The Blaus - South America and Europe

8th of October - Prague, Czech Republic

We arrived in the afternoon the day our moms were scheduled to fly in to Prague. We were so impressed with the modern, luxurious and artsy hotel Linda (Jen's mom) booked. It was decorated in classic Art Nouveau style inside and out. It was once a historical theater that staged anti-Communist plays, so it was left to decay for a few decades during Soviet occupation. It was recently purchased by K + K Hotels and completely restored. Linda did extensive research to find this hotel. She went to a travel agent and told the lady that her daughter was a graphic designer and asked her to recommend the artsiest boutique hotel in Prague for her daughter's 30th birthday. The hotel's luxurious facilities were a welcome change of scenery for us, because we have only splurged on one other nice hotel in the past 10 months. It was like emerging from the desert and entering a lush, tropical oasis. The buffet breakfasts at the hotel consisted of an amazing spread, so we didn't hesitate to stuff ourselves each morning with the plethora of gourmet delights on offer (including mimosas). The hotel was situated near the Powder Tower and the Municipal House, which is a concert hall elaborately decorated by 20th century artists in Art Nouveau style. It was easy to find our way back to the hotel, as we would just look for the "powder keg" as Meredith (Billy's mom) renamed it.

We had not seen our families for 9 months and we wanted to impress and welcome our moms, so we picked up nosegays, Czech beer and deli snacks to surprise them with and we set everything up in their room before they arrived. As we got ready that evening, we joked about feeling as if we were preparing for a first date. We wanted everything to be perfect for their arrival. We waited for them in the hotel lobby and rushed through the entrance to greet them with big hugs. They were tired after a long trip, but we kept them up talking for much of the night. We sent a list of items that we wanted from home and Linda brought the reinforcements. Meredith brought a framed collage of some of our photos from South America, which we kept with us and displayed in our room.

The next morning we rushed to the Russian embassy to apply for visas. As an American citizen, Russian visas must be among the hardest to obtain. Russian visas rank up there with visas for Iran and Afghanistan. We tried to apply in several Eastern European cities, but were denied each time. Our applications were finally accepted in Prague, but in the end, we had to bribe the embassy official to get our passports back in a timely manner. The application itself was a five page questionnaire which asked us to provide details about our last four employers and to list every city we have been to in the past ten years. This is information we had to struggle to remember. We also had to purchase invitations before we could even take our paperwork to a Russian embassy to apply for visas. When we finally arrive in Russia we are required to register as tourists, or pay huge fines when we leave the country. The Russians are thorough when it comes to admitting and keeping tabs on tourists of the Yankee variety.

Once we completed that task, we were free to spend the rest of the day walking around the old town and browsing the farmer's market. We went to see Charles Bridge around sunset when the golden autumn afternoon light illuminated the brightly painted buildings on the opposite side of the Moldau river. Everything was hazy and there were many other tourists meandering across the bridge and enjoying the sights and sounds of musicians playing. After our ritual afternoon Pilsner Urquell that night we ate a traditional Czech dinner at a touristy basement restaurant complete with a traditional dance performance. There were hundreds of Dutch soccer fans clad in bright orange hanging out in the main square because there was a football match in Prague that weekend.

On Jen's birthday we visited the Alfons Mucha museum. Mucha is famous for pioneering the Art Nouveau movement in Paris, but he was born in Prague. Most of his original paintings are in Florida, in the home of a famous athlete. The museum housed a nice collection of Mucha's poster prints. Jen and Linda went clothes shopping at H&M to pick up some winter clothes. We all met for lunch at a quaint cafe across the street from our hotel, where they served soup in a bread bowl that was sculpted like a work of art. We had a few glasses of champagne in our rooms before heading out to a really nice dinner at a French restaurant. The evening was like a dream as Jen relished the attention and made Linda recount the story of her birth (and all the gory details). In the Old Town Square outside the restaurant the rowdy Dutch soccer fans were lighting fire crackers and climbing the walls in celebration of their win.

Over the next few days, we kept busy. One day we picked up sandwiches and salads and had a picnic in the park in Mala Strana to escape the crowds of tourists in the Old Town area. It was sunny and warm (especially at mid-day) every day we were in Prague, so we took advantage of the nice weather and spent time wandering around outside in the Jewish Quarter and along the river. We accidentally discovered the John Lennon wall on one of these walks, which is a colorfully spray painted, ever-changing homage and portrait of the rock star that first appeared in Prague after his death. We visited the Kafka museum and emerged from the dark and spooky museum with a better understanding of the term "Kafkaesque." We walked to the castle on the hill and wandered around its expansive grounds. Linda marched up to a castle guard and asked for directions, but he could only nod in response, as it appears that they are not allowed to speak to the tourists. We stared up at the impressive stained glass windows inside the immense St Vitus Cathedral and hiked up the spiral staircase inside one of the Cathedral's towers to get a better view of Prague.

We moved to an apartment on Wenceslas Square where we could all be together in a cozy pseudo home and cook meals. The apartment was not as nice as we hoped it would be, but it was still much nicer than the types of places that we normally frequent. The place was stocked with almost everything we needed, except for a knife to chop veggies with. Linda and Jen went around to the nearby restaurants with a broken kitchen knife to ask to borrow a functioning knife. The two of them scared a waitress at a nearby pizza place when they walked in brandishing a huge blade. This poor waitress didn't speak English and accidentally poured beer all over herself as she tried to remain calm while being confronted by two potentially dangerous Americans wielding a foot long knife. Once we had a knife we were able to whip up a few great meals, croque monsieurs and bananas flambe.

We went to the opera one night to see Carmen at the National Theater. The tickets cost $3.20 each for seats at the back of the house on the top level. It was Linda's first opera and we all loved it because we knew the music and it was more of a lively theater production than a stuffy classical opera. The National Theater was beautifully decorated in gold and marble, and there was a Dvorak bust proudly displayed in the lobby among the other famous Czech musical personalities. Glasses of champagne at intermission were a bargain too at $2 per glass. The view of the castle at night from the balcony was the best part. For the rest of our lives every time we hear Dvorak's Moldau or any of the music from Carmen we will think of Prague.

posted by The Blaus @ 4:59 PM