Visiting friends in Plzeň

Anička and Josefinka are Amber and Sarah’s mates from the Eufrat school in Plzeň.  We have met them for play dates since we have been in Prague (Play date with Anička and Josefinka) and during the last meeting, Jiri and Martina suggested that we go to a hockey match with them during the winter season.

Having never been to a live ice hockey match, we eagerly accepted.

Jiri organised us the tickets and on Friday night, 21 November, we planned a trip back to Plzen to watch the match and then to spend the night with them in their home.  Amber and Sarah would spend the evening playing with Anicka and Josefinka with Martini staying home to watch them.

As we left Prague on Friday evening, the first snow of the season started to fall.  It was a great welcome to the winter, snow and an ice hockey match!!  We walked to the stadium during the hardest part of the snow storm and so arrived pretty wet and cold.

The match was phenomenal!  Plzen was playing Znomo and the crowd was wild!  There was even a professional crowd section, where the hard-core Plzen supporters were all dressed in gear and chanting and stomping in time and rhythm – incredible experience!  Unfortunately Plzen lost in the penalty shoot-out, but hey.

This is morning breakfast, with Jiri and Martini at the head of the table and Anicka and Josefinka in the front.

The girls all playing up a storm in the bedroom:

Jiri plays in a jazz band and treated us to some music:

On Saturday, after leaving Jiri and Martina, we headed out into the village to visit Tomas and his horses (previous visit to Tomas).  The road sweepers / snow ploughs are not working on Sundays in his village, so we navigated a very slippery, slidey road to his house and were unnerved by the sight of abandoned cars already in the ditch along the road.

His horses were very sociable today, expecting a treat to emerge:

This one took a special fancy to Sarah’s hood and kept nuzzling his nose right into it – even her hair was taste-tested: Tomas very kindly gave them both a ride before we left as him and his wife were about to go for a ride before evening.