Memoirs of a Worker

More Than One Way to Order Food

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy

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The city of Prague has to be one of the most beautiful cities. It is known as the city with a thousand church spires, and stunning historic architecture. It was my pleasure to work there, at the U.S. embassy. The embassy was in an old building across the river from the downtown area, and below Prague castle. In its former, grander days, the embassy building had been a palace.

Just up the road, two or three buildings from the American embassy, was the German embassy. The German embassy had a very interesting sculpture in the garden behind the main building. The sculpture was of a Russian car but instead of wheels, there were four large massive legs.

The first time I was in Prague was in the early 90’s, just after the fall of communism, and things felt bleak. The stores were empty, and people had next to nothing. The one thing they possessed was hope - a hope for a better life and they seemed happy. A couple of years later I found myself back in Prague and it was no longer bleak. Stores were packed full with all types of commodities, and there was plenty of food. All kinds of startup businesses had emerged. Dozens and dozens of buildings were engulfed in scaffolding and workers were busy chipping away the gray plaster that the communists had covered the ornate historic buildings with decades before, and exposing the buildings to their former beauty and luster. It was good to see the banner of communism being dumped in the trash.

It was interesting to learn that during World War II, the Axis and Allied powers formed an understanding, not to damage the city. It was left intact, except for one church that the Nazi’s blew up, as they retreated out of the city.

I usually took a taxi to work and then would walk back to my apartment in the evening. It was more interesting to walk in the evening because of the fascinating people who seemed to come alive as the day wore on. (Sometimes I can be completely entertained by just watching people.)

The St. Charles Bridge is an ancient bridge across the river. On both sides of the bridge, it is lined with statues of the early Christian apostles and prophets like Moses and Abraham. The bridge was the main link from Prague castle to old town Prague for hundreds of years. The bridge is over 600 years old and is now used for pedestrians only.

I enjoyed walking across the bridge and visiting with and watching all the vendors and musicians who were there, trying to sell their wares to all who walked past. Those who were singing and dancing would have their hats on the ground hoping for the odd coin to drop in.

One of the artists who occupied a place on the bridge was a fellow I called “leather man.” This guy looked like he hadn’t worn a shirt for the last forty years, and his skin looked like tanned leather. The main subject of his art . . . was himself! Every painting he had on display was a painting of himself from all different angles, and there were lots of paintings. He had a large mirror next to his easel so that when he wasn’t selling a piece of art, he could look at himself and paint! I found it somewhat on the strange side, but people seemed interested in his work.

Another man on the bridge had a whole tray of crystal glasses, all filled with different levels of water. He would wet his fingers and then run them over the rim of the glass and could actually play songs that way. It was entertaining to watch, but I wasn’t tempted to buy his CD.

The walk from the bridge into the old town was an architects and builders dream. Since I’m a builder, I relished walking around town looking at and trying to figure out how some of the buildings could have been built. One such building was a huge old church called, Church of Our Lady Before Ty’n. The twin towers on the church are over 260 feet tall and there are gargoyles looking down from the base of the towers, ready to pounce on all the sinners. The church is 700 plus years old and fascinating.

One Sunday when the embassy was vacant, Chris and I both had to work. I’m sure what we were doing was important, but for the life of me, that part has eluded me. We worked very hard, I remember that. In fact we worked so hard that by the time noon came around we were what you would call ravenous! We left the embassy and headed to the usual restaurant that we frequented during the week, but found it closed for the Sabbath. In fact we searched all around and found every restaurant closed. Discouraged and hungry, we headed back to the embassy to finish our task.

When we crossed St. Charles Bridge we inadvertently took a wrong turn and there, not far from the embassy, was a tiny, tiny restaurant, and it was open. The food smelled wonderful and it seemed to hold us like a spell. A pleasant, heavy set man stood behind the counter and directly behind him was some meat cooking. The meat was on a vertical rod that rotated around an open flame. The fat from the meat dripped down in something like a cake pan.

I looked at the meat and smacked my lips. The proprietor asked me in Czech what I would like. “Do you speak English?” I asked. He shook his head no and asked if I “Mluvíte česky?” I shook my head no. “Sprechen sie Deutsch?” he asked in German. Again I shook my head no. “Вы говоритепо-русски?” he asked in Russian, I grimaced and shook my head no. The man seemed as frustrated as I was, and shrugged his shoulders.

I was hungry but I wanted to know what type of meat I would be eating. Sometimes I get interesting ideas, and at that moment I had an interesting idea. I pointed to the meat and in my unrefined way and with a lot of theatrics said, “Moo! Baaa!” The man gave a big hearty laugh. He wiped the tears from his eyes and looked around. He then gave three big, nasal, hog-like grunting sounds, and then burst out laughing again. Chris and I both held up two fingers to show how many we wanted.

The sandwiches were wonderful and from that point on, whenever I saw that man, he would wave and smile and then give a lot of loud pig sounding noises. We became pretty good friends. We never knew what the other one said, but we grunted and snorted a lot.

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Thanks for reading and remember there is always more ways to do things, especially when it comes to ordering food. I hope you enjoy, click on the star to vote and be sure to comment. Thanks for reading.