Ruminations upon Friday September 13, 2024 until Sunday September 15, 2024 in Prague, Czechia

Friday was as rainy and dreary as the forecast had predicted. The boys spent most of the day inside doing schoolwork. I put Amichai in charge of organizing two fun activities for everyone to break up the day and to put his CIT skills to work. He scheduled a “Music Off” and a “Foil Boat” challenge. Just like teachers do in school or counselors at camp, Amichai worked hard to create a virtual wheel with themes for the “Music Off.” When the spinner selected a theme the boys searched on their kid version of Spotify for songs related to the themes. Points were awarded based on accuracy. I felt it necessary to intervene every now and then on the twins’ behalf, which Eitan and Amichai did not appreciate. But, they came around and the game ended with everyone looking forward to playing again.

The “Foil Boat” challenge was a two part challenge. Before breakfast, Amichai provided each boy with three pieces of foil and instructed them to create their own boat. After lunch, we filled the bathtub with water to test each boat’s flotation abilities. Amichai gradually added small items onto the boat to see if it would continue floating under added weight. Amichai’s float was able to remain afloat under all of the added weight. The other boys were greatly disappointed when their boats sank. After a quick discussion with my CIT, we preempted potential meltdowns by inviting the boys to destroy their boats after the challenge ended. That small act made everything okay.

The boys remained inside the entire day, though they didn’t seem to mind. I braved the wet and cold just enough to get provisions for Shabbat from the store around the corner. I don’t like staying cooped up for long and appreciated the chance to get some fresh air. I was also beginning to feel antsy about leaving on Sunday. Something about impending disastrous floods made me nervous. We really enjoyed our time in Prague, but there was so much more I wanted us to see and experience. I was ready for another change and didn’t want the potential of the worst flood in Prague’s history to keep us from moving forward. I did what any normal human would do and started packing.

There was a light rain throughout Shabbat. I was so excited that I remembered our ponchos! They finally came in handy for our walk to shul. It might have been cold and wet, but all of us agreed that walking in the rain along the Vltava River was beautiful. The streets were almost bare and few people were around. The juxtaposition of the river among the hills and the castle in the distance covered with mist from the rain made us feel like we had been transported back to a simpler time.

We davened(prayed) at the New Old Synagogue. One of the shuls we had visited on our tour of Jewish Prague. The boys wondered why I was okay sitting in such a small women’s section with only a few small 6”X12” cutouts for the women to hear and see the men’s side. I admit, the narrow area made my feminist sensibilities tingle. But the experience of davening in a shul that had been in use, almost continuously, for 800 years in Europe was greater than anything else.

Lunch was in the Jewish Community Center next door. There were only seven other people there. The food was tasty and much more affordable than Chabad, although the atmosphere and presentation were less nice. We ate quickly and were ready to leave by 1:00PM. A change from the previous two weeks when lunch was only just starting at 1:00PM. As we walked home we noted there were still no boats on the river and temporary road blocks had appeared all along the river blocking foot and car traffic from entering the river bank. Hmmm. I’m from Houston. When we predict a flood it is usually because the city has been or is about to be pounded by a massive amount of incessant rain for days. The rain in Prague was a light rain. Was it really possible for the river to flood? My mild concern about our travel plans had increased a hundredfold.

The previous shabbatot we spent much of the afternoon at the park. However, the rainy, cold day compelled us to return to our much dryer and warmer apartment. We were home before 2:00PM. I wondered how the boys were going to manage. What were we going to do for the next six hours cooped up in the apartment? To their credit, they attempted to put on a play. After batting around many fine ideas for an hour, they realized they couldn’t agree on a single idea and quit. Instead, the boys and I played SET and Bananagrams for two hours. Then, Amichai and I sang Z’mirot(Shabbat songs) for a while. It is always a joy to sing with him and I absolutely love when he obliges. I look forward to our other boys joining us more often in the future. With only an hour remaining, the boys spent the rest of Shabbat playing silly improv games that they made up on the spot. For example, one boy would serve as the storyteller while the others were the actors responsible for acting out the storyteller’s fighting epic as it unfolded. It made absolutely no sense, but it kept them all busy and in stitches long past the end of Shabbat.

At some point I mentioned that we needed to pack up so that we could leave the next day. They immediately whined and cried out, “We don’t want to leave Prague! We like it here. Why do we have to leave?” Curious, I asked them what they liked about Prague. They were very clear. Prague has WiFi - a very important feature for their screen time pleasure; they feel settled, which they appreciated after a month of moving every few days; and, “It’s nice here - they really liked the city itself. They also ranked the museums we had visited. I was surprised by their ranking:

  1. National History Museum because of the cool rocks
  2. Tour of Jewish Prague because Michaela, our tour guide, made it fun.
  3. The Children’s Museum because they could play and throw balls at a wall for forty-five minutes.
  4. Prague Castle

In true 9 year old fashion, Eitan added, “The peeing statue was the best!”

As we went to sleep that night, my spidey senses were tingling. We were scheduled for an overnight train from Prague to Venice the next evening. Something about the weather forecast seriously made me doubt we were going to be able to get out. We woke up on Sunday to learn that a major storm was blowing through and that parts of Czechia were already experiencing flooding. Our Airbnb host let us know that if we needed to stay an extra day or two it was fine. I had no interest in staying longer. In my mind, we were fully committed to finding a way to Venice, storm or no storm. Why? I have no idea, but boy did I feel strongly about this at that moment. Chaim couldn’t really understand why I felt so fiercely. Usually, I’m the flexible one who is happy to go with the flow. For whatever reason - or maybe subconsciously because I knew staying in Prague meant being cooped up in an apartment for several more days - I was going to find a way out.

Chaim began the final packing process, which was much bigger since we had settled into our place with many items strewn about - as I looked for flights. Aha! I found ONE flight leaving at 2:00PM. We’d have to fly through Paris, but I didn’t mind. The sooner the flight, the greater the chances of our being able to depart. Instead of the leisurely packing pace Chaim had anticipated, we put the boys on screens for the next two hours so that we could run around like headless chickens searching for a place to stay in Venice overnight while packing up. It’s a good thing we didn’t wait to find out if our overnight train to Venice was canceled. The cancellation email didn’t arrive in our inbox until 11:30AM, just before we left for the airport.

At the airport we were told we had to check our carry-ons (at no expense.) No complaints from us. We had been lugging all of our bags around with us since Scotland. Walking through the airport with only backpacks to carry was a breeze. Amichai commented, “We should do this all the time!” Unfortunately for him, we managed his expectations and informed him that this would not be the case most of the time. It wasn’t until we lifted off that my fear of not getting out subsided. Leaving Prague in such a hurry was not what I had envisioned after a three week sojourn in a city we really loved. Alas, I hope that next time we visit Prague we will be able to enjoy our stay and and have a proper goodbye next time.