I introduce our Pimp Mobile and other news...

Oooh yea...she's a beauty! No power windows, but AC and CD player. Haha it's a decent ride though, no complaints. Ok actually one complaint, it's a ten gallon tank and costs 50 euros to fill up which is about 75$ USD. Are you serious???? I cannot believe I saw a H2, Jeeps, and an Escalade out here. I bet their monthly gas expenditure is more than their rent! We haven't named her yet, but I'm up for any suggestions. Let me know:)

I went and looked at two apartments yesterday. They are both nice, one had an amazing view but about half the square footage of the second. I'm guessing about 750 sq ft. That would be on the high side. The second has two large bedrooms, a very modern kitchen, and open floor plan which is very rare in most European apartments I have seen. The paint, flooring, and furniture in both are newer or brand new but we decided to go with the second. I'm not sure the move in date yet but I can't wait to eat a home cooked meal! Eating out for everything is rough even though the food is good and every restaurant has an english menu. The specialty here is roasted goose, I have not tried it yet but I'm planning too.

I gave my licensure documentation to some people today. I learned they have a government insurance plan here which gives everyone access to very affordable dental care and they also have a separate private system that provides most elective care on fee-for-service basis. I should be in touch with a Slovak dentist within the week. From what I've heard so far there won't be any reaccreditation process. They will accept my American license. I will most definitely have to prove myself where ever I land but I am up for the challenge.

Thats all for now, jet lag is still a beast. It's just going to take some time. More pics to come:)

Bratislava Polizei

Last night was Yemi's first game. They won! They actually blew them out the water;) I loved watching Yemi play again and the fans here are crazy as usual. The arena is on the smaller side, it holds about 1,000 but it gets packed. He's the only American on the team but we were told another point guard from home comes tomorrow. You can check out his team website with this link. I don't think they have his info up yet but if you use google translator you can find out more information about the team. After the game we went to a nice restaurant that makes their own wine, it's really nice here because things like food are really cheap, compared to other places I have been in Europe. The wine was amazing! And I got my first regular nights sleep here so that was awesome. I got our hotel website too so if you are curious where we are staying you can see some really good pics @ www.penzionpezinok.sk

Ok, so I know I promised pics and I took some but I had to tell this story first: Yemi had today off so we went into the capital. It was a really nice ride and we're only about 15 minutes away here in Pezinok. Beautiful day as well, about 75 degrees, nice breeze; not a cloud in the sky. We went to the mall and I got a much needed curling iron and blow drier with the euro outlet plug. Yemi doesn't let me plug mine into the transformer after some bad experiences with fuses blowing out, oops;) To begin with the driving is confusing another classic example of a city built before there were cars and then they threw roads in as an after thought. Charming, but super inconvenient, no real grid or anything. We're on our way back to Pezinok and we pass over a railroad, it had the gates that come down but they were up; it had sign with red blinking lights but we just thought it meant caution...boy were we wrong.

We drive through the train tracks and as we continue on we're pulled over by the Slovakian police. They way the were set up it looked like a routine stop so initially we weren't worried. They came up to the car, not a lick of english and us not a lick of Slovak so you can imagine our communication. They call someone on their cell phone and give it to Yemi. Yemi says "hello?" the man says "no hello! you passed a blinking red light on the railroad and for this there is a penalty now give the phone back to my colleague." So the guy writes on a pad of paper (its not carbon copy) 150 euro, and says "this penalty" we say "ok" and put out a hand to take the 'ticket', he says "no you pay now" we say we have no money (this is all w/ hand gestures) he says "bank card" we say "2 days here, no card" he says "ok 50 euro?" Now tell me this isn't getting a little fishy. We say "we don't have" and show him all our cash which was 10 euro and some coins. They shake their head in disapproval, waive us off, and go back to their police car. At this point Yemi and I are in complete shock. These "police" were just trying to hustle us out of money! There was no ticket; they didn't take down any information...Wow at least for a little bit I won't be driving by myself. We still have to talk to someone who speaks english about the experience. I don't know if thats normal or what, definitely left a smudge on my current opinions of Slovakia.

First Impressions

We made it! Safe and Sound. Feeling the jet lag though. Our flight was good. We went Chicago to Warsaw, Warsaw to Vienna and then the team manager picked us up and drove us to Pezinok. We drove through Bratislav, the capital, on the way in to Pezinok. Bratislav is a very modern city with malls, sky scrapers, Lexus/Toyota dealerships, KFC, McDonalds. It also has a lot of European flare though, including castles and different street signs in German and Slovak.

Pezinok is a smaller town with a population of about 50K. We are staying in a hotel for about a week before moving into our apartment. Our hotel is in the town center. It is a busy area. I went for a walk when Yemi went to practice today and got a feel for the town. They have a mall, normal shopping, a lot of restaurants and cafes, cell phone shops, old churches The weather is amazing! Clear blue sky about 85 degrees with a nice breeze. The people have all been friendly so far. We have had dinner and lunch here and the food is good. Grilled chicken, rice, and vegetables is what I've ate so far, pretty normal stuff. I saw some asian and italian restaurants too. They told us we just missed a huge wine festival and that Pezinok makes the best wines in this region. Thats good for us because we love wine;)

Yemi's first game is already tomorrow, but we think it is an exhibition game. I can't wait to see the arena and the fans! I hope the team has a lot of support. I promise to have some pics up with the next post assuming my camera works!

Slovakia here we come!

Well it is as official as a referee with a whistle we are going to Pezinok, Slovakia. It was a surprise to both of us because we had thought it was Slovenia, apparently a common mistake. The night before leaving we try looking up some more information on the team that Yemi is playing for, but it didn't seem right because it continued to say Slovakia, then we cross referenced with the destination and sure enough less than 24hrs before take off we find out we thought we were going to a different country all together. Live and Learn I guess.

I posted a map so you can orient yourself. I'm really excited about our location pre arrival. Pezinok is 40 miles from Vienna, Austria; 150 miles from Budapest, Hungary; 200 miles from Prague, Czech Republic.

We were scheduled to leave yesterday but when we arrived at the airport we were in for some bad news. It turned out because we are flying into Vienna and didn't have proof of our further travel to Slovakia they would not let us check in for the flight because we did not have an Austrian Visa. We tried everything, but the ever so competent staff at our wonderful United Airlines proved that customer service in the airline industry is dead and gone forever. Truly they aren't to blame, the team should have provided us with the appropriate documentation or made our flights return tickets for three months and then changed them when we got there because it all boils down to the need for a visa before travel if your tickets indicate a stay of 3 or more months.

As an American I must say it was an eye opener. To be denied like that in an airport for travel; was borderline humiliating. We had the tickets we had American passports. In my naivety I believed as an American I could come and go as I pleased anywhere in the world. To my surprise people are just as worried about us illegally residing in their country as we are them in ours, definite food for thought.

After hours of inconvenience to our family and friends we have a more appropriate itinerary and we leave this Wednesday. A big thanks to my Dad and Nancy, always there for us:)