ben's wee blog: Registering with the police and the quirks of this city

This morning I had to go to some government office to register my intention to stay in Czech Republic for longer than 3 months.

No phones were allowed, but the
office clerk kind of looked like this..

This involved quite a lot of repetitive paper work, and being sent back an forth to different offices within the building, but in the end it was not as slow as it could've been. I was fortunate enough to have made an appointment before going, because they use this ticket system where you receive a number when you enter and are served when your number is called,but it is slowed down because its common for someone to take a ticket and then go for a smoke or just not come back.;This system is something that I only saw in "Clarks" shoe store in the UK about 10 years ago and every other store here in Czech.

We somehow ended up in the Non-EU office and it was just crowded with people with about 1 member of staff to every 15 people. But, over in the EU office the situation was much better, it was quite fast and efficient. Because I had an appointment, I was seen straight away and it was all dealt with in about 30 mins.

The 30 minute turn around was possible because through some common sense, (no instruction was given) I brought my ID, work contract, flat contract and passport photo..oh and European Health Insurance card..first time it has ever been used..

The whole process was conducted in Czech as I had Veronika there with me, but the paper work had both Czech and English instructions. I just need to return to the office next week to pick up my citizen's card.

And hey, turns out my criminal record is as clean as...a Didgeridoo? or a Peruvian whistle?

So after that, I had a pretty non eventful day...I had some time to kill whilst Veronika was going for a job interview (she got it by the way! :D )..So I had a wander around and took some photos of "quirky" things. And yeah there are many things when you look closely..