First, lunch. Some very authentic Czech Republican food! Indian curry.
Next priority? A hardware store. Yes, we're not homesick (well, we're pretty Allie-sick), but it would appear that we're hardware-sick. Now the title makes sense, right?
And no, we hadn't decided that we absolutely must urgently go and decide on a paint colour for the kitchen cabinets in Prague, we had to deal with Tom's significant suitcase issues. We were getting desperate. Tom actually started talking about buying a skateboard to put his suitcase on, to substitute the almost useless wheels. He even went into a skateboard shop, considered buying a very expensive skateboard, and then had an epiphany. They had a trolley in their shop. So he proceeded to try to buy it off them. They were probably a little frightened of this crazy tourist who one minute wants a skateboard and the next is offering them 500 crowns (which he thought was a lot, but is actually only the equivalent of about $20 - I think...). Much to Tom's dismay they refused to sell him the trolley, but they did tell him where to go to get one.
So! We made our way straight to the train station on a trolley-seeking quest.
And then, like a hardware equivalent star of Bethlehem, this sign emerged out of the clouds.
We got super excited. It's been a long time since we've been inside a Bunnings, which is odd, since we've practically lived there for months before we came overseas.
We briefly considered this option...
I got very distracted by the matching bathmat, toilet seat, soap dish sets.
I admired the tiny tiny pots in the gardening department...
And Tom tried to convince me that we should buy these styrofoam ceiling roses to save us from having to try to repair the lounge and dining room ceilings back at home.
I started dreaming about a new kitchen tap (might need a proper kitchen sink for that though)...
And then we found the trolleys we were searching for. Hallelujah!
So we'd found our trolley, and could actually comprehend being able to move from Prague to our next city.
Then we hit a snag. Two hardware store staff came up to me with very serious expressions on their faces, flashed ID cards (as if they were policemen), and talked to me in a language I couldn't understand, wagging their fingers. I eventually comprehended that they were telling me I couldn't take photos. I could hardly believe it! What's wrong with taking photos in a hardware store?!!! Anyway. I grumpily stowed away my camera, we took our precious trolley to the checkout (although I would have really loved to have boycotted them and walked out without buying anything as a no-photo-taking protest), and on the way out I snapped a photo of the no-guns-no-ice-creams-no-cameras-no-dogs-no-smoking sign that I'd missed on the way in (because the doors were already open and it was obscured). Take that, party-pooper shall-not-be-named-officially hardware store!
Here's Tom proudly displaying his new toy.
Tom decided that he needed a test run with the trolley immediately, so we went for a walk in a nearby shopping centre, and he strapped in his little backpack.
Yep, in case it wasn't official already, my husband's a dork.
It worked aaaaaaaall the way home (well, the hotel - it remains to be seen whether it makes it home - touch wood).
So! Very very important administrative tasks completed (and obsessions with hardware stores satisfied) for the day, we set back into enjoying the city.
Don't worry, these police weren't pursuing me for my photo-taking offence at the hardware store.
We couldn't figure this building out.
Tom drooled over more fancy cars. This one had a matte black paint finish, instead of shiny. Very interesting.
Perhaps the sight of a car like that got him in the mood for romance, but much to my happiness, he decided to buy me a rose from a nearby florist.
And then we went in search of lunch. We're a little ashamed to admit that it was Italian. Again.
And then we had to balance out Tom's trolley expenditure by doing a little shoe and handbag shopping for me.
With the advent of the new trolley, we could consider adding a little bit of extra weight to Tom's poor suitcase, so I managed to justify the purchase of a few pairs of shoes. Naughty, I know.
A little more laden down, we took to the streets again, and wandered over towards the river.
We found this palatial building on a little island in the middle of the water.
We spotted this collection of boats for hire to pedal around on the water, and were thrilled with the idea. Can you guess which one we picked out?
The swan, of course! Unfortunately we couldn't find the owner of this particular set of boats to pay to hire it though, and the other nearby boat hires not only had large queues but no swans. So we moved on.
Just in case you can't see what Tom's doing here, he's scratching the back of a little dog on this statue on the bridge.
And I might leave it at that! Our adventures over the river continued that night, but that can wait for another post.
