Prague Blog 1

We started our second day in Prague by getting up at the crack of 10:30. The girls aren't adjusting well to the time change. They go to sleep fine, but around 12:30 they have woken up both nights and then can't get back to sleep. Poor little things think it is dinner time then. And then we have to work to wake them up at 10 am. But we'll keep drugging them with benadryl at bedtime and hopefully they'll adjust soon (although I wouldn't mind if they kept sleeping in a little bit!)

But despite being a little tired we've enjoyed our first 2 days in Prague! The girls have experienced some of the typical Praguish things we remembered from last time - a hearty czech meal of fried cheese and french fries (though they didn't care for the tartar sauce accompaniment), crowded tram and metro rides, eating sausages from the stand in Wenceslas Square, grocery shopping in the basement of Tesco.

I have noticed a few changes since living here 10 years ago. The major shock is that Prague is no longer cheap! Our hearty Czech meal for 4 cost $30! Last time it would have been around $12. Looks like we'll be doing more of our own cooking. Beer is over $1 too. Sigh. Well, we probably shouldn't drink as much with the kids around anyway!

The other big shock is that customer service people have been NICE! We went to the main train station to get our tram passes and we needed to show ID. David happened to have his drivers license on him but I had stashed mine (I'm not driving for a long time!). I had found my tram pass from 10 years ago, so David pulled that out and said, in Czech, "Well, she had to show ID when she got this last time - doesn't that count?" The woman accepted that argument - it was probably bending the rules. Official workers NEVER bent the rules before. In fact, I believe that they made up new rules expressly for us.

Other examples of nice customer service - at Tesco I bought a big tub of whole grain mustard. The check-out (or is it czech-out?) lady automatically wrapped it up in a produce bag. Sure enough, when we got home the lid had come off and the mustard leaked out. She knew that it had a leaky lid and took care of it - again, something that never would have happened during our previous sojourn. And the surly matrons at the sausage stand in Wensceslas Square have been replaced by young, smiley, and MULTI-LINGUAL girls. Maybe that's why the sausages cost 50 Kc now. My girls adored the sausages - Claire kept saying "will you put more hot dog in my roll?"

David is out right now at the T-Mobile store getting his cell phone tuned to the Czech network. He'll probably get me a pre-paid phone too. When I'm out and about with the girls, it will probably be useful for me to be able to reach someone if necessary (and to be reachable!). No more hours losing myself in art museums and cafes. Maybe we'll be able to do that for half-hours, though.