Rain and more rain!

The weather here in Europe has been so bizarre this past year. We had a terribly long and cold winter and it doesn't seem to want to get warm this spring. The HIGH for today is 53 degrees and I am wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt as I write. It has rained for the past 4 days and is to continue raining off and on for the next week. All of Europe is having colder weather than usual.

I did something this past week for which I am very proud. I drove 1586 kilometers through Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland, and then back home again. On Monday morning I picked up Janet who lives around the corner from us, and we drove from Budapest, through the country of Slovakia to Brno, Czech Republic where we picked up Wendi and her daughter, Emma.

We continued on to Prague, and then on into Poland to the famous town of Boleslawiec where they manufacture hand-painted Polish pottery. We saw the beautiful rape seed growing along the interstate. Rape seed is used to make canola oil.

As we drove into Boleslawiec, we saw this place selling every kind of statue imaginary. I thought of my son and his love for "yard art"! This picture only shows half of what they had for sale.

Janet and I left Budapest at 8:30 am and the four of us arrived in Boleslawiec by 6:30 pm. A long day but it was a lot of fun. I drove the whole way.

We stayed in a local hotel Janet found on the internet. It was fabulous! We couldn't get over the size of the bathroom!!!! In addition to a huge bathroom, the bedroom was equally large; large enough to hold a double bed, two single beds, and a small sitting area. Quite nice!

It's been a while since I've gone to a pajama party!

Tuesday morning we were out the door by 9:30 am and headed to shop for Polish pottery 'til we dropped. Or until the stores closed! We found wonderful shops, full of pottery of all styles, colors (mostly blue) and shapes.

Wendi had a great time spreading all the plates out on the floor and selecting her a set of dishes. I think she took about an hour and a half in this one store and we visited about 10 stores in all! I bought 8 dinner plates of different styles, a large casserole dish, several dipping bowls for spiced oil, and a utensil holder. It was a lot of fun spending my birthday and Christmas money!

Tuesday night after the stores all closed, we headed back to Prague. We spent the night in one of our co-workers apartments while they were out of town.

Wednesday morning before heading back to Budapest by way of Brno to drop off Wendi and Emma, I was walking around the corner to a local Potraviny (very small local grocery store) to buy something for breakfast when I came upon this horde of young children about 5 or 6 years old walking by. They must have been on a field trip or a stroll to the local park near their school. I was so surprised when one of them kept waving to me as if he knew me! It turned out to be Mason, one of our little TCK's who lives in Prague. I don't really think it was me he recognized, but more likely it was Emma who was with me!

Wendi, Emma and I stopped in a little town between Prague and Brno to buy a piece of the famous Bohemian lead crystal for which Czech Republic is known. It is a wedding present for a friends' daughter who is getting married in June in the U.S. Shhhhh! Don't tell her, Kristin!

I bought it in a quaint little town in the middle of no-where but they had some beautiful pieces!

I got home Wednesday night at 9:30 pm. I had driven through rain most of the day so I was quite tired; definitely glad to be home finally!

I spent the next couple of days getting caught up on emails and hosting the Brummits from Prague who came into town for a wedding of one of their Hungarian friends. While they were at the wedding on Saturday, Glenn and I slipped out to see a movie at the local mall.

A really neat thing they have at MOM Park mall in the underground parking lot are digital signs that tell you how many available parking spots there are on each level. Above each parking spot is a light; it is green if the parking spot is empty and red if there is a car in it. When you are driving through the aisles, you look up high for green lights that indicate an open parking spot. We went to the movies on a Saturday night and it was raining outside so all of Budapest was at the mall and the green lights definitely made it much easier to find an open parking space! The light above Glenn is red because the parking space has our car in it!

We travel again this week to our favorite European location. Can you guess where that is?