YO! Czech our Crib!

I thought it might be interesting for some to see how and where we live. It's different than our place in Cary. If you refer to the prior post, Mari and I are sitting in the kitchen at the table. This pic below of Elise is from the same vantage, but looking into the living room/master bedroom.


And here is our view out the living room window Elise is sitting in front of... note the factory in between the two brown buildings.
Now remember that our mere digital camera does not capture the setting. I mean this in several ways. You should know that the camera creates distance, for when we look out of the window, things look closer. Also the colorization of the camera is horrible. The skyline of the horizon the night I took the pictures was amazing in color... setting sun and all. But what should be noted specifically is this factory, which makes itself known every time we gaze out the window from this vantage point. The saying on the factory is "May the Unity of the Workers Live". Obviously this is of the communist era... much like the structure of our building. See below



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From the kitchen table, we see Heidi preparing something made with mushrooms most likely.

Our couch converted into the master bed. This is where all the magic happens.

This is our entertainment center. Every time we turn on the TV we realize how little Czech we understand. We do get CNN and it's in English. The news is usually bad.... but we do get a European perspective... which is good. Some of you might find it odd, but the news in America is hardly liberal and hardly neutral.....neither is this news... but then it's at least different than the same American blather.

The Hallway. Here you see our entry door. You may note the "faux" brick wallpaper on the right. I think it really adds texture.

And below is from the same position looking in the opposite direction. Our wardrobe. I can't find any secret doors in the back, but then I haven't gotten inside and shut the door either. When it's January and were desperate, maybe I'll send Elise on a scouting mission. (None of that will make any sense if you don't know the story of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
Perhaps it doesn't make sense if you do?)

Finally, we have Mari's and Elise's room. They have the southern view. It's quite good. Since they have it so good we make them pay buy hanging the laundry in their room. But fortune still smiles on them: in the drying process, the whole room smells of freshly done laundry. You'd think this paradise might entice them to make their beds. I suppose that the clean smell of laundered cloth has more of a poppy effect.

And below, the rear view - minus the laundry as seen in the above picture.

And this is from the groundling's perspective. I lock my bike up to the places where people don't hang their laundry.

The observant eye will note the lack of closets in our apartment - we actually have 2 small closets - one in the hallway that serves as dresser drawers and one in the dining area for our food and paper goods. As a result, bags and shoes and mops and ironing boards - all the stuff we Americans have but hide away in closets when we clean house (because - let's be honest - all that stuff rarely stays where it's suppose to) - all of it is now openly sitting on the floor and we ignore it. We didn't come to the Czech Republic to clean house every day!!! Still, we haven't yet lost our respectability - come over for dinner or for coffee and you won't find much of those items sitting around. We might even sweep up those incessant dust bunnies that never seem to go away!