How a lawnmower helped us get married....................
So ten years ago Mr Entity decided to make an honest woman of me. And because neither off us wanted a big flash expensive do we decided to go to Prague.

I looked into it and found that we could get married in the old town hall. (the one with the clock if you've ever been).
Now remember these were the early days of the internet, especially for the Czech republic, not everyone had email and many places didn't have websites. (I remember Tesco being the first supermarket to do internet shopping and you had to get the list of items on a CD as downloading would take to long) anyway, I digress.

I had been communicating with the translator at the old town hall and she was sorting out all the paperwork for us. We had to meet her in her office the day before and she would give us all the paper work we had to complete.
The office building had paternoster lifts which scared the hell out of me, but not nearly as much as she did. She was a tiny lady with a sense of humour by-pass. Think Dr Ruth's evil twin. She told us that we had to go to 'police for foreigners' and fill out a form there. I asked if there would be people who spoke English and she said there would.

So we got in a cab and headed off to the address she had given us. It was a big imposing soviet style official building. The cab driver said that he would wait for us, when we explained that we didn't know how long it would be he said not to worry, he'd turn the meter off.

In we went to the scary building and found the department we needed. There was no reception or any people there other than the other people in the waiting room. It was like something out of a Jeunet film.

There was a take a number queuing system, so we took a number and sat and waited. The waiting room was full and the queue didn't seem to be going anywhere. Finally, after about an hour, the number before ours came up. We watched the door intently and waited for that person to come out. The did and we stood up ready to go when the person in the office came out and said 'closed for lunch' and slammed the door.
We had no option but to wait for them to come back, for another hour. I went out and told the cab driver that he might as well head off and get another fare but he said he would wait.
Eventually the person we needed to see came back. Our number was called and we went into the office. We explained the situation and said that we needed the forms to get married in the Czech Republic. He gave us the forms and ushered us out.
The forms were all in Czech. We stood in the corridor and looked at them. There was nothing that we understood, nothing that we could even guess at. Just as we were staring at these forms and panicking that we wouldn't be able to get married the next day.
Just then a business man and woman came out of the room next to us. The woman could see we were looking at this form with confusion. 'Hello' she said 'would you like me to help you?' It turned out that she was a there as a translator for a lawnmower company. She helped us fill in the form and get it handed in to the correct person. They then gave us the certificate we needed to get married, which we needed to take back to the scary lady.
The cab driver had waited all this time and only charged us the equivalent of £10.

I know this doesn't seem like much, and in retrospect it was not so awful, but when you are lost in a foreign country and haven't had anything to eat or drink all day, a friendly face helps so much. We honestly thought the wedding wouldn't go ahead.

I know this boils down to 'I waited about for two hours in another country and then a lady helped' but at the time her help was so welcome.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Tue 14 Feb 2012, 18:00, 4 replies)

Here is a link to the building in question:
maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Olsanska+2&hl=en&ll=50.083073,14.46172&spn=0.008041,0.021522&hq=Olsanska+2&radius=15000&t=h&layer=c&cbll=50.083425,14.46418&panoid=FI5M5xK2ZZtR9cfW7eCG4g&cbp=12,166.67,,0,-4.92&z=16
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Tue 14 Feb 2012, 18:02, closed)

That doesn't look like an old town hall with a clock!

(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Wed 15 Feb 2012, 7:47, closed)

No, that is Police for Foreigners.
This is where we got married:
www.aviewoncities.com/prague/oldtownhall.htm
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Wed 15 Feb 2012, 12:22, closed)

2 hours?
Took us 2 1/2 days to get our UK Wedding certificate notarised, authorised and exchanged for a Polish one.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Tue 14 Feb 2012, 23:33, closed)