I am back: back home, back to reality, back to work, back to normal [?]. My boxes came today, and guess that is a sign from the powers above that it is time that I stop procrastination on this blog and finish the tale of this amazing journey.

[Funny that now that I am writing about Prague the music on my I-pod just switched to one of Czech Republics most famous composers, Bedřich Smetana. Even weirder the song name is “My Country: Vltava.” It is the wonderful musical tale of the Czech River the Vltava and winding journey it takes through the country sides and cityscapes of the Czech Republic.]


Here we go…

After taking the 6:50 am train from Budapest to Prague. My bones were tired and nothing but excitement filled my entire body. I was so happy to be back at home where I knew I have a “comfy” bed to sleep in and all the other creature comforts of home.

Although I had only two days to get all my belongings sorted and all the little arrangements to get into order, I knew I had to enjoy the last hours in my beloved city. The first order of Business was to buy all the last, minute souvenirs, not for friends or family, that was already done, but for the hardest person to shop for, me. I walked all over old town and went into all the souvenir shops I had passed by a thousand times before now. Ultimately dreading the moment when I had to cross the threshold of their doors and loose my credit as a resident and become nothing but a lowly tourist. I picked out a couple of shirts, trinkets, and a bottle of Becheroka. After returning to the door I gathered my previously packed boxes of odds and ends and headed to the post office to pick up a box and to mail two others.
Now, to pick up a box at the Ceska Posta, it’s not as simple as picking up a box off of a display on the wall, like here at the U.S. post office. HECK NO! They do it the Czech way! I had to walk up stairs to the secret second level. Find the 4”X 4” white buzzer on the wall and soon after pressing the button had to wait for a responding buzzzz of acceptance. When I entered the next room, my immediate assessment was that this space felt like a secret compartment. Almost as if I was a spy getting my next assignment [which is what the room probably doubles as anyway.] But the room was about the size of a bathroom stall and contained a glass wall with a counter at one end and the door I just walked through on the other. There behind the glass wall was series of assembled boxes of various boxes, different sized envelopes, and a very large scary Czech woman with no trace of a smile on her face.
Trying to making things simple as possible, I pointed at the on the far right and slid nine crowns into the metal tray linking to two sides of the glass wall. And without delay they woman reproduced a large flat sheet of cardboard. As the woman made here way back to the counter she began to fold the box up like a clown twists a balloon to horse, bunny or any other assortment of animals. The lady soon had created my particular box, and before I knew it, a secret panel on the lower half of the glass wall spun around to revel my box in it’s entirety. I grabbed my box and left the windowless postage jail cell.
I spent the rest of the day meandering through the city soaking up all that I could, trying to preserve the memory of all the Czech culture that surrounded me. I wanted all the sights, smells and feelings to be burned on my mind. So that when I reached my house I could still close my eyes and step into Wenceslaus square, just as if I had gotten off at Mustek subway stop and stepped into the large over crowed square.

Soon after seeing the city for one last time all of the K-Staters got together for one last Czech Meal. We all boarded the tram and rode it to the National Concert Hall and picked a restaurant in true Czech Fashion. The menu was mostly filled with goulashes and beer. Two thins that I couldn’t resist getting for one last go around. Bread dumplings, Beef goulash and an ice cold Krusovice made for a perfect good bye dinner. We sat around the table reliving stories of the past semester, laughing uncontrollably and wishing we could all do it again.
After dinner we meandered around the city a bit, but soon headed back. I finished off the evening with making sure I had packed every thing that I needed, and made sure everything was in order to my 9:00 flight to Barcelona. It wouldn’t bee long until we were flying over the city. Saying good bye for the last time.