visits with relatives
So Mom and Dad have come and gone. If I can pierce the bubble of sadness I have been in since they left, I will give you some of the highlights of the trip:
- Luggage: Air France sucks. And to demonstrate this they failed to transfer Mom and Dad’s luggage from the airplane coming from New York to the airplane going to Prague. They then continued this demonstration by failing to know or communicate any true information about whether the bags would ever be transferred to any airplane coming to Prague. The result of this was that Mom and Dad were without their luggage for the first twelve hours of their stay in Prague. Not so bad, but irritating after traveling all night on an airplane in the midst of an enormous family with thousands of vocal and energetic children.
- Cell phone: Peter and I thought ourselves extremely clever. We borrowed a cell phone from our friend Anton so Mom and Dad would always have some way of contacting us if we were separated. We then programmed the phone so there would be very few instructions to remember. We do not think my parents completely incapable of learning a new cell phone in a week but where there is no will, there is no way. So we arranged that they would only have to remember which button to press to ANSWER the phone, which button to press to HANG UP the phone, and which ONE button to press to CALL either Peter or me. I can’t say they were particularly happy even about being given a cell phone and they immediately caught on that we had dumbed down the phone for them. They were amused about this, but they really didn’t want the phone. As it turned out, however, they never needed it as we only had one occasion in which we were separated - and that for only a few minutes.
- Flying cat hair: As you may know, Dad is allergic to cats. Therefore, staying for over a week in a small apartment with four cats was something of a risk. Peter and I thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed everything in the apartment in an effort to eradicate all hairs not physically connected to a cat. This included brushing and vacuuming the mattress in the guest room, all chairs, carpets, and sofas, and sweeping and mopping all floors. Once this was done, the doors to the guest room were shut and no cats were allowed inside. When Dad finally arrived, we were very glad to see that our efforts had paid off. He had no problems with his allergies. That is, he had no problems until I got it into my head about a week into the visit that too many cat hairs had already accumulated in the house. I got out the vacuum cleaner and proceeded (I thought) to make things even better for him - but really ended up transferring enough cat hairs from their places of rest into the air that he had to take an allergy pill almost immediately.
- Just One More Beer: As you are aware if you have been following the updates, persuasion is an art form in Prague and none are immune. One of the most intense forms of persuasion, as you know, centers around The Last Tram. However, when it is clear that the parties involved (such as my parents) possess great will power and have absolutely no intention of having as many beers as it would take to pass enough time to even broach the topic of The Last Tram, the target of the art is downgraded to Just One More Beer. Mom and Dad experienced and admirably acquitted themselves in this arena. Their chief tempter was usually Peter - and he was very persuasive! When it is your job to persuade, you must use every circumstance at your disposal, such as “your luggage isn’t here yet, so you can’t go to sleep. You might as well have one beer,” “I know you’ve been to a pub already, but you’ve never been to a non-stop”, “it’s your first night,” “it’s really early - it is not yet 10 pm,” “it’s your second night,” “it’s so beautiful out tonight, we can go for a nice walk and stop by the pub on the way home,” “it’s your third night”… and so on.
- Watching ants: Dad became an expert ant watcher. As you know we previously had a problem with ants in the apartment. Now, thank God, we do not. However, we have come to realize that we are in the vicinity of a great ant kingdom, which has its center, as far as we have been able to deduce, on our roof. Therefore, there can constantly be seen on the wall of our balcony a stream of Upward-going and Downward-going ants. Dad, who spent some serious observation time watching this wall, now knows more than any living being about the habits and patterns of the ants. Please direct your inquiries to him.
I realize after reading through this terrible attempt at highlights that while I have created an extremely long account I have given you almost nothing about my parents visit or about Prague. It is too bad, as I haven’t even broached the topic of the great storms and flooding river, the hot hot days, the defenistrations, the histories of Prague or the loud birds. Although I feel that even if I did, you would not have a much more substantive knowledge of my parents’ visit or of Prague.
So I will try this: It was a really great 10 days. We toodled (I think this is a word, and if it is not it should be) all over Prague mostly visiting either historical sites or pubs. We saw churches and castles and even one little town outside of Prague. We spent our days sight-seeing in the morning, resting in the afternoon and walking around the city in the evening. I think Mom and Dad drank more beer here in a week than they have in the last five years. But there is nothing for it - not only is beer in Prague extremely tasty, it is also the cheapest beverage around (yes, yes, even cheaper than water). They also ate very well. Not only did we take them to our favorite restaurants but Peter also cooked up a storm. He made Russian pancakes, liver pate, a kind of eggplant stew, and put together all kinds of other fillings for them. It was one of the best meals ever and everyone was completely stuffed when all the pancakes were gone.
[Disclaimer: if this e-mail reads as though we were drinking beer all the time, it is not true. We were just drinking it sometimes.]