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Mamo, Bratislava and
Prague
Next Diary
Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip
Mamo, Bratislava and
Prague
Saturday, July 8, 2000
(Doesn't it still seem strange -- "two thousand"?),
Dear Family and Friends,
The last Diary got a record low response. Now before you feel all guilty about not writing back, I have to admit it was pretty unremarkable. Maybe that's a sign of things - our life over here seems pretty unremarkable, especially to us. Anyway, this time I'll try to show some new material. But, after all, these are "diaries" and we only show what really happens. Sometimes, not much.
The last episode has us on our round of end-of-the-school-year partiers and such. After that, we had a couple more - including this one (Picture #01) at the Canadian embassy. It's a Friday tradition here and we had a chance to lift a final beer with some good friends. Next year our friends in this picture will be in Ouagadougou BurKina Faso, Baku Dagikistan, Butler Pennsylvania and Kyiv. Ex-patriat communities are great because there are always new people to meet but a drawback is that all the new people move away. Some we will certainly cross in the future but others will simply move on to another life.
But we were flying away too. For us, it was a trip to Central Europe to pick up Marianne's Mom, Magdalena. She and husband Elemer had been in Bratislava, Slovakia, for a couple weeks by the time we left Kyiv and flew to Vienna, Austria. Marianne and I caught the airport bus to Bratislava. A one hour ride and a couple more stamps in our passports. In the old days, such a trip would have been from one side of the Iron Curtain to the other and much more difficult. Today, it's just a slowdown as we pass through the pair of border checkpoints.
Elemer's cousin Anzsi picked us up at the bus depot. She drove us to her apartment in the suburbs where the highlight of the trip was Mom and Marianne seeing each other again after a year (Picture #02). That's mostly what this trip was about and the smiles show it was worthwhile.
We did work in a bit of a tour of Bratislava and it is a very pretty city. The old part is historic churches, squares and narrow streets. Because of family gatherings - and because every time we went somewhere the castle or museum or building was closed ("today only") we saw only a fraction of tourist attractions. We did get a picture (#03) of a vista across the Danube that reminded us of home in Kyiv. These apartment blocks came from the same cookie cutter as our local variety but there and here people make them into comfortable neighborhoods.
After a couple days, we booked ourselves on the five-hour train trip to Prague in the Czech Republic. We said good bye to Elemer and his cousins Agi and Anzsi on the platform and boarded our First Class train car. We had splurged and bought six tickets for the three of us so we could have a compartment all to ourselves. Trains in this area are cheap and the luxury of spreading out was worthwhile. The day was hot and sunny and the train was air cooled. Air came from all the open windows. Something Americans can't get much anymore is an appreciation of ordinary train travel. I recommend it as some of the best relaxation therapy around, especially if you have simpatico travelling companions.
After a couple more passport stamps, we reached Prague. We lugged our suitcases a long way from the train to the taxi stand. Somehow Bell Cap technology had passed by the Prague train station. For the rest of the stay however, we tourists were treated like royalty. Tourism is very important in Prague and it seemed like 80% of the people were visitors and all the rest were there to earn their living from us. Coming from Kyiv, which frankly is not tourist-convenient, it was like ending up in Disney World. Smiling, helpful, English-speaking people everywhere.
Our hotel was small and right in the center of the old city. ( note grandmotherly type greeting us in the window. We brought her along to make a good picture) We found out that was both good and bad since the old city parties until the wee hours and then, at the wee-est hours - they go into the streets and yell goodbye at each other. We ended up a little short of sleep.
But Prague itself is as beautiful as any of the travel posters imply. Because it was not bombed in World War II, the old city is filled with centuries-old buildings. Nowadays, many of those buildings house hotels, restaurants and wonderful shops. We did our share of spending in many places but, by US standards, prices were reasonable and by Kyiv standards the selection was marvellous.
We'll end with a couple post card pictures. The first shows the river and one of many old bridges. The last sun of the summer was warm and the light magical as Marianne and I wandered across the river. Sure, there was a tourist army around us but it was memorable all the same.
We took a number of pictures but few turned out as good as our memories. Our last shot is just one of those. Trust us, you have to go there to appreciate it.
Next diary: Magdalena (AKA: Dulika, Mom, Mamitchka,...) in Kyiv.
Take care and stay in touch despite busy summer schedules.
John and Marianne
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Originally mailed July 8, 2000. Reformatted for web May 20, 2001.
This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.