Albert

Albert is the closest grocery store to my flat. The chain is only found here, in Slovakia and Poland. So unlike Tesco, not much English. But it is just around the corner from me so I can just carry things home without having to get on the tram.

One thing different about Albert is that you weigh and price your produce before you get to the register. You just look for the picture of what you're buying, press the button and out comes the sticker. One time I didn't see a picture of a radish (and didn't know the Czech word for it) so I had to buy some that were prepackaged.

By chance I happened to see a guy weigh some tomatos the first time I went to Albert so I did the same. I bet the checkers would have lost their minds if I had gone to the register without having first priced my produce.

I've had requests for cost-of-living information so here's what I got today...

Tortillas, pepperoni, cheddar cheese, eidam cheese, sliced ham, strawberry jam, 3 yogurts, 3 bananas, chicken thighs, potatos, multivitamin juice, ice cream, 1/2 loaf of toast bread and 2 dinner rolls. The grand total was 335 Kč (~$18.60 U.S.).

The sandwich bread is very dense here. So far, I haven't been able to find 'soft' bread. Eidam cheese is cheap but cheddar is more expensive.

You always see people on the trams or walking down the street with a bag of rolls (rohlik) on their way home for dinner.  Kind of like a generic hot dog bun.  They are good (and cheap) but you had better eat them the same day you buy them. Try to eat one the next day and you will chip a tooth.

The potatos are tiny. You can easily fit 3-4 in the palm of your hand. But the green onions are HUGE! The biggest chives you've ever seen.

Multivitamin juice is good. It looks like carrot juice and is a blend of apple, orange, lemon, pineapple, passion fruit, grape, grapefruit, mango, guava, banana, apricot and peach juices. They sell multivitamin juice in cartons and small plastic bottles. The large plastic bottles look more like orange soda so I stick with the cartons.