DAY ZERO/ONE: February 9th and 10th, 2008; Living in an working Ikea Model

So the drive through Prague is gorgeous, but the driving is even more scary than the driving in New York...the streets are much smaller, cobblestones and people are walking everywhere and cars are parked on either side but the driver doesn't even blink an eye. There were spaces that I believed that the big white shuttle van/bus would not fit through but he got it through with out so much as a scratch!

So the Office of the apartments that Ellen and I are staying in is in this cute little courtyard in Uhelny Trh (which is a very small triangular park-ish place). The driver (who I can't remember his name for the life of me) gives me a map with where we currently are and where our apartment will be and the closest touristy areas are then we walk down the Skorepka Street to the building in which our apartment is located.



So we don't go into the entrance, instead we go into what is referred to as a "Non-Stop" Bar (which means it's open 24hours) to get the keys and to fill out the registration book.Now the driver guy tells me that if we have any problem with the apartment (door doesn't open, toilet doesn't flush etc...) that we just go downstairs to the bar and tell the bartender and they will take care of the problem. Now this would be great since they are open 24hours but the bartender doesn't speak any English and my Czech book isn't quite enough. The bar is smokey...living in California I tend to forget that most everywhere else smoking is still allowed indoors...and the smoke travels into the common areas of the apartment complex. Cough-cough.






This is the Foyer of the apartment...the bar is to the left looking this direction (which is out to the front door that opens to the street).
















This is the Stairway in the apartment complex. We are staying on the 3rd floor (which is actually the 4th floor). In Europe the ground floor is called ZERO the basement is -1 and the first floor off the ground is 1. The apartment complex was stunning. I loved all the wrought iron and marble stairs. There was an elevator that we used to go up...but we always took the stairs down. The elevator was soooo small. It was 2x2...2 people could fit in it but very cozy...one would hope they brushed their teeth and were wearing deodorant!

The doors in Prague are odd...they don't have doorhandles that move...the key has to be turned a certain way and the door just opens...if your lucky. Our door was tricky, or sticky, either way it didn't like to open. But once inside you put the card attached to your key into a slot and all the lights turn on.



Pretty much everything in the apartment was from Ikea. It was almost like being home. We had a little kitchenette with a convection range, a mini-fridge and an electric tea-kettle. The TV only had 3 good working stations on it...which didn't really matter as it was all in Czech (although there were a few American shows/movies which were translated into Czech) so we watched and wondered and sometimes made up our own dialogue...kind of like Mystery Science Theatre 3000). It was quite funny.

The Bedroom was nice as it had two separate blankets for each of us...and of course everything was from Ikea...the bed frame, the mattress, the comforters and sheets, the towels, the curtains...even the lighting was from Ikea!








The bathroom was a hoot. All the toilets (at least in the Amsterdam Airport and all over Czech Republic) have two different flush buttons...once for number 1 and one for number 2...it's for water conservation (smart people). We also had a Bidet (which Ellen and I never used as neither of us knew how...besides it was kind of scary and weird).










In the bathroom there was one red LED light in the shower (not a heat lamp) which made Ellen feel like a stripper (as we found out that we lived between the two "Red-Light Districts" of Prague) and made me feel like food under a heat lamp. It was odd. The strange looking thing next to the shower is a towel warmer...hang your towel over the middle section and it will be all warm and cozy for you when you get out of the shower.










The is the view from our living room winder looking East (towards the Vltava River and Prague Castle).


















This is the same view only looking West towards where the apartment office is and Wenceslas Square. If you look closely down in the bottom right of the picture there is yellow signs...those say "Erotic City" which is an Adult toy store right across the street from our place. Apparently Erotic City is a huge chain in Prague as we saw them everywhere!

The signs that say Hotel is not the place where we stayed...that is a place two buildings up from us.

Well...there you go...this was our home away from home.