Thursday,
December 24, 1981
We ended up
talking until 2:00!
Christmas Eve!
I woke up because
of a guttural rattling with an occasional metal screeching sound. Even though
it was 7:00 it was pitch dark outside. I peeked out the back window and thought
I saw a garbage truck-looking vehicle backed up to the building at the corner.
It sounded as if coal was being unloaded. I went back to sleep and didn’t wake
up until 10:00! Even though the Embassy was closing today at 13:30, Tom would
be working a full day.
After a shower I
blew my nose, and found the tissue was full of black dust! I then blew too hard
and got a bloody nose!
I went exploring
on my own after lunch and listening to BBC news on the radio at noon. I went to
catch a tram. The woman driver closed the doors, but opened them again when I
broke into a trot. Today the tram ride seemed especially jolting. Before the
tram doors shut, a buzzer sounds to warn you before departing. At the first
stop we heard a different kind of buzzing and the driver got out to
investigate. The back door had slipped off its track. A man took a
crowbar-looking implement and forced it back on track. He then gave the door
hinge a good whack! He seemed to be just another passenger. The door squealed
shut and we took off.
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| Tram ticket |
We passed a large
park with a big red star and a billboard featuring the hammer and sickle. We
crossed the Vltava/Moldau River and
I kept my eye out for the Kotva department store, the largest in the Eastern
European bloc countries. Got off in the square where the modern looking glass-fronted building was located. The store had moderately attractive displays in the front windows. Upon entering the store, the prosperous look changed. It was a huge shopping center covering a city block with five stories. In the front and the back were escalators with patches of rubber mats at each end. Everything inside seemed old and dusty, as if it was a second-hand shop. Most things were behind glass counters and there were lines at every counter. A few things were self-serve like food, stationery, and books. They had cosmetics, clothing, furniture, hardware, kitchenware, toys, linens, small electric appliances, and even knick-knacks. Packaging didn’t seem important. Either there was none, or an item came in a clear plastic bag. The store offered Christmas wrapping paper that looked yellowed and rough at the edges. No souvenirs. I crossed the street to take a photo and felt like a spy.
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| Kotva department store |
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| Obecní dům Smetanova sín/Municipal Smetana Hall |
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| Obecní dům Smetanova sín/Municipal Smetana Hall |
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| Prašná brána/Powder Tower |
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| Celetná Street |
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| Staroměstskou radnicí/Old Town Hall and Archiv hlavního města Prahy/City Archives |
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| Pražský orloj/astronomical clock |
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| Pomník mistra Jana Husa/Jan Hus Memorial |
Continued to Karlův most/Charles Bridge. The cobblestones were slippery due to the slush. It wasn’t as cold as previous days, but it was just as gray.
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| Karlův most/Charles Bridge with Pražský hrad/Prague Castle on the hill |
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| View towards the Opera House with crane |
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| View towards bridge towers and Kostel svatého Mikuláše Malá Strana/St Nicholas Church in Lesser Town |
From the bridge I could see what Evonna called a mill, although the mill wheel is missing (being restored).
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| Starý mlýn/Old mill |
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| Karlův most/Charles Bridge tower |
Being Christmas Eve, the newsstand and souvenir shops were closed. No more fish stalls.
Continued along Mostecká to Malostranské náměstí/Lesser Town Square with the other Kostel svatého Mikuláše Malá Strana/St Nicholas Church and the U Mecenáše/Patron Restaurant.
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| Malostranské náměstí/Lesser Town Square with Sloup Nejsvětější Trojice/Holy Trinity Column |
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| Kostel svatého Mikuláše Malá Strana/St Nicholas Church |
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| U.S. Embassy |
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| Starý židovský hřbitov/Old Jewish Cemetery |
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| Starý židovský hřbitov/Old Jewish Cemetery |
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| Mostecká Street |
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| Staronová synagoga/Old New Synagogue |
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| Zidovske muzeum/Jewish Museum |
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| Leninova (Dejvická) Metro station entrance |
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| Passenger switching the tram tracks |
I snapped a picture as
the tram driver waved, and I hoped it was a friendly wave. When he passed by he
gave me a wink, so I guess it was a friendly wave!
Returned
to the L’s apartment by 15:30. I began looking through their photo albums
which were interesting not only because of where they had been, but because of
how the photos were cropped and arranged. Often they took two pictures of a
large building of top and bottom or of two sides, then put them together to make
one picture.
That
evening we got dressed up again for the prayer service at the Ambassador’s
residence.
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| Prayer service memo |
Before we left we peeked in the foyer bathroom. On the grounds was a cute gatehouse used by an Embassy official, and behind a similar façade (and only a façade!) was the garden.
We returned to the L’s and remembered to bring up Evonna’s package from the trunk of the car. We changed into casual clothes, and I felt like a real socialite having to make an appearance at several different functions!
Dot allowed Tom to open one gift before we left, from Austrian Airlines which brings the courier bags. It was a calendar showing the “Paths of Austria” including 2-rut dirt roads and a worn path through a bed of flowers. Very artsy, but nothing particularly Austrian. Later his boss wanted to know what the gift was (she got the same package), but Tom didn’t want to spoil her surprise and claimed it was the strangest thing to cross his “path.”
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| Christmas Eve Buffet Dinner invitation |
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| Christmas Eve Buffet Dinner invitation |
At
20:00 we left to go to a Christmas Eve dinner buffet party at the apartment of
a colleague of Tom, who lived in the Embassy complex. We restrained ourselves
from waving at the Czech guard! Tom used his key to open the large wooden doors.
There was no Marine in the reception booth, but they promised a Marine was
watching on television monitors. We went through the unmarked door Tom uses to
go to work and up several flights of stairs. We smiled at the television camera
in a corner. We arrived at a door with a series of numbered switches next to
it, and Dot punched in a code to open the door. We went up more stairs to a
lobby with more cameras, and there were several doors, one of which had the
security code switches. That is where Tom goes to work, and he said there are a
couple more security doors beyond that one.
We
knocked at an unmarked door and were welcomed by Kathy L who took our
coats. Her husband, Dave, offered drinks. The Ls took beer and I tried a
strawberry daiquiri (an interesting ice slush, but it didn’t taste good to me).
Met Dick, the consul, and several others. The newcomer couple of David &
Terry C have been relegated to the basement apartment. Tom’s loud,
but funny boss, Connie, arrived. There was conversation, but no one touched the
cheese and crackers. The cheese was fashioned into a Christmas tree shape.
Finally Dave, when refilling drinks, passed the cheese and crackers. I went for
the Doritos (ah, American snack food!). Later we became braver and attacked the
cheese and crackers on our own, and I had some cheese puffs!
Kathy
passed around a plate of salami slices that you dipped in horseradish. I was
lucky, because these were set in the table in front of me. The Ls had
a nice big full artificial Christmas tree, and it was even in a revolving
stand! But it didn’t have half the character as the L’s tree! The other
communications officer, Don, who was working, joined the party at 22:00 when
the buffet dinner was set out. Slices of ham and roast beef. A wonderful warm
potato salad, a bean salad, and fresh mixed-greens salad, with rolls. Marine
Mark (obvious by the haircut) and his fiancée Josephine (who worked at the
Dutch Embassy) arrived later.
When I went for
seconds, I met Don at the table, who urged me to join the Foreign Service if I
liked to travel. The conversation got wilder with Don there to banter with
Dick. Tom certainly held his own.
Dessert was a
choice of strawberry cheese cake or apple pie. And there was coffee. I was
plenty full.
Czech jokes
started flying. Like the 4-foot Czechoslovakian asking for asylum, and when he
learned it would take some time to get approval, he asked if they could “cache
a small Czech.” Or Czech president jokes such as the president has several
telephones on his desk, but you can tell which is the hot line to Moscow
because it has no mouthpiece. Another is when Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev,
East German leader Erich Honecker, and the Czech president go fishing. Brezhnev
runs out of bait, walks across the water to get more, and returns safely. Same
with Honecker. When the Czech runs out of bait, he tries to walk across the
water but sinks. Brezhnev and Honecker wonder if they should tell him about the
rocks.
There were Polish
jokes as well and the host (with a Polish surname!) said he would show how a
Pole pulls up his socks at 5:00. We didn’t stay that long, but heard that Mark
showed how it was done and his fiancée was terribly embarrassed.
(I think he pulls down his pants to pull up his socks.) There is a longer joke
about a guy wanting a divorce because his wife is going to kill him. How does
he know? She bought polish remover.
Don
put pieces of Scotch tape on Dick’s hands and told him to hold his hands
over his ears. Don said this is how the consul listens to his tapes.
We had planned on leaving at 23:00…
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