The bags are packed, save for the couple of last-minute toiletries and pajamas. A cab is ordered. Our final souvenir gifts (think consumables) have been purchased and safely stowed. We’ve done the top-to-bottom cleaning of the apartment, and otherwise put our affairs in order. It’s time to head back.
We had a nice last Czech dinner tonight at Ferdinanda, a place for good Czech grub with a bit more variety, plus delicious Ferdinand beers on tap. It’s perplexing how it never seems too crowded, even during the dinner-time rush when restaurants just up the block have nary a free table (save for those that seem permanently affixed with a “réservé” sign awaiting no diners in particular). It’s a little surprising as well, since it’s just a block off Václavské náměstí, the long, broad boulevard that’s one of Prague’s main tourist drags. And it’s also reasonably priced. But we’re not complaining, since we were famished and hadn’t been able to wrangle a free table at our previous target.
We started with an beer cheese appetizer, which was a plate with little pats of the namesake cheese, plus a couple of triangles of creamy butter, a nice splay of brown mustard, plus little piles of paprika and what seemed like cumin. It went well with the bread basket (or at least the slices of rye, since the butter knives on the table didn’t slice the rohlíky too well, and rohlíky — plain, breadstick-looking rolls that are cheap and ubiquitous in the Czech Republic and Slovakia — aren’t terribly inspiring anyway). For mains I ordered the roast beef “dragon style,” which was a 200-gram cut of beef, cooked pretty well (it was a little tough in places, but that might’ve been where it had more fat and connective tissue), in a nice creamy brown sauce (a little like gravy), and covered in shavings of fresh horseradish (ergo, “dragon style”). It was filling. C ordered a favorite Czech dish that’s sort of a dirty little secret, since it’s so bad for you yet tastes so good: smažený sýr (fried cheese). I always try to describe it as something like a giant fried mozzarella stick, but that doesn’t do it justice. It’s usually Edam (as hers was tonight), or sometimes Hermelín, a rinded, brie-like cheese I’ve never seen in the U.S. Normally it’s fairly greasy and cooked kind of slap dash, since it’s just cheap, popular fare. But this was probably the best fried cheese I’ve had, at least this past year. The coating was nicely browned, not greasy, and they had bothered to sprinkle a little dried herb on it. On the inside, the cheese was at a good state of melted, not too gooey, not to chewy, just delectably savory. Plus, I should add that the presentation was excellent. Our appetizer came artfully arrayed, as did the mains. Whoever the sous-chef is, she or he does a fine job of using a fancy cut on the garnishes, to produce a pleasing visually effect. I washed my meal down with a large mug of the Ferdinand dark beer, which C thought had some smoky notes and a coffee finish, and C had a couple of glasses of the house limonada, which is basically a citrus-y soft drink made in shop. And the total for all that, with time, came out to a shade under $30, which is just right. It was a pleasant way to cap our culinary adventures with Czech cuisine for this year.
I’m still not sure how I feel about going back. There’s a pronounced contrast to leaving Prague now versus the first time I left in 2001, or even when I departed three years ago. Obviously, the first time it had capped my first trip to Europe, and I didn’t really know when I’d get to return, plus I had grown smitten with the country. It also made me rather bitter and frustrated by a lot of things that I saw as stupid when viewed from a European lens once I returned to the U.S. Three years ago, I think I was a bit more wistful than morose, in part because I knew I could expect to be back in Europe before too long, and in large part because it meant I’d get to see C pretty soon.
But this time, I have to admit, I’m probably a good deal more sanguine about things. Even though the last two stays in Prague had been two-month stints, they weren’t really short enough to feel like I had broken out of the visitor mold. Staying in dorms (and having to change dorms midway through both times) didn’t help to dispel those feelings of transience. However, this time, we’ve been here long enough to feel almost settled, or at least as settled as you can be knowing the exact date of departure. This is less true for Prague, since we’ve only spent three months here, whereas we spent nine months in Bratislava, longer time than I’ve lived in some apartments. And even though we existed in a state of perpetual in-between-ness — going away for too long to feel like it was just a garden-variety trip, but not staying long enough to lay down permanent roots — we did adapt. We carved out a sort of life for ourselves here. Even if it was only a chapter in our lives, it was still a noteworthy one.
All that said, the trials and tribulations of moving to a foreign country made me long for certain things we can look forward to back in America. Much of it is simply a question of favorite products not available here, things like diet sodas other than cola, band-aids that don’t seem to dissolve when wet, and Mexican food that doesn’t make Taco Bell seem desirable. Some of it is getting back to a more familiar form of bureaucracy. Not having to get every document stamped with a special seal. Not having to get up before dawn to be able to transact business at a government agency. Or being able to walk up to the stacks in the library, pick out the book I want, check it out, and take it home. These are all things I could eventually learn to adapt to, were I to decide some day to uproot myself and relocate here permanently, but barring such a rash and unforeseen change of heart, I prefer to have my diet soda cherry- or vanilla-flavored, my band-aids water resistant, and my Mexican food authentic.
There’s a litany of things I’ll miss — cheap beer, cheap and efficient public transit, picturesque town centers and comfortable train travel, having a conversation in a foreign language, to name a few — but I think that will only set in after I’ve gotten over the honeymoon period of making up for all the stuff I missed this year. It’ll be a bit easier on me, than on C, I’m betting, since I did actually go back to Pittsburgh for a long weekend in March. But even that experience was really an artificial return, since I knew I’d be leaving just as soon as I arrived.
So, we’ll see how things pan out. I’m not really fretting things too much, except for having to move a year’s worth of stuff from Pennsylvania to California, and moving a vehicle and a moving van from California to Seattle. There should be plenty of stuff to distract me from that for a couple of weeks, since we’ll get to see family and do some fun stuff. And there’s always that dissertation.
So, I suppose I’ve waxed philosophical about things enough for tonight. Time to try to get some shuteye before eighteen-plus hours of travel tomorrow. If I don’t post anything for a couple of days, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
