Surprise! We're Going to Prague!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

I’m in Prague! A few days ago, Easel said there was a chance he would have to go to Prague for a meeting. On Monday, he called to tell me that he would be going. I began planning to spend a couple of days on my own. On Tuesday, he came home from work and at dinner handed me some papers. They turned out to be an itinerary for ME to go to Prague! Wednesday, we flew from Warsaw to Zurich and then to Prague. Interesting routing—flying past (over?) the Czech Republic and then flying back.

Thursday was a quiet day. Easel attended his meeting and I relaxed. I took advantage of being in the Prague Hilton and while I had books, a notebook for blog notes, and a new crochet project, I also had a wonderful lunch in one of the Hilton restaurants. There’s just something about sitting and “people-watching” while having attractive young men fuss over the arrangement of the place setting at your table, bringing you sparkling water, bringing “an assortment of breads”, bringing your meal and checking back with you to see if “madam” needs anything else. It was great fun and was, quite possibly, the most fun I’ve had eating alone! I felt very sorry for my waiter as he tried to help an older lady at a nearby table. She was quite demanding. She asked about a particular sandwich and wanted to know what kind of bread was used. The waiter said, “brown bread”. That wasn’t enough for her and she kept after him. Finally, he understood that she wanted to know if the bread was toasted! Why didn’t she just ask him to start? Then, she started in on the salad but he quickly discerned that she wanted the dressing on the side. If people are that vague about what they are asking, they shouldn’t be upset when someone, who isn’t a native speaker, doesn’t understand! I’m sure that is a problem for waiters everywhere. I just happened to overhear this conversation between an American woman and a waiter in the Czech Republic.

Getting back to my enjoyment of my treatment by the wait staff, I have to make another comment about their attentiveness. Since we’ve begun this journey—our sojourn in Warsaw—I’ve heard comments to the effect that the Poles and others in Eastern Europe are not big on “customer service.” The comment usually refers to a “take it or leave it” attitude that I have seen in some shops. But, I have also observed and spoken with, shopkeepers who have gone out of their way to try to help me. Beyond that, most restaurants we’ve visited (I’m speaking of “sit down” restaurants and NOT “fast food” restaurants) have staff that seem to enjoy interacting with us. Have we just been lucky? Is it because we speak English? I would tend to say “no”. In one instance, the waitress was somewhat distressed that she had little English and we had little Polish but she still worked very hard to help us and accommodate us. In other instances, the wait staff has been most attentive and diligent and has often offered that seemingly rare Polish smile! Yes, I know they have a job and hope for a tip but to me it is great to see their smiles. My experiences in Prague only added to my positive impressions in this area.