Prague Journal

Wednesday, December 1, 2004.

This afternoon I went to the main train station to meet Mary, a fellow Fulbrighter, for lunch downtown. She is teaching philosophy and ethics at Charles University for two different departments. She takes the train in nearly every day from Všenory, a small town just south of Prague, where she is renting a house for her family. She has five children, so finding a house for seven is both difficult and expensive in Prague. But the train is fast and cheap and her children are learning how to get around by themselves. Her stories remind me of when we were here when Matt was 11. He became quite independent, riding the buses and trams all over town by himself. It was a bit of a shock to his system when we got back to the Denver suburbs and he had to rely on his parents for transportation.
After lunch, I stopped at several bookstores downtown to buy holiday postcards, and then found myself near Museum where there was a percussion group dressed in white passing out strawberry-flavored condoms as part of an AIDS awareness campaign. I guess I should be flattered that they think I’m young enough to be screwing around. I may save my condom for Matt.
Shopping in Prague takes an inordinate amount of time, partly because there are few supermarkets, and because even the bigger stores have a limited selection of items. I went to the Julius Meinl at the Museum metro station to get a lightbulb for Rick’s office. No luck. I then went to the drug store. None there either. Undaunted, I stopped at the Vietnamese marketplace at Hradčanská, since there are at least two stalls with kitchen appliances and household supplies. No lightbulbs there either. One last try—I stopped on the way home at the Julius Meinl at U Mateje. I had to search, but there, on a low shelf, were two kinds of lightbulbs, individually boxed. They only had 40W and 100W, no 60W, but I bought the 100W just to check it off my shopping list. So now Rick’s office is bright again, even brighter than before.
Rick and I went to dinner with Ales and Jitka at U Pinkasů, one of our favorite places. As usual, the food and conversation were excellent, the atmosphere charming, and the service pleasant, but slow. Fortunately, we were not in a hurry, especially since were seated upstairs in a quiet, non-smoking room. When we finally headed home, we noticed it was 11:30 p.m.

posted by JWinn @ 11:35 PM