Blogs from Hradec Králové Region, Czech Republic, Europe - page 2

Via Praha, I make my way northwards, to Trutnov. I arrive after five hours on three different trains, walk to my guesthouse, and learn that the room I booked has been given to someone else. Unfortunately, I don't have any written booking confirmation, as I only called them up and reserved a room using a mixture of English, German and Russian. The lady at the reception nervously makes a lot of phone calls and checks the internet for a place to stay for that sad-looking creature sitting in front of her, who doesn't even understand her language. After maybe half an hour, she finally succeeds in this task and drives me to a place out of town, which actually seems to be closer to the Battlefield, Obscene Extreme's traditional venue. For an acceptable price, I get ... read more

“Let’s drink beer and burn the children!” Monica exclaimed with great enthusiasm. While this may sound a bit alarming, I can promise you it’s all in good fun. 15 minutes outside Hradec Králové, there’s a lovely little village. Jayna was nice enough to bring Ava and me there for Walpurgis Night. If you would like to read more about the history of the festival, you can follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night. Though the forecast called for rain, it was only a bit overcast and pretty warm outside. Jayna had told me about her village, so I was really excited to see it for myself. She told me her village was a peaceful place where everyone knew each other and helped each other out. It sounded like my own village on Chandler Hill, and I was excited to ... read more

“Mom, why didn’t the Easter bunny bring plastic eggs? He always brings plastic eggs in Ann Arbor” Ava asked. I sighed, “Because the Easter bunny can’t find them in the Czech Republic.” The real reason is because we were celebrating Easter two full weeks after it was celebrated here. We were traveling in Vienna during Easter and I didn’t want to take her basket and a bunch of Easter items with us. I told myself that we would celebrate it that week, and then I said we would celebrate it the following weekend, and we actually did celebrate Easter the week after that. Of course, all the plastic eggs (if there were any) were gone by that time. I was lucky enough to find some chocolate bunnies, ducks, and coins at a local grocery store. I ... read more

Today I gave 4 back-to-back lessons at a school near the magistrate building. The lesson was on American Holidays, and I like to show a few videos from my facebook page to help the students identify with certain holidays. One of the videos I like to show is of Ava’s first Easter egg hunt. I remember that Easter really well. John was living with Ava and me in Ann Arbor and mom and dad had come down to stay for the holiday. Dad and I hid the eggs together and we all watched Ava find the eggs. There’s a part in the video where she asks, “Are the eggs near the tree, Papa?” and it really melts my heart. We all miss my dad so much. Today is his birthday. I’ve never met another man with ... read more

I'm feeling very good this morning! I spent some time studying the bus map last night and found a great route to Jane's school thanks to the other map that Pavla gave me. The stop even has a short name (Lipky) so I can sort of daydream and listen for the stop to be announced. Most of the stops require me to follow along with the map or look out the window to see the bus stop written on the sign. But this stop is easy and close to the school. I also pass by quite a few cute grocery stores and decided to pick up a really yummy cherry and peach pastry on my way. Be jealous. Be very jealous. It was delicious. I arrived early (not late like yesterday) and have graded the listening ... read more