vacation, but at the time it was the greatest thing we could have hoped for.
After recovering with some fatty, delicious food, we bought a Czech-English dictionary in the bookstore so that we could attempt to figure out some signs when we needed directions, or to find food, and then made the long trek back to the hotel. It was kind of early, but we were tired and it was freezing, so we went to bed to get some rest before facing a long day on Sunday.

To Be Continued. . .