Prague
PRE-PRAGUE PROBLEMS
THU,MAY.4: Temp 8PM 99°.
FRI,MAY.5: Temp 12:30AM 99.4°. Shit 3-4-5(?) times during day. 10:40PM shit and take Imodium #1.
SAT,MAY.6: 12:30AM shit and take Imodium #2. 3:15AM shit and take Imodium #3. 5:05AM shit and Imodium #4. 7:05AM shit and Imodium #5! 8:30AM shit and Imodium #6!! 1:45PM shit and Imodium #7!!! (Somewhere in here I cancel slides with Stephanie for tonight.) 3:25PM temp 99.4°. 4:30PM shit and Imodium #8. 5:15PM shit!! Call HIP HELP: GET new Imodium and call doctor on Monday! 5:30PM take Imodium #9, last of 6/93 Imodium. John goes out to buy me new Imodium. 5:55PM shit and two NEW Imodium. 8PM shit and Imodium #3. 9:30PM shit and Imodium #4.
SUN,MAY.7: (Yesterday cancelled Fort Greene house-sitting with Fred this noon, and Carolyn hasn't answered my calls for HER part of house-sitting.) 12:30AM shit and Imodium #5. 8:05AM shit solidly enough so I take NO Imodium. 9AM shit again and TAKE Imodium #6. 10:30AM temp 99°. 2:20PM shit and Imodium #7.
MON,MAY.8: 2:15AM shit, no Imodium. 5:30PM shit. 7PM shit and take Imodium #8 and #9. 8:45PM shit and Imodium #10. 11:30PM shit and Imodium #11.
TUE,MAY.9: Bed 12:45AM. Pee 4:25AM. Up 6AM. Shit 8AM and Imodium #12. Kept last Do-List for Tuesday: 1) Buy pants, 2) Buy 500mg Vit C, 3) Take down stuff, 4) Bring up Tuesday mail, 5) Finish packing, 6) Switch phone message, 7) Set up videotaping, 8) Water plants, 9) Call Chin after 2PM: stool sample if I have diarrhea IN TWO WEEKS!, 10) Schedule car; tell John, 11) Window seats? We have, 12) Trim toenails, 13) Shower. Shit 2:15PM and Imodium #13. Make out Trip Card: PRAGUE May 9-16, 8 days. Xerox guides $4.35. John's bill $884.00. 4 rolls of bought and processed film $34.40. Take cash $510.70 (and brought back all but $80. Got $173.06 from ATM in cash. Don't have Visa charges yet. Go with ONE bag with 21# with EVERYTHING inside. Get back with 29#, but that includes a duty-free bottle at 4#. The rest of this is from hand-written notebook: PRAGUE TRIP:
2:53PM: TOTALLY ready! Lights off but for TV light; AC off; two windows open a crack. Packed, phone message on, ready to pounce on ring at 2:54. Sweating! 86E out, no sign of any storm yet---hope we get out before. Stuffed paper in ass-slit, but I've been FARTING, a distinct improvement. Nothing LEFT to do at 2:55PM. Phone rings at 2:57, John's out 2:58, we're in car at 2:59. "Where to?" Me: JFK. John: NEWARK! WHAT?? Thirty-minute delay at tunnel; Verazanno Bridge is $47, including $7 bridge toll. We're into airport at 3:45 for $52, John gives me $10. Check in, all carry-on, and plane is FULL. Try duty-free, nothing appeals. John looks at HIS guides. I start 4/23 acrostic at Gate 52 with SCREAMING kid CONSTANT. 4:14PM: Boarding at 5PM. We DO board, but I'm on WING, but THEN girl changes 9A, over ENGINE, but I hope it's better. FINISH acrostic at 5:40PM. Off about 6:12PM. 7:30 flight. FORGET Amoxicillin til 7:40!! Beef dinner and beer at 7:45. Sun has SET, getting dark, finish food at 8:11, but they don't take the dishes. Take Rohypnol and TRY to shit but DON'T. Pee and back to try to sleep at 8:40. At 9 we start bumping. TOTAL black outside at 10PM, finally halfway, the faint blue of a dawn horizon. Showing movie. I feel OK, considering. Still try to doze at 10:42, three hours to go.
WED,MAY 10: Then looking out at REAL sunrise at 12:07AM, we're nearing London and will land at 1:30AM. 12:12AM, rim of sun. Change watch to 6:15AM as sun FULLY rises and plane BUCKS in dawn changes. Clouds fill sky below over England and France. 6:45AM finish breakfast and take AM pills. At 7:01, due in at 7:48! Faint views of Belgium from Brussels to Liege below. 209-passenger Airbus, flies at 10100 meters, maximum 1000 km/hr. Clouds over Germany at 7:23. [Note: we transfer back 10AM 5/16: wait in lobby for driver.] Land at 7:53, over suburbs, out at 8:02, through quickly, find driver. "Wait for other driver." John goes off at 8:19. Into car at 8:28. Lovely drive to hotel at 9, he seems happy with 100K tip I gave from 1000K I got in airport for ATM card. Pill 9:10 that I FORGOT! Can't get into room til 2PM! So we walk to main street, John cashes checks, I get 2000K from ATM, we buy bus tickets for week, see St. Nicholas Church, pay 20K to go to top of tower for great view, start walking back and I see ticket place. Buy 1050K ballet ticket in sixth row center. To hotel at 3PM and John's LOST. Unpack and lie down til 4:45. He's in, fusses, go to plan Saturday trip (he was perfectly willing to take a great-sounding Castle Orlik trip TOMORROW by boat, EVEN when I had to take the half-day tour ("I saw everything already," John said Vintonly) tomorrow. But then he COULDN'T go by boat and the only BUS left at 2PM which "doesn't give much time," as he put it. Oh, we also stood in stuffy lobby of State Opera and got two tickets to Glass's "Fall of the House of Usher" in first row of first balcony for 450K. Back to room. He leaves 5:15, for some sex-thing, and I fuss and note how ODD he is: I left him above-sink shelf while I took LARGER one to right. "My stuff won't fit, so I have to use the windowsill," and he puts GLASS and toothbrush and dop kit on sill, while WHOLE above-sink shelf is EMPTY. Forgot 2-hour lunch 11:15-1:15 in Adria, where he has pasta and I have (and burn fingers on) skewered meats and paprika (peppers) and onions and beer. [I jot down Lanterna Magica hours: 5/12 5 & 8PM, 5/13 5 & 8PM for "Trap," and Monday 5/15 at 8PM for Wonderful Circus.] He won't TURN to LOOK at view of castle from car: "We'll see it from the bridge." He has to be COAXED to look at metal erections on sculptures. He won't LOOK at nude statue with sexy face because "It's better in my imagination," and even when he looks he WON'T commit to "Better" or not. Now 5:50 and I leave for 7PM ballet at National Theater, "just down way," though I'm not SURE how to GO! Also, have first SOLID bowel movement since WEDNESDAY! To TUNNEL under Narodni, around theater, many pictures inside and out of Narodni Divaldlo, one of three, plus Lanterna Magica ONLY evenings, and I drop pills and guy even STEPS on one, but I pick them up and put them in box. Performance starts EXACTLY at 7 and is AWFUL except for lead's body and dancebelt filler at end of "Camel(?) Game" at 7:27. No interest but BASEMENT pee where ALL urinals flush in chorus at my entrance. "Outsider" from 7:50-8:19, so he's got a long nose. Eyes close many times, not TOO hungry, but want SOMETHING before bed. 8:51-9:24. Tackiest meal in the tackiest place: U Medvidku, 119 (20+99)+16 = 135K from 9:50 to 10:20. Back and bed tired 11:08PM.
THU,MAY 11: Wake at 12:39AM, having THOUGHT to get up at 1:40 for pill, but this SHIFTS taking by one hour, so AM pill can be at 8:40, after breakfast and before tour, mind operates automatically. Sleep through to 6:40AM, John gone. Up at 7:04, shower, to breakfast, WAY down, and good hot chocolate, poor cocoa-puffs in muesli, soft-rind orange wedges, too-sweet orange and too-sour lemon juices that mix in good ratio; John gives me a "Vasty" cup that turns into fatty paté, the hazelnut spread is too sweet, but milk added to chocolate is nice, and cold cuts and cheeses and pears MORE than adequate. Take pills and Amoxacillin at 8:05, and put one in pocket for 3:30-4, so evening pill can be after opera and before bed. Feel tired and DIZZY, not "quite here," partly Amoxacillin, partly time-change, as now at 8:30AM is 2:30 AM in NYC. To lobby, guy in at 9:04. To GREAT circle around OUR hotel, then to two other hotels, ALL roads jammed, to CENTRAL point at 9:34, ALL languages, ALL tours. Lots of fuss, then onto English/French tour 1 bus. Forgot line of ticket sellers in front of ASTRONOMICAL clock! We toured Grand Hotel Europa yesterday, HALLS great, ROOM poor. 230,000-people stadium, mainly industrial expositions and rock concerts. Built for mass Communist sports-events. Frank Gehry "Dancing House." Narodni= National. Streets FULL of obstructing vehicles for ALL vehicles. Czech Republic has 10 milliion, Prague was four towns before 1768. Twelfth Century ROMAN church on OUR corner. "Castle" is a whole TOWN. The four are Old, New, Lesser, and Castle. Tour started 9:45. New roll of film. Defense Ministry HIGHLY fenced. 10:26AM off for Castle. #0 Original gaslights and castle GUARD. #1 Castle Square (and saxophonist), much burnt after fire, palaces built after, left, now military history museum. Built second part 15th Century. #3 Archbishop's Palace. #4 Castle gate and guards. #5 Guards. #6 St. Vitis facade. #7 Two gargoyles. 100 feet high, cathedral 11:05-11:10. French call St. Vitis (from Sicily, his armbone to Wenceslaus in Tenth Century) St. GUY! April/May/ Easter is BUSIEST in Prague, NOW! #11 1371 mosaic of Last Judgment, restoration Czechs and GETTY "Finished 1998." All Poles: Wenceslaus and Jagiello. Greatest Gothic room in Central Europe, with stairs for horsemen. Palace of 15th Century, Renaissance style. 3rd defenestration didn't work: they fell into dung-filled MOAT and lived. #13 Golden Lane with No.22 as Kafka's House. #17 out ONLY window overlooking BACK of Gold Lane. WHOLE second floor is ARMOR ending in dead-end SHOOTING gallery! "Free" there 11:35-12:05PM. #16 AGAIN back of Lane into GORGE: they hunted from the Spanish-Hall windows! Trolley No.22 stops at WALK, where we LEFT for bus at 12:30. I'm really TIRED, it's HOT, and castle is HUGE! To CLOCK at 12:45. Leave tour 1:06, more pictures. #20 Tyn Church, closed. 1:20 to "U Supa," for 128K goulash and 40K 1/2 liter dark Krusovice beer and 15K bread (good) = 183+27= 210K. Great--TIRED! Bill=OU-chet. Good shit at 2, rested, to Republic for Metro. 2:19 JUST miss A to Museum. Comes at 2:23 and out at 2:28! Why did I think NATIONAL Museum meant ART when it was zoology, gems, bones, stuffed animals, and ten modern Taiwanese painters! Shit AGAIN at 4PM, loose! Leave at 4:15, sit on bench in shade, and 4:50 take tonic with pill I forgot at 4PM!! DAMN! Dinner-panic sets in and I sit on terrace at Jalta's Sushi and order an omelet and beer for 140 + 80 at 6:20 and HOPE! GOT it, out at 6:40, John there; again, on DOT of 7-7:47 it starts. Photos at intermission, maybe 1/5 audience, MORE than ballet. Awful AMPLIFIED voices; 2nd 8:07-8:40. John takes bus, I metro two stops. Home ahead of John (who will SURELY have "stopped off" somewhere), at 9:21. Drink LOTS of water and undress for BED as John gets ready to go out. Bed at 9:32PM, tired.
FRI,MAY 12: Up at midnight to pee and take pill, not really SLEEPING before that. Then sleep to 3:30, when I shit, knee QUITE sore, plan to take LONGEST trip OUT today---no tickets tonight, but want "Moldau" and "Onegin" Saturday and Sunday. For DENSITY and INTEREST of EVERY spot, I think only VENICE can compare with Prague! Recall erotic dream-bits. Sleep VERY poorly, but REST as well as I can. Up at 6:50 to shit, then dress and go to desk 7:30 for "Office closed." Woman from New Jersey suggests Hilton Hotel agent. Girl gives me their 8-digit number, which I try, and then they say "Dial 0, then number." No answer. To breakfast and good hot chocolate, but not HUNGRY. Take banana, then phone TOUR office at 8:05 and they ACCEPT one in English for Cesky Krumlov (10 hours, 1590K), pick up at 8:30. To room, John cheery "leave door unlocked" and I get to lobby at 8:22 to write this to 8:26 and wait for pickup. OH, forgot CHOCOLATE and transit map. Go out at 8:40 and finally car comes at 8:45! MANY pickups, buy ticket, and onto big bus at 9:15, about 23 people! Drive FAR south, leaving city limits at 9:40. 10AM: #29 rape(?) yellow and chestnut trees. Have a (poor) Gambrinus beer for 20K. Into Krumlov 11:40 (parking full?), leaving 4:30. Walk town, take last pictures, go for spare roll---and it's USED! Shit! Through Krumlov looking for film, and finally find 36 Kodak slides for 195K. Not bad. Into "U Pisare Jana" on Horni (Upper!) Street at 12:50, NOT on terrace, in jammed room (24 of us, one not eating). Not bad chicken and fries and soup (and coffee) til 2PM. Then shit, take Imodium, and apple tart. To upper Castle 2:30. Rosenbergs die out in 1611. Tour to 3:30, buy book for 99K, listen to bear banging bars of cage, tower for 30K to 4PM. 18K beer for pill at 4:05. Lost! Even WITH map! Hot and tired to bus at 4:35. Sunny road back, BRIGHT yellow rape. Try bus-john, locked! Will I MAKE it? To city (good pictures) 6:55 and get off at the BACK "near Intercontinental Hotel," so NO tip, and walk to "Lanterna Magica" and GET 6th row near-center seat for 540K. In at 7:35 and photo facades and into theatre that fills on SIDES first. Buy book for 70K and it's ALL for this in FIVE languages: three as on bus: English, French, Italian, plus Czech and German. Will THIS start on dot of 8? ALL seats same price; front sides MUST be poor? Oops, now 8:01! Starts 8:01:15, and REAL mystery is "Where's slatted SCREEN?" Clearly a projection, since he goes "through" it with ease and poses PART in front and PART in back. But it's there when dancers are BEHIND, as it forms a half-infinite REGRESSION. FILM is really POOR, NO possible illusion of reality from badly focussed, overlit figures. Best is when man "in front" uses "dark" props "behind" to lie or stand on. Choreography and dancers (except for white crotches) NOT so great. Is it just TIRED, now that's it's HOME? 60K TINY bit of champagne. 8:56 lights OFF. Ends at 9:25. 8:01-8:39=38 and 29 = 67 minutes. Look for dining on Narodni, away from river on south, look at Crystalland ABOVE and it's only drinks, then Koliba BELOW looks OK, down and it's OVER half full. Take seat and get UP for menu before he brings it. Venison pate and cranberry sauce for 69K, and 1/4 roast duck and DARK, WINY sauerkraut and mediiocre bread for 169K. 3/4 liter beer for 40+17 and I leave 42K tip for 348K. When will I spend OVER $14 for a meal? Wednesday skewered meat at Adria and athlete's-dive beer and rosewater. Thursday U Supa goulash and Jalta omelet, Friday Krumlov chicken and Koliba duck. Out at 10:30, actually COOL out, and back first and write to 11:04. Look through guides for restaurants, and they don't AGREE. Shit AGAIN at 11:50PM and get ready for bed. John not in, take pill.
SAT,MAY 13: Up 8:25. Breughel hay-making one of 6: three on Vienna, 1 in Met, 1 lost, 1 here, only PRIVATE collection. 8:20AM wait for TOUR! "Bohemian Louvre" leaves 9AM, arrives 9:30, look at garden, in at 9:45. Second floor to 10:53. 16K citron, 65K for "two books," and leave castle at 11:40AM. Leave Dvorak's ROOM at noon. [Guide writes U Fleku on Pstrosova Ul.; U Tomas in Malastrana (lesser town); Palace Hotel restaurant; and Restaurant U Labuti (Swans), open Sunday, in Hradcany, near the castle.] Lunch INSIDE (NOT find garden til LAST!) U Fleku, then to hotel at 2PM to CRASH in bed. 3:30 can't shit. Plan walk and take Perla address for tonight or Monday. Walk Charles Bridge, Campo, and hill up high castle and walk BACK down, again tired, panic I'll shit before room, and get back 5:45 and SHIT and take Imodium. Shower at 6 and to girl who gets ONLY Perla for Monday 8PM, then "only YOU Sunday" at U Labuti, for 8PM tonight, and "The Club" at Palace for 8PM Sunday. Back to room (oh, THEN shower) and out 7:20 to Narodni for No.22, and panic for moment, thinking it's NOT linked over river, but it IS. Third stop is Malastranska and follow map up FIFTEEN flights of stairs. Ridiculous, to castle foreyard and into U Labuti for ONLY four Germans in room behind me. Get BeCHERovka (hard gutteral), very strong, Vittel for 70K ("Our house is old, pipes no good" for "tap" water) and GLASS of "medium" white, poor, and cream of salmon soup VERY good and spiced with dill AND get a glass of Sauvignon which he OPENS for me, so I HAVE second glass and EACH glass is 80K (just $2!) and plaice stuffed with tiny-pink-toe shrimp and lots of unexpected CHEESE and it's a PIECE (like orange sherbet introduced to me by M.A.N.) with sundae with fresh fruit (orange, apple, strawberry, sliced GRAPES) and they DO TRY. Five Italians come in, ONE a double-lashed, high-cheekboned, full-lipped, broad-shouldered DOLL, and I LINGER over dessert and leave at 9:30, down THROUGH castle (to closed END at Gold Lane) into unknown area, down OLD "Stair steps" and there's a METRO sign. Down at 10PM, get two trains to Narodni, get lost finding Konvictska but double back and FIND it, spend 22K on Coke and get in at 10:30 to have John's rum and Coke, and as I finish HE comes in about 11, raving about HIS Chinese dinner. Brush teeth while reading New Yorker, ending at 11:44, and my ATM card came back "expired" three times, so John thinks of selling me his spare 1000K note for $25. Felt SO good coming home this evening WITHOUT having to shit. John at 11:51 GIVES me 1000K for $25. VAGUE rectal pressure as I get ready to take last two pills and get to Sunday-part, leaving ONLY Monday as SINGLE FULL day LEFT on trip!
SUN,MAY 14: Bed 12:05AM, sleep fairly quickly. Wake 5:10, again 6:40. Up 7:05 to record ugly dream: I'm dining in IBM cafeteria and cook combines last two pork chops onto one plate for me, but then he HIDES it, like a kid's joke, and I look here and there and it's getting late and I'm hungry, and he WON'T hand it over. Furious, I go to "bosses," and two women deny any responsibility, and a young guy says "He's harmless." I protest that no CLERK, clearing-plate BLACK is harmless, but this snot of a cook is MEAN, and "I'm goddam MAD!" He shrugs, I'm frustrated, somehow it's starting to RAIN, and somehow, in dream, it's 24 hours to a long plane-flight (it's ACTUALLY more like 55 hours to MY flight from Prague to NYC), and I'm mad. Wake at 6:40 and debate writing, but got to shit and wrap myself in sheet and shit only a bit and finish this to 7:13 and to bed. Up reluctantly (better than MOPING or fretting while lying in BED!) and dress by 7:35. Breakfast to 8, lie down while John fusses, out to bus to walk up stairs (AGAIN) to Hanavsky Pavilion, lovely and good views, and down steps to bus to Vystevista for junk-sales, then to BEAUTIFULLY displayed Lapidarium 10-11AM, NOT sexy but INTERESTING, and open lock to pee and pay 3K for brochure. John's to nude beach and I bus to Malastrana, transfer 12 to 22 to Strahov Church, LOVELY locked photo-less view to 12, then 70K for Dali [U Fleku is PORK] exhibit of 1/111 graphics for "Divine Comedy," some are fun. Up to Restaurant Peklo, UNLOCK john, GOOD mushroom cream soup for 50K and thin spaghetti bolognese for 220K, with Budvar, from 12:30-1:10. First FRENCH bread, and so far ALL waiters speak English! 395K, 60K cover, NO visa. I take ALL and leave ZIP! Library 1:15-1:30. Gallery 1:30-2:15. #35 Crucifix of Jihlava 1330, restored in 1990s. Change film. Tiring long slow walk up non-view Petrin Hill to 2:30. Gardens to 2:45, observatory to 3PM. Tower CLOSED for year! Put in 12K for funicular and get back 17K! "Pay at ice cream!" Down 3:25. Just miss 3:30 tram. Pass up 60K .5L soda at ENTRANCE and get 25K .6L soda at Sternback entry! STAGGERING museum to 5:30! Then sit in Royal Gardens to rest and bus to hotel at 6, making PREMIANT reservations for Carlsbad by MISTAKE, saving me 140K and one hour, but I WALK to 40 Narodni by 8:45AM. REST, then wash face, see bus 58 TAKES me to Palace, and get out plane ticket for John to confirm tomorrow, leaving 12:15. There at 10:15AM, NO AM time. Crazy BELL tolls CONSTANTLY from 7-7:35PM!! Leave! Screams (and bell?) because Czech Republic won over Slovakia in ice hockey! Get off to CROWDS in Wenceslaus Square and walk to Palace, Club inside, for ASPARAGUS festival: cream (light, better with more butter) asparagus soup and veal cutlets with asparagus (green warmed nicely, white DIDN'T) and "home-made noodles," nothing special. Good kir and steely Pinot Noir. Left with ONLY 392K! Sit and shit and write to now at 9:57. Home 10:30, after walking to square, see a "parade" coming down far side, which turns into a mob following two cops hustling a 20-something toward a police car. As they shove him inside, crowd starts to chant "Gestapo, Gestapo, Gestapo!" Guys start pounding on hood and roof of police car and driver jumps out, draws nightstick, and advances on a shirtless long-haired teen. I take a photo, only abetted by a fatty sporting a shoulder-cam and a few amateurs getting their own shots. Put camera away and go for No.9 tram-stop. Cars blow horns, one drags dirty end of blue, red, white Czech flag on roadside; many flags worn as capes. Shouts and cheers, crowd yells at our windows as our bus passes. Quieter away from Square, but even near the river cars roar past leaning on horns, and big-titted blondes scream ecstatically from convertibles. I'm home with no incident, shut windows and drapes, buy and drink a 22K beer, lukewarm as always from our dispenser, and finish this to 10:52. "In 68 minutes, I'll be able to say 'I'll be home TOMORROW!'" Brush teeth and read New Yorker to 11:35. Pee again (asparagus and Amoxacillin) and go to bed with hooting shouts outside at 11:38. John comes in RIGHT after and we get to sleep by midnight.
MON,MAY 15: I wake and check watch twice before 2:20AM and I take penultimate pill. Wake 5:05AM and check at 6AM and 7AM and up 7:15 to breakfast 7:35 and back at 8:05. John still sleeping. Pack for Carlsbad and try for one last shit at 8:13, nothing comes. Out at 8:20 and walk to 40 Narodni and use Visa for ticket (SHE dated it 4/15) and guy walks me ANOTHER mile to central gathering at 8:35. Real crowd, and get shown onto 22-passenger little bus (English for Karlovy Vary) and a JAPANESE family with TWO kids gets on at 8:40 and start their querulous piping voices. Forgot to bring READING stuff. Japanese father: "How long to stop?" "One hour." ALL drivers stand around smoking. "NO tour in Czech." Ticket listed EGFISR: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian? Leave 8:48, RUSSIAN and English. Bratislava, on Danube, capitol of Slovakia, 5 million people. MUCH iris and lilac on road! 10AM #9 Front to back: wheat, hops, rape. Hops weak, climb, harvest end-August. West Bohemia: beer and spas. Now: Lupine and yellow daisies. #11 Angel Hill, 13th Century Castle ruins on top. Doze and FORGET last pill til 10:40AM. Karlovy: 50K people, Moser glass, Mattoni mineral water, Becherovka herbal liquor. Arrive Moser 10:56AM. Slightly clunky, one case of nice colors, back to bus 11:17. Drive 11:20-11:35 back to town. #16 and FISH in river. To "first spring" and waters 70EC to 30EC, plastic orange-drink bottle comes in HANDY. No.3 Castle Spring, orangy. No.2 Karla TV. No.5 Yrzni, milder. No.7 Rusalka, in MALE collonade. #22 King Vaclav II. No.10 Skalni, only drops. No.11 Svoboda. No.12 Sadovy, foulest. #26 BIRD in lower left. #27 duck and fish. 3:30 at bus, "inside" Thermal Hotel, now 12:35PM. Outdoor pool closed TODAY, ONLY! They KNEW the tour was coming? Lunch in jammed room (move for family!) from 12:50-1:45: bony fish, cold potatoes, good soup, sweet dessert donut, beer 40K. To Pupp (pronounced "poop") funicular for 40K (up and back) at 2:08. Only TAXI on streets beside walkers. GREAT rhododendrons and lilac and special plantings. What a PITY not to swim---but reason to come bACK. We sit and wait til 2:16, up to 2:22. Tower FINE. Down 2:41. Up to Sts. Peter and Paul, almost MISS it, and quck down to CLOSED basement men's and open UPSTAIRS men's. Too late for a beer at 3:31, bus full? Last three on at 3:33 and we leave. Lots of traffic. I doze on and off, and back to post office at 5:30, walk back, see Mustek stop, take it once to Narodni Trida, where No.23 waits for me and I use the "prisons" entry to hotel, but too late: my shorts have a thimble-full of shit that I have to wash out, then take a shower. Notice John throws out TWO bottles and has been washing shorts---did HE have shits from the tap-water TOO? He's almost packed. SCAB from THIRD day of boat (4/21?) FINALLY falls off my right shin where I hit the painter's slippery riser in the rain: 3 1/2 weeks!! Dress in LAST CLEAN shorts and socks, put on pants and get beer (machine gives CHANGE!) and drink it after Imodium #16! Sit in daze til 7:05, checking John's stuff: driver picks us up at 10AM, and flight arrives 3:40, so we should be HOME at 5PM, 28 hours from now! 257K left. Tip? Dress to 7:20, great photos to 8:15. THREE amuse-bouches: twist of ham, LOVELY olive mash, and cheese chip. Degustation with 1/2 Latour: 1) Beef pate with HOMENS(?) and heros(?). a) Bacon bread and nut-raisin roll. 2) Foie gras terrine, port gelee, toast. 3) Lobster and langoustine ravioli, RED sauce, claws and tails and head (shells only). 4) Sea bream, fennel sauce, FANTASTIC BROCOLLI filled with fennel---I'm in HEAVEN. 5) Lemon sorbet and DVORAK Czech vodka! 6) Duck breast, port wine sauce, pumpkin---and sweetbreads! Cheeses ordinary. Take bleu d'Auvergne and Leverot. Dessert: Two tiny creme brulees, chocolate millefeuille with cestnut paste, chocolate eclair, fruit, fig under vanilla ice cream, red-fruit coulis; grape, chocolate, and tuile! Building is four years old, restaurant here 3.5 years. Gehry planning ANOTHER here in 3-4 years! Leave 11:05 with LAST, stoned home along river, in at 11:25. Buy 22K water, pee, bed 11:35PM.
TUE,MAY 16: 3:27AM: pee. Take two aspirin and shit BLACK. 6AM: John out, shit more BROWN. Slight hangover. 7:30 John back, takes my 200K to try to sell with his 500K to Americans for $15. At 7:47 I end fretting by getting UP. John HAS been drinking water: no problems. Move about listlessly and start packing at 8AM. Essentially DONE by 8:40AM. Agonize through breakfast 9-9:20AM. Brush teeth and watch TV and get to lobby at 9:50 to find John talking to driver. To long line at airport at 10:30. Check-in 10:41, obnoxious little man pushing in front of John. Buy 200K ($5!) liter of Finnish peach aperitif (42 proof) and chocolate for 30K, leaving 6K coins. To almost-empty gate at 11:10AM, JUST FEEL WORN OUT! Puzzles; board at 12. John WON'T switch one seat back. 8-hour flight, leaving at 12:40PM. Clear over Czech and Germany, clouded France, then Channel, NO England, cloudy. TRY to sleep, but can't with one Rohypnol. Many puzzles. Finish ALL puzzles by 6:11; 2:27 to go? Start reading New Yorker. Smooth flight, clear ocean but cloudy now we near Newfoundland, we're taking SOUTHERN route! At 6:21 it's 2:53 to destination, which would make an 8:36 flight. Flight turns into 8:50, due to land at 9:30. GREAT view of Albany, but no pictures. 9:02, into "holding pattern." Circle and circle and CIRCLE and land at 9:31, 24EC=75EF. Out fast and buy $11 Olympia ticket IN airport and out to sit and wait at 9:55! Bus goes at 10:13. To World Trade Center at 11PM, $8 taxi (JV gives $2!) and home at 11:15. Change watch to 5:15PM. One of my BOOKSHELVES fell down! Water plants. Go to Spartacus's for dinner from 6:55-8:150, VERY tired. Only four phone messages: Pope, with whom I leave word at 5:30PM; Eileen Robertson looking for John, and I leave word for her; Beard confirming 5/23; and Spartacus welcoming me back. Bed 8:30PM. (RETURN TO JOURNAL 2000).
SUMMARY OF DAYS
TUE,MAY 9: 3PM to NEWARK (not JFK)! Fly to Prague 6:12PM-7:53AM: 7:41+6Hr chg.
WED,MAY 10: See Wenceslaus Square, skewered lunch at Adria, buy tickets, rest, Ballet at National Theater, dinner at U Medvidku, bed tired at 11:08PM.
THU,MAY 11: City tour: Town, Castle, Astronomical Clock, Tyn Church, lunch at U Supa, National Museum, dinner at Jalta's Sushi, Glass: Fall of House of Usher.
FRI,MAY 12: Cesky Krumlov tour, lunch at U Pisare Jana, Castle, Lanterna Magica's "Trap," and dine at musician-singing Koliba Restaurant.
SAT,MAY 13: "Bohemian Louvre" tour, Dvorak's house, U Fleku lunch, walk Campo & Castle; make reservations, tonight for Restaurant U Labuti near Castle, good.
SUN,MAY 14: With John to Hanavsky Pavilion, Vystevista for Lapidarium, Strahov Church, Dali exhibit, lunch at Restaurant Peklo, Gallery, Petrin Hill, Observatory, funicular, Sternback Palace Museum, Palace Hotel Club Rest dinner.
MON,MAY 15: Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary) tour,Moser glass, Thermal Hotel, Funicular, Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, shit in shorts; fantastic dinner in Perla de Prague in Frank Gehry's "Dancing Building." Best evening of trip. River-walk.
TUE,MAY 16: Leave hotel at 10,fly 12:40-9:30/3:30PM Newark. Spartacus's dinner.
SUMMARY OF TRIP
Barely scratched the surface of the capital and the country in our eight days. Perfectly willing to return to finish task, maybe after Gehry's next building?