Reflections regarding Tuesday August 27, 2024 in Prague, Czechia
The boys woke up early on the last day of summer vacation. They were beyond excited because they knew they were going to get to play on their screens “a lot.” After an embarrassingly extended amount of screen time, I was able to convince them to get off their screens and head into town for food. We were all very excited because we had heard there was a good kosher pizza place in the Jewish Ghetto of Prague. We ventured out around 2PM for a very late lunch at Pizza Shelanu.
Our flat was located in Praha 6, a 30-minute walk or 20-minute train or tram ride to the center of the city known as Praha 1. I usually opt to take a tram or bus since it allows us to see the city and helps us learn a bit of the geography and helpful landmarks. Staying across the Vltava River was worth it. With every tram ride we had the opportunity to enjoy stunning views of Prague. We "oohed" and "aahed" as the tram crossed the Mánesův Most (Manes Bridge) wondering if we had just hit the jackpot. Exiting the tram was a cultural lesson in and of itself. The trams run through the center of the streets in Prague. In many places there are long, narrow islands where pedestrians can wait for their tram while cars drive right by them. The boys were surprised by the lack of guardrails to separate the pedestrians from the cars. At one point, Amichai commented, “This would never happen in America.”
We walked to Pizza Shelanu, set in the heart of the Jewish Ghetto. We hadn’t had any pizza since London and Eitan hadn’t eaten anything substantial in a couple of days. He was in dire need of food or in danger of an imminent hanger attack. Eitan can also be extraordinarily particular about his pizza, which made me a bit nervous about whether he would eat any of it. Thankfully, the olive pizza passed his taste test. He and his brothers devoured their pizza. Since it was our last day of vacation, we got milkshakes for good measure, too. Stomachs full, we walked back to our tram stop and enjoyed the ride back home.
We aimed for an 8:30PM bedtime that night and reminded the boys that their first day of “school” was the next day. It didn’t help. Matanel was so excited about the upcoming routine he couldn’t stop talking about it. He even packed his backpack as if he was going to go to school. It wasn’t until 10:00PM when they gradually began falling asleep.
