Ostrava-rediscovered

We spent a wonderful weekend at the town of Ostrava with our friends Radka and Ivo and their daughter Michaela. We also went to the town of Pribor to visit the Sigmund Freud house (where he was born). While in Pribor we had one of those very special Czech experiences. We wondered up to the beautiful Gothic, (later Baroque churches.) It being Saturday around noon, the church was closed and gated up. While we were standing there admiring the outside, this woman came up with a key. She said she had come to ring the bells and would we like to go with her. Unfortunately she did not have keys to the church only the bell tower. So we climber these winding stairs carved in stone up to the bell tower (about 150 of them!!). The view was fantastic. She explained that she did this twice a day, at 6:30 am and at noon, everyday. She has been doing it for 40 years. Then she rang the bells. I am surprised that after 40 years she can hear anything! She told us the names of the different bells and what they were used for. One bell (the one in the photo) is the Maria bell and is only rung on Sundays. One of the smaller bells, the Barbara bell, was only rung for funerals. When it was all done we climbed back down and she walked us out of the church yard and thanked us for looking at her bells. I guess this is why we love this country. This type of experience continues to occur to us. Wonderful people who care and love their country and who have a reason to be proud of it and the fine history that it holds. They are also so proud of it that they want to share it with others-even us!!
We had a marvelous time with our friends and re-discovered parts of Ostrava, a city on the North Eastern part of the Czech Republic. Of course we ended up at Ostrava Castle, another medieval castle that has now been restored and hosts many Renaissance fairs in the summer months. Michaela need to make a Maraina for school so I helped out. Under Czech tradition in the spring, everyone goes to the River and throws out the old woman of winter , Maraina. So we had to make one for Michaela to take to school on Monday. Great fun and not too bad for my first attempt!

Health Insurance

Our latest adventure involves getting health insurance here in the Czech Republic. There are several private companies that sell it to foreigners at about the same rates as the US and of course it covers nothing. The Czech government also offers insurance to it's citizens and to foreigners so we decided to try and apply for that. We went to the foreign office where the woman spoke pretty good English, but we took a friend along anyway. We got all the forms and information and then were told that we had to have a physical from one of their two doctors. We called and made an appointment that we went to on Friday. It was in a building directly across the street from the cemetary,....hum.....It has been 40 years since I have had anyone draw blood without wearing rubber gloves. I was handed an old measuring cup and Ken a plastic drinking cup and told to get a urine sample. The Doctor spoke almost no English and had a manual typewriter that she used to type up the form. She also used carbon paper to make a copy for her files,....don't know where to even buy carbon paper in the States! She wanted to know what our parents died of and if our siblings were healthy. Ken told her he was taking pills for blood pressure and offered to show her what it was and all she wanted to know was if he took one or two pills. I told her about my high blood sugars and she said there was no sugar in the urine so she wasn't going to write it down. She did a quick exam, heart lungs etc and then she took our blood pressure and Ken's was 150/95,...a little high even for him. Then she took mine and it was 150/95. Since mine always runs about 110/60, I asked her to take it again and she did and got the same result 150/95. I tried to tell her I thought there was a problem with her machine, so she took our friend/interrupters blood pressure and guess what it was??? 150/90. She assured us that it was not a problem because we were probably all just nervous!!! I certainly was after that!!! The final event however was when she handed us our blood samples and told us we had to take them to the lab ourselves! We thanked her and asked if she would be our regular doctor in the future and she assured us that she would not. She only does the exams. So we drove to the other side of town where we handed off our blood to some woman in jeans in the hallway of some building! We should get the results in about a week and if we are approved,.....we get Czech health insurance, I think,...I know all of this sounds crazy, but somehow it works here. The medical care is excellent and the cost of the insurance is about 1/4 of what we were paying in the states. If I work for the University, I will get the insurance for free and then we only have to buy it for Ken. So that is the experience for now,...After the gorgeous weather last weekend, this weekend was cloudy and colder,..but the dafodils and forsythias (the Czechs call them golden rain!) are out and the cold will soon be gone!

One Month, but who's counting!

It has been one month since we arrived here and in some ways it still feels like we are only on vacation. What a way to live life!! Feeling like you are on vacation all the time!
Of course the first few weeks were filled with shopping. We arrived to an apartment that had a sleeper sofa,..we ordered it sight unseen, a set of linens (purchased last March), a coffee pot,..but no coffee cups and a couple of towels. Since all of our luggage was lost even the stuff we had brought was not here for the first night. Gradually we added the essentials,..a bed, dishes, pans, a TV, printer etc. It is interesting that under communism there was essentially one store, one product and one price. Now there are thousands of specialty stores. In fact I needed some extra pillow cases so I had to go to a store that sold only bed linens. Ken had to go to a paint store for turpentine for painting and to a drug store for de-natured alcohol for cleaning his brushes. I am still looking at a couple of different sewing machine stores to buy a machine. There are a few of the big "Wall-Mart type" of stores and they carry a general line of a lot of items. They do not however have the variety and quantity that we are used to and in many cases they are more expensive than the little neighborhood specialty store. Some things we still have not found,...like steel wool and vanilla. I'm sure they are around but it is sort of a scavenger hunt to figure out where to go to buy them. This photo is of one of the local Baroque churches.

Will wonders never cease!

It is not enough that we have quit all our jobs and travel around the world to live in the Czech Republic, we have also started a Blog! So many of you have asked for updates, that we thought this would be the easiest way to keep everyone informed about the exciting adventure we are on. I suppose some of this will boring at times and we will try to spare you all the mundane trivial aspects of complete changing a lifestyle after 55. I hope to post some photos of the great places we go to (another hurdle to try to decipher). Mostly we hope to share with you the excitement and wonders that we encounter along the way. The photo at the right is Helfstein Castle. A wonderful old medieval castle set up on a hill. In the summer they have re-enactments and catapults flying. It was a glorious Sunday, 60 F and sunny and no better way to while-a-way an afternoon. This is just the start, so hang in there and check us out often!!