Prague Journal

Friday, July 1, 2005.

I was up early so that I could meet Anne and Paul and their daughters at the train station at 5:30am. Anne is teaching a six-week course for George Soros’s CEU in Budapest this summer, so she and her family are using this as an excuse to travel around central Europe. The rain has let up a bit, so I was able to take them for a short walk from Wenceslas Square to Old Town. Our intent was to have breakfast downtown and then drop off their bags at their hotel. However, despite the fact that Praguers are early morning people, and most businesses start early, we found no restaurants that opened before 8am – just fast-food kiosks. So, after walking around a bit, we headed to their hotel with the bags, and then to Old Town Square to a tourist café for breakfast.
I arrived home just as Ari and Elana were waking up, so I had time to chat with them as they were packing (and repacking to make sure everything was within the airline baggage restrictions). The taxi was set to arrive at 10am, and we were downstairs with all their bags just before the taxi arrived.
Shortly thereafter, I went downtown—in the pouring rain—to meet Sarah, to give her keys to our flat. Sarah will give the keys to Terry when she comes to Prague on Monday, so that she and her friend can use our flat when we are out of town. I then went back to the money exchange place to get Czech currency for Paul and Anne. I actually returned home in time for a rest – and to work on the material to send to Eva and Martin for our conference on Sunday – before heading back out for Shabbat Services and dinner.
The Shabbat crowd at the Spanish Synagogue was not so large as last week, but there were at least 60 people. Jiři had told me that he and Elana would be bringing their baby daughter this evening, but they did not show up, probably because of the rain. Rabbi Patz was there to conduct the service, and give a short sermon about independence and self-governance.
We left the service early to meet Anne and Paul and Emily and Carolyn for dinner. We decided to take them the Švejk Restaurant just down the street from the Spanish Synagogue. This is one of the many Restaurants named for the “Good Soldier Švejk” around Prague. We had never eaten there, but the menu looked decent – lots of traditional Czech dishes, many of which had names referring to characters in Hašek’s book—and the atmosphere looked appropriately “cute” for the girls (lots of pictures and references to Švejk and small-town Bohemia). We were pleasantly surprised that the food and service were excellent, and the prices moderate. Unfortunately, they did not have Czech fruit dumplings or crepes for dessert, so we had to settle for ice cream sundaes.
Today is Canada Day, and I can see fireworks from our balcony this evening.

posted by JWinn @ 9:35 PM