Last Saturday

On Saturday we made another trip. We were in Pardubice. But this time it were just the two of us (without Miri, she is back in Italy, by the way). It was a good opportunity to put our current knowledge of Czech into practice: 'prosim dva listky do Pardubic tam a zpet'. Yupi! It works! ;)

Our first target in Pardubice was the shopping centre. Well, women's stuff! ;) And we were looking for some German or English books in the bookshops (evenings are getting longer and nights are sometimes sleepless). By the way: we discovered Agatha Christie and Paulo Coelho are really popular in English edition here (shelves were full of books from these authors).

Afterwards we went sightseeing in the city centre. The town has a nice atmosphere. We read somewhere that the region is known for horse racing but for us not horses but peacocks became the city's emblem. There is a big and honestly well kept castle with many of these birds. They aren't scared of people and you can take a picture of them.

Also newly-weds choose castle scenery for wedding photo session. We met 3 or maybe even 4 just married couples on the market square.

We came back home satisfied but tired. It was truly sunny day and we covered about 10-15 (?) kilometres by foot that day! Good news is soon we'll be really fit. ;)

Flying visit in Hradec Kralove

Because we both like travelling we couldn't wait long to start our first trip. And for the first destination we had chosen Hradec Kralove. We took Miri with us – or maybe it would be better to say she took us there. ;) At the beginning it's not so easy to buy tickets e.g. without understanding Czech and having much knowledge about Czech Republic in general, so we are really lucky Miri joins us in our first days here. So, we decided about going to Hradec Kralove on impulse and we didn't make a plan what to do there, what to visit or whatever. We just went for a walk around the city and had lunch in Chinese restaurant. We were truly full but we decided to scramble up the watchtower. 182 steps to the top. It was worth it! The view over the city was amazing. Afterwards, Miri showed us a nice park and we were ready to go back home. It was our first short visit in Hradec Kralove but for sure not the last one.

P.S. Our Czech vocabulary is really small but today we learnt one new word – it's 'slevy'. Everywhere was 'slevy' and we couldn't miss it so we bouth some new T-shirts. :)

First days in Rychnov nad Kneznou, first impressions and conclusions

It's hard to believe we are in Rychnov nad Kneznou already one week! Thanks to Miriam, volunteer from the old crew, we could feel comfortable in our first days here. She showed us the most interesting places and gave some useful information about living here and working in OKO. We walk a lot around Rychnov and know already all roads lead (no, not to Rome!) to market square.

We are a really good cleaning team. I know it takes some time to say 'home sweet home' concerning EVS flat but now for sure it looks better and a little bit more 'ours' without dust, cobwebs and some unnecessary things like winter shoes size 38 (we both have bigger feet). I'm curious how our shared living is gonna to be.
It's good to know we have something in common, like travelling, weakness for H&M or Ikea and we both are from small towns – there are 30 000 people in my hometown and 100 000 people in Christine's. Okay, we have a different point of view concerning the meaning of 'small'. ;) And yes, there are also some differences between us– she likes cats and I don't (wrrrr...), she has shower in the mornig and I prefere to have it nightly, she mainly cooks acording to recipe, for me cooking is a little bit more free style.

Now we are waiting for 2 other volunteers (from Germany and France) and starting with project for OKO. Our first challenge is updating this blog regulary – in the hope of meeting you here and in reality of course!

Few days ago...

Days before EVS adventure seem to be similar both in Poland and Germany – they were really intensive, with so many things to do, to buy & to remember, so we made all the time to-do-lists so that we don't forget anything. And it was so hard to say goodbye to everyone... But our goodbye-parties were easily the nicest thing in pre departure process, and only a little bit tearful. ;) Big question was how to pack up for a whole year?! It seems always like mission impossible, you have to believe us. ;) But we managed to do it and to get to Rychnov with all the stuff we need. Last night at home was sleepless and the first one here without problems with falling asleep. We were extremely tired. And now we are ready for an adventure of our life time.