A Bit of This and a Bit of That

Sitting here, thinking about all that has happened this year, I find myself thinking, 'not much!' But that can't be right...We have both been busy with working and just living life. Over the last few months, we have made some really great friends here in Prague, which ultimately leads to less sightseeing and more pub visiting! Not a bad trade though in my opinion. Living in a foreign country is always made easier when you have a group of friends you can turn to.

Our Christmas and New Years guests all left on January 4th, to much displeasure from Jon and I. It would be an understatement to say that going back to work after the break was hard! But we got there in the end, and we had some more friends, Karen and Mase, visit in the middle of January which was really nice. We met Karen on our Europe TopDeck tour in 2010 and her and her boyfriend Mase are making their way back to New Zealand after a long 3 years abroad. Having people visit the place where you live is wonderful, you get to play the tour guide and take them to all the best sights and best restaurants and pubs too. It is also nice to reconnect with people after a long time apart - a connection to memories or experiences shared with those people who are visiting. Having Karen here felt like we were back on our Euro trip all over again! We had lots of laughs with them and made some new memories too.

It was a few weeks after this that we got hit with the big freeze - literally. The weather had been sitting around 0 degrees (give or take 5 degrees) for the majority of winter, which is considered quite warm for Prague. Then we had about 3 weeks of temperatures averaging -15/20 degrees! I have never felt anything like it and I don't want to live through it again. It kind of feels like your skin is being scraped from your face alongside the feeling you get when you shove too much icecream in your mouth at once. You could only be outside for short periods of time - there were health warnings on the radio reminding people to keep their outdoor business to a minimum. Although, as all good things come to an end, so does freezing weather, and as the temperatures crept back up to the 0 mark, we finally got our snow in Prague! If ever you are asked the question "what is the most magical city when covered in snow?" your answer should be Prague! It was simply breath taking and totally romantic. It was a pity that it only snowed for a few days in Prague this winter, but any more and we probably would have been sick of it! Here are a few pictures we took on an excursion to capture the city in white:

Prague Castle and a slightly frozen Vltava!

On our way up to Prague Castle

Sugar dusted Prague

And more snow!

We also got to have our play in the snow too; tobogganing, making snow angels, snowball fights and snowmen all crammed into one day of blissful childhood fun! We were definitely the least experienced of all the people in the park that day when it came to 'snow activities' but I think we were having the most fun :)

Snow Angels!

The river near our apartment, frozen solid!

Smallest snowman and snowsheep ever

We managed to squeeze in another ski trip in February too. We went back to Herlikovice with a group of friends, just for the one day of skiing. The bus ride to the mountains is only 1 hour and 40 minutes, and including hire of equipment, the whole day costs less that $50! We had a great time going up and down the slopes all day, with the more than occasional pit-stop at the many bars along the slopes. I'm not sure that we are getting any better at skiing, but we certainly enjoy it!

Herlikovice slope

So, although it doesn't feel like we have done much over the last few months, we have really been living the 'overseas experience'. Making friends, working to pay the bills, enjoying the change of seasons and generally living life is what we set out to do here, and we are enjoying every minute of it.