Gentle Spiders and others,
Returned home on Wednesday, body time 4AM (VA time 10PM), having been up and on the go for about 20 hours... I'm too old to this often, even though I used to be able to keep going for 48 hrs without a rest some 35 yrs ago; very depressing. Spent the day yesterday zombied out, sorting out mails (both e- and s-), and generally trying to get back to normal. Since I seem to be as normal now as I ever get, here goes my report:
I spent the first 3+ weeks in Poland -- 10 days in Warsaw with friends, and 7 days in Kalisz, with family. Some hard work in Warsaw (a friend is about to publish a biggish selection of his poems in the States and needed help with polishing up the translations), but mostly great fun and lots of pigging out on favourite foods. No lace.
The stay with family did produce a lace sighting: my cousin took me to a lady, "3 villages over", who makes Snutki (needle-made lace, particular to a single village in western Poland, or so I'm told). I bought 4 pieces, got one as a gift, and took loads of photos of the ones which "got away" (too expensive, being big). The lady, unlike the tatting one 3 yrs ago, was *delightful* and happy to answer unending questions. So, while I'm still not an expert on Snutki (never having done a single stitch of any needle lace), I might be able to answer *some* questions about it should the need arise in the future :)
Left Kalisz at 11PM on July 10, was rude to the passport control at 3:15 AM on July 11, and arrived at Prague's "Hlavni nadrazi" (main station) at 6:30. With 2 suitcases and a heavy "hand luggage" (entirely too much, but the trip was about 5 weeks long, and I had no idea what the weather was going to be like, or what access to laundry I might have), I didn't even think about the metro-metro-bus route, but took a taxi.
Do not trust a Prague taxi driver when he tells you that he can't estimate the fare, but has a meter... :) The meter - probably still set to use the "haler" (unit smaller than "crown" and, apparently, abandoned, probably due to inflation) - clocked 2160 for what should have been no more than 300, according to Marie (Zemanova), and that's what the driver asked me to pay. Until then, all had been as pleasant as is possible at that hour of the day; after, both of us were rude, in 3 languages (Czech, Polish and English). Both of us lost/won; I paid far less than what he asked, but twice what I'd expected.
Not a very pleasant entry into the country, but it was *the only* bad experience I had during my 10 days in the Czech Republic; everything else was in the "good" to "excellent" range.
Checked into my room (double, with an unknown roomie who hadn't yet arrived) and went prowling around the campus of the university. Was almost back to the dorm door, when I ran into a party of Americans (one of whom I'd met before, one whom I'd met "virtually" - Marji Suhm, and one of whom I'd heard, the lace world being small) waiting for a taxi to take them downtown. They were on their way to take a walking tour of Prague, there was one seat left in the (van-sized) taxi when it came, I was invited to take it, and went with them.
We left the taxi at a cow, decorated in a jig-saw puzzle pattern, asked the driver to come back and pick us up 5 hrs later, and found our way to the astrological clock, where crowds of guides offer tours of various lengths and points of interest, in different languages. We chose a 3 hour one, which covered the ghetto, Hradcany (old castle) and Charles' Bridge; highlights only, but enough to give us a taste of old Prague.
3.5 hr later, our very informative guide left us on Charles' Bridge, and ran off to take care of another tour (where do the young people get the energy?), while we happily rested our legs over a sandwich and beer lunch; there are eateries in Prague everywhere one turns, so finding one is no problem. After lunch, we got back to the jig-saw puzzle cow to find no taxi waiting for us. Either the sudden downpour deterred him, or else he was waiting near some other cow; during our walk, we discovered that Prague was littered with those animals - all inanimate, but each different and differently posed (I liked the one sitting on the roof of a bus stop. And the one reading a book).
It took two regular taxis to take us back to the U, where the workshop registration was already in progress. I got my name tag, my workshop tag, and my meal and trip tickets. Possibly some other odds and ends, but, by then, I was beginning to feel light-headed and can't remember now. I must have met my room-mate (Lena Dahren, from Sweden) and eaten supper before I deflated and collapsed in my room, but I couldn't swear to it at this point :)
And so ended day one of my OIDFA adventure.
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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