Well, yes, we’re back home, and boy, am I glad! Maybe I’m just getting older or maybe it’s because I’ve just come off of a big trip (I didn’t think it was such a big trip when I was planning it…) but I think I’m to the point where I’m getting tired of traveling. I read about all the extra hassles in airports in America (fees for any bags, among the newer thorns), and it just adds to the other things on my list that I have less patience for these days… days without sleep, mountains of laundry to wash when i return home, aches and pains from sitting in one position to long, constant frustration of missed connections plus the rising costs… I’m beginning to wonder if it’s worth it. Don’t misunderstand me… I know I will continue to travel… I still have 4 more continents to get to (including Antarctica), but maybe my trips will begin to be spaced out a little more.

But, this isn’t what you’re reading this for… you’re wanting to know about our trip to Czech. Is it enough to say it was frustrating, good, blessed, hot, good again and then bad? No? Ok, here’s the longer version.

I don’t even know when we left. Right, we left Talsi, our dear home on Wednesday the 25th. Our bus was leaving Riga around 7:30am on the 26th, so we went in the night before and stayed at a friend’s house where we could also leave our car while we were gone. We had one way tickets, and that only to Poland and in reality had no idea when we were coming back, as so many of our plans had fallen through. So, Thursday, the 26th we spent traveling. All day. And then some. We took a bus to Warsaw, Poland. (Note: NEVER spend that much time on a bus, especially through Poland. And always double check exactly which station you’re to be let off at.) 12 hours later we arrived in Warsaw, but not at the station we thought we would be at. We only had 1 hour until our train to Czech was to leave. When we asked for information, we were told to go to another place and ask. When we go there, the lady told us, in Polish, that we needed to go to another station 2 train stops away. A friendly young lady jumped into translate for us that we had to go immediately or we would not make that train. So we ran, with all our bags, to the other end of the station, up the stairs, just in time to see the train pulling away from the station. Hmm.. what now? Chris called our friend, Laurie, in Czech to ask her to get on the internet and check schedules for us. Peteris and Elita went back to the nice info lady to ask about the next train to the Central station (all the trains to Czech leave from there). Peteris and Elita returned with another young Polish lady who decided to walk us to yet another side of the station, check the schedules and put us on a city bus to the Central station. We had no Polish money, so we hoped we wouldn’t be asked for our bus tickets since we had no tickets. (I’m not sure on the correct theology on that, but I am thankful no one asked to see our tickets.) We got to the Central station 5 minutes after our original train left the station. I guess it was a good thing we weren’t able to buy train tickets ahead of time. After being shuffled from one desk to another, to yet another, we finally got a train schedule from Laurie over the phone. Once again we got in line (it was around 10:30 pm by now) and handed the lady the itinerary we wanted. She looked at it confused, took our paper and left. Hmm. She came back and started to print tickets for us. There was some confusion again, but 2 kind Poles helped us out by translating for us. A friendly Aussie had recommended some hostels to us should we get stuck overnight, as well. Tickets bought & paid for, we headed for the pizza place in the train station. They had hot food and safe place to sit and keep our bags & kill time until our train left at nearly 3 am. We were all SO tired, beyond tired, really. On the train we found an empty compartment and tried to get some sleep. I’ve realized that teenagers can sleep, any place, any time. Oh to have that ability again.

After 1 train connection, we arrived in Pardubice, Czech Republic around 1 or 2pm (Friday afternoon) - about 7 hours later than we had planned. We were on the city trolleybus to Laurie & Waylan’s apartment (where we would stay for the first 3 days) and Waylan happened to jump on our bus as well. It was so good to see a familiar face! The rest of the day we pretty much crashed, enjoyed hot showers and hung out with friends. That night we all slept about 12 hours. I haven’t done that in YEARS.

On Saturday Chris finally went to Danka’s (another friend who lives in the same area, where Peteris, Elita and Marta were staying) around noon to make sure they were up. We had a band practice in the afternoon and went out to eat for some good Czech food that evening. Peteris felt obligated to use his bad, butchered Czech everywhere we went, talking to everyone… very not-Czech. :)

Sunday morning we were to be at church at 8am because our band was given 15-20 minutes to share in music and testimony. We were SO late. Not only did we leave late, but we got lost. It was nerve-racking for me, as well, since I had to drive everywhere. Chris had forgotten his wallet back in Latvia, so I had the honors. The whole year we had lived in that city I think I drove one time, so it was a challenge. But, it turned out ok. By the time we got to church we had 10 minutes to practice. The service went well, and the band was well received. I had the opportunity to share a bit with the congregation about what we do In Latvia, which was good as some of the people there knew us from when we lived in Czech. Many people came and talked to our teens and they were very blessed by that. After church we went to another church that started later. That was the church we attended when we live in Czech, and Laurie was preaching that day. We got there just as they ended and had a nice time seeing old friends again. Sunday evening Chris and I went to dinner at another friend’s house and turned the teens loose on the city. We gave them directions, bus numbers to get home, phone numbers and everything and let them go. On hearing the reports the next day, I was glad we weren’t with them, as I would have been very embarrassed (Czech & Latvian cultures are quite different), but they had a good time and there was no harm done. We had a wonderful time visiting our friends, as well.

Monday the teens slept late again. Laurie & Waylan left early that morning and graciously allowed us to stay in the their apartment the rest of the time we were in Czech. They also let us use their car & mobile phone, both of which were huge blessings. After the teens woke up, they moved into “our” apartment, as Danka was leaving the next day for England, anyway. We also had some band practice that day as we had been invited to play at an English camp on Wednesday.

Tuesday (July 1) we went to Prague. And boy, was it hot! This group of Latvians were melting. It was about 30C (86F) and SUNNY and we were roasting. Chris had a meeting with a friend and caught up with us later, so I gave them the tour. We took the metro up the hill and started at Prague Castle and walked down, over Charles bridge, through Old Town, to Wenceslas Square and back to the train station. Elita’s pedometer said we walked 9 miles (14.5 km) that day. Ugh. But it was a nice day, not too crowded (Prague can be wall to wall people in the summer). We had fun taking tons of pictures, including ones with Marta and a bag of chips. I don’t know why, but it seemed important and funny at the time. :) Highlight for me? Discovering that Prague now has STARBUCKS! I was thrilled! By the time we got to the train back to Pardubice we were all sunburned and exhausted, but had a lot of fun.

Wednesday morning we all jumped in the car and drove, and drove and drove. It should have taken 2 hours to get to English Camp from Pardubice, but it took us about 3. We went way up north, about 1 mile from the Polish border. It was beautiful up there in the mountains. The campers enjoyed the concert & Elita did a good job getting them to participate with the band. The majority of these campers were not Christians so we were able to share a bit about God’s love and personal thoughts about different songs before they were sung. Many came to us to thank us for coming and said how much they enjoyed the concert. We were then invited to join in with sports time. Chris and I were content to watch. (It was another very hot day.) These Latvians are good at volleyball, and not so bad at soccer, but when it came to softball, that was quite fun to watch. Neither Marta nor Peteris had ever played before and had no idea what to do. It was so cute. They had a great time of it, though. Back in the car, we stopped at a little restaurant in a small town not far from camp for dinner and had some of the best “crepes” with ice cream for dessert.

Thursday we planned to go to a city nearby called Kutna Hora. Our friend, Becky (who lives in Czech) had mentioned planning to go there on Thursday as well (with her roommate, friend and brother) but her phone died so we had no way to contacting her. We had to switch trains in Kolin and when we walked up the stairs to the platform for our next train, there she was! It was perfect. We all traveled together and toured together the rest of the day, which was a huge blessing as we had never been to Kutna Hora before and had no idea how spread out things were, and Becky was an old pro concerning that city. We went to the famous “Bone Church” where the bones of 40,000 people are displayed; many are the skeletons from a plague that hit the city long ago. It was a bit creepy, but also very interesting. Afterwards we went on a silver mine tour. Kutna Hora used to be a big producer in silver, as far back as the 10th century. Our tour took us down into a part of the old mines, parts were so small you had to walk sideways and or bend at the waist to fit through the pathway. (Not as tight as spelunking in the caves of western PA, but tight for a guided walking tour.) It was really interesting. The 9 of us had a wonderful, relaxed dinner at a local restaurant before we left for the train station. Our train was late and Becky’s group was concerned about making their bus in Prague to go back to Plzen, but when we connected in Kolin, they got another train that should have gotten them to Prague just in time.

Friday we got in the car and headed south. Our destinations were Pernstejn castle and Blansko, the city we lived in for nearly 5 years and hadn’t been to since 2001. Road closing due to construction sent us on a wild detour which put us at the castle much later than we wanted to be there, but we made it. It was a beautiful day (not as hot), and the teens were able to join in a tour to see the inside of the castle. There was a festival going on while we were there, so we also got to see some sword fighting and such. The unfortunate thing was Chris started not feeling well there, and he got worse as we traveled on to Blansko. It’s true, the saying that “You can never go home”. Blansko was a home for us, and wow, has it changed, and I can’t say for the good. Some parts are nicer, but it’s become a very dirty-feeling, trashy town. One of the nicer hotels and restaurants we would often frequent has become a low, low end hotel, mixed with cheap casinos and such. We didn’t stay long. We tried to find a restaurant to get some dinner, but the other 2 that we went to often didn’t seem so appealing as they once did, and Chris was feeling worse and worse, so we hit up a grocery store and headed home. Chris slept most of the way, only waking to stop for frequent bathroom breaks.

Since Chris was so sick and we were all tired, we decided to stay home all day Saturday. Everyone slept a good deal, washed clothes and the teens watched some movies. It was nice to have a light day, and as evening approached, Chris got better. We think he caught some kind of 24-hour stomach virus, but we have no idea how he got it when none of the rest of us did.

Sunday we went to our friends’ (Christer & Kicki) home. Christer & Kicki were our leaders when we lived in Czech and we’ve been happy to stay in touch with them. We had a wonderful dinner at a 300-year-old pub and spent some great time in conversation and visiting with them.

Monday the 7th was a whirlwind. We got up and started to pack and clean. Then we went into town to buy tickets to return to Latvia that night. Before heading home for last dinner in Czech, we did some shopping and stocked up on some of the things we’ve grown to love in Czech but can’t buy here in Latvia. I was also thrilled to find a blender (something I’ve been wanting for a long time) for half the price of the cheapest one here in Latvia. I can’t wait to make some smoothies! After dinner we finished packing and left the house around 9:30pm. Our train was to leave the station at 10:40 pm. We were excited because we had bought sleepers on this first train to Warsaw, so we couldn’t wait to get in there and get some sleep. A slightly drunk Polish man helped us pass the time on the train platform. I’m not sure why, but drunk guys always seem to find Chris. We jumped on the train as we walked down the hall to find our train car and compartment, we heard, “Chris? Is that you?” It was our Czech friends, Lukas and Petra! We had really wanted to visit with them while we were in Czech, but they were in England most of the time. They were on their way home from England on the same train we were going to Poland on! After we settled into our cabin we went back to visit with them for about an hour. It was such a blessing to us, one of those little gifts from God just to make us happy. :)

After a slightly fitful sleep, we woke up in Poland. We were very thankful we paid the extra $15 for a bed rather than a seat. We found out that our train was running 20 minutes late, which was not good since we only had 15 minutes for our connection in Warsaw. I started to fear that we were going to have a repeat of trip to Czech and get stuck there. We prayed and tried to relax. It turns out our train in Warsaw waited for us. We were very happy… but then started to get concerned again when our train didn’t leave… it finally left 70 minutes late. We only had 15 minutes between our 2nd and 3rd train as well. But, what could we do? We kept praying and tried to get some more sleep. Chris met a young German man on the train who was headed to Vilnius, Lithuania, as well. They talked for a long time and Chris was able to share parts of his testimony with him and share God’s love with him. Very cool! Our third train waited for us as well. By the time we got there we had made up some time anyway and were only 35 minutes late. 3 more hours on this little commuter train put us in Vilnius. We had 2 1/2 hours until our bus to Riga left, so we headed to… McDonald’s. Eh, I never eat it in America, but it was close to the station and fast, so we went for it. We headed for the bus and were happy to soon be headed home, but not before our Russian bus driver had to give us problems. He said we needed some stamp on our tickets. We went into the bus station to the office to get this “stamp”. The lady was very confused and obviously angry, walked back to the bus with us and yelled at the driver. I was surprised how much I understood… Chris said it was Lithuanian but I thought it was Russian. But it was something, “These tickets were bought on the internet… how can they have a stamp on them?” “How do I know they were bought online and not just made on a computer? I’m responsible for the people I bring on here. They need a stamp.” “They can’t have a stamp, and you need to understand that…” Eventually he told us to just get on and we were finally on our way. We slept off and on, and when we woke up 12 miles from Riga we were very happy, until we realized we were only driving about 10 mph… the rest of the way to Riga. We couldn’t understand why this was happening and it only compounded our frustration since it was 1am.

We finally made it and Elita’s dad picked us all up at the station. He then drove us to Jurmala where our car was and I drove Chris, Peteris and Marta home. We pulled into our parking spot at 3:56am. The sun was well on it’s way to coming up and we were glad to be home!