It is 1 am Ontario time as I write this. 7 am Czech time. We will be leaving at 8:30 for the mountains and town of Semily and Harrochov and the tourist (cottage?) area of Bohemia.
Vlasta and Mirek and Milena and I will go by car there. It is an hour and a half due north of Prague.
We come home tomorrow night so there won't be a post until then.
Yesterday Friday,day 2 of my adventure began quietly as Vlasta and Mirek allowed me to sleep in and get organized for the rest of my adventures.
After a hearty lunch (that's something they do well here, eat great food!) of a lovely tomato based soup and baked turkey with a ham and cheese topping. This is a great meal to begin a 3 hour walk around Praha 4, the section of Prague that Vlasta and Mirek live in.
Not far from them is the subway train station and we will get a pass for me to use over the next couple of weeks as it is much cheaper than paying each day. In Prague you pay by the time that you will be using the system or by hours, day, few days, week or month.
We visited the 5 diamond baseball facility that they both spent many hours at as their children and Tomas' were all involved in the baseball program here. The facility, home to the Prague Eagles, was the largest baseball facility in Czech Republic. It really is very beautiful and well maintained. Vlasta and Mirek knew many people when were there watching a youth tournament that had started. There were teams from Poland, Germany and Croatia there. I have to remember that those countries are only a couple of hours away by bus or train!
We walked over many streets and areas where Vlasta showed me different ways that people coped during communism and the changes that have happened after that regime has gone. The transformation has been really quite beautiful with gardens full of flowers (yes, the tulips are up here) and buildings restored.
There are few flat roads here, they are all quite hilly and we both got a work out to get back home.
When walking in Prague one has to remember that people drive very quickly and pedestrians are somewhat of a challenge to them. I stayed on the sidewalks, though uneven and cobblestoned I knew I wouldn't get squished!
Vlasta took me to a look out point that allowed me to see many parts of Prague from the south end. We even saw some rowers on the Moldau and I imagined this is where Dad rowed. It is lovely flat water and at one point I counted 10 boats, some singles, some doubles and a team of 4 working out.
Once we got home Vlasta began to work on a translation of much of the information she has received on my father's history here in Prague and the Czech republic. It is hard work for her as her English is very good but this is a difficult task. I thank the world for her effort. I read one of the pages she has worked on and it is most interesting. I did not know that my father and 2 others left Prague via canoe on a lake that borders Austria but due to some metal barriers that had been put in the lake to prevent just what they were doing they had to swim part of the way. Again they had to swim across the boarder into France! It took them 12 days to go from Czechoslovakia to Paris. Wow, what a time that must have been.
Dad (whose nickname here was Vara) was awarded 3 medals, though he never received them as he did not return after his escape in 1947. A Scouting medal for resistance activities during the war, The Czechoslovak Medal for Bravery and the Czechoslovakia Medal of Merit, first grade. This is all so interesting and gives me a peak at what life was like and what his life was like in that time.
I also had the chance to meet Martina, Vlasta and Mirek's daughter, she is an elite snowboardcross athlete for the Czech Republic. She is also at University here at the moment. We will have a chance to spend more time together as my visit continues.
So, this blog post was much easier as we discovered the password for the wireless internet that they have here from Petr (Vlasta and Mirek's son) who could give it to me over the phone. This is helpful and makes posting much faster!
I will have much more to post when I return from the "mountain apartment" the Krejci family has there (think condo at Blue Mountain I believe).
Until next time!
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