Olomouc

For all of my joking about the Czech Republic, of my three visits to this country, I've seen a rainbow during two of them and those aren't bad odds.

I think I made the right decision in coming here.

On my third visit to the Czech Republic, I am now officially fluent in Hello, Goodbye, and Thank you in Czech. I can't say anything else but I say those three things beautifully. Of course, I always say everything in English first out of habit and then say it again in Czech as if I'm subtitling myself.

I ate a fried egg and yogurt with cherries for breakfast this morning. Yesterday I ate an entire bag of frozen broccoli. Half of it was mushy and half was still frozen but I didn't care, I was just so happy to be eating green vegetables. My hostel has a gorgeous kitchen and I'm trying to take advantage of the opportunity to eat a little healthier than I have been.

Since I arrived in Eastern Europe, I've been on a steady diet of coffee, bread, cheese, and tomatoes, punctuated by the occasional (or not so occasional) chocolate croissant. I don't know if I'll be eating much better in Paris.

The plan is to stay two more nights in my hostel and then take a train to Bratislava and fly to Paris from there. I still haven't heard from the new school in Paris but I guess I'll figure out what I'm doing after I get there. Leigh sent me a link to accordian lessons in Paris which is obviously an amazing idea.

As some of you know, when I was originally planning this trip, I was going out of my way to ensure that my itinerary didn't involve France at all whatsoever. It isn't a political thing, I'm just terrified of French people. Anyway, some of you are probably wondering how I went from refusing to come within 50 km of the French border to deciding to spend a month in Paris. The reason is actually amazingly silly.

I was sitting in a cafe in Budapest with an Australian girl that I met in Krakow when an American woman I'd never met walked up to me and handed me a book and said, "I think you should have this." The book was Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado which was written in the 1950s and is about an American girl who lives in Paris for a year. I don't believe in signs but I do believe in living your life as much like a Hollywood movie as possible so here I am with a ticket to Paris.

Lauren pointed out that I'm not in any of my pictures so I took one of myself. This photograph showcases the lovely view of Olomouc from my bedroom window and also the spectacular tan that is my only souvenier from Budapest.


Onward and upward, I guess.