Prague – Day 2 – History Repeats Itself

Photo above of Prague street signs in Malostrana

“Are you gonna throw up?”

Those were the words that served as my alarm clock as Molli chased some small child toward the bathroom.  Finally, I had been in a deep sleep after a very surprising bout of insomnia (from 2:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.), Mae’s stomach was so empty she needed to hurl. And she did. Apparently, throw up likes to go on vacation too – and doesn’t need a passport.

One would think that the sheer exhaustion from the previous day would force sleep, but the gods of the circadian rhythms thought otherwise.  I got a good hour of Bible reading under my belt from about 3:30 to 4:30. Other than that, it was me laying in the dark listening to the occasional car roar up the cobble stones or the slightly more common pack of drunks capping off their night with a contest to see who could talk the loudest. They were all winners. It felt like the hour hands of the clock were racing the sun for my ability to get any sleep at all.  So, finally some time long after the morning light was well established, I fell back to sleep.  That is, until those fateful words about throw up broke the spell.  That was about 9:45 a.m. and I was up.

The rest of us had breakfast in the apartment while Mae went back to sleep.  The other kids and I headed up the street to a local protraviny (grocery store) and bought some chicken broth and other goods for lunch.  Finally, we realized Mae would never sleep that night if we didn’t get her up. So, after about 20 hours of sleep for her out of the previous 24, she awoke with the energy and perkiness of a cruise director on helium. She was feeling brand new and we were able to get out the apartment even though it was already mid afternoon and raining steadily.

There was quite a bit of deja vu throughout the day. With Mae being sick, I remembered that Tate was briefly ill within 48 hours of our move to Prague in 1996. Repeat.

Later, as we maneuvered Mae in her stroller towards a tour of St. Vitus cathedral, Molli took the words right out of my mouth as she said, “This is just like before when we were moving a stroller through the streets of Prague.” Another repeat.

St. Vitus is often mistaken as the Prague Castle since it sits within and high above the castle walls.  This full-blown gothic structure was constructed in the 1300s and contains the tombs of several Bohemian kings. It can be seen from almost any vantage point in Prague. It’s an obvious tour stop, but only a brief one.

After the church visit, we wandered down Uvoz Street, stopping at various souvenirs shops and making a few purchases, eventually going underground to ride the metro to my old work neighborhood. We had hoped to get dinner at a local place that I had regularly frequented for lunch. Disappointment set in when we walked up to see it was now an Italian fine dining establishment. Repeat lost. Even so, we made it by my two office locations – one of them now available for rent. A walk in the steps of the past. We even decided to bring some of those steps back with us. A few of the sidewalk cobble stones were overturned and were begging to be relocated in Texas. So, we obliged.

With hunger coming on strong as the sun began its descent, we trammed it back to Malostranska for dinner at Beseda’s (same place as lunch the previous day). Repeat.

A long, steady, 1/2 mile climb up Uvoz got us back to our apartment where we hoped to crawl into bed exhausted from the day. Around 2:30 I awoke to find Molli also awake. Grant joined our middle-of-the-night party around 3, with him wondering why he wasn’t sleepy. I explained to him that our bodies really thought we had just taken a four hour nap and it felt like 8 p.m.

Another night of insomnia. Final repeat of the day.