Ahoj Kroměřiž!

Right, so uploading hopefully heaps of photos for this post, to properly depict the prettiness of my day. Today was my day off, and amongst the many suggestions of places to go, I chose the lovely town of Kroměřiž, and no, I'm not going to try and write how to you should pronounce it.
Smiley face. But rest assured that I have managed to master the reading of Czech. The one thing I have managed to learn properly. Can't shake my accent apparently, but my reading is apparently correct. Yay!
Moving on. So it took me 2 and a half hours to get there, so rather early start. But really, the travelling in public transport through the countryside is amongst my favourite part, so I wasn't concerned about the travel length. The countryside is really SO beautiful here. I've quite fallen in love with it! Lenka tells me I'm crazy, but there is something about cold places, the look of the trees, and brooks, the blue of the cold sky... There's a sort of waiting energy about it which I love!
Moving on again. Sorry.
So the town itself is really gorgeous, as you can see from the first photo. I've got QUITE a few more like this, but I thought I should probably only put up one, for fear of boring you all. It's all cobblestones and pretty coloured buildings, twisting little streets and lovely little craft stores.
But the big draw card of the town was that there is a huge chateau which has massive, old gardens, which you can see in the next photos. I spent about 2 hours just wandering through the gardens. There were all these little private corners with maybe a fountain or an age-teared statue. Lovely big trees and brooks weaving throughout. And then hoping about through the thousand of budding blubs were squirrels, bunnies and duckies. Oh my! Seriously, they were just right there! The next few photos show it. Twas like some unreal children's movie. I'd turned into Snow White! Minus the annoying squeaky singing.














As well as the gardens, I just wandered around the town and had a nice lunch. I've trully discovered the gold that is the pub Denni Menu, that is that many of the pubs will have a set menu, with two or three courses, with a choice of 3 different mains, and usually a beer too. So today I had 2 courses and a beer for 80 karunas, about 6 Ozzie dollars. Yay! And was huge and awesome!

So that was my day. A great day!
The other photos I wanted to put up for you are off one of my culinary experiences. With a French boy from a french goat farm, a Dutch girl from a cheese farm, and an Ozzie girl who is just passionate about food, the kitchen here has become a daily explosion of international experiments. It's fantastic! And hilarious to watch the Dutch and French argue continuously in lightning french about how a crepe should be cooked, or which cheese has the purest flavour.
So here's Gabby and Elfie arguing over the crepe making. Unfortunately we've decided that the frying pan and scrapey thingies here are really not the best and do not aid our experimentations. You can see how angry Gabby is at the frying pan.
But unfortunately he would still insist upon throwing the crepes, which as you can see sometimes ended in tears.


And the last photo is me buying for sympathy, or maybe just showing how hardcore a country girl I've become. This is what both my hands look like now, no matter how much I moisturise. Looks pretty gross, huh? And their not dirty, either, those black cracks are apparently permenant for now. Though I reckon by the time I get back, they will be softened and whitened again by my glutonous, decadent travelling. Hence I thought I should put this photo up now so you all believe me!
Right, so I think that's all I had to tell you. Sending endless hugs and love and hope you are all well. Keep me posted on all the news and I'll hopefully post again soon.
Love love love love!
Mwa!

SUCH a great day!

I'm back at the first farm now, being the one with the goats and the sheep and the people that actually need my help and care slightly if I'm freezing. LOL! Insert smiley face.
Am feeling a MILLION times better and more positive and yesterday was a GREAT day. I decided that rather than just going from Farm B to Farm A, I would stop off and have a couple of hours in some nice town. So I randomly chose a place called Boskovice, which turned out to be absolutely beautiful! The weather was just perfect, blue skies all day, and not any snow to break it up, or even any wind!
The first photo shows the town centre, which had some lovely cafes and a really pretty church and an EVIL sweets store. Mum, they were those chocolate, spongey things like what we had in Telč. I don't really know how to describe them for the rest of you, sorry, but just know that they were great! But don't worry, I restricted myself to 1, it just took me about 15 minutes to decide which ONE!

I then climbed a kilometre up this mountain to reach the castle ruin. Not such a great feet, I can hear you saying, but wait, don't forget that I had mz TWENTY FIVE KILO backpack on, so YES it was a great feet, and I was absolutely dead at the end, and collapsed in the sunshine up the top.
I kicked off my shoes and socks, spread my scarf, sat down and ate a pink grapefruit in the sun.
Perfection!

After walking around the ruin, I spoilt myself with a yummy traditional Czech lunch, ie.meaty lunch, then headed off again.

I've managed to master the Czech public transport system, so if anyone is heading over here ever, I have the BEST website for you.

But anyway, I had also had a stop in Bila Lhota, and by this time it was about 6.30 at night, so was getting dark. Bila Lhota is a tiny little town, only ONE pub! Was getting dark, and with an hour and a half to kill, I went into this single pub. Twas honestly like something out of a movie! There were 2 tables of locals there, and they all stopped talking as I walked in, with my HUGE backpack and just stared at me. I put down my pack, and went to the bar. Still with them staring, I ordered the a large local dark beer. And it was only after they saw what I had ordered that they started talking again.

After awhile, I was watching the ice hockey on the large flat screen telly, a one middle aged guy tried to talk to me. I explained to him in Czech that I didn't speak Czech. I actually started chatting to this table of locals, in Czech. Was absolutely nuts trying to figure out what they were asking, but managed to work it out somehow. They insisted on buying me a slivovice. I think they wanted to see how an Ozzie handles the stuff. For those who don't know it, slivovice is a Czech spirit which is CRAZY strong. It's brandy made of plums, and Nivot and I always joke that Czech blood basically IS slivovice, they drink that much of it. I love the stuff, so downed it with no probs, which I think spured them on more. They wanted to buy me another, but I had to head to my bus, and was already feeling a little TOO happy.

A few of them insisted on taking me to the bus stop, across the road, putting me on the bus and telling the driver where I was going so that he would ensure that I got off at the right stop!

Unbelievable! There must be something about my face that apparently says 'help her, she cannot help herself" Insert another smiley face.

I've found the locals here SOOO incredibly nice and almost TOO helpful! I've lost count of the times that some non-English speaking person has taking it upon themselves to try to help me, even when I keep saying to them in Czech 'I am fine. I am fine', and trully most of those times I don't need any help at all. It's hilarious! But I don't care what people say now, Czech country foke are SOOO nice!

So now I'm back at the goat farm, warmer, happier and feeling great. Last night we made misu. And yes, Mum, I do have a few photos for you. Hehe. Twas pretty cool, but messy.

There's also another WWOOFer here, a really nice Dutch girl called Elfie, so that's cool. I'll be here for a week, then heading off to see all the family.

Better head off now and go study some more Czech.

Love you all! Mwa!

I'm going back!!!

Okay, so no photos for you today, sorry. I left my camera up at my freezing cold house, and I'm not going to go trek up the hill through the snow for it. lol.
But I thought I'd update you all on what's happening. Things have improved here a little. I spent the day yesterday with Aleš, and he's actually quite nice, though VERY black and white. I wish my Czech was better so I could challenge him a bit better on some of the things he was saying... hehe, typical me, I know... But yeah, they are quite nice, though do seem to wish me to keep to my own house and not really BE in the familiy house other than at meals, which apparently I don't eat with them... So things are still a little odd. And I woke this morning with that distinct flu sensation, probably from treking up the hill in the snow, and sleeping in the cold.
So hence my decision to go back to the last farm. The work there was MUCH harder and MUCH longer, but I was enjoying myself more, and was warmer, and more welcome. So YAY! I feel great at the thought of going back, and when I called Lenka to ask if it was okay, her reply was 'YES! Please come back! We miss you!' So that felt real great after the week of silence.
So tomorrow I get a million buses back to Luka Stremeničko, but I have a couple of hours in this town called Boskovice, which apparently has a lovely chataue and some ruins, so that should be cool.

Loving you and leaving you now.
Mwa!

The last farm was LUXURY

Hey everyone,
So I managed to scam some internet, and put up some description and photos of this new farm.
So let's first say that the people are very nice, or at least Jana, that's the wife, easy to remember, is very nice. Aleš, the husband, is a little different and serious, but he doesn't speak much English, so I can't really judge. They have a 2 year old son, šimon, who is very sweet, follows me around everywhere and calls me Teta, which means 'aunt'.
So the farm is actually self sufficient, and has a number of houses on it, in which ALL of Aleš's family lives. So everyday, his 80 year old mother milks the cows, his sister makes the cheese, they do the organic vegetable, etc. etc. So everyone has a job. I am living in a separate house, which is quite large and on the top of the hill. Apparently in Summer they get around 8 or 9 people living there, but now it's just me, so it's a little lonely actually. The first photo shows part of my room. That's my bed, and on the left is the old stove which I make a fire in each afternoon to heat the room, which is normally very cold.
The next photo is of the kitchen, which I don't use very much. I heat water on the stove in my room, and this room is SUPER cold, so I try to stay out of it.

The next photo is just inside the front door, and is kindov my bathroom. That big brown thing on the right is the boiler in which I heat water. I turn on the tap at the back, so it fills. I then make a TINY fire in the oven underneath, which I have to keep filling with TINY peices of wood, every 5-10 minutes for about an hour. I was very skeptical that this rusty thing could actually give me very warm water, but it actually works!!! My shower was super hot, and I think probably felt all the better for all the work I had to put in to get it.


So the actual living conditions here are pretty difficult. I don't think I'd mind if I spent alot of time in the family's home with them, like I did at the last place. THere, I really only slept in my room, that's all. But here, it's like every time I walk into the family's home, they're like, Oh Sascha, you want food, or you want work. They don't really seem to want me to be there just to spend time with them or talk to them.
So it is a little lonely, and we'll see how it goes. If I get too lonely, I may go back to the other farm, where they were VERY keen to have me for longer. But I am learning more Czech here, because Aleš doesn' speak English. So I don't really know. I'm certainly going to give it a try here and see how it goes.


Last night it snowed like crazy, so this morning I woke up and it was so beautiful and white outside. So I went for a walk to the top of the hill and took some photos. The area is very hilly and lovely around here. And the weather today is awesome!!!

So will let you know how it goes. I certainly wont be on the internet as much here as at the last place, but do let me know how you're all doing and what's happening back in sunny Oz.

Love you all and sending massive snow-covered hugs
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The farm

So as per request, I'm just posting a blog with some pictures of the farm where I've been staying. I can't really remember what I explained before, but this is the farm. In the first picture, you can see a big building, which is actually 2 homes. Ours is the brown side. This is actually taken from the back of the house, and that's the vege garden on the right.
The next photo is Lenka up in the old apple tree that's out the back near the creek which runs beside the house. That was our job today, which as huge, as the tree is about 60 years old, and probably hasn't been pruned in about 30 years.









This is Nivot on their new baby tractor. It's name is Kornjic. Isn't he cute?
I really don't know whether it's big enough to pull the huge trailor they have on the back, but it's been pretty funny at times to watch. Nivot can actually lean back and attach the trailor without getting off the tractor.



And this is the yard in front of the house. The building and fenced area you can see is where the goats live. They have about 8 adult goats and now 9 kids, 4 born in the time I've been here. Pretty cool. But the ram REEKS!!!
Note to self, goats are fun, but rams are annoying and smelly...


















Finally this is the new other WWOOFer who has just come this week. His name is Gabby and he is from a village in France with a population of 30! And the little terror on his back is Sammy. Sammy normally cries every time Lenka is not within a metre radius, but Gabby and I have managed to win him over, and are both often on baby-sitting duty now. The trick? That back harness is a miracle worker, and he loves twirling around. I think most of the exercise I¨ve gotten is through continuously twirling little Sammy about.

So other than the goats, they have 5 sheep, 2 ewes, their 2 lambs and a rather aggressie ram. They also have two cats and two massive dogs, who they got from a shelter. The dogs had apparently been found fending for themselves in the wild, so they haven't been able to train them out of the hunting instinct, hence they are very much NOT allowed out of the yard near the goats or chickens.

So that's basically it, and I'm off now to go feed the animals and milk the goats and the sheep. THe only final thing I'll say is that sheep are EVIL. You know that movie, Black Sheep? Or something like that? It wasn't fiction. It's real. They are frustrating and EVIL!!!

Sending love and hugs and kisses and wish me luck that the sheep don't eat me tonight...

Very much needed day off

Thoughs of you who saw my Facebook post last night, will know that I needed a day off today. My post was 'Sascha has been milking goats and sheep till 8.30 tonight... She is RATHER over it!' Twas a VERY long day, and I was tired and a little homesick, missing the hugs people :9
So Lenka and Nivot had said that I could take any day off between today and Sunday, so I decided to take today. Good choice! Today was probably the best weather we've had in my entire time in the Czech Republic. Sun for about an hour, then snow for 10 minutes, then sun, then snow... All day. Beautiful!
So the day started very well with 2 healthy new goats born! Very sweet! They're a boy and a girl, and are perfectly healthy.
After this early excitement, I decided to do a hike Nivot showed me, to a nearish town with the odd-sounding name of Bouzov. The walk apparently takes about and hour and a half, but wouldn't know, cause I ended up walking for about 2 hours, then found myself back at the town 2nd closest to the farm! Whoops!
But didn't really care, cause the walk was absolutely beautiful, as you can see from the first couple of photos. And Mum, the Kočički, aka 'pussy willow' has just come out! As you can see from the first photo. And I saw a wheeping variety of kočički, which I've never seen in Oz.

So I got the bus to Bouzov, having absolutely mastered the public transport system here in Cz:9 It's really very good.
So you may ask- 'what's in Bouzov?'
'Well', I would answer, 'not a hell of a lot!' But there is this awesome castle. Very photogenic, as you can see. Unfortunately it's closed through the winter, but I walked in the parks around it, then went to the only open pub in the town. There are actually 3 pubs, but the other 2 were only open from 4 till 9pm :9
The pub was nice, though not very Czech cuisine. No saucrout or dumplings in sight. But after my 2 vegetarian weeks, I had a mixed grill :9 And actually, this pub was so not-Czech that the steak was better than the pork! Unbelievable! But it was really good!
Am also in love with the Czech beers, as you've read, so had to try the local 'Litovel' brew, and I'm sorry, but definitely NOT the best I've had. So far Kozel černy is winning, which is VERY appropriate, as 'Kozel' means 'goat'.
So after lunch I walked around the cute little houses for a while, till the local store opened. Only open 2 till 5pm daily, so you have to be prompt. Then just caught the bus home. In between this I also sat in the gorgeous sun. Twas such a nice relaxng day! Exactly what I needed!

So tomorrow is back to the grindng block, but I feel much better able to manage it now.

Sending love and hugs and kisses to all.
Fill me in on all your news. Big or small or miniscual, I love to hear it!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Babies!!!

Hey,
We have babies!!! Was doing the normal jobs today- animal feeding, digging, rolling hay bales, laying drainage pipes- when Lenka noticed that Liza looked like she would be giving birth soonish. We locked her in a separate room, then went on with our work, thinking it wouldn't be for a little while yet, then bam! Two tiny baby goats! And they're SOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!
Two little girls. One will hav horns and the other wont. But unfortunately one is really weak. She has to be helped to feed, and she can't really stand very well and falls over. Nivot is talking about some sort of calcium deficiency. Doesn't sound good, but I hope all will be okay. Will keep you all posted.
So I've put these super cute photos up for your viewing pleasure. I hope I managed to omit the gross bits.

Love you all! Let me know what's happening in all your lives. I miss you all SOOO much and would love to be updated on the latest news, no matter how mundane it may seem. Remember that I'm slaving in mud over here, and any news from sun-soaked Oz will be exciting to me :9

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Gorge the bunny!

ro














So for those unfortunate souls who don't understand the title of this post, 'Gorge the bunny' relates to an AWESOME game which we play at the van. I wont bother explaining it, but basically you've got bunnies, and certain cards which do stuff. One card is 'Gorge the bunny!' which means you have to feed you bunny CRAZY amounts of food, and if you can't, then your bunny dies. We're talking like 10 carrots and 15 cabbages! CRAZY!

Today, I was the bunny.

I decided that I had to gorge myself.

Today was my day off, and I went to Olomouc, which is the fourth largest town in Czech Republic, and is about and hour and a half by bus from the farm where I'm staying.
Olomouc is SOOO beautiful! It's like unheard of on the tourist radar, so unlike Praha, it's still a living city, and you can tell. No English menus or translations and basically no one speaks English. AWESOME! I've decided it's my new favourite thing to go into a pub and randomely pick something on the menu and wait in excitement to see what you get.
Today I got a 3 course meal WITH a beer for 92 Kurunas, which equates to 6.60 Australian dollars. NICE! Soup to start, this massive pork, gravy, and potato thing for main, then yummy strudel to finish!
Oh and the meat. The MEAT! How I adore thee! How anyone can turn vegetarian, I don't understand. Don't get me wrong, I love my vegies, and often go without meat for several days, but to NOT be able to have it drives me crazy :9
















So other than that I also gorged on the Czech pastries, which I am obsessed with. Yay for poppy seeds!

Between all this eating, I wandered around the town. It really is super beautiful, as you can see from the pictures. There's this pretty palace and an amazing cathedral and all the town center is surrounded by these huge rampards, which have been made super beautiful with parks that you can spend ages walking around in.

As well as these things, I also had a really successful day, in that I got an English-Czech, Czech-English dictionary, so hopefully my Czech learning will progress a little faster now.
Also got a Czech republic map, and a diary for writing all my dates and stuff. Not exciting for you guys, but I was super excited.

So now I'm back at the farm and Nivot is drinking psycadelic coffee again. Last night he was absolutely gone and it was hilarious! We're talking translation of Czech into Old yee English for me :9
So should be in for a fun night.
Plus I picked up half a dozen different Czech beers for uy to try. Not all tonight :9

So sending love and hugs and will write again soon.
xoxo

I forgot to tell you!

Hey, I totally forgot to tell you that in Berlin I smoked a hashish and the tour manager, Ray, taught me how to make smoke rings!
He did it once and I was like 'oh! I've always wanted to know how to do that!' And he kindov explained how to do it. I tried once and didn't get it and he said what I was doing wrong. He was like 'It's really a bit hard. Took me ages to get it.'
Then I tried again and got it! He and everyone was so amazed. It was cool.
I feel like a little kid tugging on my mum's sleeve saying 'look mum! Look look look! Look what I can do!'
But oh so cool!
So yeah, now I have a new skill and that is that I can make smoke rings!
Thankyou contiki :D

Sascha can use an axe!

Okay, so I discovered that I can use an axe! So excited! Twas the one job I was most concerned about doing, because of my shoulder, but woo hoo for me, I can do it.
And I thought I was actually pretty good at it. My ai has already improved, so I can hit the same place each time.
But then Tereza came and chopped some wood as well, and well... I'm really not that good. She's only a little bigger than me, and one fwack! And the wood is cut straight through, while it takes me usually 3 or 4 hits.
So I'm not that good.
But I can still chop wood!
So go me!
:9

Playing goats

Hey, I just took some super cute photos of the baby goats playing on the hey bales.
This is actually outside their pen, but because they're all only a few months old, they're allowed.

Sorry about them all being sideways. I still haven't figured out how to switch them. Bob, if you know how, could you post an explanation to me?




This girl however, the bigger goat in the picture below, is NOT allowed out, but she always jumps through this hole in the gate. I can't figure out how she does it, cause it's quite high and pretty small, and we try to block it with a rake, but she always gets out.
Lenka says it's bad because the other goats get the wrong idea and want to be out too :9


















I just made the huge mistake of trying a big spoonfull of molasses. Lenka is always having spoonfuls of it, and I thought it must be a different sort of honey. They also have unprocessed honey, which is yum! But never NEVER take a spoonfull of molasses. It was GROSS! I pretended like all was good, like I eat molasses everyday so as to not look like an idiot, but I don't know if I fooled Tereza.
I managed to slip in the mud yesterday carrying a huge bucket of water. All I could think about was thoughs movies where the clean-cut city girl thinks she's all that and can rough it in the country and just looks like a fool.
So I've muddied my jeans and put slop and muck through my hair, and hopefully wont disgrace us ozzies any further :9

Love you!
xoxo

WWOOFing with the macrobiotics

Hey, so I¨ve made it to the country, but am REALLY struggling with this keyboard, so please forgive me.
Was actually quite easy to find my way out here.
The people are nice. THere's a husband, Nivot, and wife, Lenka and their 10 month old boy, Sammy. And there's another girl, around 20, Terea, who has been WWOOFing with them for quite a long time.
THey all speak English, though Tereza not really very much. Lenka and Terea speak Cech most of the day, which is good for me, cause I'm trying to learn. In the evening, when Nicot is home, he prefers to speak English to me.

So I've put up some photos from my time with Lenka, cousin Lenka, at Kamilka and Martin's farm.
Also Lenka in her new flat, which she has newly decorated. I absolutely loved what she'd done with it.


I spent the whole of this morning shovelling mud to flatten a floor. OMG! I have discovered how it is that I will lose all the weight I put on during my contiki tour. My back and arms are now quite sore, and the room looks pretty much exactly as it did before we started, but I think you'd be proud of me mum :9

Other than that I feed the goats and sheep and hens, look for eggs and milk the goats. Now THAT's fun!
But SO much mud! Like Woodford 07/08 eat your heart out! Ash would understand.
It's crazy. I¨m continually covered in mud, but I¨m sure this is good for me on some level. Good for the soul, as mum would say.

But I'm still very unsure about the food... Think grey slop with bread and you've pretty much got it.
But there goes my muffin tops!

So that's about it from me. Will try and get online again soon to fill you in on more mud tales, but till then, I¨ve put up some photos of my awesomely flat floor and the pile of mud that used to be there.

















This is the room where I sleep with Tereza. Mine is the bed on the floor. And that black thing in the corner is the stove that we set a fire in each afternoon so that we don't freee each night :9
It's very basic and is quite cold here, but I just rug up and drink a lot of tea.
All good!

So sending endless love and hugs and hopefully speak to you soon.

Love Sascha

PS. Mum and Georgie, could you please send me Silvi's email address? I'm staying with Pavlinka in Brno after WWOOFing, but don' t have Silvi's address to get in touch with her.
Thanks. Love you!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

My family is AWESOME!!!

Ahoj!

So I'm still in Prague, and loving it. Sorry about the lack of post yesterday, but I was off playing with my cousin! Woo Hoo!
So I'd emailed Lenka, who is my Mother's cousin's daughter, and she got back to me very promptly to say we should meet Saturday and drive to her sister's family's place in the country.

So I spent yesterday with Lenka, Kamilka & Martin, and their little boys, Martin and Nicholas. It was fantastic! My Czech is offically crap. But I learnt alot, and they were so patient to teach me new words.
Lunch was delicious! First a broth noodle soup, then mashed potato (oh so creamy!!!) and schnitzel and some other meat thingies. It was all exactly what I remember my buba making, I was so excited. I helped Lenka make the schnitzels like I used to help my buba. I'll definitely be making them when I get home, so get in line peoples:)

Kamilka had also made this amazing strudel-slicey thing. So Basically I spent most of the day eating. It was great!

We also drove around to see some of the farms Martin worked at. It was cool, cause I recognised the logo and asked whether they were Loisa's (that is SO not how you spell his name) farms, and they were! Cool! (okay, so most people wont understand that, but Loisa is a family friend I had met when I was in Czech Republic 7 years ago. He is one of the biggest beef cattle breeders in the Czech Republic)
We also went to where Kamilka and Martin are building their new house. Only foundations now, but they were telling me how it will be 3 stories, and wood. And I met their horses.

So really was such a lovely time.

Then Lenka insisted that I stay the night with her at her new appartment, which was so cool. I wish I could put up photos. It's small, but she's designed it all in retro pale green and deep red and white. Looks awesome!
We spent the evening drinking wine and talking.

Then today we went shopping. Yay for retail therapy! I bought a coat and a couple of tops.

Just a really great weekend!

Oh, and Kamilka and Martin leant me a phone for the Czech Republic, which was so nice of them! So I can now call and receive calls (receive for free! Yay!), and it's free for me to call Lenka. The number is 00420 725 586 614.

Okay, so tomorrow I'm heading to the country-side for my first WWOOFing placement. Should be VERY interesting, as I have NO idea what to expect. But all an adventure, right? I don't know whether I'll get internet on the farm. We'll have to see. But if I don't post for forever, you know it's not because I don't love and miss you all like crazy!

Georgie- how's the starting uni going? How's the CAR!?!?!?!
Bob- what's the new house like? What's it like flying from the nest? And what was QLD like?
What's Kirby up to now?
Ash- Have you started your new job yet? How is it?
How are Uncle Cam and AUNTY Sandra going with married life?
Fill me in please peoples?

I miss you!!!
Sending massive hugs and kisses!