365 days ago...

Almost a year to the day we savored our last coffee in Belgique, packed up our car with the guinea pigs and left rainy East London, waving goodbye to our worldly possessions which we trustingly put on the back of a Polish lorry (secretly praying that we'd see them again).

Two days later we arrived at midnight in Prague.  Our stuff did arrive, mountains of it which we had to unpack.  We had 5 days before Czech school started.  It was a mix of excitement, nervousness, curiosity and fear  - and some of those feelings haven't gone away.

The year has rushed by, we've had our ups and downs, but it's been a fun experience and we've never once regretted our decision.  However I feel it is time to re evaluate what I like and don't like about living here...

LOVES
1.  Freedom - maybe this is because it's always easy to leave the shackles of your old life, mortgage, job pressures, the rat race, but it's been lovely stepping away from all that for a while.

2.  Independence & responsibility - have gone hand in hand and this is what the kids have learnt this year, from school, scouts groups, and living here - the Czech Republic hasn't heard of health and safety here yet and it's been amazing for them to learn how to look after themselves, and they've embraced it!













3.  Nature and countryside - canoeing, mountains, skiing, swimming in lakes, it's quite easy here to do all that stuff. Czechs also seem to live side by side with nature more, it's been great.


4.  Learning another culture - stimulating, interesting, sometimes weird...

....and sometimes very different...

5.  Woof woof - it's really dog friendly here.  We can take Max on buses, trains, the metro, to restaurants...He's been to more restaurants at the age of 10 months than I did before I was 18 years!

6.  A surprising entry - The Weather.  Maybe we've had a good year, but it was a proper cold winter, and a proper hot summer.









HATES

1.  Czech DRIVERS - awful, dangerous, unsafe.  They overtake on side streets, reverse without looking, never stop for pedestrians.  Stats show they are one of the worst in Europe and I believe it.

2.  Customer Service - I don't think Czechs have a word for it in their lexicon.  They find it a very difficult concept to grasp.

3.  Bureaucracy -  ooh they don't half love a bit of paperwork, and there's lots of coloured stamps that need to be stamped to make sure it's all official.

4.  Cold Fish - Czechs's aren't the warmest of people.  It takes an awfully long time for them to accept you, especially if you're a foreigner.

5. Corruption -  sadly a daily occurrence with politicians and people in power.

6.  1980s and mullets - I wanted to start a collection of mullet photos, but I never seemed to have my camera to hand when the time came.

But believe me, they are still alive and well here...along with bad 80s outfits and Christmas jumpers...and let's not forget good old sock and sandals!

















But either way, so far we have survived the good and the bad!

On the Road....

...Unlike Jack Kerouac I'm not taking mind bending substances and quoting Ginsberg or the Beat Poets, instead I'm carrying suntan lotion, dog food and reading out weather reports from the iphone.

Still, the feeling is the same, that of freedom and spirit of adventure.

This is the first holiday since the kids were born that we've donned backpacks and went travelling with just a guidebook and a passport.  Admittedly we've not gone far - only to Slovakia, the neighbouring country, but it feels like a real trip away without hotel reservations in place, and more importantly without The Car and all the trappings of life we bring with us when we have 4 wheels.

Everything we need we are carrying on our back, and if we ain't got it - tough luck.

Our first thrilling stop was the overnight sleeper train from Prague which arrived at an ungodly hour in some ungodly deserted train station in the Slovak Mountains. It was definitely less Orient Express and more Intercity, but that didn't stop the kids from being high with excitement, practically bouncing off the walls until the lull of the train on the tracks rocked them to sleep about midnight.

We felt like the Famous Five - cos now we've got our own Timmy the dog (ok....a less well behaved version) and hubby took us on all sorts of treks through meadows, along streams and up mountains.  

Luckily he was astute enough to pepper this with trips to hot springs and waterparks to keep the kids and wifey happy along the way.

And even when he was presented with problems like climbing up a steep gorge with a Labrador and ladder....

....he always found a way around it....

               

Woof Woof!

The weather helped.  I'm sure we (read I) would have given up and headed straight for the nearest town and hotel if we'd been squelching through mud, but the sun made it all more doable, more romantic, more fun....

And we definitely all felt a sense of independence and spontaneity as we conquered fields of wildflowers drinking in the panoramic views and sweeping valleys.

And then all too soon it was time to wait for our night train to Prague again...to slowly take us back to reality.