Shaking the Tree

Hey, for everyone who still reads this despite the looong absense between posts.

The visit with James has come and gone, and a good one it was. It'll be impossible to get into every detail, but I can give you a brief rundown of his time here:

Thursday September 21st

• Byrne arrives at about 8:00pm on his train from Brno. Niky and I meet him at the main train station in Hradec. We drop his bag off at my place.
• On our way to Sport Cafe for some drinks, we run into my co-worker and neighbour, Kathy, who, despite being just on her way back from drinks in the Old Square herself, decides to turn around and join us anyway.

Friday September 22nd

• I had to work in the morning, and jet-lagged James (suffering from "the Drop") wanted to sleep in. I meet him at noon, at Cafe Franc, and we enjoy the best coffee that Hradec has to offer.
• We are met an hour later by my beautiful Nikola, and her almost equally beautiful best friend, Alice. The four of us go for lunch at Movie Bar.
• Later this night, James and I meet Ondra and Ilca at Černy Kun (The Black Horse) for drinks. We are joined by Mark, Tomas, Eva, Radka, Alice, and another Eva. Many beers follow, as well as some shots of Tuzemak, Becherovka, Fernet, and Tequila (James wanted to taste the local liquors, and I don't know whose idea the tequila was!)

Saturday September 23rd

• After a whopping four hours of sleep, Niky, James, and myself get our ragged asses out of bed at 6:00am to meet Eva and Tomas with bicycles at the bus terminal. We grab a bus for Adrspach (the Bohemian sandstones) in the north. We proceed to cycle 60km through the north of Bohemia before deciding to call it quits and get a bus the rest of the way from Jaromeř.
• After a brief recovery and shower in Hradec, James and I meet Tomas and Eva at U České Koruny (At the Czech Krown)

Sunday September 24th

• James and I hop on a train and spend the better part of the day touring Prague.

Monday September 25th

• My last Monday of not having to work (I actually had lessons today!). I took James by my old school, where we met up with Mark, Natalya, and Pat. We agreed to meet the three of them later for a Celtic music concert in the centre of town.
• We went for lunch with Eva, Kathy, and Radka at U Knihomola (at the Bookworm).
• James had a few hours on his own while I prepared my lessons for my Tuesday in Nové Město.
• I came back to my flat to meet not only James, but Niky, Alice, and Garnat. I think Alice must have really liked James, as most girls seem to do.
• As promised, James and I meet Pat, Mark, and Natalya in the centre for the Celtic concert.
• We leave the concert two hours into it's three hour program, as we are supposed to meet Alex at Sport Cafe. So, where the visit began, thus it ended...in the same pub.

James left on the Tuesday, long after I had gone for the day to teach in a company outside of Hradec Kralove. Since then, I've been on another biking trip with Niky, Tomas, and Eva (just this past weekend). As dumb fate would have it, we were cycling through the same Nové Město where I work on Tuesdays (tomorrow!) when, going down a hill, I skidded out and fell on the wet road. Nothing serious, but a nice trophy of a skinned knee (the inside of my pants stick to it all day...sick). We did 65km all the way from Orlicke Hory (Eagle Mountains) back to Hradec Kralove, and it was the most beautiful biking trip I've ever been on. Unfortunately, my camera was out of batteries for this trip, but I'll try to find some time to get photos from James's visit up in the next few days.

Till next post...