Last stop on this 7.5-week journey?: Prague! It’s been a wonderful visit because I’ve been able to spend so much time with Sofia! We’ve of course had some meals, drinks, and walks together, and we also enjoyed a classical concert and a day trip to Czechia’s second city, Brno, where some American friends of ours are living to get master’s degrees (their oldest son is a good friend of Sofia’s at AAU, and their youngest son is going to school in Hungary). There have been chores too, like apartment cleaning, getting repairs completed, and shopping.
I also had sufficient bandwidth to visit some new attractions, whether actually new or just new to me. One of the more interesting was a traveling exhibit of vehicles from 007 James Bond films. It was hosted in a huge space with hundreds of items, from movie miniatures to the full-size modes of transportation (including the cello case “sled” from The Living Daylights).
Additionally, Sofia and I watched “One Life,” a film about Nicholas Winton, a British man who saved several hundred Prague-based children (mostly Jewish) from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis. Be forewarned: it’s a super tear-jerker! I think I was extra moved too due to the additive weightiness of having traveled to do many places during this trip where the Nazis, Soviets, or both, caused such terrible grief, hardships, and/or death for everyone, including children. Plus, I visited more than a few occupation, war, and Jewish museums over the several weeks. It was quite coincidental timing that this Prague-based movie was airing during my visit to Prague.
In preparation for the Czechia visit I did a bit of refresher language studying, including of numbers, since numbers are so important across daily life. The Czech language’s “ř” is so unique and tricky, and there’s often a general lack of vowel usage, both of which make pronunciation trickier. While Slavic languages like Czech and Croatian have very similar words for numbers, the use of the “ř” just complicates things, at least for this tongue-tied amateur. So, for example, here’s how you say 4,444 in Czech:
And then there are words like the following which lack vowels (though the “r” is treated like one): “čtvrt” (district) and “prst” (finger).
I do appreciate how the language can be more pithy, and can use rhymes where English cannot. For example: “kudy z nudy” (escape from boredom). And that one sounds humorous, also, haha.
Trip Toppers:
Best for history buffs: Gdansk
Most unique experiences: Vilnius
Biggest city: Warsaw
Best castle: Malbork
Best overall museum: Tie: Vasa (Stockholm), POLIN (Warsaw)
Nicest people: Stockholm
Chilliest: Tallinn
Most Russian: Narva, Tallínn, Riga
Most expensive country: Sweden (see next item)
Only country never ruled by communists: Sweden
Best overall country for most interesting destinations: Poland
Most affordable country: Poland
Best city for wandering: Prague
Most photogenic: Tie: Stockholm, Prague
Best food options (combo of local and international): Gdansk, though Prague probably has the best international collection (I’m not a huge fan of traditional Czech food, alas)
Best pastries: Stockholm (probably best in the world!)
Today’s dad joke: What do you call a popular Czech cola owned by The Godfather’s filmmaker?
Francis Ford Kofola!
Major Meander 