I will just say right away that I love grocery shopping in the Czech Republic, because it is extremely inexpensive in U.S. dollars! I have gone to the grocery store twice now, the first time to just grab some basics, and then the second time to buy some more substantial food. I went to Tesco (the grocery store here, it's very common in Europe, I'm told) with Michal and Catherine, one of the couples I'm living with, last night for that second trip.
It can be a little alarming to see number such as 79,00 on a box of food, but then I have to remember that to get the price in USD, I divide everything by about 20, which means that that item is only about $4 - much better! So I bought a bunch of food for about $26, and I would say that if I were buying that same food in the States, it would cost about $45, if not more.
There is such a feeling of comfort when I see familiar brand names in Tesco (Old El Paso for tacos, things like that), and although I did give in and buy some familiar foods, I also tried to avoid doing that too much. So I grabbed a couple items with Czech writing all over it, double checked with Michal that what I was buying was somewhat normal, and then just went with it. I really have enjoyed most of the food here; a couple things taste very different-in a bad way-to me, but the majority of things taste either similar to what we have back home or just very good in a different way. They also have some great things that we don't have back home, such as the paprika chips I mentioned on Facebook!
I have also noticed that the tap water tastes just like the water I have back in Milwaukee, which makes me happy! I was worried that it would take me a while to get used to the tap water here, so I'd have to spend a lot of money on bottled water, but such is not the case! Catherine was telling me that the rules in the EU for the water quality in the cities are pretty strict, which works out well for me!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Tesco rocks! I remember Esther and I walked to Tesco when she first moved to Durham, thinking it wouldn't be very far. We were dragging ourselves there and hoping they weren't closed yet and ended up getting a taxi back!
ReplyDeleteNo trouble with the tap water? No matter where I go, I always avoid the tap water, Britain included. I guess if you're gonna live there, you better get used to it!
Yeah, Tesco is pretty awesome! While some of them are just grocery stores here, some of them are like Wal-Marts in terms of how much they offer, except that they're designed like a Macy's haha I don't know if it was like that in Britain too, but it's funny to see such a huge offering of products arranged in a snazzy, department store kind of way!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I've been drinking the tap water from Day 1. It tastes, surprisingly, exactly like Milwaukee water as I said, and I haven't gotten sick even a tiny bit yet *knock on wood* lol it's saving me tons of money to drink from the tap!