Europe Trip 2003

A few words about Czech

It is still pretty warm here, but it rained one day last week when we were
with the group in Czech. Actually, it rained all night long, really hard
raindrops on the roof of our tent. It was exciting and i

It is still pretty warm here, but it rained one day last week when we were
with the group in Czech. Actually, it rained all night long, really hard
raindrops on the roof of our tent. It was exciting and i didn't sleep much
because i kept thinking about the storm outside. That same evening, i got to
use the tick remover that Hildegaard gave us! But not on me, thank goodness
(oh how i hate ticks on me:). Daniel, the Czech, found TWO ticks and didn't
know that much about them. I got out the ticktool and Rusl took out the first one
(you unscrew them really, without pulling on them). Then when Daniel found
another one on him, i took it out. Both times were easy and successful with
the head. OF course, this didn't help my sleep that night, fuelling my
imagination about ticks crawling on me, AND...that was also the night with
the flying red ants that got in our tent! So: pouring rain, ticks, red ants
which bit me three times throughout the night (and you really feel it too).
It is funny now that i look back on it:) Towards the morning i finally
started to sleep ok, but then Daniel, who was the most gung ho about getting
started good and early (he always wanted the group to go further than
possible, probably because he was excited to show us so many interesting
spots), Daniel started calling "Time to get up everybody! Don't be lazy!"
He was quite funny and nice and also open with people soon after meeting them (Randy,
who knows him well, said people always get to know him quickly because he is
not especially polite even at the beginning, and you actually might get into an argument
with him soon after meeting him:). Since he knew the area, he had the route planned and took on
the role of guide sometimes. It was a great trip (Rusl is writing about some of it) and Daniel had an interesting insider perspective of the Communist era in Czech. He was also working to help Bosnians after the war, in Bosnia, for 6 years. I of course asked him a lot about that too. I would like to write more about all this another time.

My TIRE blew out during this trip (25 km away from any town that would have
tires for sale), but Rusl did a trick with some fabric we got from Hildegaard (thank you Hildegaard for the tick remover AND the fabric!)
to line the inside of the tire and it has been
working ever since! I will change my tire here in Koln because it could burst
again at any time (it's usually hard to do anything if your tire blows,
so i'm amazed it has worked so well).

The water here in Koln is pretty good, not as good as in Munchen, but fine
for drinking. The apartment is nice and spacious, and Sepp and Rita even left
their portable mini-refrigerator for us. We are relaxing here. Today we feel good and refreshed. thank you to everybody who is sending us messages and keeping us updated with your news!