22 hours to Prague

Hello Friends,

(I’m no longer allowed to call you peasants…)

We’re in wonderful Prague (Praha) for a week! We’re staying in a HomeAway apartment, Hastalska 11, Praha 1, owned and rented out by the lovely Maia of Bisgrove Films. She’s been wonderful to work with, very communicative even if only by email (she spends most of her time in LA). The apartment is in the Old Town/Jewish Quarter. With that borough name and a zip code of “1,” you can guess that we’re pretty much in the middle of the classic Prague scene. We are right across the street from the Church of St. Castulus (built 14th century, one of the places where the remains of St Agnes of Bohemia supposedly reside). Haven’t seen much of the old gal yet, but there is a St Agnes monastery nearby, so hope springs eternal. Apparently she's a superhero:

Speaking of Spring, today (August 20th) is the anniversary of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia that crushed the Prague Spring. They are not celebrating it here. Don’t worry, though, there was a happy ending just 21 dreary years later with the Velvet Revolution, followed by the Velvet Divorce a couple of years later. And now they have us visiting them, so they got that goin’ for ‘em.

…Back to our trip…

Our apartment is second from the top, with all those open windows:

The inside is quite modern, with Scavolini kitchen wood cabinetry mixed with a chrome and glass dining suite and warm-colored living room sofas. Eclectic but works:

The main bathroom is larger than the entireties of my first two Atlanta apartments:

Maia has fully equipped the apartment with everything you’d need in the bed, bath, and beyond (as in full kitchen set-up, plenty of books and DVDs, etc.). Small but nifty bit: The DVDs are in special sleeves marked “Awards Screener — For your consideration.” We all love to have our Oscar picks, but Maia’s opinion apparently counts!   

So, that’s all nice, but getting here was challenging. Weather-induced flight delays made our JFK connection to PRG (Prague) impossible. The nice helper at the Delta desk rebooked us on Air France ATL->CDG(Paris)->PRG, but as Stand-By. We figured, “how bad can it be?” 

I cannot recommend this choice.

We waited several hours to find that we were last in line to board an Air France Boeing 777. I got stuck in a middle seat. On both flights. But shoot, man, Air France has great food, even in Economy, and even for the shorter flight. And very nice crew. Easy all the way.

But…they lost our luggage. Actually, Air France didn’t. Maybe. To use the Lost Baggage helper’s phrasing, “your luggage has become lost.” See, that way nobody gets the blame. It’s just lost. Who knows who did it? Delta? Air France? Handlers at the airports? Saint Agnes?  

Not a big deal at the time. The property manager, David (a good guy; more on him later), waited an extra long time at the airport for us, so we still had a great ride into town to our great apartment in our great neighborhood. And man, that shower is GREAT! 

So we got to see how normal, regular Czechs live as we had to shop for some clothes and toiletries at the Palladium shopping mall, which is where a lot of Czechs are on a Saturday night. The Palladium Mall is five stories tall. It is fairly high-end and has a lot of shops that you’d see in London, Paris, and NYC. Claudia did just fine and I got to gawk equally at the price of designer deodorants (238 Czech crowns  =  US$10.76 for 106 grams!) and the Beautiful People, of which there are many. Question: Where do rock stars and supermodels, both of a certain age, go on a Saturday night with their kids in Prague? Why, to the Palladium Mall, of course! 

Only 22 hours door-to-door.

...and 28 hours later, still no luggage...

Ah well, as they say here in Prague: "Ahoj!"