Prague Journal

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

We had a smooth flight to Frankfort, although both Rick and I got sucked in to a movie so we only allowed ourselves three hours sleep before we were rousted for breakfast at 7 a.m. local time. We landed at 8:00, and once again sprinted for our connecting flight that was scheduled to leave by 8:15. Luckily, we did get on the flight, but our luggage did not. We arrived in Prague around 9:30, but spent an hour talking with the Lufthansa people about the missing bags.
The fact that our bags had missed our scheduled flight turned out to be a benefit to us. The airline baggage-handlers drove the heavy suitcases to our apartment building around 3:30 p.m., so Rick only had to lug them (slowly) up the three flights of stairs, sparing him the task of loading them onto a cart through security/customs and loading and unloading a car. We walked easily through passport control, with hardly a notice through customs.
Eva was waiting for us with a van which we now only needed for our four relatively small carry-on bags. Vojta, our landlady’s son, was also waiting for us with his friend Vladimir, who served partly as an interpreter, to take us to our apartment in his very small car.
We spent the afternoon walking around Hanspaulka, evoking memories of our last time in Prague. The neighborhood had not changed much, although some of the buildings under construction in 1998 were now finished and other buildings had begun their renovations. We walked down to Dejvicka where we changed money, bought bus tickets, and found an internet café. We had dinner at the familiar Grosetto’s Pizzeria and stopped at the Delvita grocery store across the street, just before they closed at 10p.m. The Delvita is quite changed – instead of the familiar deli counter there are now modern coolers with pre-packaged salads, cheeses and meats. There is a long frozen-food aisle, with vegetables and prepared foods. The produce section looks much the same, but the store seems to have gotten an overall face-lift, bringing it clearly into the 21st-century, Prague-style. Armed with as much as we could carry gracefully, we hopped on the tram home, ready to call it a day.

posted by JWinn @ 7:20 PM