And so we leave Prague, Czech Republic after our longest stay of all, one week, with the Kotekova family, Ondrej and his mother, Olga at their apartment in the Prague 6 District not very far from the Presidential Palace and between the last and next-to-last stops on the Green Metro line.
We are returning to Straubing, Germany to retrieve our car at the home of Karl and Krystle Wolf, brother- and sister-in-law of my brother Martin through his wife, Kathy, Karl's sister. They hosted us for a couple of days a week ago after we traveled from Dachau (a visit about which we haven't yet written but will, God willing.)
But about Prague. It was the first time here for both of us. As I may have already explained, Cam and his family hosted Ondrej as an exchange student in Rochester, New Hampshire for the full school year 2008-2009. Both played hockey for Spaulding High School as defensemen and contributed to Spaulding making it into the playoffs. Ondrej graduated from Spaulding with Cam in June and returned to the Czech Republic where he still had one more year of school to fulfill for his Czech graduation. When he got back to Prague he was required to take and pass fourteen(!) examinations on the subjects that he would have taken just as if he had completed the year at his local school. He had just a few weeks to review, study and prepare for those exams. He passed all but three, but those three were enough to prevent him from graduating. He would have had to repeat the year in order to be able to move on to his fifth and final year of school.
Ondrej's mother Olga is a Juris Doctor lawyer in private practice in Prague and she understands the Czech educational system well enough to know that there were other options. One was to find another school that would accept him in, allow him to repeat the testing, and thus move on without repeating an entire year. So that's what he did, and was doing during our visit, boning up on the tests he will retake. It's expected that he'll pass those.
This stay in Prague will be perhaps the most memorable of all the stops we've made, for several reasons. First, its length and an opportunity to relax a little from the frenetic pace of before, moving on each day after a little sightseeing of those places and things that interested us. Second, because we were without the car during our visit, we wound up spending much more time walking than riding. Third, it gave Cam a chance to spend time with people his own age, Ondrej and his friends, all of whom welcomed him into their "community". He had a chance to do the things that young people everywhere enjoy, to be with friends, to talk and listen to music and even dance, to watch sports. And to do some things that young people everywhere don't always have the chance to do, especially in the U.S., to go to a pub or restaurant and to have a beer or two, a glass of wine, even a shot of Jagermeister and not have to sneak around to do it. Most of all though it was being with people who knew well the places to go to and to see as tourists. On the day that we arrived (a Sunday) Cam and Ondrej went off together and Olga and I walked from their apartment to the Palace grounds for a quick look, then into the oldest part of the city, and mostly just talked.
Olga was studying English at a school in Prague and has made several overseas trips for opportunities to study with native English-speakers. Notably, in June of this year, she spent an extended vacation in Vancouver, B.C. And traveled through several western states (Utah, Nebraska, Arizona) and followed up with a stay in New Hampshire to see Ondrej (and Cam) graduate.
Much of what we talked about was exploring Czech history, from early times through early and late twentieth century, including the German occupation that began in 1939, and the Soviet occupation after World War 2, up until the division of the Czech and Soviet Republics in the late 1990s. Also we explored the contrasts between the U.S. And British political and legal systems and those of the European nations, mainly as a vehicle for her to practice her English skills, but also to satisfy my curiosity about those systems.
Next stop after getting the car will be in Berlin for 1-2 days where we hope to complete our survey of the the second World War and its aftermath. Afterwards it will be a day or two in Amsterdam before finding our way back to Dublin for the flight home on the 20th.
Prague, a lovely place, and a new-found appreciation for what travel can be like when you can connect with locals.
Thanks, merci, danke and most of all, djecui Ondrej and Olga
We are traveling on a Czech train through the Czech countryside heading to the German border and the cities of Regensburg and Straubing. We left Prague at (precisely) 1:06 PM and are slated to arrive in Straubing at (precisely( 6:26 PM) where Karl will pick us up. We got somewhat confused when the (female) conductress informed us soon after we left Prague that it would become necessary to move to a different card, more forward in the train, when we arrived at a certain city. At first I thought she meant when we reached the city of Schwansdorf, where we are scheduled to change to another train destined for Regensburg but, no, what she actually meant was that in the city of Pelzn we'd remain on this train but move up to another car towards the front of the train as, apparently, this car we're in will be detached at that time.
We reconnoitered the forward cars and note that they are quite full, with some people standing and sitting in the aisles. We currently have a compartment all to ourselves and would prefer it if we can continue to have that convenience throughout the remainder of today's journey.
The aforementioned conductress comes across as somewhat bitchy, annoyed that she has to speak to us in English, and officious to a fault when she has conductress duties to perform, but I chalk it all up to a lack pf experience and to perhaps a lack of skill in English. Ondrej told us that Czech girls are a lot more reluctant than guys to speak English if they aren't comfortable with it (not like Lenki at the Palaca gardens.)
No comments:
Post a Comment