Hotel Lafayette Olomouc

... squares, fountains (and there are a few!!) and residents... I pretty much followed the steps I had taken on my own the day before - only this time with a wealth of more knowledge.... I had noted that some of the old buildings in the square had pictures of animals above the doorways - which was how houses were identified in historical times rather than by numbers... (ie/ the black dog, the ...

... we were already taken with Olomouc! He told us where to get off and we found our way to the hostel, pressed the button and chirpy voice told us to climb four flights of stairs and come in. Those four flights actually turned out to be be two flights within each flight, so 94 steps in total. Carrying 30kgs of luggage made them just that little more painful! The lovely Camila was waiting at the top with a big welcoming smile and invited us in. I immediately fell in ...

... story. I saw the coolest church I’ve seen yet. It looks boring from the outside, but it is AMAZING inside & free, which makes it all the better. Apparently Caesar camped at the town doing something or other at some time, cos there was a spring on the top of a hill where this church is now built. It also contained a statue of a pregnant virgin mary, apparently a big deal. But, I mentioned choc pie. As far ...

... our way through the crowd and got nauseously dizzy; and slow-dancing with Orange-cheeked Petra, who sang the Czech song to me. For an "ukol", Martin walked on all fours through the bar and yipped and shook his head around like an excited puppy. Later, he was supposed to lick someone's ear. He walked slowly through the bar, unsurely looking at girls' ears. Finally, he ended up at the bar and, giving up on the task, resignedly ordered a shot. The next player ...

... all while still young. And, in real life, the most understanding and accepting man I know is married to a fearful, often mean lady; he loves her very much.

Perhaps we think we can take someone too vain to love and make them happy and nice. ... I can still remember back when Vika used to believe in love, used to make jokes. Now, she's preconcerned with money, and her schoolmates say hi to her as if they're terrified by her. ...

I wanted ...

... but I always find the inside emphasises – to me at least – a narrow picture of a grossly intimidating, impersonal and distant God. The reason for Christ’s death as God’s gracious method for paying for our individual rebellion against Him and Christ’s subsequent resurrection as the defeat over that punishment just doesn’t seem to get a look-in, even though this reconciliation directly between us and God is the whole reason for ...

... exactly extend to our train carriage, which was a kaleidoscope of colour. The walls were mustard yellow, the overhead luggage rack a bright orange and the seats were a zippy combination of crimson and yellow stripes. The finishing touch was the curtains – taken straight from the colour scheme of the New Zealand One Day cricket team’s uniform from the late 1970’s, with the dark brown Czech Railways logo set against a beige background. If I cared about ...

... for a bit and chilled in the hostel just chatting to people for awhile and then headed out with an Gina, American girl (lived in Japan) and Isis, an Aussie girl, for dinner at a place the hostel recomended as local and cheap. The food was great and it was awesome to spend a rare evening out. We continued on to a bar that was rumoured to have a mountain climbing wall inside of it. Once there, we got a little adventurous and ...

... some Beach Boys songs played. Hent´a danced, overdramatically the whole time, as if he was a Beach Boy giving a concert. He hopped and swung his head, he rapidly rolled his body through the air, he kissed his air-guitar and microphone, he gave the crowd the peace sign. His hair flopped around. He danced like no one was there - except when he moshed with us, or we joined elbows and turned around. The rest of us just enjoyed being near him or noticed by him ...

... chosen this as a place to stop. We got a coffee and were back on the road by half eleven. The next part of the drive was very scenic, winding our way up through the pine forests of the Nizky Jesenik to a pass at around 1030m. This must have been what my elementary students were trying to tell me about as the views were stunning, and I'm sure come February it would be an excellent place to go skiing. We continued on down a very windy road back to the plains where we ...