A visit to the MUNICIPAL LIBRARY – MĚSTSKÁ KNIHOVNA

Lynn and Paul are our Canadian/Czech neighbours who left the confines of Etobicoke many years ago to run their own business in Prague.  Paul was born in CZ but his family left for Canada when he was 5.  The idea that they have lived here for many years coupled with the fact that Paul speaks fluent Czech has left us giddy with all the questions we can get answered and the help we can receive.  For example, up until 2 weeks ago we were still untangling ourselves from the 'Martin owns our car' mess as we finally received everything we needed to register the car in our name.  Paul was brave  generous enough to accompany Stu on this little errand.  One complete afternoon later and voila, we own the car.  Which would never have happened if it was just Stu trying to do this. 

Many things boil down to the fact that If you do not have knowledge of the Czech system or the language, then you are simply in for a world of hurt.  The Czech people can be just plain suspicious of foreigners and are not willing to help, but bring along your Czech speaking buddy and things miraculously open up for you.  So having Paul and Lynn for friends is a very good thing for us.  I am not sure if that there is any value in it for them, but you know we've not really given them any choice in the matter and quite frankly we will not let them out of our sites.   

Fast forward to this particular Saturday and Stu and I and Bailey the Dog are on a walk with Lynn and Paul and their puppy Roxy.  While we enjoy walking with our other friends and their dogs, Lynn and Paul offer the additional benefit of being able to communicate in Canadianese:  RCMP, Muskoka, Timmies, The Leafs, Peter Mansbridge, CBC, HNIC... the list of Canadianisms is endless and they get them.  There isn't anyone else that we can communicate with like this.  Mention Muskoka to someone else and you are just as likely to get slapped. 

After the walk, Lynn has decided to take their daughter Sam into the MĚSTSKÁ NIHOVNA which is the Prague library and I, in my very subtle fashion, invite myself and Caroline along for the ride.  According to the library's website, they have an 'extensive collection'  of English language books.  I have been searching for a solution to the amount of money I am providing to Amazon to have them deliver English language books and perhaps this is it. 

In to town we go and (except for the detour for frozen yogourt) we have no trouble finding the library.  It is a beautiful old building right in the heart of the old town with some parts of it dating from the 11th century.  The first place we visit is actually The Clementinum or the National Library of the Czech Republic which was founded in 1781.  But even earlier than that, say around 1622, the Jesuits were using this building as part of the library for Charles University.  Sam is acting as our interpreter and after a couple of false starts we end up in the area where they 'collect' their English books.  The first book I find is a 1970's cast off from the Scarborough Public Library called Stories from Ontario.  Surprisingly, neither girl seems interested in this one so we continue our tour.  After about 5 seconds we figure out that there are no books for tweens in English in this building.  In fact, in the past 4 weeks, we've purchased more books from Amazon than this collection holds, so we need to move the tour next door to the mestska nihovna.  And since the municipal library of Prague was the one actually advertising its extensive collection of English books, we are feeling more confident.

Sillies.  Turns out that extensive in Czech means 3; with 1 being a dictionary.  Even the dictionary isn't really a dictionary but rather a book of colloquialisms of English for people new to the language.  Lynn opens the book to a page where they discuss what 'flying fu**' means and we quickly decide the girls won't want that book either.

Libraries 2, us Nil. 

So off we trot to the bagel store and the bakery in Old town instead. At least here we know that the collection of cookies is extensive and there will be more than 3.  And we can read the menu in English.  All's well that ends well.