Jeff's Not Having a Great Week/Month/Season

It's tax season. I shouldn't have to say any more than that. But I will.

No one likes filing taxes. But to file multiple times is painful. Every year, such a pain.
How many different taxes do I file? Five - count them, five.
There are the 2 personal returns, one each to the Czech Republic and the US.
Then we our 2 corporate returns* to the Czech Republic and US.
* Yes, we maintain a shell corporation (LLC in the US, an s.r.o. here). We had to create an s.r.o. to permit buying property as non-EU citizens. Seems some laws were made just to complicate the American dream when an American lives elsewhere.

How is Czech tax reporting? Swift (31st March deadline) and relatively painless. Speaking positively, it's surprisingly straightforward. That said, paying is paying, which is no fun, no matter how straightforward it is.
Uncle Sam is not so swift. We have until June 15th to report all income, bank accounts and livelihood from abroad. How kind of Uncle Sam. And straightforward, Uncle Sam is not, but many reading this already know that.

If you're still counting, remember I said five tax filings? The fifth? - the f'ing FBAR form.
The FBAR is a US form, for Americans to detail all banking and investing balances for all foreign accounts. This means, if you have money in a foreign bank, you file the FBAR.
For the mega-rich, the form is meant to investigate offshore accounts, i.e. tax havens. Penalties are some of the harshest in tax code, starting with 5 years jail and/or $250,000 fines.
But for the average American expat, this form is unjust, raising suspicions where there needn't be. Is the FBAR really mandatory? Apparently Obama thinks so. The FBAR has been in the news a lot lately. So, yeah, we file this one, too.

Oh, and as if tax forms aren't enough, earlier this week Jeff lost all data on a 1TB hard drive (that's one thousand GB). Hardware fickleness turned into data corruption, which turned into -*poof*- gone. Several hundred DVDs worth of files are "there" but unreadable. All I can do is shrug and turn on the radio.

All in all, not a good time lately.

Prague in NYT's "36 Hours in..."

Ever read the travel series "36 Hours in ..."? No, us neither.

Apparently, "36 Hours" isn't just a 1960's thriller starring James Garner and Eva Marie Saint. It's the New York Times' travel piece to spur on weekend getaways. While 95% of them are US cities (map of all), there's the occasional one in Europe and rare one in AP.

Prague got the spotlight for this weekend's article.

One listed place that's near and dear is the vintage Erhart Cafe and Sweet Shop ("Erhartova Cukrarna"). Five minutes down the street from us, Erhart sells blocks of meringue as big as your head. (good stuff!) Their quality is rivaled only by the upscale Bakeshop Praha off Old Town Square. [Sarita & Caesar - yes, that place was pretty darn good. :) ]

Anyway, it's a good article. But don't read unless you're looking to be tempted into booking flights.

Prague - "Paris of the East": CNN/TripAdvisor

If you're browsing the CNN.com travel section today, you might spot this:
"Prague's charming touches a winner"

Based on a recent survey "TripAdvisor's Best European Cities in 2009," Prague won first place! ...well, first place as the "best bargin city." (And in 2007 & 2008, by the way.)

Scanning through the results, it seems London or Paris is the real top rated city, for good or bad. But Prague comes out of nowhere to be the blue-light special of tourism.

Here are the TripAdvisor survey results:

Best Bargain European Cities: 1. Prague 2. Budapest 3. Lisbon
Most Expensive European Cities: 1. London 2. Paris 3. Rome
European Cities with the Most Friendly and Helpful Locals: 1. Dublin 2. Amsterdam 3. London
European Cities with the Best Cuisine: 1. Paris 2. Rome 3. Florence
European Cities with the Best Shopping: 1. Paris 2. London 3. Rome
European Cities with the Best Night Life: 1. London 2. Amsterdam 3. Paris
European Cities with the Best Public Parks: 1. London 2. Paris 3. Barcelona, Amsterdam (tie)
Most Romantic European Cities: 1. Paris 2. Venice 3. Rome
European Cities with the Most Attractive Locals: 1. Rome 2. Paris 3. Stockholm
Cleanest European Cities: 1. Zurich 2. Copenhagen 3. Stockholm
Dirtiest European Cities: 1. London 2. Paris 3. Rome
European Cities with the Most Unfriendly Hosts: 1. Paris 2. London 3. Moscow
Most Boring European Cities: 1. Brussels 2. Zurich 3. Warsaw

Bottom line...Prague may not come to mind for great food, great service or great night life, but hey, we're cheap. So, we got that going for us, which is nice.

Crossing over Letna Park to peer down to Charles bridge, we can see a sea of tourists' heads nodding in agreement.

So, if you're considering it, our calendar in the autumn is empty and the spare 'bedroom' is available.

Sarita and Caesar Do Praha

Just one day after returning from Greece, we met Caesar and Sarita at the Prague Airport. How did we feel about it? I think you can get an idea from this photo. (Hats made by Maylia & Ella.)

We had just under a week together and had to make the most of it. One way to do this is to limit sleep - easily done in a household that regularly wakes by 6am. I would say a visit with us is good birth control, but, well, for those two it was already too late! (YAY!) In any case, Ella and Mattias wasted no time in warming up to "Auntie Sarita" and "Uncle Caesar". This photo was taken only a couple hours after they arrived...

(Ella is still sleeping with a S'Mac sticker taped to her pajamas and has adopted a Sarita catchphrase: "It's pretty darn chilly out there.") While our kids softened them up, we wasted no time putting them to work:

Of course we took in the standard Prague sights...

And dined on typical Prague cuisine...

But we also had some new experiences, like celebrating Mother's Day on the Jazz Boat....

Of course we had our picture taken with the band, just don't ask us who they were!

And Maylia was finally able to visit Terezin Concentration Camp.

Sarita and Caesar also visited Ella's skolka. Here's Ella with her kamaradka, Stelinka.

Saying goodbye was tough. (But we're already looking forward to seeing them in Nova Scotia in August - WOOHOO!)

WE MISS YOU, AUNTIE SARITA AND UNCLE CAESAR!!!!!

Jeff Passed His (3) Driving Test(s)

Normally passing a drivers test isn't a big deal, but Jeff's pretty happy today.
Driver tests are a 3-part examination: a written test, an oral test and the 'practical' (driving).

Oral tests? - who does those these days? Universities and autoskolas (driving school), that's who.
And Jeff feels extra special because he did it entirely in Czech (*cough* with a translator *cough*).


Written Exam
First came the computerized written exam. All Czech. Remember, Jeff's Czech is 'rough'.

Yes, Jeff decided to use the autoskola's contract-for-hire translator to read off all the written test's 25 questions and multiple choice answers. Took just under 30 minutes to do so. Proved a great team effort.


Oral Exam
Then came the dreaded oral exam. This means the district's magistrate comes to visit and asks each candidate a few questions, ranging from car maintenance knowledge, first aid, to road regulations.

Again, Jeff chose to use the school's translator for the meeting with the local official. Smart idea.

The magistrate's asked "What are the 7 mandatory items to be found in every car?"

Jeff responded and the Translator rattled off "Spare bulbs, spare fuses, spare tire, tire wrench, a jack, first aid kit and a road triangle!" The magistrate replied with a firm nod and stamped the paper. Gosh, how Jeff holds Translator guy in such high regard now.


Practical Exam
Lastly the practical exam...actually driving a real car, on a real road. Such a small car. What with the magistrate, a policeman and Jeff, there's no room for Translator guy. Ah, who needs him anyway? Translator guy was too busy eating his hot lunch that was delivered to the school just as we walked out to the car.

The hot lunches delivered for the other officials had to wait. That might explain why Jeff's practical test was just a 2-minute trip around the block.


Manual or automatic?
Manual all the way, baby. If you dare to request an automatic car, then on your license will be noted the inability to drive stick.

Priority? "Main Roads"?
Any real differences between driving at home and here? Yes - it's called Priority. Not a common sense idea for us drivers from the States or Canada.

Priority is what you give people on the "main road." At intersections, the rule "the car which approached first" doesn't apply.

Check this out: The answer is the first one. Priority goes to cars on the main road ("back and to the left" ala the movie JFK). Main road is denoted by a yellow diamond sign. If you haven't seen that sign, you yield. If there isn't a main road, then at any crossing, cars coming from the right have priority. Makes for real interrupted driving in the neighborhoods.

Here's a similar question, in Czech, below.
"What driver has priority?" Answer is the third option: I go first (I have priority over the green car and red truck).

So, Jeff's pretty excited to have earned his Czech driving license. With it, Jeff can rent a car anywhere in the EU. ...oh boy, now the trouble & adventures will really start.