Say "cheese wedge!"

We had a fun weekend filled with new adventures and new friends!

Saturday we slept in and then went to the Farmers' Market in a square near our home (Vítězné náměstí). Because we were running late, we had to literally run around the market, but it was so cool and we'll definitely be regulars.

Riding the bus to the farmers' market

There were probably 100 different booths selling wine, cheese, fruit, veggies, etc. and all sorts of food vendors. Of course I forgot to take a bunch of pictures, but I did get the most important thing... THE CHEESE WEDGE!! This was so cool! It's boiled potatoes, pearl onions, some pickles and it's smothered in cheese. The coolest thing was how they got the cheese on it. They melt these enormous cheese wheels under a heater and then scrape it over your potatoes. It was REALLY good (obviously... look at that cheeeeeese).

Melted cheese being scraped on

Yuuuuummm...

After the Farmers' Market we made a quick stop at a convenience store and rode a very cool airbrushed airplane

Saturday night we met up with new friends! They moved here a few weeks ago from the U.S. and have a son just a year older than Burke and Holden. It was a blast. They live in a really cool flat downtown - the views were amazing and Holden found a wrestling buddy :)

On our way there - Burke with her favorite thing :)

Waiting for a tram

Beautiful views...

... and the other way!

Burke got a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
Band-aid for her nose... hahaha

This pic was taken by Burke!

1...2...3... wrassle!

Too close to call!

Posing with Chrissie before dinner

Our little super model in the making

Lollipops!

After dinner we went out for a little birthday dessert.

Waiting for the metro

Strawberry gelato

Chocolate gelato

Sunday we slept in (again!) and it was daylight savings time here, so we missed a good chunk of the day. Then we had our first mishap when the upstairs shower started leaking. I mean really leaking. We used 8 towels to try to sop it up, but there was still standing water on the floor. Fortunately the landlord sent someone over right away and they were able to stop the leak. We can't use it for a few days while it dries out - hopefully we'll be back in business Wednesday.

That evening our new friends came out to our area and we hit up a beer garden (http://www.uveverky.com/), which means Squirrels Restaurant. There were stuffed squirrels (ewwwww...) and also really old radios (those were cool). The outdoor seating wasn't open yet so after a drink we went on an adventure (aka: wild goose chase) to find a beer garden with outdoor seating. We finally found a place about 45 minutes and a few meltdowns later :). It was delicious, reasonable and right near our home, so it was a great find.

Say "Squirrels!"

The crew outside the American Ambassador's House

3 peas in a pod

Don's dinner - halibut and grilled veggies... $7.50

Tonight we enjoyed watching the Buccos opening season game (thanks again to slingbox)!

Let's go Bucs!

Singing the "Natural" Anthem

Last, but certainly not least, here is the long awaited MURSE picture. Lookin' good (and very European) Don Cooley!

Today I had my first day of work so my tourist life is over, but I think the adventure is just getting started!

Days 6 & 7: There's no place like...

... a home where you can't figure out the water heater, the radiators, the mail, the locks, etc. Oy. Moving is hard. BUT, on the bright side we love our house and in just 2 days have figured out most of those things (it went from Antartica to the Bahamas in our house, so something I pressed on the thermostat apparently turns on the heat... :).

The house has some really different features that are so neat! We have heated bathroom floors and heated towel racks (those will be handy around December...), a sauna, central vacuum and a really cool security camera where we can see who is at our gate and talk with them before letting them in. Here are some photos of our new digs!

Sauna

Part of the kids' room

Kitchen

Living / dining rooms

Master bath

H & B coming home for the first time

I think they like their room...

The kids have been really busy with school and so happy. They are making lots of friends and doing cool things. Yesterday they did rock climbing (Holden was a natural) and their school offers after school "clubs," that are so awesome (I want to attend!). They both took an after school cooking class yesterday where they made chocolate cookie bars (Burke showed everyone how to lick chocolate off of the counter). Today Holden took a kick boxing class and Burke took painting. We have had one minor set back... Burke fell off a bench at school today (one teacher said another child "may" have pushed her and the other teacher said she and Holden were just playing on the bench and the next thing they knew she was on the ground, so I think we have identified the other child...). Anyway, she looks like a bruiser and is feeling pretty proud of herself.

Painting!

Poor baby! Check out that nose!

We had dinner last night at a little Pizzeria near our house (http://www.pizzeriasiesta.cz/). It's about a 5 minute walk from our house and really good. I'm sure we'll be there often. Both kids fell asleep again at dinner. Here's Holden looking especially cute. An older Czech couple couldn't get enough of him. 

Getting internet was a priority and the way we got it was... well, interesting. We were going to go with one of the major companies, but it turns out there's a very local (meaning local to our neighborhood) service that you can subscribe too. So, while in Pizzeria Siesta we had to "ask for Jarda" who lives on top of the restaurant. He then came down, joined us for a drink and talked about our options. I asked if he could come over tomorrow and he said sure. I asked what time and he said "what time works for you?" HUH? What time works for me? This is definitely not like cable in the U.S.! So, he came over this afternoon and an hour later we had internet.

We also picked up our leased car today, which was an adventure. First though, this is Don on the way to pick up the car...

Can you still be jet lagged after a week???

I'm beginning to think that either I have a family of narcoleptics or I put people to sleep. Hmmm...

Anyway, the people at the dealer were so incredibly nice. Very few people who work there speak English, so the Finance Director sat in and did all the translating. She was fantastic. Here's our car! It's called Škoda Superb Combi 4 x 4 - they're made in the Czech Republic and it seems really nice. We've driven a few places so far. 

Going for a ride

Lunch today was at a little Czech restaurant really close to our house (5 minute walk). I can't tell you what we ate because the menu was in Czech and we're still not sure, but it was good!

Don thought he ordered Chicken,
but we're pretty sure it was a pork salad.

I think I had risotto (and definitely a piece of bread)

We needed a bunch of supplies, food, etc., so after picking up the kids, we ran to a mall with a supermarket. It was quite possibly the coolest mall ever because it had a great kids area with an enormous slide. The kids LOVED it. 

These had horns that actually beeped!

 

Yeah... not sure if that's mall appropriate...

Getting ready for the big slide

Still can't believe this was in the mall... I admit, I went down it too!

We took so long we had to grab dinner there, but it was no problem because they had a nice little Italian restaurant. 

Cheers!

I forgot to post this one a few days ago, so I have to do it now. We were walking around in Prague 6 and came across this bar. Of course we had to go in. Inside we found a counter with 1 tap and like 4 slot machines. It was nuts. Turns out it's a chain and it's everywhere! 

Don looking tough at Rocky Sportbar

Overall, it's been a great first week. Na shledanou!