A taste of single-ness

Prague: land of curt transactions and confusing rules.

It's been a rather interesting week for me personally, which is not to say that every week doesn't have it's own little elements to it that are interesting, but on the whole, the past week has been remarkable for the single reason that I have spent it without my immediate family, i.e., wife and daughter. While at times this has translated to varying shades of loneliness, boredom, laziness (quite a few shades of laziness, actually) and even a couple of hints of desperation, taken for what it was, it was a nice break from the diapering and feeding of Sophia and from the friendly reminders (some would call it nagging, but I certainly do not) stemming from my wife.

The week of single-ness, as I will call it, began a week ago today with a four-and-a-half hour train journey from Berlin-Südkreuz to Praha-Holesovice, the secondary train station of the city called Prague by seemingly everyone but the Czechs. My loyal readers surely know that, as of late, I rarely venture too far from the gentle (or do I mean Gentile?) confines of leafy Charlottenburg, although naturally during this part of the year those leaves that were not sucked up by the city waste management tend to be blown across the sidewalk and cobblestone roads by the cold but not freezing winter wind, and they make a far from gentle scratching noise as their no longer beautiful forms are helplessly wisked from one grey corner of the neighborhood to the next. You may now be thinking that I am digressing somewhat; but if you are reading this passage correctly, you certainly realize that perhaps I had grown somewhat indifferent to my urban surroundings in the past months.

Indeed. Unnerved slightly by that leaf-on-stone scratching noise, and somewhat perturbed by the prospect of spending what could easily amount to a dull week at home on my own (the immediate family was shoving off to grandma's), the lure of Praha-Holesovice -- a place that I could not properly pronounce but one which offered the prospect of travel, the (relatively) unknown, ice hockey, and delicious beers -- was simply too great, so I booked a train ticket there with great anticipation.

While I could share with you every minute detail of the journey -- which I indeed found fascinating -- I doubt very much that it would be all that interesting to read. I know well enough that the readers of my "blog" don't click on my link to hear about the ordinary. Instead, I provide you with a few quirky tidbits of the journey, again utilizing that most ubiquitous of journalistic forms, the roundup:

Sazka Arena: Nothing permitted, except for everything: I've been wondering around Praha all day taking pictures, looking for delicious yet affordable baked goods and trying not to get lost. Eventually I start to get cold, so I make my way to the hockey arena a little early, where there's a 6:45 game scheduled between Slavia Praha and HC Znojemsti Orli. To my shock, there's an enormous sign in front of the stadium forbidding a quite wide range of item, many of which an average person such as myself tends to carry around. Such items included bottled water, cameras and cell phones, and I had one of each in my backpack.

I figured my bottled water I could always toss out with minimal loss, and my cell phone, well, they just couldn't possibly be serious about that. But I was legitimately concerned that I wouldn't be admitted through the arena's airport-style security check with my camera, so I asked the friendly girl at the ticket counter what would happen. "Cameras aren't allowed. You can check it over there." She pointed to an ominous looking red van on the far side of the arena. Not about to drop off my camera (sufferening from wear and old age as it is) with just any old shmo -- and quite honestly planning to take as many photos as possible in the arena -- I decided I'd ask the security detail themselves what would happen. The guy looked at me as though he'd never heard of such a rule. So I went back and bought a ticket -- even with my camera draped around my shoulder. Clenching my teeth, I put everything in my backpack and put it through the metal detector. The only thing I had to do was toss out my water bottle -- no big problem though, more room for beer.

"Okay." "Okay what?" I needed to buy a bus ticket to Brno. In Praha, the bus station is a pretty nutty place -- people coming from other places in Eastern Europe, people going places in Western Europe, people selling towels, people buying towels, people begging for change, people not giving change, the police walking around ignoring it all. The smell of gasoline fumes and stingy, unshowered budget tourists (myself included.) A cold morning. All this adds up to relatively unfriendly service people. I wait five minutes in line in front of a ticket window for an older gentleman to finish smoking a cigarette. Finally service.

Me: "I'd like a ticket to Brno."
Him: "10:45. Two Hundred." (Spoken without a pause, as if it were one sentence.)
Me: "Hm. [long pause] It says 190 here." (I point to the paper directly in front of him that advertises Praha-Brno, 190 Kc, about $10)
Him: "Two Hundred." [pointing at the price on the ticket he has already printed out.]
Me: "Okay." (I'm not going to make a fuss over what amounts to about fifty cents.)
Him: "Okay what?" (Does he think I'm trying to negotiate?)

And that was the end of the conversation, really. I pushed a 500 Koruna note under the slot and got my ticket and 300 Koruna back. Friendly? No. But efficient. The whole transation took about twenty seconds. Imagine trying to buy a plane or train ticket in Germany or the USA with that kind of speed.

Before Sunset: I watched this movie, starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke -- starring is perhaps the wrong word because there really isn't anyone else in the movie -- on the bus ride back to Praha. Watch is the operative word here because I didn't bother listening to the Czech dubbing. English subtitles were sufficient. Is it not completely obvious what is going to happen in this movie from the outset? I didn't even seen the prequel and it's already clearly obvious that they're going to meet up, chat it up, and that at the end there will be allusions to sex.