Thursday -meeting the team and the Team dinner

Each morning we got a ticket to go down to the little restaurant across the street to have breakfast. They had really strong coffee and an odd assortment of food items.
• Tomatoes
• Rolls/baguettes
• Ham slices
• Pepperoni
• Fruit
• Sliced cheese

The waitresses didn’t speak a lot of English, but enough to get by. The same crew was there for breakfast and dinner. This morning was really nice, so we sat outside with the dogs, but later when it was rainy, we were allowed to bring them inside…pretty cool!

After breakfast, we went out to the mall to get a fan. The mall WAS air-conditioned BTW! Toni and I thought we might just move into the furniture store for the rest of the week. We found a fan and then went grocery shopping. You have to pay to get a shopping cart. We got some flavored carbonated waters (This country is obsessed with bubbles!! )

We drove around a little bit looking at some of the countryside, albeit not entirely by choice. They are also obsessed with round-a-bouts and it is easy to get off on the wrong part. After we got back and assembled the fan, it was time to get ready for the team dinner.


here is the buffet


Me waiting to the chance to go to the buffet

It was at another restaurant at another nearby hotel that was doing its best to be Las Vegas. We got a ride over with Lisa Bowers and her husband David, whom I had met at breakfast that morning. It was nice to see everyone on the team, some I knew, and others I didn’t. Unfortunately, Janneke and Elicia were still trying to find their way out of Prague and did not get to the dinner. We got some instructions about when the practice was on Friday and what to be ready for.

Liberec??? where the hell is it??

Apparently, no one in Prague ever goes to Liberec, because we asked several people and got interesting advice like:
• A Cop that said – go back (pointing behind us then, when the light changed – GO GO!)
• Several people that couldn’t tell us any thing
• The Taxi driver who said after some contemplating - meaning he didn’t really know where it was either –
o Go around the circle and look at the signs and see if you see anything that helps!
o Your fist time in Prague?? Driving?? There is much construction! (along with a face that said “ YOU ARE SO SCREWED!”) and finally -
o You could follow my colleague out of the city for 700 kc ( about $35)

Toni and I decided to be stubborn and set out on our own armed with sketchy google map directions and a quickly setting Sun. I knew we had to go north out of town, but there didn’t seem to be a way to do that! So we circumnavigated the city of Prague and eventually ended up on the correct road. It was I believe the first time Toni or I were ever happy to see numbers!!! We can read them! Then eventually we saw a sign for Liberec! WOOHOO!

Along the way I noticed something interesting… There is a lot of open farmland out side of Prague, but the parking situation is horrible. Why don’t they spread out a little bit??

At about 11:00 we arrived at an exit to Liberec, but we still don’t know where the hotel is, so we stop at a grocery store that is closed and empty except for this very nice couple that speaks very little English. I show them my directions that I printed out hoping some of the odd words mean something to them (because they sure don’t to me) The wife goes to try to find someone else that is in the store area that speaks better English. They were a very nice couple and tried hard to help us out. I have never been on the minority end of a language barrier before, and while I have never been rude to anyone that didn’t speak English at home, I vowed then to for evermore be more patient and helpful to non native speakers from now on. The other person came and was pretty helpful, although we still managed to miss the turn we needed to take. We turned around and got back on track, found the sports arena, then tried to find the hotel. Toni said in a sarcastic tone – “Why are you going this way – turn around do you really think you can just drive around and find the hotel like before?” and just at that time, I come to an intersection - and their it is! The Hotel Arena! YEAH – We are here!!!

We check in and go upstairs to discover that this hotel doesn’t have a/c either! What is with these people??? The room is nice, and it has really big windows that open to almost the size of doors, but there really wasn’t a cross breeze, so the room was stuffy. Toni is way more hot natured than me, and she was not very happy about the prospect of going the next few days with out a/c. They only have one fan and someone took it already (this was a rare heat wave according to the front desk). We decided to go out tomorrow and get a fan. So we went to bed about midnight with a warm room and little air flow.

Our Day in Prague

The next morning we checked out of the hotel, and headed off to do some looking around Prague. Since we had to bring Cheetah with us – it made for an interesting day. Many places in Prague allow dogs to go in to them, and around the streets most of the dogs were loose – just following along with there owners and intact. I have never seen so many pairs of testicles in all of my life!


breakfast outside our hotel


Here is the metro in Prague



In order to go into Prague, we had to get on the metro again, and we had to buy a ticket for Cheetah to ride. The biggest problem was that in several of the stops, the only way to get from one level to the other was to go via escalator, so I had to carry her up and down them. She didn’t really like that too much, but she was a trooper and tolerated the process.


Here is a view of the escalator that we took later to show you the steepness of them. Imagine I have Cheetah in my arms.

Once we got to the stop we wanted, we started looking in the little shops and things and found some cute jackets with PRAHAH and CZECH written on them. He sales guy was so nice and completely fascinated with Cheetah. I don’t know why, because there were tons of dogs in Prague. He gave us a discount on our shirts and told us how to say thank you in Czech. I am not sure how you spell it but it sounds a lot like “dickweed!” Well, that’s one way to remember it!


view along the streets of Prague



Cheetah and I on the front steps of the museum



A view of the city from the museum






Here are signs from McDonalds and KFC - Except their menus are a little different!

We tried to go into this museum, but no dogs were allowed, so we went to go find a place to buy a Gelato instead. I got a berry one and it was really good. We apparently arrived during some kind of rare heat wave, because while we were in the square a water truck came around and sprayed anyone who wanted to get wet. Cheetah and I took advantage of it and the kids chased after it.



Here we are in the Square






After we cooled off we walked around and made our way into this cathedral, but nothing was allowed in it. No dogs, No touching, No pictures – we took a picture of the sign to prove just how crazy the sign was! The pigeons were everywhere and were driving Cheetah crazy because they would not fly away until the last minute.





This is the astronomical clock in the square

We headed back to the hotel to pick up our car and then go find this park that I had seen online that was supposed to be close by. Of course we had to take the metro back, so that meant more escalators and an elevator. Cheetah doesn’t really like elevators or should I say “lifts” anyway, but the ones in CZ are REALLY- REALLY small, so by this time Cheetah is thoroughly and completely over it. She through a doggie tantrum (meaning that she just sprawled out on the floor and became a mule). I had to push her into the last elevator, but I think for the long day she had of sightseeing and weird happenings, she did really well to just fight it the one time (I can’t imagine if she were a kid).

Off to go find the park we go - maybe??? Asking for directions in this town is very tricky. Some people know some English and others don’t. Czech is a very difficult language to understand. Some other languages you can at least guess what the words might mean in English….but not Czech! So I was really happy when we found someone that could understand us. But we couldn’t figure out how to get to the park because the words one the google maps I printed and the names of the streets in real life were totally different! We stopped at this little Italian place on the outskirts of Prague to get a pizza so we could eat it while Cheetah got to play a little ball. At home, if you see a refrigerator with drinks in it, then you are supposed to take one out and take it up to the counter to pay for it. Well that is apparently NOT the case here. We made a taboo move of self serving our bottled drinks and I thought they were going to have a heart-attack! At first I thought they were just strange, but later noticed similar control freak like soda guarding at other restaurants. At least they were able to point us in the right direction to the park. Again more testicles on free ranging dogs than you can shake a stick at! Surprisingly, there was no reactivity, and pretty decent recalls. I am also convinced that the Czech have a genetically advanced whistling gene that I am jealous of! After a romp in the park and a mediocre pizza, it’s off to find Liberec!

Finally found Wi Fi!!!

We are finally at a site were we have wi-fi access! So I can now give you the nitty gritty on our travels to this point!!!

Monday/Tuesday -
We had a fairly uneventful flight with the exception of a little bit of turbulence as we traveled up the east coast on our way towards Amsterdam. Once we landed in Amsterdam we had do find Cheetah a place to potty and because of that we had to go back through security afterwards. We also noticed some really cool airplane logos over here much prettier than what we usually see in the states.









Afterwards, we tried to take a nap in these really cool chase lounge chairs, but Toni is not a very good napper!

Once we got to Prague, we tried to find the rental car place, and we went through customs, but Toni said that it was too easy, so we were probably going to get a complete orifice check when we tried to return.

I also got my first patdown...I feel like a real traveler now! We finally located the building that the rental cars were in and tried using my debit card to the account that I had saved up money for this trip in. Luckily, I also brought a credit card becuase even though I told them that I would be out of the country, they didn't seem tell the rest of the bank about it. The lady was not impressed with our questions and my wanting to know how to get to to Prague and if our car was going to really be big enough. She looked like "I will break you" from a Rocky movie. We then tried to follow her directions and we go the hotel. WE GOT SO LOST! I don't know how we ever found the hotel, but luckily I had google mapped it and looked at some of the pictures of the intersections and then I recognized this triangle and knew exactly were we were. Finding out where we could park was an adventure in itself. We had to take a shower to turn back into humans again then we had a really nice dinner and went to bed - without A/C!!!




here is a picture we had someone take of us at dinner - I think he had been drinking a little too much ????




Here is a picture of me going to dinner - the arrow is pointing to our hotel - that little tiny ally way is where we were supposed to park. I ended up parking on the street around the corner b/c I couldn't get in a spot there!


I forgot about after dinner... We picked up Cheetah from the room and got on the metro ( which was free by the time we got there) to go down to the Charles Bridge. Cheetah didn't really mind the metro tram so much but the stop we got out on only had an escalator - and she did NOT want any part of that, so I had to hold her up the escalator. One of them was a really long set and I am glad that she is only 45 pounds!



Then we walked to the bridge. Here are some pictures of that at night. At one point we looked over the edge and saw some seagulls. I made the mistake of looking interested in it and I thought Cheetah was going to jump off of the bridge and into the water - it is a long way down.

Prague or BUST!

I am trying to get all of my stuff together for the final stages of the LONG awaited European Open!! I am trying to pack - Now if you know me, you know how hard it will be for me to have 8 days worth of clothes and shoes into basically a bag for Cheetah and a bag for me. I fill my bag when I go on a 3 day trip. HOW IN THE WORLD am I going to pack for 8 days!!!

Toni is going with me as my "Cultural Liaison" and "Logistics Coordinator"

We leave Monday evening 6:30pm and get to Amsterdam in the morning 8:15 ( we are 6 hours behind them). We have a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam. This will give me enough time to find grass for Cheetah and get back to the gate. ( I hope there will be grass for Cheetah...) We then take a 1.5 hour flight to Prague. We land at about 2:45 in the afternoon. I have rented a car ( a stick - the automatic was like $200 more) I drove a stick about 17yrs ago for 2 years, so I am hoping it will come back to me. I figure if I can get out of the airport, I am probably good to go. ( At least they drive on the right side of the road.

We will stay over night in Prague at the Hotel Denisa. Wednesday we can site see in Prague and then make our way to Liberec, which is 1.5 hours away. Thursday, we can site see in Liberec until the team dinner. Friday we have practice, then Sat and Sunday is the competition. I know that the Finals will be streamed, but I don't think the others will. Toni will be taping my runs, so I will get those up as soon as I can, but probably not till I get back.

We will stay overnight in Liberec, and go back to Prague on Monday - stay overnight in Prague and get a ...( I don't even want to say it)...a 7:00 am flight out of Prague, back to Amsterdam, then arrive at Dulles at 4:40 pm. Lets do the math on that, a 7:00 am flight means that I will need to drop the rental car off at 5:00 am. Who is up at that hour - much less ready to board a plane. I am going to try not to think about it any more.

We will take lots of pictures and I will try to be a good blogger!

I have the health certificates, passport and Czech money. I have the hotels, cars and plane reservations. I have my uniforms all ready, including shoes ( that match of course!!!) I have to finish calling the credit card companies telling them that I will be in another country and that it is OK for me to spend money there. I need to activate my global phone code and finish seeing how much I can stuff into my suitcase.

I guess I will have to get real creative. I will keep you all posted on how this goes. Wish me luck!

Summertime Freedom....at last!

I am finally out for the summer and needing to get a lot of things done before my trip to Prague. I still need to figure out so many details of how to travel abroad with a dog. I still need to give Cheetah a tune up and hopefully she will finally get her head out of a sling. She has had a hematoma since tryouts that we just can't seem to get rid of. GRRRR! We are doing a local USDAA trial this weekend, so wish us luck. Now if I could just find a trail with DAM team that I could go to.

I will try to get some video up soon, I seem to have quite a to do list to get caught up on this first week off. Keep your fingers crossed that Cheetah keeps her feet in the yellow!

Day 1 WT Tryouts!

Cheetah and I got to MN at about 8:15 am (MN time). We had now problems getting there other than the fact that we had to get to Dullas by 4:30 (YUCK!)...I'm NOT a morning person! Anyway, we got to our hotel and relaxed abit, then headed over to the arena for our practice session. It went well, she did all of her contacts, and had good teeters. I think she likes the footing, it's on dirt this year because the WC are on dirt in Germany. I will post again later today with more info about how we did today!