Category: Places

Dreaming of Spain

Published on by Grace10 Comments

As the days become better and brighter, I cannot help but dream about vacation destinations.   After living in the center of Europe for almost 2 years now, I really miss the sea.

                             Photo courtesy of gospain.about.com

As I was searching for European beach destinations, Spain has piqued my interest.  But it isn’t only because of its beaches.  A lot of it has to do with my home country’s history.    For three hundred years, the Philippines was under Spanish colonial rule and a lot of what we have now came from the Spaniards.  Shown below is a picture of a street in Vigan, Northern Philippines, which somehow gives you an idea of what the Spaniards have left behind.

Not only did they leave us with historical buildings, but our language in itself is interlaced with a lot of Spanish words.  I would love to see and experience the country that gave us all these.

                                               Source: images.nationalgeographic.com via Elaine on Pinterest

 

As of this time, I still don’t know when we will be able to go, but it is definitely on my bucket list.  Luckily, I found this great site    that offers good deals on hotels, flights, and everything that has to do with travel.  So perhaps one day I will get there.  But for now, I’ll just keep on dreaming.

Spring is Here!

Published on by Grace8 Comments

After the seemingly endless winter weather that we’ve had over here, I was elated this past weekend as spring finally came.

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We took a walk to town through the woods and were having a grand time just looking at these leaf buds.  The birds were also singing and the air smelled so fresh.

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We then went to feed the ducks and the swans.

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And of course the trip wouldn’t be complete without a quick stop at the playground.

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Right now, a lot of visits and weekend trips are already planned.  On top of  that, we will have to put in a lot of work with our house landscaping too.  With too many activities planned and with relatively short time,  I am now beginning to understand why Czechs really love the outdoors.

An Unusual Easter Holiday

Published on by Grace3 Comments

I was so looking forward to Easter Sunday because my husband and all the other Czechs I know were very optimistic about a bright and sunny Easter holiday. Although we still had subzero temperatures during the night, the days prior to Easter Sunday were relatively warm (at 2C or higher).

We arrived Friday night at my in-laws’ house and everyone were in high spirits. Come Saturday and the weather was not too bad. In fact, we had a little bit of sunshine creeping through the clouds as we walked around my husband’s home town in Moravia. But Easter Sunday was a different story. As I was getting ready for church earlier that morning, 5cm of fresh snow greeted me as I opened the windows. The worst part was that it didn’t stop snowing till late afternoon, not until it reached 15cm. In other parts of Moravia, the heavy snowfall caused a lot of road accidents.

We all went out to lunch that day at a local restaurant and visited my husband’s aunt at a neighboring town. We then proceeded to visit my mom-in-law at the hospital. Luckily, we arrived at our destination safe and sound and only had to contend with cleaning off the snow from our cars. It was a very unusual Easter, even for the Czechs. For a while there, I thought I moved to the North Pole instead of the Czech Republic. Winter has definitely overstayed.

I’m glad we are now back in our home in the Bohemian lowlands. There was no snow in this part of the country, and it is now relatively dry. I do feel bad for the rest of my husband’s family in Moravia who are still contending with heavy snowfall which is forecasted to last until Friday. “Oh well, what can we do? That’s life,” I said to myself as I am now slowly digging into my son’s Easter loot.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a short video about my land of eternal sunshine. It is a great antidote to these winter blues.

Winter. Again?

Published on by Grace10 Comments

This past weekend, we had 2 bright sunny days which made me feel like spring is really in the air. But what greeted me this morning was this.

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Looks like winter is not going anywhere.

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After 5 months with this kind of weather, it  is starting to wear me down.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is such a pretty sight.  It’s nice when you don’t need to go anywhere, but it sucks when you have to  (which is my case).

And spring is when, again?  Oh well….

 

 

Destination: Dětenice

Published on by Grace10 Comments

This past weekend, our relatives from Brno stopped by to visit us in our new home. On Sunday afternoon, we decided to visit Dětenice, a small village in the county of Jicin in North Bohemia. It is a quaint little village that makes you feel like you have just been transported to the Middle Ages.

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The Chateau.

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Outside of the hotel, this is what you will see.

Our main goal in visiting this place was to witness the Knights’ Tournament which is one of the best attractions in this place. My 4-year-old nephew is so fascinated with Knighthood that if he was born during the medieval ages, he would have become one. I didn’t expect the younger ones to like it, but they seemed to have enjoyed it immensely as well.

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The tournament took place in an old stable since it was still quite cold to do it outdoors. The weapons they used were real, and being seated at the front row, I was a little worried that those weapons would accidentally come flying at us. But none of that ever happened. These guys were experts and they handled themselves pretty well.

For the tournament that we witnessed, there were 4 Knights vying for the honor.

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There was a German Knight.

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A Czech Knight.

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A Polish Knight.

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And a French Knight.

We would have wanted the Czech Knight to win the tournament, but it was the German Knight who emerged as victor.

Here is a short clip of the sword fight between the French Knight and German Knight.

I had been told that the evening entertainment is one-of-a-kind and a “must see.” Unfortunately, since we had young kids, we couldn’t stay longer to watch it. We just roamed the village while our boys were busy running around.

All in all, it was an afternoon very well spent.

For more information about Dětenice, please click here.

Snow Freaks

Published on by Grace14 Comments

My son is now sick. I think it’s my fault. I must’ve overindulged him in too much snow.  I did get what I wished for.  We had a good amount of snow these past few days.

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After seeing this much snow from my son’s bedroom window, it was only natural for him to want to go outside and play.

So last Friday, I took him out for a long walk in the woods.

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It was -4C that day, but the cold did not seem to bother us.  We were having fun!  We crossed the woods to get to the other part of town.  Everytime we find a little inclined space, we take advantage in sliding downhill on his sled.

By the time we got home, he was literally spent.  He didn’t even wait to get to his room.  He just crashed on the sofa.

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This past weekend, we went skating with some friends.  Because he is still too young to skate, we placed my son on a sled so he can still enjoy the ice with us.   It was very cool.  Unfortunately, that didn’t do him well.  He got cold.  And because he was also tired, getting sick was inevitable.

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Now I am nursing him back to health.  Hopefully, we can cut the “down time” so we can enjoy the snow all over again.

Inside Our Passive House – Part One

Published on by Grace25 Comments

As promised, here is my first post regarding our experiences living in a passive house. I’m sure most of you are more curious about the technical aspect of the house rather than the interior design, so this post is solely dedicated for that.

Our initial expectation of decreased heater usage was indeed met during our first 2 weeks here.
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A sunny winter day like this is enough to raise the interior temperature to 1C to 2C.  Because of the thick insulation and air tightness, the house has the ability to keep the temperature stable.

Give us 7 sunny days like this and we may not need the heater at all.

But for days when it’s gloomy and Mr. Sun is hidden behind the thick clouds, the house’s integrated heaters are programmed to keep the temperature stable.  Potential “cold spots” within the house are equipped with heaters that look like this.

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This is the biggest one  for the living room, but the smaller ones in the bedroom almost look the same.

The external blinds of the house has a central control unit that can be programmed to open and close at certain times of the day.  In winter, it is useful to open everything during the day to let the sunshine in and heat up the house.  But in summer, there will be a need to keep it closed.  Remote control switches are also available to adjust the amount of opening or amount of light that one would like to have.

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With its air-tight feature, you may be curious about how the house breaths.  Well, this equipment makes it all possible.

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Air vents are strategically located around the house to exchange the air.  There is no need to open the windows.  You are guaranteed to breathe in fresh air.

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We still haven’t done much about the exteriors of the house, so this is pretty much how it looks like from the outside.  Come spring and the landscaping is another major project.

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Anyhow, we are happy with our first few weeks in this house although it is not completely decorated yet.

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Call it crazy, but we are probably one of very few people who are very eager to receive their energy bill.

Precious Moments

Published on by Grace20 Comments

Another Christmas tradition here in Czech is to take a walk with the family on Christmas Eve.  In our case, it became a post Christmas activity.

Since we were celebrating with the extended family, and the boys love trains, we took them out for a short train ride in a neighboring city.  We then went on the back roads that connected one train station to another.  I was lucky to snap a couple of pics of my little boy with his cousins.

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Precious little moments….

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I tried to coax them into looking at the camera, but wasn’t very successful.

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Someone is always looking away.

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A simple thing can also be a reason to play.

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In this case, a simple bottle cover became a soccer ball.

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Although the walk was not in the nicest part of town, it is one of the most memorable walks we’ve ever had.

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Integration

Published on by Grace16 Comments

Yesterday, it was -4C (25F) outside.  But I found myself enjoying my homemade guláš and downing it with a mug of cold beer.    A year ago, the idea of drinking cold beer on a cold day was quite repulsive for me.  Having been raised in a tropical country and spending a lot of time in a temperate country with very mild winters, snow was very foreign to me.   But the longer I stay here in Czech, I am starting to appreciate it now.  Somehow, dealing with the cold temperature has become a way of life.  I guess I am now integrating.

Another tell-tale sign is that I am starting to dig Czech humor.  Although I still don’t understand everything, I somehow get the drift.  Here is one popular Christmas commercial that touches on a Czech tradition and is presented in a very humorous way.

During Christmas, some people still practice the old tradition of fasting prior to midnight.  Little children are told that if they don’t eat anything, they will later on get rewarded with a sighting of a golden boar.  In this commercial, the little girl is asking her dad what the boar looks like.  She further mentions that she doesn’t need to wait for later since she is already seeing one.

I hope to awaken the Christmas spirit in me, as we are moving to our new place this weekend.    After the long wait, it is finally here.  The place is not fully furnished yet, but it is already “habitable.”  But we don’t have a tree yet.  I hope we don’t end up like the dad in the commercial.  Ironically, we live close to the woods.

Mikuláš Day: A Czech Tradition

Published on by Grace13 Comments

These past few days, my son has been playing this game where he says  “Čert”, then runs off and hides under the covers.    The first time he said it I didn’t understand what he was talking about until it occured to me that he was actually referring to a Czech christmas day tradition, the celebration of Mikuláš name day (St. Nicholas’ name day).    Although Czechs don’t believe in Santa Claus, they believe in St. Nicholas, his other personality.

Because I am still not used to this name day tradition, I completely forgot about Mikuláš Day, which is a tradition that is widely celebrated here in Czech.  When I saw one of my friends’ picture of the celebration, I felt bad about not giving Jakub the opportunity to celebrate this tradition.  But what I saw in their school’s photo board brought a smile into my face.  He was able to celebrate Mikuláš Day after all.

Earlier that day, they were drawing angels.

Photo courtesy of Zuzana Yousif
Photo courtesy of Zuzana Yousif

Then they were out for a walk.  It was snowing that day.

Photo courtesy of Zuzana Yousif
Photo courtesy of Zuzana Yousif

On their way back from the walk in the locker area, the mascots for Mikuláš Day were there.

Photo courtesy of Zuzana Yousif
Photo courtesy of Zuzana Yousif

It was funny to see my son’s apprehensive face beside the devil (Čert) mascot.  So this was the reason for the game.

Photo courtesy of Zuzana Yousif
Photo courtesy of Zuzana Yousif

Here in Czech, the whole celebration starts on the early evening of December 5th.  Traditionally, three personalities  “Mikuláš, Anděl a Čert” (St Nicholas, the angel and the Devil), visit children at home to ask them if they have been good or bad.  If they have been good, they will be rewarded with candies or chocolates.  Otherwise, they will be rewarded with coal or potatoes.

Mikuláš Day signals the start of Christmas.  In my household, we haven’t even put up a tree yet since we are in the process of moving to our new place.  I’m glad that he’s in school and got to celebrate Mikuláš Day nevertheless.