Some kooky KIddo Castle pics

We went to the castle this weekend and it was tremendous. It happened to be St. Wenceslas's day which is also a national holiday - that meant admission to the Church was free (I didn't know that). We still bought tickets as there are a lot of other exhibits, a few art galleries, and some fascinating tours. We didn't get to see even half of it. I really recommend coming early in the day with comfy shoes, a light sweater, bottled water, camera, extra batteries, and either getting an english tour guide or renting the audio machine for the english guided walks.

The tour guide is probably better, but definitely more expensive. We didn't do either - we just wandered around and listened to different guides when we happened to meet up with them. I know there will be plenty of other times we'll take the tours - and complete the tour of the castle complex - and most likely within a year or so I will be able to offer a tour to my houseguests - but there's so much information right now that I couldn't possibly retain it.

The main Church does not have any english inside - you will see tremendous historical information, creations of such beauty, and truly awe inspiring works of art - and not have a clue exactly what it is you're looking at. Some of the other buildings do have information in english as well as czech.

They have pottery fragments from 5000+ BC and intact pottery from 2500 BC - from the area. There are burial robes from various saints and kings, and chain mail, and daggers over a thousand years old. It was fascinating. This is the second time we've been up there, and the second time we had to leave due to exhaustion and sensory overload. You can really spend a few days just touring the castle complex.

Our camera died way too early. We'll be back up there soon and take more pictures then...

(Right now the pics won't load so I'll get them up another time)

A few tasty food items

The picture of the caesar salad prompted me to take a few more pics of the foods we eat here... so here are some gyros -the kidl's new favorite food - and the goulash she had at the castle. I tried to take pic of my potato- bake (we'd call it a casserole) thingy from the castle, too - it tasted like smoked potatoes with ham and spongy melted cheese which sounds horrid but was deliciously good - but the batteries died as I took the goulash photo.

We were super amused by this particular gyro stand - they gave us forks, as most of them do, but look at the size!!!

My computer lab workspace

Here are some pics from my computer lab job - there are two looking out the window/door to the courtyard on the left - those are the ones with the cars. In the one with the railing on the left side, the restaurant I get the caesar salad from is on the ground floor, in the pic with the railing on the upper right side, under the arch is where the entrance is, and the school library.

In the pic with a door, that is the entrance to the Knights of Malta Church - I don't know the official name, but that's what it is. A lot of tourists come in and out throughout the day. In that courtyard there is an art gallery and an antique shop as well.

The pic with the computers - that's the computer lab. Duh.

Dog Poo, People Poo

Two things I'm not sure I mentioned:

One - there is dog poo everywhere. People will say, oh, just like Paris - NO nothing like Paris - the stench is unreal, and I do mean everywhere. Not so much in our district as the downtown area - it's horrible, you really have to watch the sidewalk or you'll step in it.

Two - We've had an occurence with our neighbor across the hall when he was, well, inebriated. His Mom kicked him out - literally, physically, he was put in a headlock and shoved out of the apartment. He then spent hours and hours hollering and buzzing at the door for them to let him in... we managed to fall asleep that weeknight, but only after midnight.

How did these two totally unconnected things happen to be raised, as if they had some importance?

Well, the neighbor, or maybe the neighbor's friend, showed up just before noon today, buzzing us, buzzing them, and finally gaining admittance to the building - and then buzzing the door across the hall. He went in and out and was trying to get back in and calling and talking and hollering, and we were in our apartment preparing to leave for the day.

I had to check through our peep hole a few times as our door was buzzed and it sounded like someone was knocking, but he was just drunk and stumbling and knocking in to things.

Not thrilled.

Unfortunately, not the worst of it either.

At some point in time he had an accident. That's the nice way of putting it, and as I know family reads this I'm letting you know to skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid a more graphic description. Skip down now... The guy shit himself and then walked around the hall, stumbling, grinding it in to the carpet and our doormat.

For the family version... He went #2 in the hallway and didn't clean it up.

We were leaving and opened the door as the door across the hall was opening to the drunk - and there was an instant recoil on my part as the smell hit me. We had to regroup and plan our exit strategy and then we made it out - we spent hours and hours up at Prague Castle today - photos and more details later - and then started dreading coming home.

Apparently, with good reason.

Six hours later and they've not cleaned up. Not at all.

Gross stuff again so skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid it....NOW... fortunately it's dried a little so the smell isn't so immediately nausea inducing.

I am at a loss and frustrated. And disgusted.

Just this morning the kid had mentioned how much she loved our apartment and we were discussing how much we loved being here, and had no desire to move.

The yuckiness must stop.

Life is on the mend.

Well, I haven't broken any more doors - although I seem to have acquired a klutziness factor - I keep knocking things over, which didn't make me to many friends in the market... and electronics are spluttering at me... but no permanent harm!

We still don't have enough keys to the apartment, but we can get in and out so that's good.

Tonight I am going to my first MEETinPRAGUE event. I tried to get a little dressed up for it this morning when I was getting ready for work. I think I look nice, I hope I look nice, and if the evening is a success I will have someone take a picture with me in it (I brought my camera)and will post it later, attached to this specific post.

I have been trying to figure out how to get to the meeting place, and while I think I'm pretty sure how to get there, after my experience the other day of buses and trams not being where they should I'm just a little hesitant going anyplace new.

So, if I get lost tonight here's a link to where you should send a search party Riegrovy Sady Beer Garden. The link is actually another blog, written by an American, I presume, who writes the food reviews for one the English language papers in town.

I think I'm meeting up with a few of the people I've met so far - but I'm not positive. Some of them are apparently very particular and not happy it's an outdoor event since it's been so cold lately - even though it's just about gorgeous out right now!

I'll get back with a review of the evening after it's over.

Did I somehow jinx myself???

It is 11:38 am as I sit down to write this.

In the past 36 hours we've had problems with the doors, the kid has caught a cold, and I lived through this morning. As the day is not yet half way over I wish I could just take a long nap and sleep through the rest of whatever it is fate has in store for me.

I got up at 6:15 today in order to make my 8:00 am appointment at the pre-school. I carefully plotted out my route last night, on-line, and confirmed it this morning before I left. I gave myself half an hour to make a 15 minutes two bus trip to the metro station we were to meet at.

I started off right.

The world did not cooperate.

I got on and off my bus at the appropriate stops. When I went to catch the second bus there was a problem. It wasn't there. The bus did not go to the bus stop I was at, the bus stop the transit site told me to get off at. So I tried to find other bus stops in the immediate area - there were quite a few. I got on the bus and then realized and then when it stopped and everyone had to get out I figured out I had got on the wrong bus. I couldn't see the next bus stop right away, but I found one and walked over to read the route - I had found bus the right bus but it was going the wrong direction.

There was quite a crowd waiting and I could not see the correct bus stop anywhere - I asked a woman for help, in czech, 'excuse me please, where ' and that's all I got out before she looked at me and sort of spit out ' I don't know, I don't know' and turned away. Everyone else turned away too. So far from helpful, but her refusal to even let me finish my question really made me mad and rubbed in how helpless I was feeling at that moment.

I walked around trying to find the right bus stop and I found one - and then I got on the wrong bus - on purpose this time. Instead of going to the metro station I wanted it was going to a different metro - I got off on that metro as it was only one stop away from the station I needed to be, and it was the fastest way for me to get where I needed to be.

AND THEN - I got on the metro going the wrong direction. So I got off that metro at the next stop and got back on the correct direction and got off and met my boss and another new teacher in the middle of the metro station.

I spent a few hours at school, observing and playing with the kids, and then I left - with a mission.

When the man replaced the lock yesterday he only gave me one key - obviously we need another as the kid needs to be able to come and go at will. I took the red line metro, transferred to another line, the green line which is our home line, and went past out stop to the next in order to get to the one place I know of where they make keys. I got off the metro and walked to Tesco through the mud - yes, it's still raining today - and went upstairs to get some copies made.

Apparently when I went to buy the kid cold medicine last night, I took my dictionary and phrase book out of my purse - which I realized when I went to request new keys. We managed to get through that and he understood how many copies I wanted. He took the key and started grinding a new one.

And then he stopped after just one key (I wanted extras). It seems that he doesn't have the right size keys for my housekey and so wasn't able to make a copy after all.

I don't know of any other key makes, can't find my book, and am tired after having had a stressful morning - and hoping I wasn't about to get fired for being so late to the metro. The kid texted me, which I didn't get until a moment ago - she can't find her housekeys. While she doesn't have a key to get in the apartment she does have a key to get in the building... but not right now as they're lost.

I'm tired and now I have to get ready to go to work. And I have to find a new key guy too.

The problem with doors... or why I missed half of class today

I was originally thinking about this last night, but was too busy with homework to post. Maybe if I had that would've been the end of it, or maybe I would have had to write an addendum today.

It started yesterday at school:

I forgot how to open the door. I know that sounds silly, and thinking about it right now, it really is, but that's the truth of it. I have those monstrously large doors at the courtyard to both buildings of my school and I just couldn't get them open.

When I went to work there was a guy who was going to the lab. He stepped over and buzzed and I pushed at the door. Nothing happened. He buzzed again and I pushed, still nothing going on. And again, but this time I tried moving the handle. The fourth time he buzzed, pulled and pushed and we got in.

After work I went next door to turn in the keys. Three times I buzzed and three times I was unable to open the door. Noone else was around to help me, and then I remembered I still had the keys to the building in my bag as I had closed up the school the night before. I finally was able to get in by using the key.

Frustrating. Comical, yes, but definitely frustrating.

When I got home last night the key turned in the lock a few too many times. I just attributed it to my bad door luck and thought nothing more of it till, oh, let's say about 45 minutes ago. I should have been a few hours, though.

It should have hit me about 8 am. When the kid left for school this morning she couldn't get the key to work correctly - she couldn't get it out or get the door unlocked - I don't remember exactly, but it was something. I pulled her key out and used my key to unlock the door - and it worked just fine. She left and was on her merry way.

When she got to school she called me as the door was locked and no one was responding to the buzzer. She didn't quite know what to do (I forgot to mention she was running late at that point, school had already started). During our conversation someone saw her outside and buzzed her in. Great.

Then me - I have class... and so like a good student I was leaving for class in a timely manner when it happened. The lock broke.

I stuck my key in and opened the door and when I went to pull it out it wouldn't let me. I pulled and pulled and finally turned and turned and then it slid out - with the lock fully extended. I tried to use my key to retract the lock so I could close the door, but no dice. That lock wasn't going to move - it wouldn't budge no matter what I did - and I tried both sides of the doors, jiggling it, looked at was I shoving the key in too far, not far enough, too hard, too gently.... I was stuck in my house with a door that wouldn't close.

So I emailed my landlord in the hopes that he'd check his email, see my plight, and come to our rescue, much like he did when we blew the main fuse outside the apartment. And I sat down to wait. I can't leave with my front door wide open. I can't close the door. I wasn't seeing many other options.

And then I heard it - something in the hall. So I ran out to check and there was a man... whose english skills are equivalent to my czech, but with a bit of mime and the obvious visual aids he was able to understand my problem. I thought - I'm saved, I've just somehow triggered some freaky door lock thingy and this guy is czech so he knows how to undo it. I was wrong. I didn't trigger anything. The lock was broken.

And with a sudden change in luck, it turns out the guy I'd cornered was the handyman and he ran downstairs and got the part I needed and switched it out in under 5 minutes.

And I have missed a good portion of class already, so I'm headed over to join in with the break and explain to my instructor what the heck happened. I still don't know what I did, and I really hoping I can remember how to open the doors once I get to school... I'm sort of counting on my luck to change.... something, anything, just get me back in the gods good graces... or I'm going to be stuck inside and outside of a lot of buildings for some time to come.


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Evening update: When I got to school the door was open, but I got jumbled up trying to leave school and buzzing myself out. When I got home I freaked out - the key was not on my ring - but it had jumped to another key ring - I didn't remember moving it, but it was the key that opened the door so I forgot about the freaky moving key... until...

I got a phone call from the kid. I'd run out to the grocery store and she had arrived home and the door would not open! She tried and tried but her key would not open the door! Fortunately I was on my way home, around the corner, so she waited for me and when we arrived back upstairs I opened the door with my key... the freaky key that had changed key rings. Upon closer inspection it is a new key - the lock was changed, not just a piece of the lock, and so tomorrow I have to go make copies so we can both freely access our house.